The Gods of Alnwich: Pantheon Generalists

Today, I will talk what should be taken as the "normal" way of worshipping the gods, that is, as a whole. The write-up below treats the entire pantheon as a single entity for the purposes of building clerics and holy warriors.

The Pantheon

the Gods

Treat as a Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Everything.

Symbols: Oak Tree.
Favored Weapon: Any.

Relationships: It's Complicated.

Most people in and around Alnwich worship the entire pantheon as a whole, and make appropriate offerings during the many holidays and festivals – sometimes to specific deities, sometimes to all of them. The history of the gods is too long and intricate to tell here, but such stories are the regular subjects songs, evening tales, and poetry. The people believe the gods are very real and very physically present. One does not brush off chance meetings with strangers or signs of things to come.

Moreover, the pantheon consists of far more deities than just the main thirteen. Some of these may be local spirits that choose to intervene in mortal affairs, personifications of concepts, or even just animal spirits and elementals. Because there are so many deities, people don’t just believe in their physicality, they expect to encounter them.

The Gods of Alnwich: Menes

Mënes

the Fawn-Slayer, the Lamp-Bearer, the Three-Formed, the Untamable Goddess

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Art, Faeries, Luck, Magic, Pathways.

Symbols: Candles, Cats, Cauldron, Chalice, Doves, Knife, Crescent Moon, and Silver.
Favored Weapon: Knife & Magic.

Relationships: Mother of Yaunävä and Mäla.

Mënes is the goddess of a great many things, but primarily of faeries, magic, and pathways. Her ties to the moon link her to darkness, cycles, menses, fertility, and women. She rules the wilderness of land, sea, and air; and is often associates with beauty, war, and death. Mënes appears as a youthful maiden wearing a cloak of falcon feathers and carrying a torch, and she is usually accompanied by a pack of great hounds or scores upon scores of cats.

The Gods of Alnwich: Pazamë

Pazamë

the Dread King, of the Scales, the Singer, of Sleep, Soul-Keeper

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Caves, Earth, Mountains, and War.

Symbols: Axes, Chevrons, Funerary Ashes, Hounds, Owls.

Favored Weapon: A pair of axes.

Relationships: Married to Korë.

Pazamë is a fearsome god who rules over the mountainous places of the world, where he judges the fallen based on their deeds in life. Beneath his ironclad feet lay his domain – the earth and all that lies within it. This makes him both ruler of the highest places in the world and, simultaneously, lord of the Underworld, a duality not lost on his priests. All that exists deep within the earth is his, so miners and others seeking wealth in deep, dark places intrude on the fringes of his demesne. Still, he is not worshipped directly; sacrifices are offered to keep him away.

Pazamë is also the god of destructive warfare. His is a rolling ruin that brings death and destruction to all before him. Nothing can withstand the avalanche of his blows, and even Veträ is wise enough to give the dark god a wide berth. Thus it is only fitting that Pazamë is husband to the icy Kore who blankets his slopes with snow and every winter harvests more souls for his dungeons.

Pazamë rarely appears to mortals, but when he does, his skin is pale and covered in a layer of dirt. His hair and beard are black and streaked with ashy gray, and his black, soulless eyes pierce to the soul. On his shoulder perches a snow-white owl and from his belt hangs a pair of axes perpetually dripping with blood and gore.

The Gods of Alnwich: Sëra

Sëra

of Dreams, Earth-Mother, the Green, Life-Giver

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Dreams, Healing, Hearth, and Sleep.

Symbols: Cow, Earth Square, Hearth, Horse, Mistletoe, Sickle, and Wolf Cross.
Favored Weapon: None. Sëra is a goddess of peace and protection.

Relationships: Wife of Karalis, mother of Likumä and Kore, and brother of Pazame.

Sëra is the goddess of fertility, plenty, prosperity, succor, and dreams, and in this capacity is mostly seen as a barer of life and bringer of fortune. While she assists in impregnation, she does not preside over childbirth, just as she brings good luck to endeavors without performing them for others. In this way, she enables the actions of others, whom she always expects to make the effort themselves.

Sëra’s purview over life extends to maintaining life, as well. She speeds convalescence, provides rest, and thwarts disease. She is responsible for making houses into healthy homes for their inhabitants. In this way, she is the antithesis of her brother, Pazame who is largely associated with war and destruction. Still, through her brother, she yet retains a strong chthonic connection to the element they share.

Sëra most often appears as a hearty and beautiful middle-aged woman, usually accompanied by her magical boar, Gulin, who is said to be able to outrun any horse.

The Gods of Alnwich: Veträ

Veträ

Braveheart, the Guardian of the Shrine, the Terrible, the Thunderer

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Rain, Storms, Thunder, War, and Winds.

Symbols: Bear, Drum, Eagle, Girdle, Ram, Spear.
Favored Weapons: Shield & Spear

Relationships: Married to Sieva.

Veträ is the most widely worshipped deity throughout the Trollenmere. He is the storm god, whose spears are as lightning and whose shield blows are as thunder. The distant rumbling on the winds of a storm are the wheels of his ram-drawn chariot as he bolts across the sky. He is the embodiment of the male ideal – strong, courageous, thoughtful, wise, steadfast, and forthright, but his one failing is his love of women – particularly mortal ones. He is renowned for his numerous affairs with mortal women, and the extreme jealousy it inspires in his wife, Sieva.

More than for his lecherousness, Veträ is known and worshipped for his strength, prowess, and unshakeable courage in combat. He wears a magical girdle that grants him tremendous strength and bears a metal shield of such weight that no other being can lift it. He often takes the form of either a tall, powerfully-built man with a scruffy red beard or a particularly large bear.

The Gods of Alnwich: Milä

Milä

of the Black of Night, the Beautiful, the Collector, the Love-Bringer

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Air, Desire, Night, and the Sky.

Symbols: Cats, Clouds, Dates, Doves, Golden Hair, Stars, Swans.

Favored Weapons: Sword, Spear & Sex.

Relationships: Daughter of Karalis.

Milä is a ferocious lover and warrior goddess who presides over love and sex, serves as a minor fertility goddess, and governs the air and sky. She takes no husband and is renowned for her promiscuity among both gods and mortals, which usually happens under cover of night. Her personality is occasionally childish, but she is dependable in a clinch, especially where her leadership of the Kauya – a host of Amazonian warriors – is concerned. While she cries tears of gold, it is not wise to upset her.

Milä appears as a mind-numbingly beautiful maiden with flowing dark locks, large green eyes, and a fit physique. She regularly wears a golden breastplate and a cape of swan feathers and rarely appears without an escort of swans, doves, or cats – any of whom might be Kauya in disguise.

The Gods of Alnwich: Malä

Malä

Keeper of Flocks, Soul-Bearer, the Three-Headed, of Wiles

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Messengers, Spirits, Thresholds, and Transitions.

Symbols: Archway, Butterfly, Cross, Door, Falcon, Horn, Shoe, Wind.
Favored Weapons: Rod or Sickle.

Relationships: Son of Mënes and brother to Yaunävä.

Malä is the god of boundaries who leads souls to the Underworld. His connection with crossing boundaries links him to thieves, spies, and invaders as well as honest travelers, merchants, and messengers. His mastery of thresholds also makes him lord of spirits and the ideal divine messenger for the other gods, and his connection to the dead ties him to necromancers and resurrection.

Malä appears as an impossibly pale young man with a signaling horn and is almost always accompanied by a halo of butterflies. While he can fly using his winged shoes, he often sits a pure white pegasus when delivering messages from the gods. Despite sometimes being called “the Three-Headed”, Malä only has a single head; the epithet refers to intersecting roads.

The Gods of Alnwich: Sieva

Sieva

the Feathered, of Marriage, the Watcher

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Marriage, Protection, and Womanhood.

Symbols: Bells, Cauldron, Circle, Cows, Eye, Falcons, Knot, Stephanotis.
Favored Weapons: Guisarme or Sovnya.

Relationships: Wife of Veträ.

Sieva is the goddess of marriage, protection, and womanhood. She represents the ideal wife in that she is dignified, motherly, dutiful, supportive, and strong; but her wrathful jealousy stands as a warning against infidelity. Like most other gods and goddesses, Sieva has a strong warlike aspect that is responsible for providing women the courage and might to defend their homes and offspring against invasions foreign and domestic. She also is known for her persecution of the bastard children of Veträ, but in doing so often drives them to accomplish tremendous feats. In this way, she is the adversary that makes men of boys and forges girls into women.

Sieva appears as a fearfully beautiful and dignified woman wearing a robe of falcon feathers and accompanied by a panther as black as her long, flowing hair is golden.

Deity Template Update: Favored Weapons

I was talking with Kalzazz on GURPS Discord about the deity write-ups for Alnwich recently, and he made an interesting request: break out the deity's favored weapon on its own line. I didn't originally include this because I didn't want to imply that priests and paladins should be constrained to those weapons, but his issue was more one of general guidance.

Specifically, he sees favored weapon as a personality and iconographic trait that helps both the Gm and the player frame the deity within the game and the setting. Not all deities need to have a favored weapon, but those with one should have it listed. I'm not against this and will add such a line beneath "Symbols", since a deity's weapon, in many cases, is a symbol in itself (e.g., Thor, Zeus, the Grim Reaper, etc.).

So that begs the question, "What are the thirteen deities' favored weapons anyway?" I'll try to answer that now and add them into the existing write in the coming days.

Favored Weapons of the Gods

Jürä: Staff.
Karalis: Spear & Staff.
Korë: Bow & Spear.
Liekki: Fire. Lots of Fire.
Likumä: Spear, Sword & Shield.
Malä: Rod or Sickle. (coming soon).
Menes: Knife & Magic. (coming soon).
Milä: Sword, Spear & Sex. (coming soon).
Pazamë: Axes. (coming soon).
Sëra: None. Sëra is a goddess of peace and protection. (coming soon).
Sieva: Guisarme* or Sovnya*. (coming soon).
Veträ: Shield & Spear. (coming soon).
Yaunävä: Bow & Boar Spear†.

* For descriptions and statistics for these weapons, see Equipment of Alnwich: Polearms.
† For a description of this weapon, see Equipment of Alnwich: Swords & Spears (coming soon).

The Gods of Alnwich: Likumä

Likumä

of the Horses, of Letters, the Lightbringer, Protectress, of War

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Agriculture, Civilization, Protection, and the Sun.

Symbols: Fire, Girdle, Gold, Lamp, Ram, Shield, Sun, Sword, Wolf.
Favored Weapon: Spear, Sword & Shield.

Relationships: Daughter of Karalis and Sëra and twin sister of Korë.

Likumä is the virgin goddess of civilization, law, oaths, and war, but she does not focus on personal combat or killing, like Veträ. Instead, her domain encompasses strategy, tactics, and establishing peace afterward. She first performed this feat when she introduced Law to the ancient Skiding clans, allowing them to find peace and make decisions without the need for bloodshed among kinsmen.

The child of Karalis and Sëra, Likumä sheds her life-giving warmth on the fields as she flies through the sky on her owl-drawn chariot with her sword and the golden shield, Aurinko, who burns with such fire and fury that it sheds the light that creates the days. She is a friend of Veträ and often spends time in his halls training, drinking, and discussing matters of importance. Her complete disinterest in love prevents Sieva from growing jealous of her – no small feat to be certain.

Likumä most often takes the form of a wolf mother or a terrifyingly beautiful warrior woman clad in full battle regalia. She is particularly cold and distant, and this often frightens those she meets.

The Gods of Alnwich: Liekki

Liekki

the Ever-Burning Ember, of the Flame, of the Forge, Preserver of Prophecy

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Craftsmanship, Fire, Fate, and Prophecy.

Symbols: Anvil, Ash, Bellows, Fire, Fox, Hammer & Tongs, Iron, South, a Stranger.
Favored Weapon: Fire. Lots of Fire.

Relationships: None.

Liekki is the divine embodiment of fate whose forge tempers the destinies of men. Through fire, Liekki hardens men into heroes by testing their meddle in a gauntlet of trials and tribulations only to emerge stronger than every they’d have otherwise been. As helmsman of fate, Liekki steers the cosmic world-ship through the entropic seas of future history with the subtlest of nudges – a whispered comment here, a spilled drink there – so as to maintain the workings of prophecy and preserve the order that Karalis spies in his drunken reveries.

Liekki often appears in the mortal world, but never in the same way twice. Only the forms most capable of applying the cleverest pressures will do, and no two situations carry the same needs. So it is that one meeting will see Liekki as a fat, rich, slovenly merchant draped with prostitutes in a brothel and the next, a chaste and pious priestess clad in vestal whites. No matter the shape taken, Liekki never lingers in the mortal realms longer than necessary to push history back on course.

The Gods of Alnwich: Yaunävä

Yaunävä

of the Beasts, of the Dance, the Huntress, the Virgin

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Animals, forests, hunting, and maidenhood.

Symbols: Acorn, Blood, Bow, Chalice, Dance, Deer, Moon, Silver, Swan, White.
Favored Weapons: Bow and Boar Spear.

Relationships: Daughter of Mënes and sister to Malä.

Yaunävä is the goddess of animals, chastity, hunting, and the natural world. She is the inevitable force of nature that drives every living thing to survive at all costs. Thus, she is a dark goddess – she loves animals and loves hunting them; she ruthlessly persecutes any man who sees her naked; and she is particularly fond of bloody sacrifices. Still, she has a compassionate side. She serves as the goddess of childbirth and often comes to the aid of hunters and those lost in the wilderness – especially those who dedicate themselves to a life of chastity.

Yaunävä most often appears as a young, nubile woman lightly clad with a cape of swan feathers and carrying a bow. She is closely associated with does and stags, and are often accompanied by such.

The Gods of Alnwich: Karalis

Karalis

the Doom-Speaker, Goat-Killer, the Liberator

Greater Deity

Sphere of Influence: Divine Madness, Moon, Prophecy, and Wisdom.

Symbols: Ecstatic Dance, Eye, Horned Helmet, Ivy, Owl, Raven, Serpent, Twilight, Wheel, Wine.
Favored Weapon: Spear or Staff.

Relationships: Married to Sëra and father to Likumä and Korë.

Karalis is the god of wisdom, doom, and madness, and he serves as the chief of the gods. He is the embodiment of cruel, fickle Unreason. His oracular foresight and tremendous knowledge make him a natural leader, but even the other gods often wonder his motives, for those, not even his wife, Sëra knows. While aspects such as doom and madness might appear “Evil,” he is not particularly malicious. He often grants victory in battles, and through his gift of madness, he drives men to great achievements.

While Karalis is widely worshipped, he does things for his own reasons, regardless of sacrifices and prayers. It is believed that Karalis’ power is most strongly felt in living juices, such as blood, sap, and especially wine. Indeed, his rites typically include the consumption of a great deal of wine and numerous blood sacrifices that culminate in a saturnalia. It is during this ritual madness that worshippers give in to their madness, releasing it and permitting them to maintain a firmer grasp on sanity in their daily lives. This is the mystery of sanity through madness often mentioned by his dedicated priests.

Karalis is the patron god of diviners, madmen, and berserkers. He often appears as either an old, bearded man in a broad-brimmed hat and rough cloak or as an attractive, androgynous youth. Other times, he manifests as a raven or a great, black cat.

New Divine Element: Dream

Once again, I needed a divine element for a god I was writing up, and upon looking in DF 5 - Allies, it wasn't there. I don't blame the book; it does a great job at what it is meant for. I am just making a more detailed group of deities than it was intended to address. But I digress.

Please enjoy the following divine element intended for deities that govern dreams, nightmares, prophecy, etc. I you have any special requests or have noticed any other gaps in the divine elements presented in DF 5 - Allies, let me know in the comments. I'm all for expanding on that idea.

The Gods of Alnwich: Korë

Korë

the Elk-Maid, Lady Winter, of the Snow Shoes

Greater Deity

Spheres of Influence: Cold, Death, Hunger, and Pain.

Symbols: Elk, Ice, North, Overturned Cup, Sickle, Silver, Skull, Winter.
Favored Weapon: Bow & Spear.

Relationships: Twin sister of Likumä, daughter of Karalis and Sëra, and husband of Pazamë.

Korë is the goddess of winter and everything that brings: death, starvation, and suffering. She is not inherently evil, but there is very little she oversees that is not detrimental to life. Indeed, her demesne is the doom of crops, the maddening hunger in the icy abyss, the grinding glaciers, the unrelenting blizzard, and so on. She is the destroyer of cities, and the harbinger of death. It is only fitting that she is wife to the King of the Underworld, whose halls she fills by means of her icy embrace.

Korë appears as a hardened, aloof woman dressed in seal skins and bear furs with flowing blonde hair and pale, blue eyes. She often appears on skis or snow shoes and carries a horn-backed bow and bone-spear. She is most often accompanied by the all-white elk, Storälg, and rides a sledge pulled by two polar bears.

New Divine Element: Madness

Today I tried to lay out the elements for the divine servitors of one of my gods, and I realized that DF 5 - Allies doesn't have a Madness element. Considering the prevalence of "divine madness" in European pagan faiths, I was really shocked. So I made one:

The Gods of Alnwich: Jürä

Jürä

of the Ages, the Deep One, the Time Lord

Greater Deity

Spheres of Influence: Boating, Confusion, Fog, Time, the Trollenmere, Water.

Symbols: Cup, Egg, Gray, Hour Glass, Pike, Twilight, Water, Wheel of Time.
Favored Weapon: Staff.

Relationships: Married to Ziluma and father of the Vi­łni.

Jürä is the timeless god of the Trollenmere and lord of all waters in the region. He commands all that happens in and on the water, everything that lives in the water, and the weather above the lake. Within his domain, none can oppose him. He is the viciousness of a sudden storm and the smashing waves; the father of sea monsters, and the husband of the Deep. His wife, Ziluma, whose symbol is a circular net, is the Queen of the Deep and receives the souls of those who drown to death. Their children are the Viłni – the multitudes of waves and horrific lake creatures that plague fishermen and coastal homesteads around the Trollenmere.

Jürä’s waters existed from the beginning and will flow until the end, giving him mastery over time itself. Much as the waters of the lake give life in the fish and drink they provide, all while claiming the lives of countless fishermen and sailor, so too does Jürä’s wheel of time heal old wounds while slowly grinding souls and mountains to dust. His memory spans eons, giving him the wisdom of ages and vision through the mists of time, but he does not see the future. He simply steers the flow and peers into its depths.

Jürä most often appears as an old man in a gray robe holding a staff but rarely makes a personal appearance anywhere. He is stern, unrelenting, vengeful, and destructive, but also honest, steadfast, and trustworthy.

A Divine Template

At this point, we’ve spent a good bit of time talking about what gods are like, how they are worshipped, what they can do, and how all of that is handled with game mechanics, so today, we will wrap things up by assembling all of that into a template for individual gods. This probably won’t be the wordiest post, since most of the template is fairly self-explanatory, especially if you have DF Clerics. Still, I’ll go bit by bit with brief descriptions, just in case it isn’t as clear as I think it is.