Orishas

The Orishas are the human form of the spirits sent by the Supreme Spirit in the earth to guide creation and particularly humanity on how to live and succeed on in their time before accepting his earthly embrace. Most Orisha are said to traverse from the spirit world to the physical to influence the goings on of the human lives based either to favor those that they deemed blessed at their birth or for more selfish reasons.

The Orisha's are neither good nor evil. But surely what they are is selfish. They manipulate us giving us gifts, some are even said to hide amongst us, disguised as mundane-beings like ourselves as to not draw attention when in a close vicinity with us. Some save us from the Jidè noose and the Supreme God's earthly embrace, while other's deliver us to the Orisha of Death like some buttered hog at a summer feast.

The eldest of Orishas are said to hide their face behind beaded veils. They all appear black-skinned like the native people of Exum where they are worshipped. When questioned on how many Orishas there are the answer is always, "an innumerable number plus one."

Pantheon

The six main deities in the pantheon are as follows:

• Olotongo

• Oyun

• Kyo

• Obalun

• Jidè

• Shangua

History

In the time before time primordial, there existed just the Supreme Spirit traveling through space and time. Soon the spirit conjured up the illusion of a what would become the world. The spirit wandered every inch of the planet and finding itself bored with what it saw, it decided to go into the earth where it became trapped by its own illusion. The spirit tried everything to escape creating explosions that caused the planet to grow mountains. It caused the first rains, in an attempt to soften the soils so it could escape to no avail. Realizing how it could manipulate the earth and that it was no longer bored, the spirit created the sun and the moon that hung stagnant in the skies above. The spirit then created forms that would populate the earth with its greatest creation being humanity. The spirit wondered if it could place a piece of itself inside of the humans in an attempt to escape. Those that the spirt's power went to became Orishas dwelling in the world and ascending to godhood. The Orishas ruled the world as part of the First Empire for hundreds of thousands of years, feeding off of the Spirit in the Earth.

Type

Religious, Pantheon

Leader

Obalun

Related Myths

• Four Knights of the Wind