Cult of The Low

An old, old faith, even in the minds of the dwarves who conceived it. Even before the name Hyla, there was The Low, that which rested beneath all stone in halls of gems and fire-light, and a cult and temple to worship it.

History

The earliest records of the cult comes from the hill-caves surrounding Ukurum, in which a two-faced entity is engraved upon the earthen mounds within which the buried are placed.

Mythology & Lore

Once upon a time before time, all was rock. Then came the worms and maggots, burrowing, eating, creating earth, and from that rich earth sprang life- the gods. The very first of these gods was the Low, who befriended the worms, and though younger than them had a mind ten times as bright. It taught them how to makes valleys and caves, and where to leave the mountains. From this younger earth came its siblings. Ratt, God of War and Justice, Dal, God of Poetry and Beauty, and finally Elut, Goddess of Names, Crafts, and Magic. Missing a sister, and seeing that the Low's first task was already done, she gave it a name- Hyla, meaning grave, or shelf, where the dead would one day rest. With that name, Dal gave her a face, the most beautiful which had ever been, a task he was as excited for as the song and poetry he had already made. But no matter how he tried, half of it was always eaten away by Hyla's maggot guardians by the time he finished. And so she would always be so, half decay, half beauty.
Translator's note: Within the original dwarvish, the lack of gendered language tends to give a different reading to the name being given by Elut, as the four then are simply siblings without clear distinction of gender. Furthermore, in older translations the word "sister" or "sibling" is sometimes instead the word for "spouse", implying that Ratt and Dal were married and that Elut was jealous of them. The current Patriarch of Ukûrum holds the translation that they are all siblings instead, and that Hyla and Elut together simply fashioned the rest of the pantheon from the earth which they themselves had come from. Some branches prefer the marriage translation.

Priesthood

The Patriarch of Ukûrum is the most widely accepted "leader" of the cult, if such a thing can exist.

We are all of bone, and to bone we shall return.

Founding Date

Unknown

Type

Religious, Cult

Alternative Names

The Cult of Hyla

Deities

• Hyla the Low

Divines

• Hyla the Low

Location

Deepdwell/Ukûrum