The Four Gods

Gräins

The Goddess of life, fertility, marriage is very popular throughout Daleth. Especially women worship her, and they have founded many temples in the towns and cities. These temples are different from the ones in the rural areas, where Gräins is worshipped by the farmers.

The temples in the fields are simple, direct in the natural environment, and more or less the place to take a break during the hard labour on the fields. Many farms have their own altar to Gräins. Rural priests of Gräins are mostly wandering priests, always helpful to the farmers, but only if it doesn’t hurt Gräins.
In the cities, the temple is more organised. It is a place of gathering for women, especially pregnant women. They share their knowledge to help each other as mothers and mothers-to-be. Priests to Gräins are usually female, and they might help with giving birth. Many temples have a garden, to have Gräins close by. These gardens are full of healing herbs and all kinds of flowers. If a garden is not possible, many plants are kept in pots in the temple.

A temple to Gräins never has a floor, the ceremonies take place on the soil itself. Sometimes weeds grow on the soil, but indoors and with all the visitors this usually is not for long. Most temples are made of wood, the best temples, so it is said, are build around a living tree. Plants are important in the interior, what kind of plants these are depends on the time of year, the place the temple is build and the needs of the worshippers.

Followers of Gräins usually carry a flower in their hair or on their clothes. The upper classes might carry silver or golden flowers, decorated with gems. Others might carry flasks filled with earth, parts of animals (claws, teeth, small pieces of fur), pieces of wood (especially if it is shaped as a living being), decorative woven grasses, etc.

Aaser

Every place where water is, is a site for Aaser. The God of Water is a god of life, for life can not exist without water. Sources, wells, brooks, ponds, lakes, rivers and the sea are the places where Aaser is being worshipped.
But along the coast Aaser is the most popular god. Protecting the sailors and fishermen against storms and providing fish (the main food on the coast), Aaser has a way with all aspects of life on the coast.
The god is usually depicted as a naked man with long hair and a long beard, both coloured a greenish blue, like water, entangled with fish, shells, and algae. He has greenish blue eyes, and a tan the same colour, but lighter. Sometimes he is dressed in silver fish-scales.
In pictures, Aaser has three fishes swimming around him. A species of fishtailed women can also be pictured with the god, but this can also be the image of Trigo.

The temples to Aaser are build near water. A small, shell shaped basin filled with water is the altar. The water in the basin comes from the roof, or, is possible, from a source in the temple. The water that is not needed for the small basin, is led into a bath, where the guests can clean themselves.
The temple is decorated with shells, algae, and sometimes dried fishes.

The priests of Aaser wear blue, green and silver in their clothes. A small bottle of water they carry along, to have the god nearby. Silver fishes, sea urchins, and miniature ships can also be a sign that one is a follower of Aaser.

The legendary “Staff of Aaser” is a piece of very old bone (from Azurhem, it is told) with a glass sphere on the top. In the sphere is water. Looking through the water in the sphere, one should be able to see the truth as it is given by Aaser himself. The Staff is guarded by the fishtailed women in a cave on Roverseiland, so the legend has it; the exact whereabouts of the cave are unknown.

[A prayer to Aaser]

Vindel

Somehow, a cult for Vindel is not common. The priests of Vindel are usually wanderers, poor and begging. Their grey clothes are dirty and torn. To live from the wind alone seems to be the statement they make.

Temples to Vindel are rare, but most priests of Vindel will build one of cloth and poles, where the cloth waves in Vindel's breath, and sometimes the poles have flutes attached to them, so the temple will whistle.

It is unknown why Vindel is an unpopular god, although it has not the negative call Phyarx has. Pictures of Vindel are rare, and all existing pictures of this god have him or her pictured with the other three gods. There is no consensus among the artists how to depict Vindel, and the priests don’t need a picture.

The followers of Vindel are to be found everywhere and nowhere. Many do worship the other gods just as much. Vindel and its merits are not understood and secretive. It is a god for self-reflection and introvert feelings. As the god of birds, falconers are the best known followers of Vindel.

True followers of Vindel have a falcon or a flute as an amulet.

Phyarx

Once the mightiest god of all, the god of light and fire, of the beginning of life, Phyarx is now despised and close to being an evil god. This certainly has to do with a change in society, where the merits of Phyarx are no longer a sign of style or class. The causes of this are not always clear.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that the evil gods were taken from the elemental religion. There was a need to have an evil being of god-like power, and Phyarx fitted the most in the ideas of an evil god. Phyarx has not taken all the bad elements from the evil gods, but he did overtake all the elements of his twin sister Nox. Nox, the Goddess of the Night, was still feared in large parts of the realm. The darkness of the night, with it’s deep shadows in moonlit, and the very absence of light was enough to be afraid of. And without Nox, it was Phyarx fault, it was him who took the light.
Maybe that was only the beginning of Phyarx downfall. With him not being just a god like the others, all his other elements became suspicious as well. The people especially pointed to the fact that in the myths Phyarx has had a daughter with his own twin sister. And that he had not been monogamous. All his sexual influence became taboo.
Maybe the first step into the darkness was that the priests had declared Phyarx as the God of Death, after they had abandoned the evil gods. Death was normal in society, with bad hygiene and war almost everyone had faced death as a kid. In more modern and peaceful times, death became a stranger, and was feared. This influenced the image of Phyarx, who was the one to ask for a good star in the sky.
The fact that Phyarx is still an official god is explained with the following thesis: “Good can’t do without evil. We have to keep in mind that evil always lurks near us. And we have to understand that not all evil in unwelcome. Evil is no given state for a deed, it is how you handle it. Death is unwelcome when it concerns murder, but it is highly appreciated to carry away the very ill out of their agony, and it is unfortunate yet unavoidable when fighting for the rights we need to continue our society.” (High Priest Erjegi Erjondef, 1831).

It is not right to say Phyarx is not popular, his popularity has gone underground. Official temples are rare, but spontaneous worshipping is common, especially among the youth. It is not done to confess to be a follower of Phyarx, even though it is not downright forbidden, but it might hurt the social standard one is placed upon. Some worship Phyarx because it is controversial, but, so the priests claim, these are fundamentalists who have not really understood what the rites are about. Having boundless and unscrupulous sex with as many strangers as possible is not what the rites are about.

There are hardly any temples to Phyarx. The old ones have been demolished or changed into other temples. The architecture of these temples used to be one of the finest, with large, high windows so the light of Fon could shine in through the stained glass, and warm colours, like red, orange and yellow all around. It was warm in winter, because an eternal flame was part of the altar. The most famous of these temples is still functioning and is to be found at the main square in Ciniz.
Other temples to Phyarx are in the Kungsfelthan. It is not the purple girls who visit these temples, but their customers who come to pray for a satisfying visit to the neighbourhood. The colours there have changed to pink and purple instead of the traditional red, yellow and orange. And because the temples are of doubtful origins, they have to stay secret and cannot afford the large windows. Most of these temples are not part of the elemental religion as an organisation; it is more common they are part of the brothel they have been build next to.

Phyarx on pictures has been censored during the centuries. He used to be a young, naked man with flaming hair and an erection, standing in the fire. Now, only his head is pictured, or he is totally covered in flames to hide his nudity .

There still are priests of Phyarx, and they do their job like any other priest. In their bright coloured clothes, they enlighten the evenings on the streets, carrying torches through the darkness. They bless theatre shows and libraries. But they also do a lot of funerals. And everyone knows they do indeed know a lot on the topic of sex.

The followers of Phyarx are usually silent in society. They might carry an amulet (usually depicting human genitals) but hide this under their clothes. They gather in their own homes. Some might help the priests at funerals. It is these kind of people one should go to for a bit of illegal Bluerooted Bleith.

The cult of Phyarx has gained attention from a new movement. The Refusers Guild has written a book called “The Theology of the Modern Devices”. In this book, they make it clear that Phyarx is the god of fire and thus the god of the modern techniques, who are powered by fire. Because Phyarx is a god that is evil in nature, modern devices are evil as well.