Vopa, the Yalisi Priesthood
The Vopa priesthood controls the Yalisi Empire. Wormstone was first discovered on the island Yalisi, and now its worshippers form the foundation of a mighty empire that spans across the rainforests and swamps along the equator of Mutania.
Vubopas, or priests, all bear the unmistakable mark of wormstone. Their religion relies on spreading the word of the goddess Pemija, the great moon, so they willingly sacrifice their bodies to the wormstone's mutational effects to demonstrate her power. They have pieces of wormstone on their person at all times in the form of su imozi, and they carry them on their long missions to the mainland to convert others to her cause. While as children they may have grown up with the regular six limbs, rattled tail, and scale patterns of other Teronura, vubopas may instead have no tail, eyes on what was once empty skin, or an odd number of limbs. Their faces may flatten or grow, with teeth and claws jutting out of unexpected places. The longer that they have practiced their faith, the more severe the mutations become.
In one egg, Azatara and Vesi were the final two worlds to remain, and they bit and tore at each other, breaking each other's physical laws and inflicting pain in the very seams of existence. Before one world could consume the other and establish dominance with a full belly, the egg cracked into pieces from the ferocity of their battles. In the final moments before their true creation, Azatara bit Vesi and left its teeth behind. They separated, but not all the way, each wounded but alive, and both came into being in great flashes of light.
Life developed independently and unaware of each other in both worlds. Azatara became the astral world, filled with divine creatures capable of fantastically shaping the world around them. Vesi became the world of the Vopa, where only lesser magical creatures reside.
Azatara's teeth became wormstone, lying under Vesi's scratched and drowned flesh of rock and soil (the planet Mutania).
To the Vopa, the two moons in the sky are the eyes of divine creatures looking at the Vopa world. The larger of the moons, a large white orb against pale speckles of other stars, is the iris-less eye of Pemija, while the heavily cratered and bruised smaller moon is the stolen eye of Vamumuxe, unable to see ever again.
Pemija obsesses over her discovery, and soon learns that Azatara's teeth were still embedded in this other world, one weaker than her own. She wants to take back the teeth in her quest to assert dominance over the life in Vesi. The wormstone serves as her gateway to prepare for her arrival. Skin contact with the wormstone allows Pemija's children from Azatara to manifest their own twisted bodies in the world of Vesi. The children will prepare the world for her arrival, and the Vopa willingly let them use vubopa bodies to achieve their ends.
To protect her discovery, the hole in the worlds is kept a secret. If another astral creature were to discover it, they may interfere with Pemija's plans. In those dangerous times, Pemija can resort to using her own powerful magic, which grows stronger with the faith of the people in Vesi.
A healing magician named Sumiga saw patient after patient with strange mutations on their bodies, ones that did not respond to healing magic, after being exposed to wormstone. They petitioned for the mine's closure until whatever was happening could be stopped, for fear of it spreading or becoming worse. Mining ceased, and Sumiga continued to try and help patients, but they didn't know that they were stopping Pemija's children and were preventing her divine will. In Sumiga's folly, they attempted to destroy a fully-functioning eye that had grown out of a patient's arm. Their magic ricocheted and Pemija sent Sumiga a vision, telling them her story, and granted them a fifth eye in the middle of their forehead.
After Sumiga was granted a vision, they demonstrated the power of wormstone on their child Lope, who became the first Greatened: mutated by the wormstone specifically to obey the will of Pemija. Sumiga and Lope instructed others in the power of wormstone, and soon the power was demonstrated across the entire island of Yalisi. They broke wormstone ore into tiny pieces that could be distributed amongst the most faithful, the first vubopas. Magicians who were especially powerful stayed in the city to erect a permanent temple over the mine and prevent significant mutation from completely disrupting the way of life of laypeople, Greatened or not.
As the first Greatened, Lope went on to become the first missionary on behalf of Pemija, and journeyed to the mainland of Zige to demonstrate the power of wormstone to the rest of the world. Others followed hir path, establishing the tradition of missionary work that persists into the present.
The heads of Mope Vubopa often appear on Yalisi coins. When a new Mope Vubopa is crowned, a copy of the previous Mope Vubopa's coin is carved out of wormstone and placed inside the main temple on Najibu. Because the next one's body may take a little while to fully incorporate the particulars of the body of Pemija's child, the new coins are created only after the transformation is complete. In between, plain coins are used, but those lose value as soon as the new coins are minted.
tenets of faith
- Azatara and Vesi are twin worlds with different kinds of life and physical laws.
- Azatara and Vesi are still connected due to the nature of their becoming.
- Vesi is an inferior world to Azatara and deserves to die, allowing Azatara to fulfill its true destiny.
- Pemija, a creature from Azatara, watches over the life in Vesi, especially the planet of the Vopa people, from a hole in the sky that manifests as the larger moon.
- Skin contact with wormstone over a long period of time results in the grotesque anatomy of astral creatures as a piece of the astral soul is transferred over. The mutational effects of wormstone are the result of Pemija's children manifesting in Vesi.
- Vesi will surrender when its sapient beings understand the strength of Azatara and its many powerful beings.
- It is good to let others bear witness to the effects of wormstone, encouraging others to prepare for Vesi's inevitable destruction.
- Any willing mutation is a sign of obedience to Pemija, and those affected are called Greatened.
- The sacred text, the Parasoza, contains only truth.
cosmology
In the beginning, in a realm that exists beyond tangible reality, the creature Dijiva lays eggs. Within each egg there are dozens of possible worlds, entire universes. As the egg develops, the worlds cannibalize each other until only one world remains, and that is the world that is born in a big flash of light.mythology & lore
One day, a creature from Azatara, Pemija, discovered the border between Azatara and Vesi. Though each world had matured, they still shared connective tissue from their premature birth. Pemija found a knot in the skin of her world and wanted to open it to see what was on the other side. Gathering the totality of her magical strength, and that of her oldest child, Vamumuxe, she created a hole between the two worlds, just big enough to peer through. Gold light poured out from two stars dancing in dark empty space, lighting up Azatara's flesh on the other side. A small lump of Vesi's flesh came into focus, and Pemija saw the world of the Yalisi people. Rivers, cities, and islands all revealed themselves to her. The everyday lives of ordinary people became known to her. She decided to become a god to the pathetic souls trapped in Vesi. Vamamuxe begged their mother to share the view, but Pemija refused to ever let them see onto the other side. Instead, Pemija covered the hole to prevent anyone else from seeing it. In frustration, Vamumuxe decided to create their own vision into the other world. They the last of their magical strength and teared the fabric between their existence and this alien world, but the hole snapped shut in a second and took their only eye with it. They never got to see the world their mother adopted as her own.history
Miners accidentally discovered a vein of wormstone ore while digging on the island of Yalisi to obtain gold.priesthood
kizabu va, kizabu va, memi su numovu, memiThe Mope Vubopa, the First Priest, is the divine figurehead of the religion, and Sumiga was the first. The Mope Vubopa directly interprets the will of Pemija and is granted visions that communicate her current goals. The history of these visions, including Sumiga's original one that defined the original cosmology and lore, make up the body of the Parasoza, the sacred text maintained by the Mope Vubopa. The original copy stays in Yalisi and is used during Greatening ceremonies when they are held on Najibu. To become the Mope Vubopa, one must house the complete astral soul of one of Pemija's children. Their body takes on the shape of the astral creature, which is often vastly different than the vubopa's original body. Pemija chooses which child manifests, and she chooses her wisest children with bodies capable of speaking Ipabi, the Yalisi language, and can move around safely and easily within the normal architecture of the city. Pemija has many, many children, so the Mope Vubopa may have mouths full of extra rows of teeth, varying number of eyes, strange limbs that serve odd purposes, or other extremely atypical features. During the coronation ceremony, worshipers herald their arrival and welcome them to the world of Vesi.you are coming, you are coming, welcome children, welcome
culture
Pleasing Pemija is an imperative, and she must be able to see you in order to please her. Complete ceilings can prevent her from witnessing the activities of entire groups of people. In buildings, there is often a central room with a large hole in the center above a large pool to hold rainwater. Hiding in one's individual room for long periods of time is considered a slight against her, and there are often group activities held in the main room, such as meals, business meetings, and indoor markets. Similarly, wearing many layers of clothing is perceived as a deliberate attempt to obscure oneself from her gaze and generally frowned upon. Most believers wrap themselves or part of themselves with white cloth, but nakedness is a virtue. When doing missionary work, vubopas tend to wear at least some clothing, as they are making up for covering themselves by routinely facilitating Greatening rituals, exposing new bodies to Pemija and her children. Loud public displays (su moti, or "shows') are offerings that call attention to themselves. Missionaries perform demonstrations of magical powers and detail the extensive changes their bodies have undergone in front of as large a crowd as can be gathered. Occasionally, they will wear costumes or play music. In Yalisi, su moti are used more personally with smaller crowds to boost morale or hype up an exciting development.
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Author's Notes
illustrations were drawn by the author over images created with bing image creator