Siobhan, the Arbiter

"No, you are wrong. She is not merely the Arbiter - the Fair Lady extends far beyond that moniker. Siobhan is the force that binds us all, whether we be born of the earth or against it. She is the death to oppose life, but she is also the natural ending. It is a shame that this new generation fails to remember this."

Gustav Murnau, Magi of Siobhan, c. 1067 T.B.

Siobhan is the goddess of death, decay, illness, acceptance, and the power of endings. She is the one who stands at the end of the road to collect and guide the souls of Talish mortals both Eastern and Western. While modern Eastern doctrine characterizes her as cold, she is a kindly goddess who believes in the sanctity of a strong end. Because of this, most of her worship is currently concentrated in the West. Some Eastern believers hold firm to her, but most of these individuals live in isolated communities as ascetics or monks. Household worship of Siobhan is typically offered up in appeasement rather than praise.
Despite being a direct child of The Branwen and Oisin's mythological sister, Siobhan is sometimes considered a diametrically opposed afterthought to his veneration of life. This could not be further from the truth, as she is a complement to him and their Divine Mother. The three together form the Cycle Triad, the trinity of gods that guide individuals from birth into death and eventually into a subsequent rebirth.

Divine Domains

Despite her familial relationship with Oisin, Siobhan is a goddess not necessarily of nature or its grandeur but of the implicit interactions between the natural world and death itself.

Decay and Death

While she is no goddess of time, Siobhan is seen to be deity presiding over the mechanics and import of death in the living world. Eastern theology claims that she guides people from this life to the afterlife while Fey belief states that she guides people The Branwen for their fates to be decided. Some Eastern groups believe Siobhan's ill will can cause death, but this is highly unlikely. She is the one who seeks people after their death, not beforehand. However, she is directly understood to be responsible for the decay of all things in this world, those of natural life and created by the hands of people. She turns the leaves and bones to soil and rusts strong iron by virtue of her very will and being.

Parasites and Illness

Eastern belief primarily considers these aspects of the world as divine punishment, but Fey theology claims that these are natural processes as well. Parasites and illness are a way for nature to be cleansed. With this belief in mind, Siobhan acts with Oisin in concert. She is not a goddess of toxins and poison, but one of energy transfer and necessary rot.

Fungi

While fungi may not be culturally relevant in many spaces outside of Talamh, it is often cited as an important aspect of ancient Old-Faith Talish culture. Fey and Eastern historians alike believe that hallucinogenic fungi and mushrooms were used by the earlier settlers of Talamh to attain spiritual enlightenment and become more in tune with the natural world. In the modern era, these practices are typically restricted to Eastern authority figures both political and religious. However, fungi as an indicator of the world's health and productivity is still a metric utilized by Talish farmers and wanderers alike.

Acceptance and Peace

This aspect of Siobhan's history and lore has been largely ignored in most Eastern circles. However, to the Fey West, Siobhan's primary role is as a goddess of reconciliation and acceptance, one who helps guide the path through grief and hurt. She gives people the resilience to continue on after loss, encouraging with the constant promise of an end - not a violent one, but one that means every moment alive is a gift. She helps people find their own versions of peace in a broken world.

Symbols, Sites, and Iconography

Siobhan's worshippers have tended to be some of the more studious record-keepers in Talish history. There are many Eastern and Western Pre-Conquest texts from her devotees that survive for interpretation in the modern day. While a few of these found in the East are public knowledge, many of them are kept in a great repository in The Spire for the consumption of theologians and scholars only.
Siobhan's symbols are highly varied and even regional. Her most common symbol is that of any Fungi, but the actual species varies massively between even counties. Her animal symbols as vultures and moths are fairly ubiquitous in the East and West alike.

Places of Worship

The East's more recent rejection of Siobhan has eliminated a fair number of her most sacred sites, relegating them to novelties with little significance: her only remaining great site of worship is Godstone Siobhan. In the West however, great swathes of the land are dedicated toher.

Godstone Siobhan

As with the other Godstones, Godstone Siobhan was built by Fey from the far-flung past. It stands in the northeasternmost corner of County Gorm, separating the highroad connecting County Gorm to County Or and The Spire from Blightbark Fen, a great peninsular swamp just north of the Godstone. The Godstone itself is situation on a tall plateau with an overgrown carven staircase leading to its apex, where the stone itself stands wider and taller than Oisin's. Siobhan is said to stand watch over the road and the people passing under it. Some say call a journey along this stretch 'passing under the eyes of death'.
This Godstone depicts a strange amalgamation of fungal forms centered around a female face being devoured by the mass. The face is peaceful, almost in repose and seeming to accept this fate. Her eyes are closed and her mouth is downturned just slightly, but she still seems to be aware of the viewer in some way - her Godstone has a definite presence. The stone itself is devoid of any plant matter but is heavily scarred and cracked, well-weathered by the elements and the intervention of people. It is believed that there may be more to this Godstone than can be seen in the modern era. As stated previously, Siobhan is looking south over the road and towards the northern end of Dagda's Backbone. This depiction is well-understood as an Eastern iconographic standard, but Western depictions are contentious at best.

The Solitude

This great desert in The Summer Province contains a variety of shrines to Siobhan. These are most often found as great tombs containing non-humanoid bones. Some of these tombs contain statues of a almost human-looking woman with dark skin and great curls of hair. She is most often depicted wearing a ragged kilt and little else. Some believe this is a depiction of Siobhan.

The Poldwood

This forest in the West consists of low trees and wet woods, eventually transitioning to the Poldemoor Marsh on the banks of the River Poldemoor. There are a variety of small wooden shrines dotting this landscape. These shrines can be opened to reveal 'fungal gardens', clutches of rare and medicinal fungi found in strange growth patterns and collections. These are believed to be ancient sites of Siobhan worship.

Relics

Like most other deities, Siobhan's relics have been lost to the ages. The most infamous of her divine relics is an artifact known as Creebakkon, or Mourning. This is said to be some form of scepter or staff, but scholars constantly argue over the truth of its form. Some texts describe it as a bangle whilst others believe it is some sort of invisible weapon.
None of the relics of The Seven Saints are said to have been particularly tied to Siobhan, perhaps representing the early Tiefling rejection of her doctrine.

Religious Figures

Most Siobhan worshippers in the modern day are either ubiquitous amongst the Fey or reclusive in the East. Key figures in modern Western lore include the current Winter Monarch Beira, who is a self-professed devotee of Siobhan. As Beira's reign is reaching into its second millennia, Siobhan-worship has become very common in the West.
In the East, only those who have an appropriate respect and understanding of death tend to worship Siobhan deeply. The current Magi or Siobhan is Gustav Murnau, an ornery Tiefling of a nigh-upon defunct bloodline. He does not care much for the outside world, instead being absorbed in a semi-ascetic life. He administers programs of new admittance into the Spire from his manor in the village of Deadwick. Murnau does have a reputation for being a fearsome foe on the battlefield when he has been tasked with defending the northern borders of East Talamh, reaping death but retaining a respect for the life of each soldier won fairly.

Interpretative Difference

East Talamh

As previously stated, modern Eastern doctrine has largely attempted to reject Siobhan due to beliefs about her darker nature. Siobhan is worshipped as a preventative measure, warding off disease and decay with constant attempts of appeasement. This has lead some families to keeping personal shrines to Siobhan as a way of keeping her favor in conjunction with their health and prosperity. The nobility seem to fear Siobhan, as death ultimately threatens their way of life. The more learned of the world however relish in her secrecy and knowledge of the mechanics of death, which has begun a modern association between wisdom-seekers and Siobhan.

West Talamh

Fey beliefs on Siobhan are more personal than Eastern culture allows for. She is a guide, shepherding people into understanding loss and grief as well as coping with the evils of the world. As a culture struck by much tragedy across generations, worship towards Siobhan is a coping mechanism for many Fey of the diaspora following the Conquest. While she is certainly recognized to be associated with death, it is understood that she does not take this position from cruelty but rather from love for the people.

Species
The Gods of Talamh
Allegiance
The People of Talamh
Subordinates
The Thralls of Siobhan
Pronouns and Gender
She/Her/Hers/They/Them/Theirs
Mainly female-presenting
Realm
The Otherworld
Domains
Decay, Death, Parasites, Illness, Fungi, Acceptance, Peace
Eastern Aliases
Fair Lady, The Reaper, Lady of the Earth, Plague-mother
Western Aliases
Necroqueen, Hallowed Mistress, Deathtwin, Lady of Peaceful Ground
Associated Virtues
Acceptance, rationality, pragmatism, clarity, resilience, generational wisdom

Divine Icons

Colors
Orange, black, brown, crimson
Animals
Vultures, moths, cats, bats
Plant Life
All fungi, hemlock, tobacco
Symbols
Rusted iron, shovel, bones, gravestones, cairns

Holidays

For both the East and the West, Belltyne is traditionally seen as Siobhan's holiday. This is at the start of the Summer, when peace is found in Summer days and the warmth of spring becomes blistering heat. This holiday hold drastically different significance for the Westerners and the Easterners, with Fey tradition focused on attempting to find inner meaning from the first half of the year and East Talish tradition focusing on warding off plague by making pleas to Siobhan.