CLASSICAL ICONOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEITIIES OF THE WORLD OF CAERDOLAN
The following is a descriptive list of the deities of the Caerdolan universe, detailing the requisite iconographic symbolism by which each god and goddess is identified. These iconographic elements became canonical during the rise of the Caerdolan, during which the Empire was still ostensibly polytheistic, but reached new heights of elaboration in artistic representation during the earlier centuries after the fall of Caerdolan, even as Roski rose to become the supreme deity of the Empire.
ROSKI: The name translated loosely means “King of the Soul of the Universe” or more simply “King Spirit” or “Supreme Spirit”. While he remains very closely tied to his ancient origins as a solar deity, Roski as the “supreme” deity has taken on the omnipotence required in any monotheistic system. As such he is an all-knowing, all-powerful creator, protector, and provider, the “supreme father” of a monotheistic patriarchy in which he is credited with responsibility for the entire universe. Originally, Roski was only one of a pantheon of deities, and his sphere of influence limited to only a finite number of specific realms of nature and society. Even so he was always a major deity, one of the chief gods, although it is likely that his role as the son of the Sky Father developed after he was adopted and incorporated into the mythology of the invading peoples who were the ancestors of Caerdolan. Originally, Roski may have been the equivalent of the Sky Father to the Rhua and other peoples of warmer, southern lands, and the consort of the Earth Mother. Roski is always depicted as a beautiful youth either nude or dressed in red and gold robes, with a golden crown or halo on his head, and holding a golden spear in his right hand. The left hand is often raised in a sign of blessing, or holding a golden orb or egg, and there are often bees, sunflowers, and either shells or fish associated with him. His iconographic elements have changed relatively little despite the god’s ancient history, and underwent a transformation from primitive solar deity (nature spirit) to allegorical pantheonic deity and finally to transcendent mono-deity, as such:
Always depicted as a youthful man with flawless features, abundant hair, and athletic physique. In earlier representations, he was depicted nude, but after the fall of Caerdolan, with the rise of the Faranx as the dominant culture in the empire, he is depicted draped in a robe or cloak bearing the iconic colors of crimson and gold. Whether nude or clothed, Roski’s strong but youthful physique identifies him as a fertility deity, the embodiment of masculine fertility, and the ideal of masculine beauty and sexual potency. In some of the most ancient rites, the handsomest youth of a village was selected to play the role of the living god from the spring equinox to the winter solstice. Although ancient accounts describe the eventual sacrifice of the youth, most prescribe the slaughter of an animal or captive slave in his place. Roski’s youthfulness is traditionally depicted in stark contrast to the mature strength of other masculine deities such as the Sky Father and Mahar.
The eyes are always wide open and bright, symbolizing the god’s ability to see everything, which in turn is metaphorically linked to the sun as the ultimate source of revealing light. The Caerdolan attributed Roski’s omniscience to their supreme god, Páarun the Sky Father, in myths that alternately portray Roski as either the discorporate eye of the Sky Father or the cause of his partial blindness. In either case, the Caerdolan myths show the beginnings of Roski’s eventual usurping of the Sky Father’s place as supreme deity. Traditionally, in sculptural representations, the eyes are inlayed with white shell or mother of pearl. The reflective quality of these substances is meant to remind the faithful that their actions do not escape the god’s attention, and must be atoned for by first recognizing them through self-awareness. The marine origin of these substances is also a relic of a time when Roski was also seen as a god of the oceans since, for many of the maritime peoples who originally worshipped him, he was seen to rise out of the oceanic horizon in the east and set into the sea in the west, and the light and warmth that made the earth fertile was also seen to make the seas abundant.
The colors red and gold are so closely bound to the iconography of Roski that in some monastic sects, anthropomorphic iconography has been completely replaced by abstract representation in the form of a golden disk upon a field of red, or sometimes even a divided field of gold over red. The most obvious origin for this lies in Roski’s origins as a solar deity. The gold is the golden light of the sun, while the red represents the color of sun and sky at dawn and sunset, when it is at its most dramatic. This is particularly true in the southern lands and coastal realms around Korma where the worship of Roski originated. The official Korman doctrine concerning the symbolism of Roski’s colors identify red with the life-blood of the universe, the cosmic energy that nourishes all life, and the gold with the god’s powers to illuminate the darkness of ignorance and reveal the wisdom of the world. Gold metal is sacred to Roski, as is native and worked copper. Naturally occurring alloys of copper and gold, sometimes known as “blood gold”, is particularly valued as a substance sacred to Roski and reserved for fashioning sacred objects associated with him. It is believed that in the remote past, the worship of Roski included the slaughter of sacrificial victims upon an altar stone using ceremonial daggers fashioned of gold. Red and gold are also associated with the historical Roski, the revolutionary figure whose spectacular execution at the hands of the Caerdolan rulers of Korma sparked the revolt that eventually led to the overthrow of Imperial power. In this case red symbolizes the blood of the martyr and of the martyred freedom fighters, while gold symbolizes their glorious victory.
The spear or lance is also an essential symbol of Roski. In the classical creation myths, Roski uses a golden spear to slay the monster Bau-Tiamat, thereby creating the ordered universe. Roski’s golden spear is also a phallic symbol used to penetrate and fertilize the body of the fecund earth goddess, Bau-Tiamat. In more abstract terms, the phallic symbolism of Roski’s spear, and his mythic destruction of Bau-Tiamat can be viewed as the destruction of the chthonic and matriarchal earth-goddess worship by the patriarchal sky or sun god worshippers. In Caerdolan myths, Roski first borrows and in later myths steals the golden spear from his Sky Father Páarun (in the earliest myths it is Páarun’s axe or thunderbolts) to slay the monster, which like the partial blinding of the Sky Father, may be viewed as a sign of Roski’s supplanting Páarun as the supreme deity.
Animal and plant symbols of Roski include the sunflower, olive, bee, and seashell, as well as bird’s egg. The sunflower’s natural and observable affinity with the sun makes it an obvious symbol, as is its role as provider of light and nourishment by means of the oil extracted from its seeds. The olive is likewise regarded as sacred to Roski in regions where it is grown for the oil that is derived from it, which was the primary source of artificial light in the form of lamp oil in the ancient realms where Roski worship originated. As noted before, the seashell is symbolic or Roski’s role as a god of the sea, where the sun rests at night. The egg is a symbol appropriated by other gods, and represents fertility. The golden yolk of the egg is a metaphor for the nourishing qualities of the solar orb, whereas the white is representative of the fertilizing male seed. The bee in ancient Roski worship represents the living, moving “male” spirit of the god, who alights upon the “female” flowers, fertilizing them. Like the yellow egg yolk, the bee’s golden honey is the nourishing gift of the god, while the pale royal jelly is the god’s semen, which nourishes and fertilizes the new queen bee in the hive.
PÁARUN/DZEUM: Sometimes referred to simply as “Skye” or “Sky Father”, this deity was the original patriarchal god of the northern lands, eventually supplanted by the southern sky/solar god Roski. In the most ancient forms of this god’s worship, he is both god of the sun and of the sky. Eventually, this led to his identification as god of the day-lit sky, in contrast to a counterpart god or goddess who was the personification of the night sky. For the pre-imperial Caerdolan, whose origins lie in the vast northern steppes of their ancestral homeland, the sun was vital yet subject to the thunder and winter storms that wreaked havoc on crops and herds, and which could cause famine and flood. For this reason Páarun as a sky or storm god was supreme to any solar worship that might also have occurred. A reliance on seasonal and sporadic rains for crops and, more importantly, pasture also assured the supremacy of this deity for the ancestors of the ancient Caerdolan. As the patron of a patriarchal, warrior people, Páarun was also a god of war whose lightning and thunder could destroy enemy armies, light fires, and in whose thunder the voice of the god could be heard. The ancient Caerdolan relied heavily on horses for military superiority as well as for draft. As such, the horse was sacred to Páarun and the rumbling of thunder was believed to be the rumbling of the hooves of his sacred herds, from which the fathers of the original Caerdolan horses were sired. In the warmer, southern lands where Roski ruled supreme, the Sky Father was known as Dzeum. In this form he is the primitive, uncivilized male god that is supplanted by the enlightened, civilized Roski. In the most ancient southern manifestations of Dzeum, he is the benevolent version of the demon god of Chaos known as Oken, the consort of Bau-Tiamat, who along with her is destroyed by his offspring Roski. In later myths Dzeum and his sister-bride Istare are the first generation of civilizing deities who destroy the gods of Chaos and create order out of their remains. In the most popular of these myths, Roski is the son of Dzeum and Istare, and is the one who kills the monsters in order to create the ordered universe. To the patriarchal ancestors of Caerdolan, the Sky Father was all-seeing and all-knowing, a doctrine that conflicted with the mysterious nature of chthonic mother-goddess worship, elements of which were incorporated into the beliefs and practices of Caerdolan (most dramatically in the Bau-Tiamat cults of the later empire and even the Varanáa who are tribal remnants of old Caerdolan). Mythically, these doctrinal conflicts were resolved in the account of the Sky Father’s blindness. In some myths, Sky Father demands to know the female secrets kept by his wife Istare. Istare agrees to share these secrets with him in return for his right eye. Unwilling to concede that there is knowledge kept from him, Sky Father agrees and painfully removes his eye, surrendering it to Istare. In earlier myths it is Sky Father’s right testicle that is demanded as payment, which helps explain the myths of Roski’s birth as Sky Father’s eye. In both of these myths, Istare devours the organ that her husband has given her in payment for her secret and by so doing becomes impregnated with Sky Father’s seed. The resulting offspring is none other than Roski, who is born with the combined wisdom of both of his parents. While certainly diminished in importance with the rise of Roski, Dzeum remains a patron of magicians and masculine knowledge. His sacrifice in the search for knowledge is sometimes invoked by scholars, who often sacrifice the pleasures of the marriage bed and the joys of family for the pursuit of knowledge.
As Páarun, Sky Father is usually depicted as a robust, powerfully-built mature man, often bearded, with a severe expression, wearing either flowing robes or warrior’s armor. Often he has an eye patch or a bandage over his right eye, and he wields a spear, sword, or axe. His clothing is steel gray or blue, and his beard and hair are white or pale gray. He is sometimes shown with a raven, a pair of ravens, or an eagle perched on his shoulders, and as the Caerdolan war god, wielding a battle club or axe shaped like the head of a horse. As Dzeum he is also depicted as a powerfully-built mature man with beard and flowing hair, either naked or draped in a flowing blue cloak, and wielding the thunderbolt or axe. Sometimes he is shown as having eagle’s wings, an eagle companion, or simply in the form of a great eagle.
As a fertility deity, Dzeum is the embodiment of masculine strength and virility. He is the archetypal patriarch, father of nations, and patron of masculine aggression. For this reason he is always depicted as being robust and muscular, but also mature, with distinctly masculine features such as a full beard and bushy eyebrows. As a war god he is often depicted wielding weapons and dressed in armor, but as a scholar he is often shown wearing concealing robes.
The colors of Páarun/Dzeum are blue or gray and white. The former represent the colors of the clear and stormy skies respectively, and the latter represent the rain clouds. His beard and hair also resemble clouds. The colors also represent the iron that is sometimes attributed to the god (perhaps in the form of meteoric iron), and the divine semen in the rain that fertilizes the earth.
Like Roski, Páarun/Dzeum’s spear or axe represents the phallic instrument by which he penetrates the mysteries of the earth mother, thereby securing his power to transform Chaos into the ordered world. In ancient Caerdolan the symbol of patriarchal power was the battle club or royal scepter which was a hybrid form between an axe and a club shaped liked a horse’s head. Even in the late Imperial period, when the Caerdolan rulers preferred objects of precious metals and stones, the basic form of this scepter was ideally made of meteoric iron. In some of the official myths, Roski destroys Bau-Tiamat with his golden spear, but then borrows his father’s axe to butcher the monster, thereby dividing its body parts into the components of the ordered universe. In this case, though still dethroned by Roski, the implication is that Dzeum’s strength and power are still at least partially responsible for the foundation of civilization.
The eye patch or bandage represents at once the sacrifice that he made in his quest for knowledge, and the mysteries that he seeks within himself by looking inward rather than out. This is a most vital aspect of Dzeum as the patron of wizards and scholars, but also an important symbol of his at least partial victory over feminine power.
The raven is a carrion bird symbolic of Páarun’s role as the keeper of the souls of fallen warriors. The observable cleverness of these birds as well as their black coloration also symbolizes hidden mysteries and wisdom. The eagle is a symbol of warfare, and of the destructive power of storms. Eagles were tamed and trained as hunting and war birds by the ancestral Caerdolans.
ISTARE: The most popular “mother goddess” figure of the former Caerdolan empire and beyond, Istare has at least as many devotees as Roski himself. Like most mother goddess figures, Istare was originally a chthonic deity from the eastern regions where she is still the paramount deity, and adopted up by the nomadic ancestors of the Caerdolan on their westward migration. In time she became the consort and sometimes the sister of Páarun. In most of these myths, Istare is the daughter of the chthonic Bau-Tiamat and her consort Oken, and through her offspring Roski, usurps her mother as the queen of the gods. In the world-view of the imperial Caerdolans, as well as the Istarians, this is thus representative of the replacement of the uncivilized, Bau-Tiamat (the wild, untamed and dangerous aspects of womanhood) by the civilized Istare (the tamed, domestic wife and mother). Istare is patroness of the “hearth” a metonym for the household and domestic life, as well as motherhood and child-rearing, mid-wifery, and the household labor generally defined as “women’s work” in the patriarchal system established by Caerdolan. Istare is also the goddess of the moon. In this aspect she is linked to the menstrual cycle and the mysteries of womanhood and childbearing, for which the Caerdolan patriarchy retains a certain degree of respect and even fear. This fear translates into the belief that women are capable of possessing dangerous magical powers associated with their sexuality and the seemingly miraculous ability to give life through the birthing process. For the Istarians, the transformation from chaotic nature spirit to civilized pantheonic goddess eventually led to her being a more abstract, omnipotent mono-deity conceived of in abstract, maternal terms in much the same way that Roski serves as a paternal figure in the empire. As the moon goddess and the consort of the Sky Father, Istare is also the ruler of the night sky. In this aspect she is the equal counterpart to Sky Father, sharing in his authority, but responsible for the secrets of the stars (astrology) and the mysteries of lunar magic and magic performed under cover of night. In the worldview of the ancient Caerdolan and their ancestors, the daylight hours are for working in the fields and amongst the herds, and thus the purview of men and masculine deities while the night is for being at home, by the hearth, for love-making and child-rearing. Thus the night belongs to the goddess. In later worship, in the Mainlands after the rise of Roski as the supreme mono-deity, Istare is still often revered by midwives and mothers, although relegated to the role of a secondary spirit or angel. She is propitiated at the birth of a new child, and is believed to visit the new-born to bestow her blessings and to decide the fate of the child throughout his or her life. For this reason, a veil representing the night sky is often spread over the new-born’s cradle, and sometimes a charm in the form of a crescent moon is hung overhead or hidden in the bedding. Istare’s dark counterpart is sometimes equated with the goddess Helcare.
Istare is usually depicted as a beautiful, queenly woman in a dignified pose, wearing concealing robes. Her colors are dark blue and silver, and in pictorial representations she is usually depicted wearing a concealing mantle studded with silver stars or diamonds. On her head she wears a silver diadem with a crescent-shaped ornament like stylized horns, and in more ancient sculptures she is sometimes shown with actual horns. Like Roski, classical representations of Istare usually have her holding an egg or orb in her left hand, while her right hand holds a distaff, rod, or serpent. She is sometimes shown riding a cow, or else with a cow nearby, and sometimes a dove perched on her shoulder. A cup or urn is often depicted near her or in place of the orb in her left hand.
Most classical representations of Istare show her to be modestly dressed in concealing clothing. She is not sexually provocative, although the potential lies beneath her concealing robes. In the earliest representations of the goddess she was depicted nude, and often pregnant. This is in contrast to contemporary representations of Bau-Tiamat as a bloated or wasted hag. As a representative of civilized womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood, she is always depicted in a modest and dignified manner.
The colors dark blue and silver represent the night sky. Her mantle is the night sky that conceals the goddess’ secrets. Silver is the color of the moon and of the stars, which are her purview. Silver was used by ancient Caerdolan to perform magic, and particularly by women mages and healers. Dark blue or midnight blue was viewed not only to be the color of the night sky but also the color of the depths of the ocean and deep lakes and pools. When Roski rises in the east it is metaphorically likened to his being born from the deep mysteries of the sea, and in the evening he returns to the restful solace of his mother in the west. In this sense Istare is also a sea goddess, a remnant of her association with Bau-Tiamat, but this is an aspect that is rarely ever emphasized in classical representations.
The silver diadem and crescent emblem symbolize Istare’s connection to the moon. The phases of the moon are metaphorically linked to the menstrual cycle, and the mysterious near disappearance of the moon during its waning phase is likened to the female mysteries kept from the eyes of men in the Caerdolan world. The crescent moon is also likened to the horns of a cow, as well as the horns of the Dragon Queen, the mother of Istare and the original moon goddess. The moon also observably affects the ocean tides, which is another association between Istare/Bau-Tiamat and the sea.
The egg or orb represents the womb and the mystery of birth, for which Istare is responsible. The dove represents domestic love and marriage, as well as parenthood. As a tool of spinning and weaving, both women’s work in ancient Caerdolan, the distaff symbolizes Istare’s role as goddess of domestic life. The alternative use of a staff is derived from a more archaic form wherein the woman’s domestic chores included horticulture. The rod is the planting stick used by women when gardening staple food crops. The serpent is also associated with the food garden, but also with healing and renewal because of its ability to shed its old skin and emerge renewed. As such, the serpent becomes a fertility symbol.
For the ancient Caerdolan, as well as many ancient peoples, the cow is the archetypal metaphor for motherhood. The horns of the cow are seen in the crescent moon, and its role as a provider of milk for the herders as well as for its own offspring, makes it a surrogate and symbolic mother to the people that keep it. For this reason, the cow is most directly associated with Istare.
MAHAR: Relegated to the status of a secondary deity in the late imperial period and with the rise of Roski, Mahar is nevertheless one of the most important deities of the Caerdolan world. Mahar is an ancient deity whose chthonic origins are obvious. For the ancients he was a god of the earth. He was originally likened to Oken, the consort of the chthonic earth mother Bau-Tiamat, but later became their offspring, or the offspring of Sky Father and Istare. Even in this later form, he retains many of the characteristics of his chthonic ancestor. He is ugly, short-tempered, and prone to acts of brutality, but unlike Oken, his actions are more likely to be creative than destructive. He is the smith god, whose fires and hammer strokes result in the creation of mountains, metals, and artifacts beneficial to the gods as well as mortals. Like Roski he also shares some of the attributes of his father, Dzeum, particularly the Sky Father’s martial prowess and temperament. In contrast to Roski, Mahar is ugly and prefers the darkness of subterranean caverns to the light of the day. As such, Mahar may represent the darker, dangerous aspects of manhood – the potential for violence and sexual aggression. Some myths involve Mahar smiting or seeking to devour his own children, a metaphor for the Caerdolan cultural conflict between masculine martial violence and nurturing paternity. Like Dzeum, Mahar is a patron of masculine magic, primarily the seemingly magical mysteries of metallurgy, and any magic having to do with metallurgy or minerals.
Mahar is usually depicted as an ugly, brutish, bearded masculine figure, often dressed in heavy armor, but in more ancient representations he is sometimes represented nude, often as a deformed demon or dwarf. He usually carries a heavy hammer or battle axe, the latter which is associated with his father, Dzeum. His colors are black and red, and sometimes he is depicted in paintings as having black skin and red hair and beard. He is sometimes depicted standing on or in close proximity to an anvil, and sometimes simply an anvil is used to metonymically represent the god.
a. As a war god Mahar is wears a warrior’s armor and carries the axe or war club. The axe is also an ancient symbol of kingship, a reference to this god’s supreme power over the underworld and its elements, but also a symbol linking him to the supremacy of masculine political power over the matriarchy of Bau-Tiamat. Although Roski is credited with the actual slaying of Tiamat, Mahar is the one that most often borrows Sky Father’s lightning bolts and axe, and in some myths Mahar, not Roski is the one who slices open the carcass of the slain monster using the axe. In this case, Mahar takes an active role in the creation of the ordered universe. Like the axe, the war club is an ancient symbol of political and sexual power. Varanáa priests, in a tradition carried from their Caerdolan past, carry a magic club as their weapon of choice, and the ideal version of this weapon is made from the penis bone of a whale. The symbolism is hereby overt: the club is the phallic or masculine power of the god wielded by his priest. For the Varanáa the phallus represents the chthonic deity Oken, but for Caerdolan it was Oken’s “civilized” descendant Mahar.
b. Mahar’s “ugliness” is also in part a symbol of his role as a fertility deity and god of the underworld. He is associated with the subterranean Dwarves, and with the savage, primal aspects of mankind. As Roski’s brother in the later creation myths Mahar is portrayed in contrast to Roski. Whereas Roski is physically beautiful and gifted with eloquent speech, Mahar is ugly and brooding. On the other hand, Roski’s beauty and light must be hidden from view until he is ready to take up his heroic role whereas Mahar’s strength and penchant for darkness means he is able to fight alongside his father immediately. Both Roski and Mahar are credited with giving the gift of creativity and industry to mortal kind, but whereas Roski’s gift is music, poetry, and artistic expression, Mahar’s gift is in the making of tools, weapons, and other utile items. Mahar’s “ugliness” also emphasizes his role as the “dark” half of the duality that is the male fertility god. For some he is Roski when Roski descends beneath the earth at night. For others he is Roski’s dark counterpart; as necessary a figure as the night is to the day or the earth is to the sky.
c. Red and black represent fire and earth respectively. These are the elements that Mahar controls and manipulates to make the metals and minerals of the earth. Red and black are the lava and stone or ash of the volcano. Red and black are also representative of blood and iron respectively. Mahar is credited with having given iron to the early Iron Age peoples of the continent, and the red iron ore is likened to the blood of the earth. The ancient Rhua smiths made blood sacrifices to Mahar when smelting iron.
d. The anvil is a later symbol associated with Mahar as the smith god. This symbol became important when Mahar became exclusively the patron of blacksmiths and metalworking, after he lost his place as a fertility deity, and after his role as Roski’s counterpart in the underworld diminished. Despite this, some cults of Mahar that still hold him to be supreme – or at least as important as Roski – use the anvil to represent him. This is particularly the case in places where the worship of gods other than Roski has been repressed.
DAANU/ANNU: This is the goddess of vegetation and fertility in the pantheon of Caerdolan. She was originally known as Annu by Caerdolan but later adopted as “Dannu” by the native Eryu peoples that were subjugated when the city of Caerdolas was established. She is known as Dannu by the Warlanders of Silegby and the surrounding realms, although she remains Annu on the Mainlands. It is likely that she was indigenous to the Great Forest of the Mainlands, which stretched for many hundreds of miles and through which the nomadic ancestors of Caerdolan roamed before settling on the island which eventually became the seat of their power.
Annu is a forest spirit. She is a chthonic deity associated with vegetative and emergent growth, and is said to be responsible for the germination of seeds, the unraveling of leaf buds and grass blades, and the ripening of fruit. Although a guardian of all living things, she is primarily owner of trees and plants. She is also guardian of growing crops and agriculture. She is the “corn maiden” whose power is trapped in the last sheaf of grain during the harvest and stored in a safe place to be buried in the field with the coming of the spring, thereby ensuring the success of the next crop.
In the beliefs and traditions of Caerdolan she was given a place in the pantheon of gods as the daughter of Sky Father and Istare and sister of Mahar and Roski. In the most popular creation myths she is credited with establishing the basis for measuring time by the growth cycle of plants, and particularly crops. As a preserver of life and nature, she is also portrayed as being wise and compassionate even above her brother Roski. As a chthonic deity, she is also associated with female sexuality, childbirth, and reproductive power. She is sometimes said to be the wife or consort of Mahar, and their union beneath the earth is said to give life to those things that grow out of the earth. In other parts of the world Annu is also the wild and dangerous aspects of womanhood, an aspect that she shares with Bau-Tiamat, and in contrast to Istare as the tame, domesticated mother goddess. In this aspect she is sometimes known as Mayada or Mayadara.
The most ancient representations of Annu were “corn dolls” or effigies made of leaves, sheaves of grain, or other vegetative material. More recent cults of Annu maintain these traditions. In imperial Caerdolan, and with the inclusion of Annu as a major pantheonic goddess, she is represented as a beautiful if sedate woman with long hair intertwined with leaves and vines, either nude or wearing a simple, short tunic. She carries a leafy staff or planting stick, and sometimes a fern frond. She is also sometimes abstractly represented as a spiral whorl, a symbol of emergent growth of living things as observed in the snail shell and the fern sprouts. As Mayadara the “wild woman” Annu is depicted as either a savage crone with long nails and fangs or as a beautiful but lascivious woman with wild hair and eyes. As the vegetative goddess her colors are green and brown, and as Mayadara she is sometimes represented in red and black, the same colors associated with Mahar and Bau-Tiamat. In some myths Annu was the daughter of Bau-Tiamat, not Istare, and would return to the underworld realm of her mother in the winter, only to be allowed to return to the surface in the spring. Allegorically, this represented the apparent death of plant life in the winter and its rebirth in the spring.
a. The significance of the corn doll effigy is obvious. Annu is the spiritual embodiment of vegetative life and emergent growth. No stone carving can effectively represent a goddess whose very spirit and energy can be seen in the dynamic life cycle of plants. Like the constant growth and withering of vegetation, the spirit of Annu was viewed to be constantly in flux, dynamic and incompatible with the solidity of stone. In fact, it was this constant change that ensured that food would always be available and even periods of agricultural failure only temporary.
b. The leafy staff Annu carries represents her governance over the forests and trees. In depictions where she carries a digging stick instead, her role as an agricultural goddess is emphasized. The fern is a symbol of emergent life and maturation. Tea made from boiled fern shoots was used in ancient Caerdolan to cure illnesses, especially those thought to have been caused by contact with the undead, and the smoke of burning ferns was used to drive away ghosts and other unclean spirits thought to be anathema to the concept of growth and rebirth.
c. The spiral is an ancient symbol of growth and emergent life. The fern shoot grows as an unraveling spiral as do many flowers and leaves. The spiral is also observable in the snail shell, the growth rings of trees, and the patterns on some tree bark. The curving spiral is also the shape or posture of a fetus or the embryo inside a developing egg.
d. The colors green and brown obviously represent the earth and vegetation. Black and red represent earth and blood respectively. The “black earth” is the rich, fertile soil, while the red is the female menstrual blood associated with reproduction and fertility.
NEHAL: The Trickster god of ancient Caerdolan, Nehal is also a creator and tutelary deity for some of the peoples conquered by Caerdolan. Nehal is credited with teaching mortals the secret of fire-making, a metaphor for technology. In some cultures he is the god of brewing and fermentation, and by extension, a god of transformations. As the god of the grape vine he has fertility associations similar to those of Roski. For the ancient Eryu he was the same as Wozen, the young wood god who married Dannu at Midsummer and was sacrificed at the winter solstice only to be reborn again in the spring. In Korma he retained these roles as the grape vines were cut back to a mere stump for their winter dormancy and then observed to grow back and flourish with the return of the warm months. He is often revered as a god of inebriation and sexual abandon, and is sometimes represented as a hermaphrodite, possessing both male and female qualities. This is in keeping with his roles both as a god of sexuality and of transformations. He is said to be able to transform from male to female at will, and his power can cause both men and women to lose their reason over lust. As a god of transformation he is also responsible for rites of passage from one life stage to another, and at the boundary between the natural and supernatural realms. As such he is the patron of mind-altering drugs, often used in rites of passage and in ceremonies involving human communion with the supernatural.
In Caerdolan he was also worshipped as a sea god, or more specifically, as the god of the surface of the ocean and the ocean winds. He was thus propitiated for favorable sailing conditions. He was also credited with having invented ship-building. For the imperial Caerdolan he was also a martial god, responsible for introducing siege engines and the composite bow to mortals. He is also credited with having introduced the bit and bridle to tame Páarun’s horses. His role as the god of transformations eventually led to his becoming patron of alchemists and apothecaries.
Nehal is usually depicted as a youthful male either nude or dressed in a short tunic, sometimes with a quiver of arrows and a bow, and sometimes with wings. The earliest representations of Nehal depicted him as having exaggerated male genitalia often to the exclusion of all other features. Sometimes he is depicted as being both male and female, or as a beautiful, androgynous youth with long hair and soft features. This was particularly the case in Korma and its subject provinces, where he was also depicted holding a goblet of wine and sometimes having grape leaves and vines entwined in his hair. Sometimes he is depicted as a wild-haired youth or boy riding a dolphin. In imperial Caerdolan he was most often depicted as a strong, masculine winged youth wielding a sword or bow and wearing a short tunic and light armor. Often in Caerdolan sculpture he is depicted wearing an ornate steel cap on his head resembling an inverted drinking bowl used in ancient Caerdolan for ceremonial beer drinking. He is sometimes depicted as a sedate youth carrying a plumb line or measuring staff, and sometimes with an astrolabe or other navigational instrument. The colors associated with Nehal vary from one region or cult to the next. Wine red or purple is his principal color, but he is sometimes depicted wearing aqua and silver as well. In Porphyra, a glass-making guild maintains a cult of Nehal as their patron, and wears glass beads of alternating purple and aqua glass infused with gold dust to represent their devotion. An obscure and dark form of Nehal is also worshipped by poison-makers, who view the god’s powers over physical and psychological alterations as the divine source of their art.
a. His appearance as a beautiful and androgynous youth represents his role as a god of sexual desire and fertility. In Caerdolan the androgynous role was deemphasized, and he was viewed in much the same way as Roski. Whereas Roski represented civilized masculine youthful qualities, Nehal represented the darker or wilder aspects of the youthful male in a similar dichotomy to that of Istare and Annu. Nehal’s androgynous nature also symbolizes his role as a god of transformations.
b. Nehal’s role as the god of technology is variously represented by the vine, cup, and by the weapons and implements he carries. The navigational instruments associate him with his role as a god of sailors and ship-wrights. The cup and vine also identify him as the god of brewing and fermentation, which also associates him with other forms of transformation such as chemical and alchemical reactions, physical transmutation, and social inversions or rites of passage.
c. The wings symbolize Nehal’s role as a god of movement and change. They also identify him as the lord of ocean winds and currents, as well as the one who moves between the realms of the natural and the supernatural.
d. Purple represents the color of the grape and wine, but is also the color of the twilit sky. As the transitional period between the day and the night, and the shift from the realm of those spirits and creatures that dwell in daylight to those that walk the night, the twilight is Nehal’s time. It is a time of transformations and transitions. Purple is also observed to be the color of poisoned flesh, as well as the color of purple porphyry, a stone believed to possess magical properties, particularly for use in transmutation magic. Purple is also observed as the reflections off the surface of the deep seas. Aqua represents the ocean waters and the spray as well as the transitional zones between sky and sea and earth and sea.
e. The dolphin, seagull, and butterfly are all animals associated with Nehal. Dolphins are observed living at the surface of the ocean, and allies of sailors. Likewise seagulls are viewed as animals of the ocean winds and currents, and their presence is always viewed favorably with sailors because it indicates proximity to land. In terrestrial cults, caterpillars and their transformation into butterflies are viewed as belonging to Nehal, particularly those that feed on the leaves of the vine.
BAU-TIAMAT: Sometimes known simply as “Bau” or “Tiamat” she is the supreme earth mother goddess of the ancient world. Although later relegated to the role of a demon queen, Bau-Tiamat remained a powerful deity in her own right even during the rise of Roskian monotheism. She is the primal earth mother, the supreme chthonic deity, both adored and feared by her devotees. In the oldest Caerdolan myths she is the willful and dangerous consort of Páarun, who fertilizes her body with the falling rains, and was envisioned to be a massive serpent or dragon with a swollen body coiled at the roots of the earth. She is the goddess of earthquakes and of hollow places in the earth, such as caves, chasms, sink holes, and wells. As the Great Worm or World Serpent she laid the World Egg, the source of all life, and from which the gods of order as well as the first man and woman emerged. In ancient Korma and in imperial Caerdolan her consort was Oken, the god of the primal oceans and the ocean depths. For the chthonic ancients she was the goddess of pregnancy and childbirth, and the cause of pain and suffering during the birthing process as well as the selfish mother goddess who could suddenly take back the life of both mother and newborn child unless properly propitiated.
With the rise of pantheonic worship in Caerdolan, Bau-Tiamat was replaced by Istare as the mother goddess and by Annu as the goddess of vegetation and earthly fecundity. Nevertheless she was recognized as the mother of the pantheon of gods that replaced the primitive chthonic spirits, and directly responsible for the creation of the world. After she was slain by Roski her butchered carcass became the components of the earth and the various living things that inhabit it. Thus from her death came life, just as life emerged from the seemingly dead earth after the winter thaw. Caerdolan creation myths portray her as the First Mother who gave birth to all the spirits of light and darkness, and whose offspring rebelled against each other, causing the First Battle or the First War, the outcome of which was the ordered universe. In imperial Caerdolan there was a revival of the cult of Tiamat, where she was worshipped as the queen of all dark mysteries and magic. In later times she was viewed as a goddess of the underworld who receives the souls of the dead, particularly those that were unfit to join Roski and the other spirits of light in the heavens.
Being one of the most ancient of all deities, Bau-Tiamat has been depicted in myriad ways throughout time. The earliest representations were stylized female fertility figures of stone or clay emphasizing female sexual characteristics. Some of these figures incorporated spiral motifs (later associated with Annu in some places) and serpent motifs (also associated with Istare in later cults). The earliest pictorial representations of Bau-Tiamat are of a snake coiled into a spiral motif, an image used even in later times by Tiamat worshippers such as the Varanáa. In some cults she is represented as a huge serpent or dragon, and in others as a hideous hag or monstrous female figure with serpent qualities (e.g. a serpent’s tail in place of legs or serpents for hair). Often she is depicted as either a dragon with five heads or a humanoid female figure with five dragon heads where a woman’s head should be. This is a later concept which emerged in later cults during the Caerdolan Empire, although its origins lie in older, eastern cults related to the cults of the goddess Helcare. Originally, the colors associated with Bau-Tiamat were black and red, but in later cults blue, white, and green were added to her banner, completing the five colors that represented the five primal elements of the universe in Caerdolan cosmology.
a. The early representations are an obvious reference to her role as mother goddess. Even in later times, these simple images were sometimes carried by expectant mothers as amulets of protection against harm to themselves and their unborn children. Enlarged human female sexual characteristics represent female sexuality and childbirth.
b. The serpent is an ancient symbol of rebirth and regeneration due to its habit of shedding its old skin and re-emerging as a renewed being. In cold climates snakes are also observed emerging from underground borrows after their winter hibernation, and are thus associated with the earth and its springtime renewal. The spiral coil of the serpent is related to the spiraling pattern of emergent life as observed in the emergence of plant shoots, animal shells and the posture of embryonic life.
c. Like the serpent, the dragon is an ancient symbol of the earth, particularly the mysterious and often frightening powers of the earth observed in earthquakes, volcanic fires, avalanches and mudslides. The dragon is the destructive power of the earth, which is viewed as inexorably linked to its creative and regenerative powers.
d. The image of Bau-Tiamat as a hag is symbolic of her role as the spent mother goddess. It is the old moon, the goddess as maternal martyr. In Caerdolan, the afterbirth was viewed as essential flesh sacrificed by a mother for her newborn child, and this was offered up to Bau-Tiamat to ensure the health of both mother and child. The hag image symbolizes this sacrifice, as well as the dangers of the birthing process. This sacrifice is also metaphorically explained in the creation myths wherein Bau-Tiamat is slain by Roski (her offspring or descendant) who creates the earth out of her remains.
e. Images of Bau-Tiamat as a monstrous serpent-woman hybrid combine the symbolic elements and emphasize the destructive or frightening aspects of her spheres of influence.
f. The five headed dragon or five dragon-headed monstrous human female is a later iconographic system representing the five essential elements of the universe in Caerdolan cosmology: red = fire, blue = air, white = water, black = earth, green = wood/vegetative substance. This system became the basis of Caerdolan wizardry and alchemy, which survived in the arcane schools of Bospora and Porphyra. The emblem of the wizard school of Bospora is a pentagram with each of the five points corresponding to one of the five essential colors. It is an abstract representation of Bau-Tiamat, whose worship has (ostensibly) long been abandoned there.
OKEN: The primordial male spirit, father of Páarun and ultimately of all the other gods and spirits of the universe. Together with his consort Bau-Tiamat he created the primordial universe, and is thus the supreme male counterpart to the chthonic earth mother. In some myths it was his eye, not Páarun’s that was removed by Roski and in others by Páarun himself. The Eye was said to be able to see all things, and was thus deemed to be too dangerous and hidden away beneath the earth. In some traditions Oken is viewed as a monstrous serpent or dragon dead or slumbering at the roots of the earth, sometimes in an embrace with his consort, Bau-Tiamat. In others he lies at the bottom of the deepest ocean, or is the ocean floor itself. His stirrings cause the tidal waves and other deep ocean calamities that can affect the mortal world. In ancient Caerdolan he was the lord of the ocean, and sacrifices to him were made to ensure safety at sea, bountiful catches, and the protection of coastal dwellings. The boundary between earth and sea was viewed as a sacred place for sacrifice, ritual cleansing, and even birthing as it represented the sacred sexual union of the oceanic god Oken and the earth mother Bau. The sea foam at the surf-line was viewed as the god’s semen erupting upon the earth, and Caerdolan warriors considered themselves blessed if they disembarked directly into the foam when landing on a foreign shore. In his role as sea-god, Oken differed from Nehal in that he represented the depths of the ocean and the power of deep ocean tides, whereas Nehal represented the surface of the ocean and its interactions with the winds of the air. In later, pantheonic worship, Oken is still revered as the lord of the oceans, but is not included in the pantheon because he is seen as a god of chaos and destruction rather than order. In this way, Nehal supplants him as the god of the sea in the ordered universe, but as a trickster he is also an acknowledgement of the ocean’s unpredictability and a link to the chaotic Oken. In Imperial Caerdolan Oken was sometimes referred to as Oheg, but Oheg was also sometimes viewed as a separate deity with characteristics of both Nehal and Oken.
Early representations of Oken are difficult to distinguish from some representations of Tiamat. He is represented as a serpent, but whereas Tiamat is the coiled serpent, Oken is the wavy or moving serpent. In some pictorial representations he is depicted as a dragon, sea serpent, or a fantastic hybrid monster that is part dragon, part turtle, or part hippopotamus. In some he is a monstrous sea horse, bull or whale. Later representations sometimes depict him as a powerfully-built, bearded, mature man with the lower body of a sea serpent, or a kingly giant riding a whale. His colors are black and aqua, but primarily black. He is often associated with black, basaltic stone, which was the ideal material for sculpting his image in ancient Caerdolan. Shrines to Oken were often located in caves and grottos that were flooded during high tide.
a. As in the case with Bau-Tiamat, the serpent represents life and particularly regenerative life. In the case of Oken, the serpent represents the masculine principle in chthonic worship, and thus the movement and flow of fertilizing energy toward the female principle waiting to uncoil into emergent life.
b. As a creature of both land and water, the turtle represents Oken’s dual role as an earth deity and the lord of the ocean depths. Where such animals exist, the hippopotamus is likewise viewed as a powerful creature of both land and water, whose actions also help to sustain the life of the rivers they inhabit. The sheer size and strength observed in the great whales likened them to the power of the oceanic Oken, who was thus sometimes conceived of as a monstrous whale. The Varanáa used a club carved from a whale penis bone as a magical weapon symbolic of masculine warrior power. The bull or sea horse reference classical masculine symbols.
c. Images of Oken as a man or hybrid sea serpent man emerged during the classical period of imperial Caerdolan, when the gods were depicted in idealized human form with life-like features. Although Páarun was officially the patron deity of imperial Caerdolan, from whose divine power the right of imperial rulership was derived, the cult of Oken was nearly as popular during imperial times. As a maritime people whose imperial power relied heavily on naval might and control of maritime trade, Caerdolan held the lord of the seas in high regard. With the rise of the newer cults of Tiamat, a renewed interest in Oken as her male counterpart also arose. The rise in supremacy of the Korman Roski eventually caused the collapse of these powerful cults along with the collapse of Caerdolan rule, and its remnants were driven underground and to remote corners of the former empire. A seaside shrine to Oken remains a pilgrimage site on a small rock in the harbor of Bospora.
ONGHALE: An obscure goddess worshipped primarily in Caerdolan and in some of the realms around the Great Wood on the Mainlands. Onghale was originally a totemic spirit or emblem associated with a particularly powerful and influential clan in pre-imperial Caerdolan. Eventually she was linked to the chthonic Bau-Tiamat, and later as part of a tripartite complex of mother goddesses in imperial Caerdolan, composed of nubile virgin (Annu), fecund mother (Istare), and wizened crone (Onghale). As such she replaces in Caerdolan the eastern goddess Helcare, who elsewhere fulfills the role of crone in the goddess complex. As the crone, Onghale is the goddess of death. She spins the thread of life for each mortal and decides when to cut it. Like Tiamat, she may devour her own children, but more often is herself devoured by her children, thereby making the ultimate sacrifice so that her offspring may live. In this way she is like the hag form of Tiamat.
Onghale is usually depicted as a spider or metonymically as a spider’s spiral web. In some cults she is represented by a spoked wheel. This links her to the technology of spinning thread, and Onghale is in fact the goddess of textile making in Caerdolan. In the pantheon of imperial Caerdolan Onghale is generally depicted as a wizened old crone dressed in concealing robes and wearing a veil or mantle of diaphanous cloth. In some cults she is depicted as a hideous, monstrous female hybrid creature combining both human and arachnid characteristics.
Despite her negative associations with death and destruction, Onghale was generally conceptualized as a necessary element in the regeneration of life.
a. Onghale’s associations with death were metaphorically linked to the spider’s poisonous bite and observable efficiency as a predator. The spiral pattern of some spider webs is also closely related to the spiral motif as a symbol of emergent life, and its use as an instrument of death makes it a symbol of the role of death as a necessary phase in the cycle of life, from which new life may reemerge. The maternal sacrifice is observed in the spider’s protection of her eggs and her subsequent death as she is consumed by her own offspring.
b. Like Bau-Tiamat, Onghale’s anthropomorphic representations symbolize the twilight of human female life, the transition from fecund, life-producing mother, to wise crone. As such she is a repository of ancient wisdom, and knowledge to be passed down to the next generation, especially the next female generation. Her concealing robes represent the mysteries and wisdom that she will impart only to those who seek for it properly.
EYMDOL: The name, which means “white stone” in old Caerdolan, refers to a very obscure deity originating in pre-imperial Caerdolan who was eventually supplanted by Roski through contact with the former Kuonrhua Empire. Eymdol was the solar deity of pre-imperial Caerdolan, conceptualized as a pale, shining white stone in the northern sky of the open steppes of their ancestral homeland. While acknowledged as a life-giving force, the sun was seen as relatively weak and constantly battling for supremacy with the more dominant forces of storm and wind. Thus, Eymdol was a secondary figure in pre-imperial Caerdolan religious worship in relation to Páarun as the lord of the sky, storms, and the fertilizing rains.
While its revealing light was revered and cherished by the ancestors of Caerdolan, it was not originally credited with life-giving warmth and vegetative growth, but feared as a bringer of disease and even death, particularly for women and young children. For this reason women were prescribed to wear concealing robes and veils when walking abroad under the sun, and small children were often similarly veiled or wrapped. Most Caerdolan magic is performed in the dark, or at night time, a practice that originated in the belief that Eymdol would negatively affect the creative forces of the universe (life emerges from chthonic darkness), and which later helped to make Roski the symbolic enemy of Caerdolan imperial rule during the uprisings that resulted in the collapse of the empire. Ancient healers often carried a small, round or oval white stone as a component of ritual healing. The stone represented the power of Eymdol to remove illness if properly propitiated. During times of plague a sacrifice was made wherein the blood of the victim was poured in libation over a sacred white stone dedicated to this god.
During imperial times, Eymdol was included as a minor god in the pantheon of Caerdolan, primarily as a god of healers since his role as solar deity was soon usurped by Roski. In some traditions, however, he was conceptualized as being a secondary counterpart to Roski, sometimes as a son or weaker sibling to Roski and as such the personification of the winter sun in northern lands.
The most ancient representations of Eymdol were simply the round, white healing stones of pre-imperial Caerdolan, or the white sacrificial stone. He was rarely depicted at all in imperial Caerdolan, but when he was he was usually shown as a lean and somber youthful male dressed in concealing robes or wrapped in a cloak, sometimes with a staff and sometimes with a wide-brimmed hat. Sometimes he is depicted as a small boy or slim youth in exaggerated miniature standing at the side of Roski. As was traditionally the case with Roski, Eymdol was often sculpted in the nude and then clothed in garments of ritual cloth, but whereas Roski was often draped in a mantle of red and gold embroidered cloth usually with one arm and shoulder exposed, Eymdol was usually wrapped closely in unadorned white linen. Eymdol’s color is simply white.
a. The white stone was symbolic of the pale, often cloud-obscured sun of the northern skies, particularly in winter. In some regions, the brief northern summer was a time for swarming flies and disease. The sun was metaphorically likened to a shining white stone suspended in the sky, and thus represented by the small, white healing stone. The power of the god to cause disease was also the power to remove disease, which would be absorbed by the sacred healing stone. The white stone was also symbolic of the World Egg laid by the chthonic earth mother, and fertilized by the sky father, thus setting the precedence for the sun as the offspring of earth and sky that would later be elaborated in the creation myths relating the birth of Roski.
b. The later representations depicting Eymdol as a lean and somber youth directly related to the concept of Eymdol as Roski’s weaker, winter counterpart. Whereas Eymdol is lean, pale and somber, concealed in the folds of his cloak, Roski is robust, energetic and glowing with spiritual and sexual vitality. Despite the supremacy of Roski, various cults of Eymdol emphasized the pale god’s hidden mysteries, his power over illness and health, and the virtues of moderation over excess. In most instances, little or no distinction is made between Roski and Eymdol, and the latter is simply viewed as a different aspect of the supreme god.
c. The color white, or the whiteness used to represent Eymdol is a reference to the pale white light of the northern sun, but also a symbol of the purification desired in removing disease and corruption from the body. It is also more abstractly representative of the secrets hidden by emptiness or blindness. A later cult of Eymdol revered him as the “god of emptiness” of asceticism and a life devoid of the burdens of wealth and responsibility. The staff he carries is the walking staff of the traveling ascetic or hermit. The tradition of wrapping the god’s effigy in concealing white garments is also symbolic of healing mysteries that he conceals.
HELCARE: A dark goddess of the East and the Drylands that is in some ways equated with the chthonic Bau-Tiamat but more often represents the dark and dangerous counterpart to Istare. The latter concept is similar to the Istare-Annu complex of the Mainlands, wherein Istare represents the domestic female whereas Annu represents the wild and untamed aspects of womanhood. In the lands where she is worshipped, Helcare fulfills the role of Istare’s dark and dangerous counterpart. In the East the Istarians conceptualize Helcare as being an avatar of Istare, although in more remote areas she is viewed as a separate deity. In some regions Helcare is known as Bau or Bau-Helcare, a vestige of Bau-Tiamat worship, which was replaced by the Istare-Helcare complex.
Helcare is most often depicted as a monstrous female figure with a woman’s body and the head of a lioness or twin serpent heads. She is sometimes depicted as having vulture’s wings and sometimes talons for feet. Sometimes she is depicted with a distended abdomen, as if pregnant. Usually she is shown wearing a long, form-fitting gown, but occasionally she is nude. Occasionally Helcare is depicted as a beautiful and seductive woman with vulture’s wings. Her colors are black and purple or red and purple.
In those lands where she is worshipped, Helcare is the queen of the night sky and goddess of death. In some cults she is the daughter of Bau-Tiamat and thus a goddess of the Underworld. She is the goddess of black magic, and a bringer of disease and death. As such she is propitiated as a healing goddess. Helcare is invoked by necromancers as well in the performance of their art. Her primary temple is in the Eastern city of Iskandera, where a cult of temple prostitute priestesses attends to her shrine and dance before a giant, lioness headed statue of the goddess.
a. As a dark aspect of Istare, Helcare may appear as a fully-clothed, even matronly female figure but with the fierce lioness or double snake head representing the bestial female and the regenerative goddess respectively. As the seductive “whore” she represents the unbridled sexual potential in womanhood, and in contrast to the tempered, domestic aspects represented in Istare.
b. The double-headed serpent represents not only the snake as regenerator, but the duality of the goddess as both a creator and destroyer of life. The vulture aspects represent the goddess’ role as ruler of the dead and the one who carries the souls of the dead into the Underworld to be judged.
c. The colors black and purple represent the underworld and the night sky respectively. Purple is also the color of poisoned or dead flesh. Red is the color of blood, including menstrual blood, which is also part of Helcare’s provenance. In the lands of the Istarians, women are proscribed from interacting with men or showing themselves in public while menstruating, and this is equated with the dark phases of the moon, the time wherein Helcare reigns and Istare rests.
The following is a descriptive list of the deities of the Caerdolan universe, detailing the requisite iconographic symbolism by which each god and goddess is identified. These iconographic elements became canonical during the rise of the Caerdolan, during which the Empire was still ostensibly polytheistic, but reached new heights of elaboration in artistic representation during the earlier centuries after the fall of Caerdolan, even as Roski rose to become the supreme deity of the Empire.
ROSKI: The name translated loosely means “King of the Soul of the Universe” or more simply “King Spirit” or “Supreme Spirit”. While he remains very closely tied to his ancient origins as a solar deity, Roski as the “supreme” deity has taken on the omnipotence required in any monotheistic system. As such he is an all-knowing, all-powerful creator, protector, and provider, the “supreme father” of a monotheistic patriarchy in which he is credited with responsibility for the entire universe. Originally, Roski was only one of a pantheon of deities, and his sphere of influence limited to only a finite number of specific realms of nature and society. Even so he was always a major deity, one of the chief gods, although it is likely that his role as the son of the Sky Father developed after he was adopted and incorporated into the mythology of the invading peoples who were the ancestors of Caerdolan. Originally, Roski may have been the equivalent of the Sky Father to the Rhua and other peoples of warmer, southern lands, and the consort of the Earth Mother. Roski is always depicted as a beautiful youth either nude or dressed in red and gold robes, with a golden crown or halo on his head, and holding a golden spear in his right hand. The left hand is often raised in a sign of blessing, or holding a golden orb or egg, and there are often bees, sunflowers, and either shells or fish associated with him. His iconographic elements have changed relatively little despite the god’s ancient history, and underwent a transformation from primitive solar deity (nature spirit) to allegorical pantheonic deity and finally to transcendent mono-deity, as such:
Always depicted as a youthful man with flawless features, abundant hair, and athletic physique. In earlier representations, he was depicted nude, but after the fall of Caerdolan, with the rise of the Faranx as the dominant culture in the empire, he is depicted draped in a robe or cloak bearing the iconic colors of crimson and gold. Whether nude or clothed, Roski’s strong but youthful physique identifies him as a fertility deity, the embodiment of masculine fertility, and the ideal of masculine beauty and sexual potency. In some of the most ancient rites, the handsomest youth of a village was selected to play the role of the living god from the spring equinox to the winter solstice. Although ancient accounts describe the eventual sacrifice of the youth, most prescribe the slaughter of an animal or captive slave in his place. Roski’s youthfulness is traditionally depicted in stark contrast to the mature strength of other masculine deities such as the Sky Father and Mahar.
The eyes are always wide open and bright, symbolizing the god’s ability to see everything, which in turn is metaphorically linked to the sun as the ultimate source of revealing light. The Caerdolan attributed Roski’s omniscience to their supreme god, Páarun the Sky Father, in myths that alternately portray Roski as either the discorporate eye of the Sky Father or the cause of his partial blindness. In either case, the Caerdolan myths show the beginnings of Roski’s eventual usurping of the Sky Father’s place as supreme deity. Traditionally, in sculptural representations, the eyes are inlayed with white shell or mother of pearl. The reflective quality of these substances is meant to remind the faithful that their actions do not escape the god’s attention, and must be atoned for by first recognizing them through self-awareness. The marine origin of these substances is also a relic of a time when Roski was also seen as a god of the oceans since, for many of the maritime peoples who originally worshipped him, he was seen to rise out of the oceanic horizon in the east and set into the sea in the west, and the light and warmth that made the earth fertile was also seen to make the seas abundant.
The colors red and gold are so closely bound to the iconography of Roski that in some monastic sects, anthropomorphic iconography has been completely replaced by abstract representation in the form of a golden disk upon a field of red, or sometimes even a divided field of gold over red. The most obvious origin for this lies in Roski’s origins as a solar deity. The gold is the golden light of the sun, while the red represents the color of sun and sky at dawn and sunset, when it is at its most dramatic. This is particularly true in the southern lands and coastal realms around Korma where the worship of Roski originated. The official Korman doctrine concerning the symbolism of Roski’s colors identify red with the life-blood of the universe, the cosmic energy that nourishes all life, and the gold with the god’s powers to illuminate the darkness of ignorance and reveal the wisdom of the world. Gold metal is sacred to Roski, as is native and worked copper. Naturally occurring alloys of copper and gold, sometimes known as “blood gold”, is particularly valued as a substance sacred to Roski and reserved for fashioning sacred objects associated with him. It is believed that in the remote past, the worship of Roski included the slaughter of sacrificial victims upon an altar stone using ceremonial daggers fashioned of gold. Red and gold are also associated with the historical Roski, the revolutionary figure whose spectacular execution at the hands of the Caerdolan rulers of Korma sparked the revolt that eventually led to the overthrow of Imperial power. In this case red symbolizes the blood of the martyr and of the martyred freedom fighters, while gold symbolizes their glorious victory.
The spear or lance is also an essential symbol of Roski. In the classical creation myths, Roski uses a golden spear to slay the monster Bau-Tiamat, thereby creating the ordered universe. Roski’s golden spear is also a phallic symbol used to penetrate and fertilize the body of the fecund earth goddess, Bau-Tiamat. In more abstract terms, the phallic symbolism of Roski’s spear, and his mythic destruction of Bau-Tiamat can be viewed as the destruction of the chthonic and matriarchal earth-goddess worship by the patriarchal sky or sun god worshippers. In Caerdolan myths, Roski first borrows and in later myths steals the golden spear from his Sky Father Páarun (in the earliest myths it is Páarun’s axe or thunderbolts) to slay the monster, which like the partial blinding of the Sky Father, may be viewed as a sign of Roski’s supplanting Páarun as the supreme deity.
Animal and plant symbols of Roski include the sunflower, olive, bee, and seashell, as well as bird’s egg. The sunflower’s natural and observable affinity with the sun makes it an obvious symbol, as is its role as provider of light and nourishment by means of the oil extracted from its seeds. The olive is likewise regarded as sacred to Roski in regions where it is grown for the oil that is derived from it, which was the primary source of artificial light in the form of lamp oil in the ancient realms where Roski worship originated. As noted before, the seashell is symbolic or Roski’s role as a god of the sea, where the sun rests at night. The egg is a symbol appropriated by other gods, and represents fertility. The golden yolk of the egg is a metaphor for the nourishing qualities of the solar orb, whereas the white is representative of the fertilizing male seed. The bee in ancient Roski worship represents the living, moving “male” spirit of the god, who alights upon the “female” flowers, fertilizing them. Like the yellow egg yolk, the bee’s golden honey is the nourishing gift of the god, while the pale royal jelly is the god’s semen, which nourishes and fertilizes the new queen bee in the hive.
PÁARUN/DZEUM: Sometimes referred to simply as “Skye” or “Sky Father”, this deity was the original patriarchal god of the northern lands, eventually supplanted by the southern sky/solar god Roski. In the most ancient forms of this god’s worship, he is both god of the sun and of the sky. Eventually, this led to his identification as god of the day-lit sky, in contrast to a counterpart god or goddess who was the personification of the night sky. For the pre-imperial Caerdolan, whose origins lie in the vast northern steppes of their ancestral homeland, the sun was vital yet subject to the thunder and winter storms that wreaked havoc on crops and herds, and which could cause famine and flood. For this reason Páarun as a sky or storm god was supreme to any solar worship that might also have occurred. A reliance on seasonal and sporadic rains for crops and, more importantly, pasture also assured the supremacy of this deity for the ancestors of the ancient Caerdolan. As the patron of a patriarchal, warrior people, Páarun was also a god of war whose lightning and thunder could destroy enemy armies, light fires, and in whose thunder the voice of the god could be heard. The ancient Caerdolan relied heavily on horses for military superiority as well as for draft. As such, the horse was sacred to Páarun and the rumbling of thunder was believed to be the rumbling of the hooves of his sacred herds, from which the fathers of the original Caerdolan horses were sired. In the warmer, southern lands where Roski ruled supreme, the Sky Father was known as Dzeum. In this form he is the primitive, uncivilized male god that is supplanted by the enlightened, civilized Roski. In the most ancient southern manifestations of Dzeum, he is the benevolent version of the demon god of Chaos known as Oken, the consort of Bau-Tiamat, who along with her is destroyed by his offspring Roski. In later myths Dzeum and his sister-bride Istare are the first generation of civilizing deities who destroy the gods of Chaos and create order out of their remains. In the most popular of these myths, Roski is the son of Dzeum and Istare, and is the one who kills the monsters in order to create the ordered universe. To the patriarchal ancestors of Caerdolan, the Sky Father was all-seeing and all-knowing, a doctrine that conflicted with the mysterious nature of chthonic mother-goddess worship, elements of which were incorporated into the beliefs and practices of Caerdolan (most dramatically in the Bau-Tiamat cults of the later empire and even the Varanáa who are tribal remnants of old Caerdolan). Mythically, these doctrinal conflicts were resolved in the account of the Sky Father’s blindness. In some myths, Sky Father demands to know the female secrets kept by his wife Istare. Istare agrees to share these secrets with him in return for his right eye. Unwilling to concede that there is knowledge kept from him, Sky Father agrees and painfully removes his eye, surrendering it to Istare. In earlier myths it is Sky Father’s right testicle that is demanded as payment, which helps explain the myths of Roski’s birth as Sky Father’s eye. In both of these myths, Istare devours the organ that her husband has given her in payment for her secret and by so doing becomes impregnated with Sky Father’s seed. The resulting offspring is none other than Roski, who is born with the combined wisdom of both of his parents. While certainly diminished in importance with the rise of Roski, Dzeum remains a patron of magicians and masculine knowledge. His sacrifice in the search for knowledge is sometimes invoked by scholars, who often sacrifice the pleasures of the marriage bed and the joys of family for the pursuit of knowledge.
As Páarun, Sky Father is usually depicted as a robust, powerfully-built mature man, often bearded, with a severe expression, wearing either flowing robes or warrior’s armor. Often he has an eye patch or a bandage over his right eye, and he wields a spear, sword, or axe. His clothing is steel gray or blue, and his beard and hair are white or pale gray. He is sometimes shown with a raven, a pair of ravens, or an eagle perched on his shoulders, and as the Caerdolan war god, wielding a battle club or axe shaped like the head of a horse. As Dzeum he is also depicted as a powerfully-built mature man with beard and flowing hair, either naked or draped in a flowing blue cloak, and wielding the thunderbolt or axe. Sometimes he is shown as having eagle’s wings, an eagle companion, or simply in the form of a great eagle.
As a fertility deity, Dzeum is the embodiment of masculine strength and virility. He is the archetypal patriarch, father of nations, and patron of masculine aggression. For this reason he is always depicted as being robust and muscular, but also mature, with distinctly masculine features such as a full beard and bushy eyebrows. As a war god he is often depicted wielding weapons and dressed in armor, but as a scholar he is often shown wearing concealing robes.
The colors of Páarun/Dzeum are blue or gray and white. The former represent the colors of the clear and stormy skies respectively, and the latter represent the rain clouds. His beard and hair also resemble clouds. The colors also represent the iron that is sometimes attributed to the god (perhaps in the form of meteoric iron), and the divine semen in the rain that fertilizes the earth.
Like Roski, Páarun/Dzeum’s spear or axe represents the phallic instrument by which he penetrates the mysteries of the earth mother, thereby securing his power to transform Chaos into the ordered world. In ancient Caerdolan the symbol of patriarchal power was the battle club or royal scepter which was a hybrid form between an axe and a club shaped liked a horse’s head. Even in the late Imperial period, when the Caerdolan rulers preferred objects of precious metals and stones, the basic form of this scepter was ideally made of meteoric iron. In some of the official myths, Roski destroys Bau-Tiamat with his golden spear, but then borrows his father’s axe to butcher the monster, thereby dividing its body parts into the components of the ordered universe. In this case, though still dethroned by Roski, the implication is that Dzeum’s strength and power are still at least partially responsible for the foundation of civilization.
The eye patch or bandage represents at once the sacrifice that he made in his quest for knowledge, and the mysteries that he seeks within himself by looking inward rather than out. This is a most vital aspect of Dzeum as the patron of wizards and scholars, but also an important symbol of his at least partial victory over feminine power.
The raven is a carrion bird symbolic of Páarun’s role as the keeper of the souls of fallen warriors. The observable cleverness of these birds as well as their black coloration also symbolizes hidden mysteries and wisdom. The eagle is a symbol of warfare, and of the destructive power of storms. Eagles were tamed and trained as hunting and war birds by the ancestral Caerdolans.
ISTARE: The most popular “mother goddess” figure of the former Caerdolan empire and beyond, Istare has at least as many devotees as Roski himself. Like most mother goddess figures, Istare was originally a chthonic deity from the eastern regions where she is still the paramount deity, and adopted up by the nomadic ancestors of the Caerdolan on their westward migration. In time she became the consort and sometimes the sister of Páarun. In most of these myths, Istare is the daughter of the chthonic Bau-Tiamat and her consort Oken, and through her offspring Roski, usurps her mother as the queen of the gods. In the world-view of the imperial Caerdolans, as well as the Istarians, this is thus representative of the replacement of the uncivilized, Bau-Tiamat (the wild, untamed and dangerous aspects of womanhood) by the civilized Istare (the tamed, domestic wife and mother). Istare is patroness of the “hearth” a metonym for the household and domestic life, as well as motherhood and child-rearing, mid-wifery, and the household labor generally defined as “women’s work” in the patriarchal system established by Caerdolan. Istare is also the goddess of the moon. In this aspect she is linked to the menstrual cycle and the mysteries of womanhood and childbearing, for which the Caerdolan patriarchy retains a certain degree of respect and even fear. This fear translates into the belief that women are capable of possessing dangerous magical powers associated with their sexuality and the seemingly miraculous ability to give life through the birthing process. For the Istarians, the transformation from chaotic nature spirit to civilized pantheonic goddess eventually led to her being a more abstract, omnipotent mono-deity conceived of in abstract, maternal terms in much the same way that Roski serves as a paternal figure in the empire. As the moon goddess and the consort of the Sky Father, Istare is also the ruler of the night sky. In this aspect she is the equal counterpart to Sky Father, sharing in his authority, but responsible for the secrets of the stars (astrology) and the mysteries of lunar magic and magic performed under cover of night. In the worldview of the ancient Caerdolan and their ancestors, the daylight hours are for working in the fields and amongst the herds, and thus the purview of men and masculine deities while the night is for being at home, by the hearth, for love-making and child-rearing. Thus the night belongs to the goddess. In later worship, in the Mainlands after the rise of Roski as the supreme mono-deity, Istare is still often revered by midwives and mothers, although relegated to the role of a secondary spirit or angel. She is propitiated at the birth of a new child, and is believed to visit the new-born to bestow her blessings and to decide the fate of the child throughout his or her life. For this reason, a veil representing the night sky is often spread over the new-born’s cradle, and sometimes a charm in the form of a crescent moon is hung overhead or hidden in the bedding. Istare’s dark counterpart is sometimes equated with the goddess Helcare.
Istare is usually depicted as a beautiful, queenly woman in a dignified pose, wearing concealing robes. Her colors are dark blue and silver, and in pictorial representations she is usually depicted wearing a concealing mantle studded with silver stars or diamonds. On her head she wears a silver diadem with a crescent-shaped ornament like stylized horns, and in more ancient sculptures she is sometimes shown with actual horns. Like Roski, classical representations of Istare usually have her holding an egg or orb in her left hand, while her right hand holds a distaff, rod, or serpent. She is sometimes shown riding a cow, or else with a cow nearby, and sometimes a dove perched on her shoulder. A cup or urn is often depicted near her or in place of the orb in her left hand.
Most classical representations of Istare show her to be modestly dressed in concealing clothing. She is not sexually provocative, although the potential lies beneath her concealing robes. In the earliest representations of the goddess she was depicted nude, and often pregnant. This is in contrast to contemporary representations of Bau-Tiamat as a bloated or wasted hag. As a representative of civilized womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood, she is always depicted in a modest and dignified manner.
The colors dark blue and silver represent the night sky. Her mantle is the night sky that conceals the goddess’ secrets. Silver is the color of the moon and of the stars, which are her purview. Silver was used by ancient Caerdolan to perform magic, and particularly by women mages and healers. Dark blue or midnight blue was viewed not only to be the color of the night sky but also the color of the depths of the ocean and deep lakes and pools. When Roski rises in the east it is metaphorically likened to his being born from the deep mysteries of the sea, and in the evening he returns to the restful solace of his mother in the west. In this sense Istare is also a sea goddess, a remnant of her association with Bau-Tiamat, but this is an aspect that is rarely ever emphasized in classical representations.
The silver diadem and crescent emblem symbolize Istare’s connection to the moon. The phases of the moon are metaphorically linked to the menstrual cycle, and the mysterious near disappearance of the moon during its waning phase is likened to the female mysteries kept from the eyes of men in the Caerdolan world. The crescent moon is also likened to the horns of a cow, as well as the horns of the Dragon Queen, the mother of Istare and the original moon goddess. The moon also observably affects the ocean tides, which is another association between Istare/Bau-Tiamat and the sea.
The egg or orb represents the womb and the mystery of birth, for which Istare is responsible. The dove represents domestic love and marriage, as well as parenthood. As a tool of spinning and weaving, both women’s work in ancient Caerdolan, the distaff symbolizes Istare’s role as goddess of domestic life. The alternative use of a staff is derived from a more archaic form wherein the woman’s domestic chores included horticulture. The rod is the planting stick used by women when gardening staple food crops. The serpent is also associated with the food garden, but also with healing and renewal because of its ability to shed its old skin and emerge renewed. As such, the serpent becomes a fertility symbol.
For the ancient Caerdolan, as well as many ancient peoples, the cow is the archetypal metaphor for motherhood. The horns of the cow are seen in the crescent moon, and its role as a provider of milk for the herders as well as for its own offspring, makes it a surrogate and symbolic mother to the people that keep it. For this reason, the cow is most directly associated with Istare.
MAHAR: Relegated to the status of a secondary deity in the late imperial period and with the rise of Roski, Mahar is nevertheless one of the most important deities of the Caerdolan world. Mahar is an ancient deity whose chthonic origins are obvious. For the ancients he was a god of the earth. He was originally likened to Oken, the consort of the chthonic earth mother Bau-Tiamat, but later became their offspring, or the offspring of Sky Father and Istare. Even in this later form, he retains many of the characteristics of his chthonic ancestor. He is ugly, short-tempered, and prone to acts of brutality, but unlike Oken, his actions are more likely to be creative than destructive. He is the smith god, whose fires and hammer strokes result in the creation of mountains, metals, and artifacts beneficial to the gods as well as mortals. Like Roski he also shares some of the attributes of his father, Dzeum, particularly the Sky Father’s martial prowess and temperament. In contrast to Roski, Mahar is ugly and prefers the darkness of subterranean caverns to the light of the day. As such, Mahar may represent the darker, dangerous aspects of manhood – the potential for violence and sexual aggression. Some myths involve Mahar smiting or seeking to devour his own children, a metaphor for the Caerdolan cultural conflict between masculine martial violence and nurturing paternity. Like Dzeum, Mahar is a patron of masculine magic, primarily the seemingly magical mysteries of metallurgy, and any magic having to do with metallurgy or minerals.
Mahar is usually depicted as an ugly, brutish, bearded masculine figure, often dressed in heavy armor, but in more ancient representations he is sometimes represented nude, often as a deformed demon or dwarf. He usually carries a heavy hammer or battle axe, the latter which is associated with his father, Dzeum. His colors are black and red, and sometimes he is depicted in paintings as having black skin and red hair and beard. He is sometimes depicted standing on or in close proximity to an anvil, and sometimes simply an anvil is used to metonymically represent the god.
a. As a war god Mahar is wears a warrior’s armor and carries the axe or war club. The axe is also an ancient symbol of kingship, a reference to this god’s supreme power over the underworld and its elements, but also a symbol linking him to the supremacy of masculine political power over the matriarchy of Bau-Tiamat. Although Roski is credited with the actual slaying of Tiamat, Mahar is the one that most often borrows Sky Father’s lightning bolts and axe, and in some myths Mahar, not Roski is the one who slices open the carcass of the slain monster using the axe. In this case, Mahar takes an active role in the creation of the ordered universe. Like the axe, the war club is an ancient symbol of political and sexual power. Varanáa priests, in a tradition carried from their Caerdolan past, carry a magic club as their weapon of choice, and the ideal version of this weapon is made from the penis bone of a whale. The symbolism is hereby overt: the club is the phallic or masculine power of the god wielded by his priest. For the Varanáa the phallus represents the chthonic deity Oken, but for Caerdolan it was Oken’s “civilized” descendant Mahar.
b. Mahar’s “ugliness” is also in part a symbol of his role as a fertility deity and god of the underworld. He is associated with the subterranean Dwarves, and with the savage, primal aspects of mankind. As Roski’s brother in the later creation myths Mahar is portrayed in contrast to Roski. Whereas Roski is physically beautiful and gifted with eloquent speech, Mahar is ugly and brooding. On the other hand, Roski’s beauty and light must be hidden from view until he is ready to take up his heroic role whereas Mahar’s strength and penchant for darkness means he is able to fight alongside his father immediately. Both Roski and Mahar are credited with giving the gift of creativity and industry to mortal kind, but whereas Roski’s gift is music, poetry, and artistic expression, Mahar’s gift is in the making of tools, weapons, and other utile items. Mahar’s “ugliness” also emphasizes his role as the “dark” half of the duality that is the male fertility god. For some he is Roski when Roski descends beneath the earth at night. For others he is Roski’s dark counterpart; as necessary a figure as the night is to the day or the earth is to the sky.
c. Red and black represent fire and earth respectively. These are the elements that Mahar controls and manipulates to make the metals and minerals of the earth. Red and black are the lava and stone or ash of the volcano. Red and black are also representative of blood and iron respectively. Mahar is credited with having given iron to the early Iron Age peoples of the continent, and the red iron ore is likened to the blood of the earth. The ancient Rhua smiths made blood sacrifices to Mahar when smelting iron.
d. The anvil is a later symbol associated with Mahar as the smith god. This symbol became important when Mahar became exclusively the patron of blacksmiths and metalworking, after he lost his place as a fertility deity, and after his role as Roski’s counterpart in the underworld diminished. Despite this, some cults of Mahar that still hold him to be supreme – or at least as important as Roski – use the anvil to represent him. This is particularly the case in places where the worship of gods other than Roski has been repressed.
DAANU/ANNU: This is the goddess of vegetation and fertility in the pantheon of Caerdolan. She was originally known as Annu by Caerdolan but later adopted as “Dannu” by the native Eryu peoples that were subjugated when the city of Caerdolas was established. She is known as Dannu by the Warlanders of Silegby and the surrounding realms, although she remains Annu on the Mainlands. It is likely that she was indigenous to the Great Forest of the Mainlands, which stretched for many hundreds of miles and through which the nomadic ancestors of Caerdolan roamed before settling on the island which eventually became the seat of their power.
Annu is a forest spirit. She is a chthonic deity associated with vegetative and emergent growth, and is said to be responsible for the germination of seeds, the unraveling of leaf buds and grass blades, and the ripening of fruit. Although a guardian of all living things, she is primarily owner of trees and plants. She is also guardian of growing crops and agriculture. She is the “corn maiden” whose power is trapped in the last sheaf of grain during the harvest and stored in a safe place to be buried in the field with the coming of the spring, thereby ensuring the success of the next crop.
In the beliefs and traditions of Caerdolan she was given a place in the pantheon of gods as the daughter of Sky Father and Istare and sister of Mahar and Roski. In the most popular creation myths she is credited with establishing the basis for measuring time by the growth cycle of plants, and particularly crops. As a preserver of life and nature, she is also portrayed as being wise and compassionate even above her brother Roski. As a chthonic deity, she is also associated with female sexuality, childbirth, and reproductive power. She is sometimes said to be the wife or consort of Mahar, and their union beneath the earth is said to give life to those things that grow out of the earth. In other parts of the world Annu is also the wild and dangerous aspects of womanhood, an aspect that she shares with Bau-Tiamat, and in contrast to Istare as the tame, domesticated mother goddess. In this aspect she is sometimes known as Mayada or Mayadara.
The most ancient representations of Annu were “corn dolls” or effigies made of leaves, sheaves of grain, or other vegetative material. More recent cults of Annu maintain these traditions. In imperial Caerdolan, and with the inclusion of Annu as a major pantheonic goddess, she is represented as a beautiful if sedate woman with long hair intertwined with leaves and vines, either nude or wearing a simple, short tunic. She carries a leafy staff or planting stick, and sometimes a fern frond. She is also sometimes abstractly represented as a spiral whorl, a symbol of emergent growth of living things as observed in the snail shell and the fern sprouts. As Mayadara the “wild woman” Annu is depicted as either a savage crone with long nails and fangs or as a beautiful but lascivious woman with wild hair and eyes. As the vegetative goddess her colors are green and brown, and as Mayadara she is sometimes represented in red and black, the same colors associated with Mahar and Bau-Tiamat. In some myths Annu was the daughter of Bau-Tiamat, not Istare, and would return to the underworld realm of her mother in the winter, only to be allowed to return to the surface in the spring. Allegorically, this represented the apparent death of plant life in the winter and its rebirth in the spring.
a. The significance of the corn doll effigy is obvious. Annu is the spiritual embodiment of vegetative life and emergent growth. No stone carving can effectively represent a goddess whose very spirit and energy can be seen in the dynamic life cycle of plants. Like the constant growth and withering of vegetation, the spirit of Annu was viewed to be constantly in flux, dynamic and incompatible with the solidity of stone. In fact, it was this constant change that ensured that food would always be available and even periods of agricultural failure only temporary.
b. The leafy staff Annu carries represents her governance over the forests and trees. In depictions where she carries a digging stick instead, her role as an agricultural goddess is emphasized. The fern is a symbol of emergent life and maturation. Tea made from boiled fern shoots was used in ancient Caerdolan to cure illnesses, especially those thought to have been caused by contact with the undead, and the smoke of burning ferns was used to drive away ghosts and other unclean spirits thought to be anathema to the concept of growth and rebirth.
c. The spiral is an ancient symbol of growth and emergent life. The fern shoot grows as an unraveling spiral as do many flowers and leaves. The spiral is also observable in the snail shell, the growth rings of trees, and the patterns on some tree bark. The curving spiral is also the shape or posture of a fetus or the embryo inside a developing egg.
d. The colors green and brown obviously represent the earth and vegetation. Black and red represent earth and blood respectively. The “black earth” is the rich, fertile soil, while the red is the female menstrual blood associated with reproduction and fertility.
NEHAL: The Trickster god of ancient Caerdolan, Nehal is also a creator and tutelary deity for some of the peoples conquered by Caerdolan. Nehal is credited with teaching mortals the secret of fire-making, a metaphor for technology. In some cultures he is the god of brewing and fermentation, and by extension, a god of transformations. As the god of the grape vine he has fertility associations similar to those of Roski. For the ancient Eryu he was the same as Wozen, the young wood god who married Dannu at Midsummer and was sacrificed at the winter solstice only to be reborn again in the spring. In Korma he retained these roles as the grape vines were cut back to a mere stump for their winter dormancy and then observed to grow back and flourish with the return of the warm months. He is often revered as a god of inebriation and sexual abandon, and is sometimes represented as a hermaphrodite, possessing both male and female qualities. This is in keeping with his roles both as a god of sexuality and of transformations. He is said to be able to transform from male to female at will, and his power can cause both men and women to lose their reason over lust. As a god of transformation he is also responsible for rites of passage from one life stage to another, and at the boundary between the natural and supernatural realms. As such he is the patron of mind-altering drugs, often used in rites of passage and in ceremonies involving human communion with the supernatural.
In Caerdolan he was also worshipped as a sea god, or more specifically, as the god of the surface of the ocean and the ocean winds. He was thus propitiated for favorable sailing conditions. He was also credited with having invented ship-building. For the imperial Caerdolan he was also a martial god, responsible for introducing siege engines and the composite bow to mortals. He is also credited with having introduced the bit and bridle to tame Páarun’s horses. His role as the god of transformations eventually led to his becoming patron of alchemists and apothecaries.
Nehal is usually depicted as a youthful male either nude or dressed in a short tunic, sometimes with a quiver of arrows and a bow, and sometimes with wings. The earliest representations of Nehal depicted him as having exaggerated male genitalia often to the exclusion of all other features. Sometimes he is depicted as being both male and female, or as a beautiful, androgynous youth with long hair and soft features. This was particularly the case in Korma and its subject provinces, where he was also depicted holding a goblet of wine and sometimes having grape leaves and vines entwined in his hair. Sometimes he is depicted as a wild-haired youth or boy riding a dolphin. In imperial Caerdolan he was most often depicted as a strong, masculine winged youth wielding a sword or bow and wearing a short tunic and light armor. Often in Caerdolan sculpture he is depicted wearing an ornate steel cap on his head resembling an inverted drinking bowl used in ancient Caerdolan for ceremonial beer drinking. He is sometimes depicted as a sedate youth carrying a plumb line or measuring staff, and sometimes with an astrolabe or other navigational instrument. The colors associated with Nehal vary from one region or cult to the next. Wine red or purple is his principal color, but he is sometimes depicted wearing aqua and silver as well. In Porphyra, a glass-making guild maintains a cult of Nehal as their patron, and wears glass beads of alternating purple and aqua glass infused with gold dust to represent their devotion. An obscure and dark form of Nehal is also worshipped by poison-makers, who view the god’s powers over physical and psychological alterations as the divine source of their art.
a. His appearance as a beautiful and androgynous youth represents his role as a god of sexual desire and fertility. In Caerdolan the androgynous role was deemphasized, and he was viewed in much the same way as Roski. Whereas Roski represented civilized masculine youthful qualities, Nehal represented the darker or wilder aspects of the youthful male in a similar dichotomy to that of Istare and Annu. Nehal’s androgynous nature also symbolizes his role as a god of transformations.
b. Nehal’s role as the god of technology is variously represented by the vine, cup, and by the weapons and implements he carries. The navigational instruments associate him with his role as a god of sailors and ship-wrights. The cup and vine also identify him as the god of brewing and fermentation, which also associates him with other forms of transformation such as chemical and alchemical reactions, physical transmutation, and social inversions or rites of passage.
c. The wings symbolize Nehal’s role as a god of movement and change. They also identify him as the lord of ocean winds and currents, as well as the one who moves between the realms of the natural and the supernatural.
d. Purple represents the color of the grape and wine, but is also the color of the twilit sky. As the transitional period between the day and the night, and the shift from the realm of those spirits and creatures that dwell in daylight to those that walk the night, the twilight is Nehal’s time. It is a time of transformations and transitions. Purple is also observed to be the color of poisoned flesh, as well as the color of purple porphyry, a stone believed to possess magical properties, particularly for use in transmutation magic. Purple is also observed as the reflections off the surface of the deep seas. Aqua represents the ocean waters and the spray as well as the transitional zones between sky and sea and earth and sea.
e. The dolphin, seagull, and butterfly are all animals associated with Nehal. Dolphins are observed living at the surface of the ocean, and allies of sailors. Likewise seagulls are viewed as animals of the ocean winds and currents, and their presence is always viewed favorably with sailors because it indicates proximity to land. In terrestrial cults, caterpillars and their transformation into butterflies are viewed as belonging to Nehal, particularly those that feed on the leaves of the vine.
BAU-TIAMAT: Sometimes known simply as “Bau” or “Tiamat” she is the supreme earth mother goddess of the ancient world. Although later relegated to the role of a demon queen, Bau-Tiamat remained a powerful deity in her own right even during the rise of Roskian monotheism. She is the primal earth mother, the supreme chthonic deity, both adored and feared by her devotees. In the oldest Caerdolan myths she is the willful and dangerous consort of Páarun, who fertilizes her body with the falling rains, and was envisioned to be a massive serpent or dragon with a swollen body coiled at the roots of the earth. She is the goddess of earthquakes and of hollow places in the earth, such as caves, chasms, sink holes, and wells. As the Great Worm or World Serpent she laid the World Egg, the source of all life, and from which the gods of order as well as the first man and woman emerged. In ancient Korma and in imperial Caerdolan her consort was Oken, the god of the primal oceans and the ocean depths. For the chthonic ancients she was the goddess of pregnancy and childbirth, and the cause of pain and suffering during the birthing process as well as the selfish mother goddess who could suddenly take back the life of both mother and newborn child unless properly propitiated.
With the rise of pantheonic worship in Caerdolan, Bau-Tiamat was replaced by Istare as the mother goddess and by Annu as the goddess of vegetation and earthly fecundity. Nevertheless she was recognized as the mother of the pantheon of gods that replaced the primitive chthonic spirits, and directly responsible for the creation of the world. After she was slain by Roski her butchered carcass became the components of the earth and the various living things that inhabit it. Thus from her death came life, just as life emerged from the seemingly dead earth after the winter thaw. Caerdolan creation myths portray her as the First Mother who gave birth to all the spirits of light and darkness, and whose offspring rebelled against each other, causing the First Battle or the First War, the outcome of which was the ordered universe. In imperial Caerdolan there was a revival of the cult of Tiamat, where she was worshipped as the queen of all dark mysteries and magic. In later times she was viewed as a goddess of the underworld who receives the souls of the dead, particularly those that were unfit to join Roski and the other spirits of light in the heavens.
Being one of the most ancient of all deities, Bau-Tiamat has been depicted in myriad ways throughout time. The earliest representations were stylized female fertility figures of stone or clay emphasizing female sexual characteristics. Some of these figures incorporated spiral motifs (later associated with Annu in some places) and serpent motifs (also associated with Istare in later cults). The earliest pictorial representations of Bau-Tiamat are of a snake coiled into a spiral motif, an image used even in later times by Tiamat worshippers such as the Varanáa. In some cults she is represented as a huge serpent or dragon, and in others as a hideous hag or monstrous female figure with serpent qualities (e.g. a serpent’s tail in place of legs or serpents for hair). Often she is depicted as either a dragon with five heads or a humanoid female figure with five dragon heads where a woman’s head should be. This is a later concept which emerged in later cults during the Caerdolan Empire, although its origins lie in older, eastern cults related to the cults of the goddess Helcare. Originally, the colors associated with Bau-Tiamat were black and red, but in later cults blue, white, and green were added to her banner, completing the five colors that represented the five primal elements of the universe in Caerdolan cosmology.
a. The early representations are an obvious reference to her role as mother goddess. Even in later times, these simple images were sometimes carried by expectant mothers as amulets of protection against harm to themselves and their unborn children. Enlarged human female sexual characteristics represent female sexuality and childbirth.
b. The serpent is an ancient symbol of rebirth and regeneration due to its habit of shedding its old skin and re-emerging as a renewed being. In cold climates snakes are also observed emerging from underground borrows after their winter hibernation, and are thus associated with the earth and its springtime renewal. The spiral coil of the serpent is related to the spiraling pattern of emergent life as observed in the emergence of plant shoots, animal shells and the posture of embryonic life.
c. Like the serpent, the dragon is an ancient symbol of the earth, particularly the mysterious and often frightening powers of the earth observed in earthquakes, volcanic fires, avalanches and mudslides. The dragon is the destructive power of the earth, which is viewed as inexorably linked to its creative and regenerative powers.
d. The image of Bau-Tiamat as a hag is symbolic of her role as the spent mother goddess. It is the old moon, the goddess as maternal martyr. In Caerdolan, the afterbirth was viewed as essential flesh sacrificed by a mother for her newborn child, and this was offered up to Bau-Tiamat to ensure the health of both mother and child. The hag image symbolizes this sacrifice, as well as the dangers of the birthing process. This sacrifice is also metaphorically explained in the creation myths wherein Bau-Tiamat is slain by Roski (her offspring or descendant) who creates the earth out of her remains.
e. Images of Bau-Tiamat as a monstrous serpent-woman hybrid combine the symbolic elements and emphasize the destructive or frightening aspects of her spheres of influence.
f. The five headed dragon or five dragon-headed monstrous human female is a later iconographic system representing the five essential elements of the universe in Caerdolan cosmology: red = fire, blue = air, white = water, black = earth, green = wood/vegetative substance. This system became the basis of Caerdolan wizardry and alchemy, which survived in the arcane schools of Bospora and Porphyra. The emblem of the wizard school of Bospora is a pentagram with each of the five points corresponding to one of the five essential colors. It is an abstract representation of Bau-Tiamat, whose worship has (ostensibly) long been abandoned there.
OKEN: The primordial male spirit, father of Páarun and ultimately of all the other gods and spirits of the universe. Together with his consort Bau-Tiamat he created the primordial universe, and is thus the supreme male counterpart to the chthonic earth mother. In some myths it was his eye, not Páarun’s that was removed by Roski and in others by Páarun himself. The Eye was said to be able to see all things, and was thus deemed to be too dangerous and hidden away beneath the earth. In some traditions Oken is viewed as a monstrous serpent or dragon dead or slumbering at the roots of the earth, sometimes in an embrace with his consort, Bau-Tiamat. In others he lies at the bottom of the deepest ocean, or is the ocean floor itself. His stirrings cause the tidal waves and other deep ocean calamities that can affect the mortal world. In ancient Caerdolan he was the lord of the ocean, and sacrifices to him were made to ensure safety at sea, bountiful catches, and the protection of coastal dwellings. The boundary between earth and sea was viewed as a sacred place for sacrifice, ritual cleansing, and even birthing as it represented the sacred sexual union of the oceanic god Oken and the earth mother Bau. The sea foam at the surf-line was viewed as the god’s semen erupting upon the earth, and Caerdolan warriors considered themselves blessed if they disembarked directly into the foam when landing on a foreign shore. In his role as sea-god, Oken differed from Nehal in that he represented the depths of the ocean and the power of deep ocean tides, whereas Nehal represented the surface of the ocean and its interactions with the winds of the air. In later, pantheonic worship, Oken is still revered as the lord of the oceans, but is not included in the pantheon because he is seen as a god of chaos and destruction rather than order. In this way, Nehal supplants him as the god of the sea in the ordered universe, but as a trickster he is also an acknowledgement of the ocean’s unpredictability and a link to the chaotic Oken. In Imperial Caerdolan Oken was sometimes referred to as Oheg, but Oheg was also sometimes viewed as a separate deity with characteristics of both Nehal and Oken.
Early representations of Oken are difficult to distinguish from some representations of Tiamat. He is represented as a serpent, but whereas Tiamat is the coiled serpent, Oken is the wavy or moving serpent. In some pictorial representations he is depicted as a dragon, sea serpent, or a fantastic hybrid monster that is part dragon, part turtle, or part hippopotamus. In some he is a monstrous sea horse, bull or whale. Later representations sometimes depict him as a powerfully-built, bearded, mature man with the lower body of a sea serpent, or a kingly giant riding a whale. His colors are black and aqua, but primarily black. He is often associated with black, basaltic stone, which was the ideal material for sculpting his image in ancient Caerdolan. Shrines to Oken were often located in caves and grottos that were flooded during high tide.
a. As in the case with Bau-Tiamat, the serpent represents life and particularly regenerative life. In the case of Oken, the serpent represents the masculine principle in chthonic worship, and thus the movement and flow of fertilizing energy toward the female principle waiting to uncoil into emergent life.
b. As a creature of both land and water, the turtle represents Oken’s dual role as an earth deity and the lord of the ocean depths. Where such animals exist, the hippopotamus is likewise viewed as a powerful creature of both land and water, whose actions also help to sustain the life of the rivers they inhabit. The sheer size and strength observed in the great whales likened them to the power of the oceanic Oken, who was thus sometimes conceived of as a monstrous whale. The Varanáa used a club carved from a whale penis bone as a magical weapon symbolic of masculine warrior power. The bull or sea horse reference classical masculine symbols.
c. Images of Oken as a man or hybrid sea serpent man emerged during the classical period of imperial Caerdolan, when the gods were depicted in idealized human form with life-like features. Although Páarun was officially the patron deity of imperial Caerdolan, from whose divine power the right of imperial rulership was derived, the cult of Oken was nearly as popular during imperial times. As a maritime people whose imperial power relied heavily on naval might and control of maritime trade, Caerdolan held the lord of the seas in high regard. With the rise of the newer cults of Tiamat, a renewed interest in Oken as her male counterpart also arose. The rise in supremacy of the Korman Roski eventually caused the collapse of these powerful cults along with the collapse of Caerdolan rule, and its remnants were driven underground and to remote corners of the former empire. A seaside shrine to Oken remains a pilgrimage site on a small rock in the harbor of Bospora.
ONGHALE: An obscure goddess worshipped primarily in Caerdolan and in some of the realms around the Great Wood on the Mainlands. Onghale was originally a totemic spirit or emblem associated with a particularly powerful and influential clan in pre-imperial Caerdolan. Eventually she was linked to the chthonic Bau-Tiamat, and later as part of a tripartite complex of mother goddesses in imperial Caerdolan, composed of nubile virgin (Annu), fecund mother (Istare), and wizened crone (Onghale). As such she replaces in Caerdolan the eastern goddess Helcare, who elsewhere fulfills the role of crone in the goddess complex. As the crone, Onghale is the goddess of death. She spins the thread of life for each mortal and decides when to cut it. Like Tiamat, she may devour her own children, but more often is herself devoured by her children, thereby making the ultimate sacrifice so that her offspring may live. In this way she is like the hag form of Tiamat.
Onghale is usually depicted as a spider or metonymically as a spider’s spiral web. In some cults she is represented by a spoked wheel. This links her to the technology of spinning thread, and Onghale is in fact the goddess of textile making in Caerdolan. In the pantheon of imperial Caerdolan Onghale is generally depicted as a wizened old crone dressed in concealing robes and wearing a veil or mantle of diaphanous cloth. In some cults she is depicted as a hideous, monstrous female hybrid creature combining both human and arachnid characteristics.
Despite her negative associations with death and destruction, Onghale was generally conceptualized as a necessary element in the regeneration of life.
a. Onghale’s associations with death were metaphorically linked to the spider’s poisonous bite and observable efficiency as a predator. The spiral pattern of some spider webs is also closely related to the spiral motif as a symbol of emergent life, and its use as an instrument of death makes it a symbol of the role of death as a necessary phase in the cycle of life, from which new life may reemerge. The maternal sacrifice is observed in the spider’s protection of her eggs and her subsequent death as she is consumed by her own offspring.
b. Like Bau-Tiamat, Onghale’s anthropomorphic representations symbolize the twilight of human female life, the transition from fecund, life-producing mother, to wise crone. As such she is a repository of ancient wisdom, and knowledge to be passed down to the next generation, especially the next female generation. Her concealing robes represent the mysteries and wisdom that she will impart only to those who seek for it properly.
EYMDOL: The name, which means “white stone” in old Caerdolan, refers to a very obscure deity originating in pre-imperial Caerdolan who was eventually supplanted by Roski through contact with the former Kuonrhua Empire. Eymdol was the solar deity of pre-imperial Caerdolan, conceptualized as a pale, shining white stone in the northern sky of the open steppes of their ancestral homeland. While acknowledged as a life-giving force, the sun was seen as relatively weak and constantly battling for supremacy with the more dominant forces of storm and wind. Thus, Eymdol was a secondary figure in pre-imperial Caerdolan religious worship in relation to Páarun as the lord of the sky, storms, and the fertilizing rains.
While its revealing light was revered and cherished by the ancestors of Caerdolan, it was not originally credited with life-giving warmth and vegetative growth, but feared as a bringer of disease and even death, particularly for women and young children. For this reason women were prescribed to wear concealing robes and veils when walking abroad under the sun, and small children were often similarly veiled or wrapped. Most Caerdolan magic is performed in the dark, or at night time, a practice that originated in the belief that Eymdol would negatively affect the creative forces of the universe (life emerges from chthonic darkness), and which later helped to make Roski the symbolic enemy of Caerdolan imperial rule during the uprisings that resulted in the collapse of the empire. Ancient healers often carried a small, round or oval white stone as a component of ritual healing. The stone represented the power of Eymdol to remove illness if properly propitiated. During times of plague a sacrifice was made wherein the blood of the victim was poured in libation over a sacred white stone dedicated to this god.
During imperial times, Eymdol was included as a minor god in the pantheon of Caerdolan, primarily as a god of healers since his role as solar deity was soon usurped by Roski. In some traditions, however, he was conceptualized as being a secondary counterpart to Roski, sometimes as a son or weaker sibling to Roski and as such the personification of the winter sun in northern lands.
The most ancient representations of Eymdol were simply the round, white healing stones of pre-imperial Caerdolan, or the white sacrificial stone. He was rarely depicted at all in imperial Caerdolan, but when he was he was usually shown as a lean and somber youthful male dressed in concealing robes or wrapped in a cloak, sometimes with a staff and sometimes with a wide-brimmed hat. Sometimes he is depicted as a small boy or slim youth in exaggerated miniature standing at the side of Roski. As was traditionally the case with Roski, Eymdol was often sculpted in the nude and then clothed in garments of ritual cloth, but whereas Roski was often draped in a mantle of red and gold embroidered cloth usually with one arm and shoulder exposed, Eymdol was usually wrapped closely in unadorned white linen. Eymdol’s color is simply white.
a. The white stone was symbolic of the pale, often cloud-obscured sun of the northern skies, particularly in winter. In some regions, the brief northern summer was a time for swarming flies and disease. The sun was metaphorically likened to a shining white stone suspended in the sky, and thus represented by the small, white healing stone. The power of the god to cause disease was also the power to remove disease, which would be absorbed by the sacred healing stone. The white stone was also symbolic of the World Egg laid by the chthonic earth mother, and fertilized by the sky father, thus setting the precedence for the sun as the offspring of earth and sky that would later be elaborated in the creation myths relating the birth of Roski.
b. The later representations depicting Eymdol as a lean and somber youth directly related to the concept of Eymdol as Roski’s weaker, winter counterpart. Whereas Eymdol is lean, pale and somber, concealed in the folds of his cloak, Roski is robust, energetic and glowing with spiritual and sexual vitality. Despite the supremacy of Roski, various cults of Eymdol emphasized the pale god’s hidden mysteries, his power over illness and health, and the virtues of moderation over excess. In most instances, little or no distinction is made between Roski and Eymdol, and the latter is simply viewed as a different aspect of the supreme god.
c. The color white, or the whiteness used to represent Eymdol is a reference to the pale white light of the northern sun, but also a symbol of the purification desired in removing disease and corruption from the body. It is also more abstractly representative of the secrets hidden by emptiness or blindness. A later cult of Eymdol revered him as the “god of emptiness” of asceticism and a life devoid of the burdens of wealth and responsibility. The staff he carries is the walking staff of the traveling ascetic or hermit. The tradition of wrapping the god’s effigy in concealing white garments is also symbolic of healing mysteries that he conceals.
HELCARE: A dark goddess of the East and the Drylands that is in some ways equated with the chthonic Bau-Tiamat but more often represents the dark and dangerous counterpart to Istare. The latter concept is similar to the Istare-Annu complex of the Mainlands, wherein Istare represents the domestic female whereas Annu represents the wild and untamed aspects of womanhood. In the lands where she is worshipped, Helcare fulfills the role of Istare’s dark and dangerous counterpart. In the East the Istarians conceptualize Helcare as being an avatar of Istare, although in more remote areas she is viewed as a separate deity. In some regions Helcare is known as Bau or Bau-Helcare, a vestige of Bau-Tiamat worship, which was replaced by the Istare-Helcare complex.
Helcare is most often depicted as a monstrous female figure with a woman’s body and the head of a lioness or twin serpent heads. She is sometimes depicted as having vulture’s wings and sometimes talons for feet. Sometimes she is depicted with a distended abdomen, as if pregnant. Usually she is shown wearing a long, form-fitting gown, but occasionally she is nude. Occasionally Helcare is depicted as a beautiful and seductive woman with vulture’s wings. Her colors are black and purple or red and purple.
In those lands where she is worshipped, Helcare is the queen of the night sky and goddess of death. In some cults she is the daughter of Bau-Tiamat and thus a goddess of the Underworld. She is the goddess of black magic, and a bringer of disease and death. As such she is propitiated as a healing goddess. Helcare is invoked by necromancers as well in the performance of their art. Her primary temple is in the Eastern city of Iskandera, where a cult of temple prostitute priestesses attends to her shrine and dance before a giant, lioness headed statue of the goddess.
a. As a dark aspect of Istare, Helcare may appear as a fully-clothed, even matronly female figure but with the fierce lioness or double snake head representing the bestial female and the regenerative goddess respectively. As the seductive “whore” she represents the unbridled sexual potential in womanhood, and in contrast to the tempered, domestic aspects represented in Istare.
b. The double-headed serpent represents not only the snake as regenerator, but the duality of the goddess as both a creator and destroyer of life. The vulture aspects represent the goddess’ role as ruler of the dead and the one who carries the souls of the dead into the Underworld to be judged.
c. The colors black and purple represent the underworld and the night sky respectively. Purple is also the color of poisoned or dead flesh. Red is the color of blood, including menstrual blood, which is also part of Helcare’s provenance. In the lands of the Istarians, women are proscribed from interacting with men or showing themselves in public while menstruating, and this is equated with the dark phases of the moon, the time wherein Helcare reigns and Istare rests.
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