Qan and A'Qala (pronounced KAN and AH-qah-lah) are a pair of deities venerated by small storm cults in the Trailblazer Republics and Oasis states. Their followers believe the Great Tempests are the reflections of the deities in the mortal realm, locked into endless battle with each other as they spiral around the Storm-Path.
Beliefs and followers
No two storm cults have precisely the same beliefs, nor do they share any kind of leadership. Rather, these fragmentary and often private groups honor Qan and A'Qala independently and in their own way. Nearly all believe the Great Tempests to be forms of sorts for the two gods, either in whole or in part. The most common stories tell of how the gods, enraged at each other for some long-forgotten slights, set upon the mortal world in great clouds of fury. Finding themselves equally matched, they continue fighting to the current day, twisting and chasing around teach other and condemned to never cease their violence.
Followers of the two gods have a curious relationship with them. They are not worshiped, precisely, as while they are certainly seen as powerful they are not considered necessarily wise or benevolent. Instead most veneration of Qan and A'Qala is transactional. Most rites center around offerings to the gods, who are called to witness through rituals conducted by the storm summoners, who are the closest the faith comes to any form of religious figure or leader. These offerings, if sufficient, are rewarded with commensurate levels of energy siphoned from the Tempests, which can bring healing, harm, or wealth. Some Trailblazers leave offerings to Qan and A'Qala in the incoming Storm-Path in hopes they will be gifted valuable aeon stones when the gods pass. Yet many who honor the gods do not even believe either know, or care, of the existence of mortals - still, like fire they accept fuel all the same, and whatever is given to them will be rewarded regardless.
Qan and A'Qala are patrons of sort for many Trailblazers, who view the constant, and perhaps futile, struggles of the gods as much akin to their own dangerous lives clinging on in the harsh Storm-Path.
Qan is typically associated with positive energy and A'Qala with negative, but this is not universal, and some storm cults invert these connections. They are almost never venerated independently. Depictions of the gods vary, but most common are the spiraling motifs that can be found carved in stone faces around the Illan Peaks and Red Forest Hills.