House of the Devourer
Symbol: A cat’s eye whose slit is a flickering flame, surrounded by a wide maw of teeth
Portfolio: Lust, passion, bravery, integrity, honour, pain, hunger, need, inspiration, knowledge, power, strength
It might appear strange to those that know anything about the Sithi to know that the Norn worship a god. Sithi do not, as a general rule, understand the concept of gods or worship – though they do indeed see the world in polar terms of light and dark, positive and negative, male and female – the opposing duality. But Norn do indeed have a god, though they might describe It as a powerful spirit that they have devoted themselves to. They understand that the thing they worship is not exactly a god but a spirit that feeds off their faith – but they devote themselves wholly and willingly. The House is a large rift-spanning cathedral in Nakkiga, though a few other Houses do exist across the North, and dominates the entire lower ring of the city. It is a place to worship the Devourer but Its faithful and Its adherents exist in every facet of Norn life and every Norn is raised to respect the House and the Devourer. The Houses rooms are vast and cater to the myriad forms of worship – from unbridled fantasies to blood-sports and torture. For the Devourer is without gender and the excess of all things – lust, love, bravery, passion, and inspiration. It reaches into every facet of life, and claims Its own.
The Devourer is Itself a vast unknowable beast, a deity of wrath and vengeance. Those high-ranking Priestesses of its cult that are able to perceive somewhat of Its mind say that Its mere passing causes pain and Its voice is one of purest agony.
Those that worship the Devourer must be Dark.
The Witherer
Symbol: A black tear drop with a white hand
Portfolio: Healing, wounding, gain, loss, strength, weakness, wealth, poverty
The Witherer is a relatively new god amongst the Dark. His religion is born from a mixture of sources and the name appears to be based on one of the names for the Goblin god the Unnamed. His main adherents appear to be Humans, especially those Humans that wish to learn the secrets of the body and of plants. The Witherer is the god of the physical, a god of health and vitality inasmuch as He is also the god of decay, disease, death and weakness. The Witherer is said to be an infliction upon the world as well as it saviour, both a taking and a giving god. Many believe that the god has some great Plan for all living things and because of this His many priests typically take pacifist style vows, though it is whispered that His servants also specialise in assassinations, having the ability to mould their flesh to appear as they will. The House of the Witherer, a large building hidden in the Northron Wastes house some of the most specialised plants on the planet and the priests there are known as some of the best medics and surgeons about. It is for this reason that the religion is tolerated for the priests will aid any that ask it – for life or for death. The priests of the Witherer frequently journey from village to village, healing the sick and the injured, supporting the Dark with their skills. They also take away bodies of the dead… though many will point out that they never seen the priests of the Witherer actually perform any rituals of burial. As the god of growth and gain, the Witherer is also worshipped across North as the god of merchants, traders and farmers. It is whispered that when the world ends, the Witherer will be there laughing as His plan reaches bloom.
Those that worship the Witherer must be Dark.
Gods of the First Men
The religion of the First Men closely resembles that of the Maesians – and with good reason, for the Maesian culture is very similar to that of the First Men. Unlike the other Human cultures, which have developed away from the First Men, partially guided by the Sithi, Dwarrow and Hob the Maesians are First Men that decided to move away from the First Men ideals to a more charitable way of life. This eventually led them to reject many of the old First Men gods and move their religion closer to the Church of the Six. The First Men, however, continue to worship the old gods, and some of them are shown below. The following list is not exhaustive, and each bears with it a Law, each linked to a metal – and all the other gods not of the Six are generally considered evil and chaotic. Whilst the worship of these is not banned in Maesia, the exclusive worship of these gods like First Men tribes do is banned, and punishable by death.
Lokki: god of trickery, chaos, deceit, shape shifting and lies
Law of Star-metal: “What a man have, he has. What can be taken, he has. What can be used is his alone.”
Sutr: Fire, destruction, strength, crafting, power
Law of Red-gold: “What a man keep, he pay in blood for.”
Aegir: Oceans, strength, water, ice, raids, dexterity, flowing
Law of Iron: “A man owns only what he takes by force – only the strong survive.”
Baldr: God of the dead, dying, pain and re-living
Law of Silver: “A man afraid of death cannot live. Those who wish death, grant it.”
The Hungry One
Symbol: An Ankh with the loop as an eye that weeps blood
Portfolio: Death, cunning, stealth, hunting, hunger, power, darkness
The Goblins have a dark god that, it seems, resembles closely resembles the Devourer but one must realise that the Goblins have served the Norn for many thousands of years. The Hungry has passed into many uses across the Dark – the Witherer the most seen example – and is known by many names: the Consumer, the Unnamed, the Nameless, the Deep, and Lord Night. It seems, however, that the Goblins worship the Hungry One out of fear rather than because they feel that the god will benefit them in any way. The Hungry One is apparently something to be placated. Hunting is not undertaken without a sacrifice in case the Hungry One carries off some of the Tribe during their journeys into the dark under-depths of the Glacier shelf. Not all Goblins are the same and variances between the tribes are common but it said that walking into the lower depths of the Glacier can cause changes to the body that are not at all pleasant. In this way the Hungry One has also been taken into many other forms as well – as the changer of life from one form to the next. The Hungry One is said to exist in five distinct forms, as mentioned above, each one but an aspect of the greater part of the Hungry One. Each, however, is worshipped as a god in their own right amongst some of the Goblin Clans.
Those that worship the Hungry One must be Dark.
The Darkened One
Symbol: A black hand-print
Portfolio: Darkness, wasting, disease, hunger, coldness, insanity, forestry
The Infernia have a god all of their own. Turning from the Six and the religions of the Light, the Infernia had to find their own new religion. With now guidance they turned to the forest of Infernum itself to provide an answer. Since 2038 A.G. the lost villagers that went north have feared the forest. And with the events that unfolded, many turned to believe that the forest itself had some form of sentience. In a twist of dark thoughts, nightmares and insanity of the barren wilderness, the villagers began to worship the forest itself, sacrificing young and virgins to appease it as the villagers became increasingly ill. Years later as the safe havens within the Infernum forest began to become more corrupt from Disear machinations some began to claim to have seen the very dark heart of the forest as a being itself. Since then, the twisted insanity of the Darkened one has claimed many hearts and blood sacrifice in His name is quite common. The priesthood of the Darkened One take upon themselves to always see the darkness, and thus they remove their eyes and stitch their eyelids shut – though they retain an uncanny ability to see. None therefore doubt the Darkened One’s power over his followers.
The Star Gods
Symbol: A star within an eye or a mouth
Portfolio: Destiny, fate, intelligence, seeing, death, life and rebirth
The Ogres have fanciful ideas as to what has made them. They think that the stars came down to light the ground in fires and caused the great gash in the earth north of the Greiflands. Here in the bitter cold wastes a great rent in the earth spews forth fire and lava. It is said that from this great pit the Ogres came forth, brought about by the intervention of the stars. There are a myriad number of stars in the heavens, each a pale white glint of light. In the Ogre mind the pale skins of the Norn relate directly to those pale glints – Ogres are grey for they are born from the grey rocks about them, Goblins are dark because they live in the dark. Snowflakes are small falling stars, and Norn are born from those flakes. To an Ogre at least, it makes sense. Thus they have a very literal religion, one based around odd ideas. Because of this their priests are called ‘Butchers’ and require the focus of blood, guts and other viscera in order to focus their powers – Ogres have a tendency to think with their stomachs and this is reflected in their religion. They believe the Star Gods guide their destiny, to the time when their version of the devil, the Great Maw, will one day swallow all life out of existence, just as its mouth already encompasses the universe (which is why the sky is black...)
Those that worship the Star Gods must be Ogres and must be Dark.
