Laverna

Why wait to be given what you could claim for yourself? Take from the table, don’t be content with scraps. No law that constrains is worth the clay in which it is written. Be unbound.
—Excerpt from writings by the Orange Lotus Fleet cleric Eye of the Typhoon

Laverna (pronounced lah-VER-nah) is a pantheonic goddess commonly associated with trickery, personal freedom, self-interest, and spite.

Aserdian pantheon

Kalausi (pronounced cah-LAU-see) is a goddess of trickery, self-interest, and spite, worshiped especially by those who wish to find their own ways in life free from constraints applied by others. She is also widely considered the patron of those that wish to remain hidden. In some stories she taught mortals how to camouflage themselves and use invisibility magic to better remain out of sight. Isolated communities that do not want to found by the broader world often worship Kalausi, as do those individuals that have left society for their own reasons.

There are few temples to Kalausi, though her clergy are widespread. They have an almost institutional refusal to codify anything about their practices, seeing it as the responsibility of each of her followers to independently find their own interpretation of their goddess' values.

Kalausi is usually depicted as a small mischievous or stealthy creature, most often a fox, moth, or chameleon. Her followers eschew portraying her as larger than life or in a dramatic manner, viewing her more as an old friend than a remote deity.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Pull pranks, remain undetected, follow your own goals in life
Anathema: Allow others to learn your secrets, follow laws or traditions you disagree with, admit defeat

Chaskan pantheon

Laverna (pronounced lah-VER-nah) is the goddess of trickery, personal freedom, self-interest, and spite, the patron of those like pirates and bandits that take what they desire by force. Followers of Laverna reject subtlety in favor of strength and believe the only way to make your way in the world is through your own abilities.

Neither Laverna nor her worshipers tolerate others telling them what is allowed and what is forbidden. To her faithful, to desire something for oneself is all the justification needed to take it. Opportunism, self-interest, self-preservation - these are the highest tenets of Laverna.

Laverna particularly favors those that find creative means to undermine others who stand in their way. Tricksters, pranksters, and those that find ways to thrive in the cracks in society are said to be smiled upon by Laverna. According to her clerics, she cares not if one attempts to change an unfair situation, only if one manages to thrive despite the odds against them.

Though the best known of Laverna's followers are the pirates, bandits, and other outlaws attracted to her faith, most are simply individuals who wish to find their own ways, free of the constraints imposed by others. Adventurers, wanderers, misfits - many find reason to worship Laverna. Those that chafe under authority yet are not particularly drawn to the revolutionary ideals of Marya often find their way to Laverna.

Laverna is the sister of Marya, twin goddesses born from the same moment. Both sprung forth when the first mortal beings observed the world the gods had created and desired something else. Where Marya personifies the drive for freedom and self-determination for one's community, Laverna instead represents the desire for complete personal independence. Despite their similarities in the beginning, the followers of each goddess have taken their faiths in quite different directions.

There is no organized church to Laverna. There are few temples to the goddess either, as most of her followers prefer to find their own interpretations of their goddess' values.

Two of Laverna's holy texts are particularly widely read:

Code of Laverna: The Code of Laverna is a collection of tenets that her faithful attribute to their goddess. Most provide instruction on how to respond if one is slighted in some way. This text is particularly favored by pirates.
Under the Surface, Under the Skin: Under the Surface, Under the Skin is a long narrative about an unnamed thief and their struggles to survive and thrive as they travel between Viridia and Kea Racha during the early 9th millennium. Her followers debate endlessly as to whether the story is fictional or an accurate account.

Laverna is often depicted in an animal form, frequently a fox, seagull, racoon, or other small, mischievous creature. Her followers eschew portraying her as larger than life or in a dramatic manner, viewing her more as an old friend than a remote deity to be obeyed unconditionally. Unusually, clerics of Laverna openly promote questioning the tenets of the goddess, without fearing that it could invoke her anger.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Take what you desire, take revenge on those that have slighted you, pull pranks
Anathema: Allow others to compromise your goals, follow laws you disagree with, admit defeat

Hellean pantheon

Lycia (pronounced lie-SEE-ah) is a goddess of the sky, storms, luck, hunting, and the moon. Impulsive and rash, she is the patron of bandits, outlaws, thieves, and pirates.

Lycia is something of a trickster goddess who frequently plays pranks on both her follow gods and on mortals. She is particularly fond of causing extended periods of good or bad luck for particular mortals, allowing them to become complacent before abruptly and dramatically reversing their fortunes. Strangely, those that venerate Lycia avoid drawing attention to themselves through their worship, often performing elaborate rites to disguise their identities even as they pray, as none wish to become the goddess' plaything. While she may bestow her blessing in the form of auspicious luckiness to her most devoted, as soon as they begin to bore her they will inevitably be discarded and met with as much ill fortune in turn.

There are relatively few temples to Lycia. Her followers are rather less organized than is typical for the faithful of Hellean deities, preferring direct individual worship of the goddess over reliance on priests to conduct rites and rituals at temples.

Lycia is usually depicted as a woman wearing a simple, practical chiton with a quiver full of arrows slung over her back. In her hands she typically carries a bow.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Pull pranks, be stealthy in your hunts, use your luck to your advantage
Anathema: Become complacent, act with undue deliberation, admit defeat

Khapeshan pantheon

Amathaunta (pronounced a-mah-THAWN-tah) is a goddess of survival, trickery, self-interest, and spite. A comparatively minor deity in the Khapeshan pantheon, she is the patron of outcasts and outlaws, those who have rejected the rules of society and now live on their own terms. Communities that live on the margins of the inhospitable Red Lands often worship Amathaunta, as she gives them strength and motivation to continue to live life in a harsh landscape.

By both her followers and the faithful of other deities, Amathaunta has always been considered to be apart from the other gods of the pantheon. She is too chaotic and strong-willed to be cowed under Harakte's rule, while also having no desire to turn to the evil of Apep. Just as Amathaunta rejected the laws by which the other gods abide, so too do her followers with the laws of mortal society, carving out niches for themselves in times and places that do not favor them. Many criminals turn to worship of Amathaunta, but so too do individuals who cannot or simply will not conform to the expectations placed upon them.

The grand temple to Amathaunta is located in the city of Timinhor in lower Khapesh. Temples to the goddess in major cities are otherwise rather uncommon, though smaller shrines are widespread. Most of Amathaunta's most devoted followers live in more isolated parts of the kingdom, especially on the borderlands away from the river, where a number of temples to the goddess can be found in isolated locations, tended be a priesthood that is, by Khapeshan standards, remarkably disorganized. The clergy of the goddess are quite independent, much like the Amathaunta herself, and do not pay much heed to religious guidance from afar that does not come directly from a divine source. Extremely unusually in comparison to other Khapeshan deities, there is no holy text to Amathaunta, though her clerics do commonly share exhortations to the goddess that are often inscribed on reliefs and other imagery depicting her.

Amathaunta is depicted as a humanoid figure with the head of a cat.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Take what you desire, survive despite the odds, follow your own goals in life
Anathema: Allow others to compromise your goals, follow laws you disagree with, admit defeat

Laurentian pantheon

Runo (pronounced ROO-no) is a goddess of trickery, hunting, raiding, and the moon. She was the first lycanthrope who gave her blood to mortals so that they might hunt as she does. As the patron of hunters, raiders, and those who take from others what they need to survive, Runo is viewed as a goddess of necessity, who tolerates actions that may be evil when in service of keeping oneself alive.

It is said that Runo enjoyed her hunts in the divine realm to such a degree that she began to transform herself in order to fit her obsession. She took first the ferocity of a wolf, then its speed and its cunning, before finally adopting its physical features directly. In this manner she hunted the creatures of the gods' world for uncountable years, felling her prey as it reappeared each day. Eventually she took notice of the prayers of mortals, and saw hunters amongst them who acted in her name. She found the five fiercest of the hunters and stalked them as they tracked their quarry. The first two did not impress Runo, for they were unable to detect her, and therefore she tore into them. The next two spotted her as she moved, but were too aggressive in attacking the goddess, and lost. Finally, the fifth laid a trap cunning enough to catch Runo, and she was defeated. The goddess allowed her mortal form to be temporarily slain. As the hunter drank her blood she gave him her gift, and he became the first mortal lycanthrope.

Runo is almost always depicted as a werewolf with red-tinted fur. She is far less commonly depicted in her humanoid form, a battle-scarred woman with red hair.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Take what you desire or require, take revenge on those that have slighted you, survive despite the odds
Anathema: Risk your own survival, allow others to compromise your goals, admit defeat, harm a lycanthrope without cause