Origa Cybelle - The False Mother

I have seen what your god calls paradise. And if that is heaven, I do not wish to see what hell looks like.

— Serena Veradana, Vardano-Haragutai Admiral

Gods are a omnipresent topic in the lands around the Great Divide. But some are called upon more than others. Many are barely remembered. Few are hated and despised. And one is so abhorred that mankind would curse her in a thousand tongues. If they dared to even whisper her name.

Tainted Maiden

While purged from the average person's consciousness, the one called the "Tainted Maiden" is still remembered vividly in the archives of the known world. Although exact details can vary depending on cultural background, most scholars share the same broad story of her origin: her emerging as a being of light from the Primal Chaos.
The Cult of Cybelle holds that their deity forged the chaos into the world we know, but in a state without flaw that they call the Garden. There she created the first humans, all women after her own image. They were not the only beings in the Garden, however, for a small part of Chaos had survived in the form of a being called Tartil.
Few things are known about it except that it soon tried to mimic Cybelle's creation. This was how men came to be. But without the touch of Cybelle they remained creatures of chaos and hatred. The Garden was soon tainted and burned, giving rise to a new world, and Cybelle was cast down in an act of supreme blasphemy.

The One Mother

Eons passed before Cybelle reawoke and when she did she found her once pristine garden a mere ruin. Her own creation had suffered greatly, was in various parts the lesser and enslaved. Tartil's influence had grown so strong that it polluted the very earth and sky. In her rage, Cybelle burned the world to cinders before falling into a deep sleep of exhaustion. When she woke again, over a millenium later, she found that mankind had yet survived but so had the taint of Tartil. Still weak, she resolved to bring about the restoration of her age through the hands of her creations. From the shadows, she revealed the truth to a handful of chosen maidens, the founders of the infamous Daughters of Cybelle.

The Law of the Mother

Contrary to most assertions made about Cybelle by historians and theologians alike, she does not intend to wipe out men. She does see them as a part of her overall creation and therefore worthy of life. But in a role beneath that of her main creations. Under Cybellian creed, women are the prime actors in every aspect of life. Her world order is a matriarchy in its truest and most fanatic form.

The Law of the Creator


As the one true creator god Cybelle holds authority over all. Her word is law. Any faith contradicting it heresy. The spirits that have risen to pose as gods in her absence are to be cast down and their followers with them. Cultures following Cybelle behave similarly and autocracy is the only government form flourishing under her shadow.

The Law of the Shadow

Secrecy and subterfuge are just as much creed of Cybelle as broad displays of power. To enact Cybelle's power is to subvert, to infiltrate, to assassinate and to divide. Be it faith, city or empire, anything standing against the One Mother shall be weakened by a thousand invisible needles before the hammer may crush it into dust, the word Cybellian often synonymous with spy.

Tainter of Worlds

Many of the world's pantheons know of the horror that is Cybelle. If the word of Arrik Kandren, Thane of the Feran Church, is to be believed, then there is no faith in the world that does not feature the Tainted Maiden in some form. And almost always in an antagonistic form. She never emerges as the main foe, however.
In both spiritual and secular terms her power over the world has faded. While the Daughters of Cybelle managed to conquer vast swaths of Scetia in the 1400s and 1500s of the Dawn Age, they were annihilated not long after. And in the wake of their reign of terror, few have dared to take up the cause of the One Mother.
This does not mean that her faith is entirely dead, however. From the dark corners of the world all the way to the great halls of Nurn there are those still working, both intentionally and unintentionally, at restoring her divine order.

And you better hope they never succeed. We already saw what her "Garden" looked like once. And the west still bears the scars over two thousand years later.

— Anuha Vara, Chief of the Maharana

Realm
The First Garden

Church/Cult
Daughters of Cybelle
Main Temple
Temple-Fortress of Bar-Choteh
Other Names
The One Mother
Tainter of Worlds
She Who Hates

Remnant
The most enduring remnant of Cybellian influence are the Mykarans. Once a people driven from their home, they were consumed by the cult and became the Mother's most fanatical shock troops. Invading Vardania they founded the great city of Nurn and spread her terror across much of the north. But even here the Mother's hold eventually crumbled and her temples fell to ruin. The Mykarans retain many Cybellian influences from matriarchy to a focus on subterfuge and chemical warfare, however.
The Great Other
Depictions of Cybelle, insofar they still exist, often show her in a female yet rather alien form. Wherever this is on purpose to depict her in a hostile fashion or simply the result of the Cybellians own interpretation cannot be said. Rarely if ever is she shown with a normal face, the only known remaining figure being an ominous statue in the cyclopean ruins of Bar-Choteh.

by Alessandro Paviolo