The Rebaal Pantheon
At the beginning of all things, there was a couple. Two entities who were the only things in the absence of everything. They had no name, for nothing was before them who could have given one to them, so they gave each other a name. One was named Kosm, and became space and reality; he gave his significant other the name of Kroon, who became the flow of time and magic. Together, they formed the universe, and their offspring would build the Earth in it.
But the universe was still engulfed with darkness. And from this darkness the embodiment of evil came to be. It was given the name of Goruug. Taking the shape of a giant worm, it attacked and badly hurt Kroon, but the god still had time to give some of its essence to Kosm before being destroyed. Kosm fled, and started bearing children with Kroon's seed. From their union were successively born the six elder gods: Sen, Ephios, Caeia, Thaisse, Sides and Paal.
Sen came first, and immediately went to war against Goruug. The Giant worm had had time to take control of magic, enabling him to create countless immaterial horrors to fight against the goddess. But Sen had the gift of life from her progenitor. She created the first life forms from material reality: they were titans meant to fight against Goruug's spawn; they were the Elementals and there were legions of them.
It was a grim era, where time had no more continuity, and where light was hidden among nightmares. Battle raged in an eternal stalemate between gods and evil. It took all of the gods' power to allow Sen to pierce through Goruug's defences and strike it down once and for all. Once defeated, Sen engaged in carving the worm into pieces and spread them to avoid them ever being reunited.
Sen gave Goruug's breath to Ephios to create air and wind. Out of the worm's body, Caeia created the Earth: its thousands of teeth were mountains, its skin was laid bare as plains, its muscles made hills, its lungs were turned into cliffs and canyons. Thaisse was given its blood, using it to make the oceans. Its life essence was turned into fire by Sides and finally, its large, single eye was taken by Paal, put high up in the sky, becoming the moon. From up there, Goruug's eye would be punished after death by contemplating the gods' accomplishment.
The world was thus formed among Kosm's essence, and became the realm of reality where Sen spread her power. Using Kroon's gift of life, she filled the world with living beings: plants, creatures and later humans would roam the world, live, prosper, evolve, and eventually die. Their life essence are fragments of Kroon, and are to be be taken by Paal in the moon, where they would be regrouped to reconstruct Kroon's body. And when Kroon will eventually be reconstructed, then the dusk of time will come when balance will be fulfilled again and the universe will be perfect again...
The rebaari gods:
Sen is the eldest child of Kosm and Kroon. She is the godess of life and nature. The Earth's creation was her initiative, for she wanted to create and rule over life. But her ambitions are unclear.She is the most revered and important deity of the pantheon. But don't be fooled, for the mother of all is far from kind, and will crush those who she deems unworthy or too weak. Nature's law is cruel and only the strong will get her approval.
She commands on her younger brothers and sisters, who help her create and transform the world as we know it. Ephios is the god of wind, weather and seasons. He is as unforgiving as his eldest, but less imprevisible. Caeia is the goddess of emerged lands, creator of mountains, canyons and plains. Caeia likes nature that blossoms on her creations, and is often trying to temper Sen's wrath, to preserve nature's frailness. Caeia is often represented as child-like, with very soft traits, and messy hair. Thaisse is the god of oceans and seas. He is said to be Paal's twin, and likes to follow his brother's movements on the moon, creating tides. His temper is more energic and enthusiat than Caeia, so he enjoys participating in Sen's brutality as he doesn't care about life outside of his kingdom. He disdains Caeia's tenderness, nibbles her borders and drowns ships, for ground-bound humans have no buisness siling on the seas. Sides is the godess of the sun and fire. She provides the energy for Sen's creations. Paal is the god of death, of the moon and stars. He welcomes the dead in his lunar heaven, so one must burn his deads at night, in open air, to ensure their ascension towards Paal. Other gods are more independent of Sen's dominion. They came into existence later, when Kosm and Kroon created new guides for the emergence of mankind. As the human race came to existence, they became a source of intent conflict among gods, who seeked to control their powerful potential for themselves. In an attempt to settle their children' argument, Kosm used some of the gathered remains of Kroon to create the new gods. Their arrival mitigated the conflicts by diminishing individual gods' control. Kamena is the divinity of human feelings : love, anger, happiness and sadness... It has no gender, and is pictured with an androgynous body. It likes to give trouble to the other gods of mankind by twisting honesty, bringing laziness, giving wierd feelings to humans. People's feelings are the immense playground of its childish games. Evea is the goddess of maternity, marriage and home. She is the embodiement of fertility and health. Anect is the divinity of art and artists, associated with beauty. It's the second genderless god with Kamena, because beauty cannot be given any strict definition. Laai is the goddess of justice, purity and harmony. Eesa, the goddess of laborers, workers and farmers, rewards the industrious. She is the goddess of lower classes, and despises lazy egoists. Kos is the god of war and violence. He is mainly revered by warriors. He is seen as an unfortunate god because his role is despicable but inevitable, because he is the main counterbalance against his sisters Laai and Evea.
Mythology & Lore
The interpretations of the pantheon vary between regions, but the many stories transmitted across generations branch from a common ground.
To most, the gods live in the cosmos around the world, but they may project themselves in hidden, remote places of Boomal, and materialize in the Magic winds. These places are sought after by many faithful adventurers, in hopes of being able to communicate with one of them.
The twelve major gods are said to have created other, minor gods, which can vary a lot between regions, and are almost always said to be accompanied by spectral beings called deiads. Deiads are the messengers. They like to wander in homes, near altars and houses, to listen to the prayers and carry them to the gods.
The gods are constantly opposing each other, because each one has its own goals and priorities. People say that in everyone's life and at all instant, everything that happens to someone, every action and decision, is the outcome of a fight between gods.
Ethics
Since this religion is very open to everyone's interpretation, everyone has its own set of ethics, shared in families or in small villages.
People often consider the civil law more than religion-based rules, however most also consider important for their faith to show generosity, to avoid breaking the laws, and avoid things that could disrespect the gods: selfishness, greed, violence or a poor personal hygiene for example.
Worship
Since every people's life is guided by the gods, every day must be accompanied by all gods. Thus, the worshipper's first deeds in the morning are the thirteen prayers: one for each god and the last one for all of them.
If any sentence is omitted, the god it was supposed to appeal to may let the worshipper down for the whole day, and this might make the day very bad, for the other gods might be taking advantage of its absence in its domain. After the morning prayers, worshippers are free to make supplementary prayers or to make offerings to any god they might want to resort to during the day. As an example, artisans often make daily offerings to Eesa, goddess of workers, while shipmen offer cooked fish to Ephios before leaving port. People often have a small altar to their favourite gods in their homes.
If any sentence is omitted, the god it was supposed to appeal to may let the worshipper down for the whole day, and this might make the day very bad, for the other gods might be taking advantage of its absence in its domain. After the morning prayers, worshippers are free to make supplementary prayers or to make offerings to any god they might want to resort to during the day. As an example, artisans often make daily offerings to Eesa, goddess of workers, while shipmen offer cooked fish to Ephios before leaving port. People often have a small altar to their favourite gods in their homes.
Priesthood
In some cities, worshippers open dedicated places, for people to bring offerings. These shared altars are common in the largest cities, where believers do not have enough space at home to deposit their offerings. Some are the size of buildings, and are called Houses of cult. Such a house can be dedicated to a god in particular, or hold altars for all gods.
The priests in charge of these shared altars live on the food and money gifted by the worshipper community. They often live besides or in the altars and houses.
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