Ryasesi

Forgotten in time...

Ryasesi was the first. As rarely told in the ancient myths and legends of Galandria, Ryasesi was the one who came before all — the light that guided the people of this world to its vast oceans and islands from the cold desolation of the world to the north, or so they have been told. Guiding wind into their sails, chasing fish into their nets, and placing stars to show them the way, Ryasesi brought the people and races one by one to the lush, prosperous world they now know. For centuries upon centuries, Ryasesi was revered and honored more deeply than many deities could ever dream of. Great shrines and temples, built in her honor out of gratitude for her guidance, dotted the islands and were filled daily with worshippers leaving offerings, seeking assistance, or simply searching for peace. All was well and prosperous. Alas, it was not to last. With time, war, famine, plague, and the fading of memories from lifetimes ago, Ryasesi gradually began to slip into the darkness. Temples became dusty and overgrown, statues became souvenirs rather than objects of reverence, and shrines slipped away into the leafy grasp of the forests. Other deities came to the forefront in her place: Domamar, Olmalas, Shimwal, and many others. Ryasesi was not pleased. Nobody knew to expect it, but how can one come to expect the furies of a god they have long since forgotten? As the legends say, one quiet morning many thousands of years ago, the people of the bustling port city of Heroniad, now known as Goldbreak, awoke to find that the ships from the north, which had been arriving daily for countless generations, had not appeared with the rising sun. They never would again. When dispatched into the Severed Sea, which at that time still carried the name of the Northern Sea, Heroniad's naval scouts found a ferocious storm, the likes of which had never been seen before. The wind howled. Massive waves crashed upon the deck of their ships. Sheets of rain and sleet pounded the sailors unrelentingly as they struggled to hold their ships together against the horrific onslaught. Those that would have the good fortune of returning to Heroniad with their lives carried with them the story of this storm, one that the people of this world came to find would not cease. To this day, the Storm of Severance rages on, and it is said that on especially clear days, one can see the edge of its dark clouds on the horizon from the docks of Goldbreak. Though nobody can say for certain, the people of Galandria came to believe that this storm was Ryasesi's final punishment, one that comes to fall upon those who have committed the worst crime of all against their god: forgetting. Desperate for forgiveness, the people of Galandria tore their way through the forests to their long-forgotten shrines and flooded into the dusty, decrepit temples, but it was no use. The voice of Ryasesi had left these hallowed places, and many ultimately came to believe that she had left this world entirely. This was her final punishment upon those who had forgotten her: she forgot them as well, and returned the ancestral lands from which she had come.

Modern Revival

In 1524 MA, members of the Ryasesian Union, then known as the Sevoragond Republic, began to gather behind a self-identified prophet known as Yasesi. Claiming to have experienced a divine vision of Ryasesi parting the great storm and restoring prosperity and peace to the furthest reaches of Galandria, he and his burgeoning group of followers encouraged the leaders of the Himlargond Republic to devote their greatest efforts to returning the country to a more natural and religiously-driven state, which he claimed Ryasesi would be pleased by. Unwilling to subject the republic to such drastic changes, especially with national backlash growing against Yasesi's perceived extremism, but also guarded against repressing the group over concerns of retaliation, President Erbanor Kraemela designated numerous units of the republic's military as the New Ryasesi Regiment. He tasked them with clearing the landmass to the republic's south of the many beasts that roamed its forests and, along with its relative lack of useful resources, had made settlement all but impossible throughout known history. Declaring the previously unnamed island the colony of New Ryasesi, Kraemela arranged for Yasesi and most of his followers to be relocated to the newly established province, where they could both practice their beliefs without interference or government oversight and not pose a threat to the continued existence of the Himlargond Republic. Despite the president's best efforts, Yasesi's remaining followers who had refused to relocate continued to clamor for greater national efforts to please Ryasesi. In a final concession to avoid conflict, Kraemela renamed the republic the Ryasesian Union, also renaming the capital Ryasesi, from its traditional name of Thermagon. The drastic move averted further strife and unrest at the cost of all but ending Kraemela's political career. Followers of Ryasesi and her supposed prophet Yasesi continue to inhabit New Ryasesi to this day, subsisting in homesteads scattered across the massive island. Yasesi is believed to reside somewhere in the deep interior of the island, though New Ryasesi's nonexistent communications network and the national government's complete absence from the colony make it difficult to know for certain. The few followers who remain on the mainland primarily reside in and around the town of Aireenenolo in the far western part of the peninsula, having established themselves there due to its remoteness and few ties with the larger union.

Holidays

Yasesi's followers observe each solar eclipse as a holiday known as Ryasesi's Gaze, believing it to be a brief period of time where she silences the sun to better look upon Galandria and judge its devotion. During each eclipse, observers will kneel motionless outdoors for the full duration, submitting themselves to Ryasesi's judgment. Following the eclipse's conclusion, they fast for 24 hours.