Socharin

Socharin is death, yes, but not the death to be feared. Socharin is the death that brings new life, new opportunities, new hopes. As the rotting tree provides nutrients for a sapling, as the wildfire brings flowers the next spring, as the replacement of old leadership allows new ideas to flourish, sometimes death provides the seeds we need to grow.
—Excerpt from a treatise by an unknown Rudamunian refugee

Socharin (pronounced SOH-kar-in) is a pantheonic god commonly associated with death, rebirth, change, renewal, and plants.

Abanir pantheon

Kher Shodei (pronounced CARE show-DIE) the King of the Winds is a god of resilience, rulership, kinship, creation, and birds. He is the creator god of the Abanir pantheon whose feathers formed the world and almost everything within it.

The god teaches resilience and self-sufficiency, but also the value of kinship. One should be able to survive and thrive on their own, yet it is equally important to support one's family and community whenever possible. Kher Shodei is the patron of leaders that take whatever steps are necessary to ensure those under them can thrive, especially if doing so involves tough decisions or personal sacrifices along the way. Offerings are usually given to Kher Shodei both out of respect for the creator god and to request guidance or favor for coming trials.

Kher Shodei is typically depicted as a large steppe eagle, sometimes with blue-tinted feathers. All eagles are seen as his eyes and ears in the mortal world. Brightly-painted statues of these birds are often placed in elevated locations in camps and settlements to ensure the King of the Winds can advise the people that live there.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Promote self-sufficiency, lead by example, bring order to chaotic places and situations
Anathema: Become dependent or complacent, neglect your community and family, tolerate stagnancy

Aserdian pantheon

Saclateni (pronounced sah-clah-TEH-nee) is the god of death, rebirth, change, and renewal, a deity who ensures the world never stands still. Followers of the Aserdian pantheon credit Saclateni with the establishment of the cycles through which new things are brought into being. He is often worshiped alongside Errai, one the destruction to the other's re-creation.

Saclateni has relatively few clerics of his own. He and Errai are often invoked in prayers and sacrifices by the devoted followers of other gods, however, as together they are widely considered to be fundamental forces underpinning the world, worthy of worship and respect even if not necessarily the primary target of one's veneration.

Depictions of Saclateni are split. Some prefer to picture the god in an anthropomorphized form, typically as a humble figure wearing the garb of a common person who causes new life to spring into being as he passes. Roughly an equal number of followers instead consider the god to be a cosmic force too broad and all-encompassing to be reduced to a simple depiction - these followers generally see Saclateni in all life, pervading everything and everyone.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Ensure new ideas and possibilities can be explored, sow seeds and tend to plants
Anathema: Attempt to stop natural cycles of death and rebirth, tolerate stagnancy, maintain unwarranted control or power

Chaskan pantheon

Socharin (pronounced SOW-car-in) is the god of death, rebirth, change, renewal, and plants. Though he is of significant theological importance as the god that led the creation of the universe, he is uncommonly worshiped on his own, having passed most of his important aspects to his sister Harinna. Still, many offer prayers to Socharin on occasion, especially those that make their livings from the earth.

Socharin is a god of change and growth. He understands that achieving one's goals takes time and unceasing effort, and that sometimes relinquishing direct control is the best action to take. He is closely associated with death and rebirth, both of people and of the natural world. For this reason many cultures connect Socharin closely to the seasons. His devotees hail from all walks of society, though farmers and pastoralists are often particularly drawn to the faith. Socharin is also important to some as a funerary deity.

In the hazy era before the creation of the world, Socharin had a very different form. A god of rulership and order, he directed the other deities in shaping the first incarnation of the universe, fitting together the cosmic pieces into his perfect design. As the gods celebrated their finishing touches, Lotan, who had observed this process from afar with rage at the structure that was taking form, struck at Socharin, rising out of the primordial waters and bringing with him a Flood. Though Socharin and the other gods were successful in driving Lotan back to the darkness of the waves, this came at great cost, for the deluge he brought with him scattered the perfect world into an unrecognizable and chaotic jumble. Gravely injured and unwilling to allow his great work to come to ruin, Socharin sacrificed himself, giving his body and form to bring back a semblance of order. The gods mourned, then set to work once more. A new creation was born as cosmic quintessence was pulled from the waters over the skeleton of the dead god and arranged into something vaguely resembling the original design. As the second world took shape, Socharin was reborn, chosen by Shai for resurrection. Rather than attempt to reassert his rule upon the world, he saw its altered form and understood - perfection comes through change and time and cannot be imposed. Socharin gave his possession of the domains of rulership and law to his sister Harinna, then stepped back - he could only play his role by allowing the universe to perfect itself.

There are no unified churches of the Resurrected God. Unusually for a lawful deity, his clergy prefer to maintain a more hands-off approach to managing the religion. They ensure the faithful can pray and have their questions answered but otherwise let the religion spread of its own accord.

Socharin's holy text is The Five Days, a work that describes the return of the god from the dead. Its events are metaphorically described as taking place across a span of five days, even though most other renditions of the narrative of his resurrection state it was instantaneous. The Five Days is a collection of fables mixed with instructions for the five-day-long festival of the Procession of Socharin that his faithful hold on a yearly basis. Shorter version of The Five Days are often inscribed on stela located in and around temples to Socharin.

Socharin is commonly depicted as a shepherd, often with the tools required for such a role. He is widely seen as a benevolent steward, someone who watches his crops, flock, or people, providing guidance when needed while otherwise allowing them to grow independently. Amongst his Dalbanu followers, he is sometimes pictured with green skin, the color of rebirth. Many images of Socharin also show him wearing faded or incomplete royal garb, symbolizing his former position as a god of rulership.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Ensure new ideas and possibilities can be explored, sow seeds and tend to plants, protect the bodies of the deceased
Anathema: Tolerate stagnancy, speak ill of the dead, maintain unwarranted control or power

Khapeshan pantheon

Sokar (pronounced SOW-car) is a god of death, rebirth, and change. He is the creator of the universe and the original ruler of the gods, though after his battle with Apep he gave that role to his sister Harakhte.

Perhaps more so than with any other deity in the Khapeshan pantheon, Sokar fills a number of roles. He is the giver of life who causes plants and animals to grow and thrive, yet he is also a god of death. It is Sokar who gave mortals the wonder of existence at the same time he imparted the inevitability of its eventual end. Through creating and maintaining the cycles that govern the universe, Sokar ensures the world remains bountiful for each future generation. In this way he is also a god of hope, as his followers know that even the evil and bad in the world will eventually come to an end, replaced by better times. Sokar is the shepherd of mortals who guides his flock towards the future.

Sokar is closely connected to the Aur River's cycles of droughts and floods that bring new growth every year. In Khapesh Sokar is intrinsically tied to agriculture and communal prosperity, and he is worshiped across the kingdom in hopes of bountiful harvests. Though most across Khapesh pray to Sokar at least occasionally, he is followed especially devotedly by farmers, pastoralists, and others who make their living from the earth.

The One Who Continues to be Perfect is one of the most cosmologically important of the Khapeshan pantheon's gods. In the moments before time began, Sokar directed the other deities in shaping the form of the universe, turning the primordial water, sand, and mud into something much greater than the sum of its parts. As the gods worked under their leader's direction, the serpent Apep formed itself from the waters and lunged at Sokar, enraged at the structure that was being drawn out of the once infinite chaos. After a great battle both Sokar and Apep were mortally wounded, yet as gods neither could truly die. They drew their last breathes and expired, only to rise again, Sokar the next morning and Apep the next evening. Unable to continue the fight himself, Sokar stepped back to advise the gods, giving his sister Harakhte the responsibility of keeping the Serpent at bay.

As is typical with Khapeshan deities, a grand temple to Sokar exists, whose priests are seen as leaders of his faithful. From the grand temple in Sile the Sokarin clergy provides guidance to pilgrims and clerics alike who travel far to seek the wisdom of the god. Smaller temples are widespread across Khapesh, with one in almost every city of notable size. Sokarin temples are often built to reflect the many sides of their god. The exteriors of the temples are often as richly decorated with reliefs as any in Khapesh, but their interiors are almost always extremely austere - many even retain dirt or sand floors, partially as a matter of humility and partially as they tend to interpret the idea of sacred ground rather literally.

Sokar is depicted as a green-skinned figure holding a crook and flail. In some pictures he is shown partially mummified.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Ensure new ideas and possibilities can be explored, sow seeds and tend to plants, protect the bodies of the deceased
Anathema: Act selfishly, tolerate stagnancy, maintain unwarranted control or power, speak ill of the dead

Kirnashal pantheon

Sraosheh (pronounced SROW-sheh) the Sovereign is a god of many domains, including inevitability, truth, history, reason, and the night. He is the lawful counterpart to Mihr and the divine embodiment of the cosmic force of stability.

The god and his clergy instruct that order should be respected, especially when upsetting it could bring discord or uncertainty. As the slow and majestic incarnation of what is and what has been, he looks to the past to find peace, meaning, and truth. Sraosheh promotes careful deliberation, planned action, and respect for history.

Priests of Sraosheh are responsible for performing funerary rites and rituals. A great many are historians, mathematicians, or natural scientists, which they see as inseparable from their other religious duties, as they believe they must understand the world in order to best preserve and secure it.

Sraosheh is typically depicted in humanoid form. In modern day religious artwork he is usually shown wearing simple robes and the Fire Crown, at least when alone, often in scenes where he impassively surveys his domain. Sraosheh and Mihr are often portrayed as two halves of a whole, sometimes in a very literal manner as two faces on opposite sides of one head.

Temples to Sraosheh are almost always shared with the clergy of Mihr. In these temples, worship of the god centers around braziers of eternal flames, permanently kept alight to represent the enduring nature of the god even in the face of change around him.

When the Scales tilt in Sraosheh's favor, the world becomes more orderly, predictable, and peaceful.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Bring peace through diplomacy, bring prosperity to your community, seek and spread knowledge and truth, record history
Anathema: Destroy knowledge, create or share lies, undermine a community's laws, destroy an object or place without cause

Dwarven pantheon

Surgar (pronounced SUR-gar) is a god of agriculture, stewardship, prosperity, alcohol, and luck. Through teaching dwarves how to grow and find food in the often sparse underground landscapes in which they live, Surgar brings prosperity and plenitude to his followers.

Farmers, pastoralists, cooks, and brewers are Surgar's most devoted, but he is also venerated by others as the bearer of abundance, especially at times of great feasts and festivities. Worshiped in bounteous times by those thankful for his blessing, he is also entreated in lean times for a reversal of fortune.

Temples to Surgar tend to be rather austere, simple stone buildings with minimal ornamentation or religious decoration, places where priests quietly pray to their god. All of that changes at harvest or planting times, however, when they become full of activity and life. Regular celebrations of these occasions are important events in the religious life of Surgar's followers, as they are opportunities to share the blessing of the god with their communities.

Surgar is usually depicted as a portly dwarven man whose clothes and hair are covered in lichen or moss. Sometimes he holds a jug of wine in his right hand.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Sow seed and tend to plants, fungi, and animals, bring prosperity to your community, celebrate with your friends and family
Anathema: Keep your wealth and harvest to yourself, act selfishly, destroy healthy crops, abstain from alcohol