The Artûlan

Kailya

Kailya [ˈkaɪɫjə] is the oldest and most important of all the deities; she is what was before there was anything. Some say, however, that both she and Glaud existed from the beginning; others that Glaud himself came into existence out of her loneliness.

Kailya does not create, but out of her all things were created. The world was born from her womb after she was raped and impregnated by Glaud. Kailya herself cannot be seen, because her substance is entirely void (which is considered one of the six elements in Arêndron philosophy); the Moon is the veil she hides behind, but only its back reflects the light, so that when she turns full towards the world, nothing can be seen of her face but blackness.

Kailya has little to do with the other gods, and takes no part in their war on the demon Raimut; but she is friendly towards Amma and will greet her if they pass each other in the sky. She instead spends her thoughts on the unhappy among mortals, the lonely, and the unlucky in love. She is worshipped with particular devotion by women, and female sexuality is considered her special gift to mankind. She is capricious towards her male worshippers, sending them good fortune for a while and then abandoning them when she tires of them or when they take her for granted. This, is it said, is not because she lacks a kind heart, but because there is too much sorrow in the world for her to take care of everyone.

Kailya has especial care of the dead and dying; she is called the Last Comforter, and alone holds a person's hands as they leave the mortal world. There is no belief in the Arêndron religion in continued consciousness after death, but it is said that Kailya takes care of dead souls in her House Beyond the Night, preserving them so that they are never wholly forgotten. A common euphemism for death is thus lûmen ra vûsau Kailyau, “to go down in Kailya's night”.

Kailya is associated with the colour black, the number zero, the element void, and the last day of the week, Balnikash. Her sacred animal is the cat, and as she is the most important deity, the cat is the most precious of the sacred animals, and deliberately killing one is held in deep abhorrence.

Glaud

Glaud [gɫaʊd] is the Creator-God, and the father of the other Artûlan except for Kailya and of many of the lesser gods.

Glaud is in every way the opposite of Kailya; while she represents the void, which is formless and unchanging, he is the embodiment of structure and order. Some say that Kailya was not always invisible, and that Glaud lusted after her because of her matchless beauty. Others disagree, but in all versions of the legend it is said that Glaud raped Kailya and that the world is the result of their coming together.

In the beginning the world was barren, just a lump of rock, and even Kailya, who had given birth to it, cried to see how ugly it was. Glaud then took pity on her, and diverted her tears to form the first rain, which he mixed into the rock to produce soil, and so brought forth the first plant life.

Since then Glaud has kept mostly to the earthly realm; he looks after plants in particular, and is the favourite god of farmers and gardeners. He is devoted to beauty in all forms, and his temples are always supplied with exquisite gardens to please his eye. He is also particularly associated with male sexuality, and has never been above pursuing desirable human girls, and has been claimed as the father of many of the celebrated heroes of Arêndron mythology.

Glaud favours men who work hard to look after his created world, and especially those who take good care of the plants he loves. His followers believe that plants should only be killed or harmed for a good purpose, such as to build a shelter or a temple, or to provide wood for a sacrifice.

Glaud is associated with the colour white, the number one, the element rock, and the first day of the week, Braxinash. His sacred animal is the goat, and goats are often sacrificed to him as part of communal worship.

Amma

Amma [ˈamə] is the daughter of Glaud and the Sun, and has the job of guiding the Sun in her course around the sky. Perhaps because of her association with the Sun and with yellow, she is depicted as a Sairyan, a golden-haired lady in a sky-blue dress, carrying a mirror to reflect the Sun's rays towards the Earth. The fact that one of the Artûlan is thought of as a Sairyan is perhaps one reason the Sairyans as a race are not much persecuted by the Ussœran majority.

Amma is the happiest and friendliest of the gods; she often quarrels with her half-sister Sheubâr, but beneath the quarrelling she loves her dearly. Amma is married to her half-brother Loreish, who lives beyond the mountains of Ghadœsa in the west, where Amma joins him every night. They have two children together, the lesser gods Onair and Kêsha; Amma and Loreish represent the sanctity of married love, and neither has children outside their marriage.

Amma is not a god to be invoked when one is unhappy; although she cares for the welfare of all mortals, she doesn't understand unhappiness or know what to do about it. Her special care is for families, and the marriage ceremony is always conducted in Amma's temple. After the couple have made their promises to each other, the priest invokes her with the words: “May Amma keep you in good weather and bring health to your children.”

Amma also has particular care of women, and her temples have an inner room where a woman may go to seek shelter, where men are not allowed to enter (not even priests) except for the marriage ceremony itself. Amma is often worshipped by burning flowers or incense, because she has a kindly heart and does not permit animal sacrifice.

Amma is associated with the colour yellow, the number two, the element light, and the second day of the week, Mœzadash. Her sacred animal is the lizard.

Loreish

Loreish [ɫɔˈɾiːɕ] is the elder of Glaud's twin sons by the Thunder, elder brother of Thantor, and husband of Amma. His element is “spirit”, believed to be the substance that underlies lightning (indeed, the more vulgar theologians claim that lightning is a sign that Loreish and his wife are having sex). Spirit is also responsible for human mental powers, and Loreish is called the Lord of Wisdom and Learning. It is often said that the art of writing, and the Urŋundran alphabet, was invented by Loreish and is his gift to the world.

Loreish is traditionally depicted with Vardiscêan colouring: red hair and beard, blue eyes, and paler skin than that of the Ussœran people. (This possibly derives from the fact that the Vardiscêans had invented writing and an alphabet even before the Urŋundrans, and may have helped them develop theirs.)

Loreish lives in the mountains to the west of Ghadœsa; he is very attached to his home, which contains an extensive library and study, and rarely leaves. He therefore has little to do with either gods or mortals, except for Amma, who joins him every night when she returns from her travels.

Although Loreish is the wisest of the gods, he is not someone to turn to for answers; he values above all men those who use their own wisdom to understand the ways of the world. Indeed, it is said that he used to visit the mortal realm more frequently than he does now, but kept away when he found that men were always asking him to provide the answers to their questions. He does, however, help people along the path of wisdom; each of his temples has one priest who functions as an oracle, responding to questions with a vague pronouncement that is meant to help the petitioner understand the question better and so find their own answer to it.

Loreish is invoked particularly at the birth ceremony, to start each new child along the path to wisdom. He is associated with the colour red, the number three, the element spirit, and the third day of the week, Nuntarash. His sacred animal is the eagle, and it is believed that he uses eagles as his messengers, to remain in contact with the mortal world. Seeing an eagle in the sky at the time of a crucial decision is believed to be a sign of good fortune.

Sheubâr

Sheubâr [ʑəʊˈbɛːɾ] is the daughter of Glaud and the Wind, and the youngest of the six Artûlan. She is depicted as a dark-haired young woman, riding a dark brown horse, carrying a whip in one hand and her spear, Aŋkar, in the other.

Sheubâr is said to be more lovely than any mortal woman, and many gods and mortals have hoped to win her affection. To rid herself of unwelcome attention, she has said that she will only marry the man who can beat her in a race, a feat she knows to be impossible. However, she has a sympathetic heart, and will often use her strength and swiftness to help those in peril of death. She is thus a favoured deity among soldiers and fishermen, and is always invoked by those setting out on a long voyage.

Sheubâr has a playful and capricious temperament; she will rarely listen to those who specifically ask her for help, finding them rather irritating. But she has a strong sense of justice, and will oppose the other gods if she disapproves of their actions. Because of this she frequently quarrels with Amma, but the two are very close and will always forgive each other. She is less patient with Thantor, but knows that she can always get her own way with him, because he is so deeply in love with her – a fact that she regards as something of an amusement.

Sheubâr is the embodiment of xolgen, the first of Arêndron's three types of love. Xolgen is love that expresses itself as devotion, including familial love. Because her nature is entirely xolgen with no mixture of orzûlen (romantic love), she loves no-one in particular, but protects the Arêndron people as much as if they were her family. In many Arêndron legends she appears on their side in battle; it is said that her spear can never miss its target, because the metal of its point was forged by Amma herself.

Sheubâr is associated with the colour vêlish or light blue – Arêndron has separate words for light and dark blue – the number four, the element air, and the fourth day of the week, Hwusnash. Her sacred animal is the horse, and for this reason horses are never killed wantonly, and even those killed in battle must be burned ceremonially afterwards.

Thantor

Thantor [ˈθantɔɾ] is the second of Glaud's twin sons by the Thunder, the younger brother of Loreish. He loves Sheubâr, but his love has never been returned; in an attempt to win her admiration, he accepted her challenge to a race, but after a mighty contest he fell and was badly injured. Indeed, he might have died, had Sheubâr not called for Amma to come and tend his wounds; he recovered, but has been lame ever since. This makes him sullen and moody, for he believes that no-one could ever love his broken form, and he keeps mostly to his own company and wanders along the empty beaches. Only Amma will sometimes come and spend time with him; but part of him resents this, since he believes she only does it out of pity.

Thantor is called the Lord of Storm, and the Divine Avenger; it is his task to punish those that offend the gods. He is the most active of the gods in their war against Raimut, aided in this by the fire-breathing hound Gharnad, who stays with him wherever he goes. Gharnad has the power to become invisible, and it is said that he only appears to mortals when they have incurred the gods' wrath. All who see Gharnad die horribly soon afterwards.

Mortals also sometimes call on Thantor to avenge their wrongs; the custom is to go to his temple at night and burn a scrap of bark with the desired victim's name carved on it. (Those who do not know the alphabet wrap something belonging to the victim, such as a hair, in the bark instead.) Sailors always pray to Thantor before setting out, to pacify him in case one of the crew has done some little thing that caused offence without realising it.

Just as Sheubâr is entirely xolgen, Thantor is entirely orzûlen; is it because of this lack of balance that his love will never be returned, but he holds onto it no matter how much it hurts him, because he cannot live without it. But he cannot truly care about another person, and so has little involvement with mortals except in his role as avenger. Thantor has one child, Six, by Raimut's daughter Nalêka, but that was against his will, and he takes no role in his son's life.

Thantor is associated with the colour brown, the number five, the element water, and the fifth day of the week, Nargash. His sacred animal is the wolf, and wolves often feature in legend as agents of his retribution.

The number six is not associated with any of the gods, but as it is the number of the gods, it is associated with their union and co-operation, and also with the colour green, which is a sacred colour in many Arêndron religious ceremonies.