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Mythology
Table of Contents
Preface
Section I: Gods and Goddesses
Section III: Myths and Religions of other Peoples
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“What
is a god without a temple of worship, one might ask. Well, if that were
the case, then Nash’Geo would be no deity at all. As unlikely as it
might seem, there are no temples devoted to him in the entirety of this
world.
“Some
readers might disagree on this and claim that it is merely a matter of
semantics, since they have been to a ‘temple’ of The Great Wanderer
themselves. I must disappoint these readers, for they have only visited a
shrine.
“No
matter how large the building may have been, no matter how uniquely it was
devoted to the service to Nash’Geo, it is only a shrine. Also, there are
very few of those solitary buildings in the world. (Most commonly they are
found in Kraznyczar. The readers from that nation are most likely to
mistake the shrines for temples; indeed the shrines are colloquially known
as temples, sometimes even by the clerics themselves. Believe me that the
superiors of their clergy frown upon such habits.)
“It
may only be that words are chosen differently, yet this is of great
importance to the followers of Nash’Geo. They have no temples of their
own, since their deity is a roving god, not the sedentary kind. Shrines,
by definition minor places of worship, are the only kind allowed to the
clergy.
“Most
often, a shrine will be located within a Darawk temple – consisting of
little more than the place of worship itself and the quarters of the
priest encharged with the shrine. The latter belongs always to the caste
of ‘patrons’, the ones whom the ordinary person might call a banker or
the financier of the ‘real’ Nash’Geo priests’ excursions. It is
here that a supplicant can hire the services of a guard, or learn of the
places currently explored by the patron’s charges.
“As
an architect, the shrines bear little of note. Most of the time they are
part of what was designed as a temple to Darawk, wherefore those
principles of spartanic simplicity apply. The patron priest may furnish
his rooms much as he likes, yet most of the times there is a wealth of
images and sculptures from exotic places. It is a curious fact what is
considered exotic here. A shrine in Kraznyczar might harbor images of the
Tonomai empire, or the oases of the Elfadil Desert – whereas a shrine in
Chazevo would hardly bother with paintings of a place as near and familiar
as those. Rather, a Chazevo shrine might feature imagery from Kraznyczar
– the wide, empty expanses, or the snowy, wintery villages.
“Now
and then, these displays can bring cheer to an architect’s heart, when
they are arranged artfully. Unfortunately, that is rarely the case. Though
these paintings and sculptures may conjure up successfully the spirit of
distant lands, they often do so through their sheer mass rather than the
effect proper and subtle placement may have.
“I
should note that those shrines which are not situated in Darawk temples
also bear almost no interest for an architect. The Nash’Geo clergy
rarely bothers to build a shrine for themselves; instead they buy or rent
a house already erected. Therefore the design varies widely.”
Tobaen
Keristopheras, Elven Master Architect,
Londinium Secundum, Imperium Romanum Novum
“Oh,
I love the Nash’Geo shrine in my home. Cursed as I am by my profession
– an accountant has a boring life indeed, filled only with numbers and
dry papers -, it’s an incredible relief that I know how to make my
vacation time something worthwhile. Look at some of the other fellows in
my office; when they have time off, they spend it at home, resting all the
while.
“Not
for me, oh, no! It’s bad enough that I have almost the entire year to
suffer the same old sights, the dreary same-ness of the familiar sights.
During my vacation, I want to see something new! I want to look at the
fantastic buildings of the Tonomai Empire, those curled spires and
everything. Or the Arrufat peninsula, with all those ruins of ancient
greatness. My, oh my, there are so many things in this world that I want
to see!
“Alas,
I am not really the adventuring type. In stories, it is very fine to hear
of people assailed by monsters and creatures of the dark. Keep them away
from me, hear? I’d rather live than be murdered by their ilk.
“That
is where I know to rely on the Nash’Geo priestess. In her shrine, she
can always tell me of the places I wish to visit, and more often than not,
she can also offer me a way to travel there with a minimum of danger to
myself. Granted, it costs a lot, and the time a journey consumes is often
more than two year’s vacation time. But it’s worth it. I have seen
those ruins in Arrufat, have climbed down the caves of the Pertolav, and
several other places that I would never have dared dream of, if it
hadn’t been for the shrine.
“Happily
the cost has not been prohibitive. Of course, if I had traveled alone, I
could never afford any such journey. But the Nash’Geo priestess always
arranges for a group to travel together so that we can share the expenses
for the guards (and ourselves, obviously).
“Still,
it is so dreary and hard to last for a year or two or three without any
vacation, to save up those days so that I can travel to places far away.
Thank the Great Wanderer for his priestess! She always has exciting tales
to keep my heart warm and make the waiting time less troublesome.”
Tuhr
Isten, accountant,
Ksenamrum, Kraznyczar
Blessing
of Proper Direction
This
is an intriguing blessing, one that has brought a good deal of money into
the coffers of the patron priests of the Nash’Geo clergy, ever since an
ingenuous cleric found a way to manufacture appliances which contain this
blessing, commonly called “direction finders”.
That
name is both apt and a misnomer, I believe. Most of these appliances are
cone-shaped, with a crystal embedded at the top, while the cone’s bottom
is fitted with grooves to make grip. The crystal glows permanently, but
its color changes depending on the direction it is pointed at. If pointed
straight north, it glows in a powerful, rich red, but runs through the
colors of the rainbow when turned around. The only direction that one can
identify clearly is north. West, south and east are mixtures of other
colors, although there are people who have learned to read the shadings of
the crystal easily. These experienced travelers can also define more
precise directions than only the four major directions. (I have heard some
speak of heading towards, say, the fourth shade of blue, which is
somewhere between east and south.)
The
ordinary person will turn the device around until its crystal glows in the
strongest red, which is the northern direction. By common sense, he can
deduce which way he now should head.
A
Nash’Geo priest does not require a tool, of course. The blessing creates
the vision of the colors in his very eyes, obscuring his sight little.
That vision lasts about half an hour, then it has to be renewed.
G.A.Q.
Blessing
of Seeing What Lies Ahead
“The
traveler is often confounded by the question of where a road leads to, the
wondering if there shall be danger or a brook to chance upon, mayhaps an
inn to rest one’s body at the end of the day’s wandering, or a matter
of which direction shall pose the least problem to cross. A good priest
should employ his blessing to alter his vision momentarily, to range his
gaze beyond the normal range, to reveal what lies beyond.”
Hale
Saound, Nash’Geo Priest,
Braeymôn, Ibrollene
I
have found this blessing an interesting affair. A few years ago, on a
mission as ambassador of the Imperium, I was charged to journey to the
capital of Kraznyczar. (The goal of my mission is of no concern here; as
so many of my country’s dealings with our western neighbors, it
succeeded partially and failed in other respects.) A priest who claimed to
follow Apollo accompanied me, yet I quickly learned that he was more
beholden to the Gushémal pantheon, specifically Nash’Geo. Since it
turned out to be the better for our journey, I did not see it fit to
challenge the priest’s claim at the time. (Later I did and found that in
his own mind he saw no problem with serving both the Roman and the Gushémal
deity, since some of Apollo’s aspects match those of Nash’Geo closely.
Further questioning of his ideas I have left to the Pontifex Maximus at
Eboracum Novum to resolve.)
Our
journey led us through the thick woods separating the Imperium from
Kraznyczar. There are no official passages, no roads that are protected by
the soldiers of either side, and as such I soon grew grateful of my
priest’s ability to farsee. He apparently was quite experienced in this,
for he could call the vision several times a day, sometimes seeing as far
as several miles ahead, through the seemingly solid armies of trees around
us. Once his sight wandered straight through a mountain, and he noted with
a smile that a mining operation would prove very profitable, since gold
and silver reserves were rich within the mountain. Clearly he could see
straight into the rock.
Yet
this blessing can also be a curse. While it is in effect, the priest is
incapable of noting what is immediately around him; his eyes only see the
blessing’s vision. The cleric on my journey had no unhappy surprises,
not least of all because the sudden appearance of a horde of wild dwarves,
for instance, would have been taken care of by my legionaries and myself
(who at the time was still young enough to hold a gladius).
Imagine, though, a solitary cleric wandering through a forest such as
this. Can he permit himself to farsee what lies a mile away, yet have only
his ears to tell him what is a few yards off?
G.A.Q.
Blessing
of Levitation (Minor)
I
have not heard of Nash’Geo clerics able to perform great feats of
levitation. The priest I mentioned in the preceding paragraphs assured me
that there was no true limit to their abilities in this regard, yet unlike
some other clerics (most notably those of Sayguel), it requires an
enormous amount of strength to effect this blessing.
Most
priests only lift themselves – and their party, if one is present – a
few inches above the ground, commonly to cover untractable territory.
Clearly few kinds of territory can be crossed in this manner, for their
obstacles to travel must be close to the ground, and their reach must not
be long.
A
bog or a brook is the most likely opportunity to levitate, but I have also
known of priests crossing a stream of steaming lava in this manner, or a
treacherous place in an icy mountain, lest they fall into a chasm hidden
underneath brittle ice.
G.A.Q.
The
Split River’s Blessing
One
of the most common obstacles a journeyman can find is a river without a
bridge or a ford available. Sometimes, of course, it is an easy matter to
swim across the stream, but often the problem will be how to get a wagon
across, or the matter that the river is too wild – yet to walk along its
length to find a better place to traverse it promises a loss of much time.
At
these points the blessing to “split a river” becomes a most welcome
alternative. It works in such a way that a ford is magically created, by
pushing the water out of the path that the priest wishes cleared. To the
unaccustomed eye it seems as if two watery walls slowly form in the river,
sometimes causing such wonderments as fish finding themselves placed in
mid-air where moments earlier had been their life-giving water. (Few
travelers dare pass up an opportunity such as this, I would say. Fishing
is never easier than only having to bend over and pick up your evening’s
meal.)
Once
the travelers have crossed the river, the priest withdraws his blessing,
and the stream returns to its natural configuration.
As
so often, it must be noted that not every cleric can split every river, it
depends on the priest’s reserve of magical energy as well as his own
experience in the matter. The young priests manage no more than a creek,
one that could be waded across in any event, whereas those further along
in their faith and craft might create a ford in a river as wild and mighty
as the Orbé River of the Arrufat Peninsula.
G.A.Q.
Blessing
of Quickened Boots
“I
have seen a marvel this past day.
“The
sun had been shining so warmly that the air in my shop had grown
uncomfortable, and so I decided to rest on the porch, in a chair, with a
table and a glass of lemonade beside me. By sheer coincidence I had looked
to the south, when there was a queer sight. It looked much like a
stormcloud, but the cloud was too small and contained to be a veritable
storm. The reason for that I learned quickly, for only moments after I
noticed the occurrence, it had already reached me.
“I’ll
gladly admit that I was frightened. Who wouldn’t, after all? What had
seemed a storm before now turned out to be a person, surrounded by clouds
of dust kicked up by its boots – boots that moved at an incredible
speed. (This I found out a bit later; at the time I had no idea what had
caused the dust cloud.) The person herself (the fact that it was a woman I
also learned shortly thereafter) was clad in a thick coat, buttoned up in
front, and an odd helmet. The better part of the helmet was rather
ordinary, albeit painted a bright orange, but instead of a normal slit
visor, its front was made of a transparent screen, certainly a product of
magic. [Note by G.A.Q.: From reliable sources I have learned that the
shopkeeper was only partially correct. The translucent material does not
seem to have any magical capabilities. It is quite hard and resistant,
much like iron, yet it remains transparent all the time. But magic may
have a part here since the material is exported from the famed land of
Modayre which usually excels in producing magical appliances. Due to the
Modayrean secrecy about themselves, nobody knows how exactly the material
is produced.]
“The
woman opened her helmet and looked around for a moment before settling her
gaze on me. ‘Are you the proprietor of this shop?’ she asked, and when
I confirmed this, she proceeded to ask me for some goods, pulling a bag of
coins out from under her coat. I felt much dazed, handled the familiar
task of selling items quickly before I regained my wits and dared ask her
about how she had come here.
“She
smiled casually and pointed to her boots. ‘These are blessed to move at
much faster speeds than an ordinary being can. It is a blessing that a few
priests of Nash’Geo can work. It should be no cause for worry, good
man.’ I assured her I had not been worried, not very convincingly. ‘At
any rate,’ she continued her explanation, ‘they allow me to cover a
mile’s distance within a little over a minute. The wind gets rather
fierce at that speed, so I need a visor which is completely closed. The
same goes for my coat. I do not like to catch a cold.’ She grinned
briefly, then put her items into a rucksack and stepped out of my shop.
‘Now I have to hurry on. Have a good day, Master Shopkeeper,’ she
said, then she left, transformed – apparently – once more into a
stormcloud. How she managed to walk normally for a while and then to
command her boots to produce their marvelous speed, I have no idea.
“But
a marvel it truly was!”
Earden
Millward, Shopkeeper,
Quebas, Arrufat Peninsula
(from a letter written in 3149 A.E.)
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