Church of Cherbor

The Church of Cherbor is a polylatrist faith hailing from Urunkhar . It is the ancestral faith of the Eastern Dwarves, althoug the faith is also a majority in Bočechnia and a minority in most of the nations in the Northern hemisphere.

History

The origin of the Church of Cherbor lies at the early years of the Urungká people near the end of the Great Dwarven Migration. As the dwarves had betrayed their old faith during the migration by fleeing the homeland, something that was strictly forbidden, the Following of Bheor would excommunicate them. Yet upon finding their home in the Eastwall, the then divided dwarven clans found themselves accompanied by powerful foreign gods that ruled the mountains. Although different clans had different gods, as the lands of Urunkhar gradually geopolitically centralised over the course of the centuries, so did their faith. By the golden age of the Melisternian Empire, the Church of Cherbor was formed into one whole, where many local deities were accepted as aspects of the All-Father Cherbor. The formation of a centralised church also ment that the countless deities would fall under inspection by the institution, with many deities also being casted out from the realm as devils and evil spirits. Although this caused some upheaval at the time by those loyal to now outlawed gods, the strong position of the state as well as the physical removal of the gods in question held the realm together.

With the expansion of the Urunkharian empire into the Bočechnian Lowlands in the 6th century AZ, the faith would also soon spread to the dominantly human inhabited land. Although the local gods of that land would never be accepted into the main faith proper and believers of the old animist faith were even heavily persecuted, some of the most popular local deities were still praised as folk-deities and even had their own shrines built, unofficially being integrated in the wider Cherborian faith.

Although the central institution never approved of this, it became an accepted heresy in many of the colonial realms to integrate local deities as aspects of Cherbor, as long as the deities in question were not found to be inherently problematic by the church. This process of Cherborian Syncretism continues to be in place until the present day.

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click to expand the full list of Deities

Deities / Aspects of the Faith

Cherbor, the All-Father God

Absolute, primordial god of the universe and of all other deities and blessed spirits. Supreme creator of all things and kins and their power of generation. Scholars have defined Cherbor as the "general power of birth and reproduction".The root *cher means "birth", "origin", "kinship", "tribe" and "destiny". ‘Bor’, literally "Judge", is a Urunkharian name for the supreme god, especially when conceived as the interweaving of destiny. Cherbor is considered as the only god of the Church, although he consists of many aspects that are treated as deities themselves.

Supreme Polarities

Generally, Gielbor / Pyabog is used more in the south, while Zhibog / Zhivena is used more in the north. They however serve the same goal or classification.

Gielbor - Pyabog

Literally, respectively, "White God" and "Black God". They represent the oppositional and complementary duality which inheres reality, expressed for instance as light and darkness, day and night, male and female. Gielbog incarnates as Svarog ("Heaven") and the multitude of his manifestations, while Pyabog incarnates as Mokosh and female deities. All deities are manifestations of either Gielbog or Pyabog, and in both categories they may be either Razi, rede-givers, or Zirnitra, dragon wizards. Black gods were usually represented with the features of fierce animals.

Zhibog - Zhivena

Conceptualisation of the supreme polarity as life. Zhibog literally means "Life God", "Life Giver", while Zhivena means "She who Lives". They are conceived as either siblings or spouses, and gods of love, fertility and marriage. Zhibog is represented with a cat head. She is the opposite facet of Maslenitsa, the goddess of death.

Dorglav, the Many Headed God, Lord of the Layers

Considered as the embodiment of the Planes themselves, both physically as well as conceptually. It is depicted as having one head for every layer of the world, who are are considered aspects of Dorglav, and thus sub-aspects of Cherbor, themselves. It’s heads are called:

• Prav - Heavensky
• Zjav - Cloudworld
• Yav - Surface
• Rav - Underground
• Krav - Upperdark
• Tav - Underdark
• Nav - Underworld
• Xav - Underlight
• Vav - Void

Svarog, Lord of Heaven

Svarog literally means "Heaven", father of Xors Dazhbog and Svarozhich or identical with them. He is associated with military, smithery, and with fire (Ognebog), both that of the household and that of the sun (Xors Dazhbog).

Ognjena, Lady of the Holy Fire

Ognyena literally means "She of the Fire", "Fiery", and is the goddess of the celestial fire, sister of Boron. She is another personification of the great goddess of the earth (Mokosh) when she is dried up, and thus elevated, by celestial fieriness.

Ognebog, Lord of the Earthly Fire

Ognebog literally means "Fire God", and is the personification of the both the terrestrial fire and of the sacrificial flame, considered as the energy proceeding from Svarog and connecting back to him.

Boron, Father of War

Boron literally means "Thunder" but also "Oak", and he is the son of Svarog, worshipped as the god of war. He has a mother, Percunatele, and a sister Ognyena. Boron is the personification of the active, masculine force of nature, and all the bright gods are regarded as his aspects, or different phases during the year. His name signifies both the splintering thunder and the splintered tree, regarded as symbols of the irradiation of the force. Traditional iconography shows Boron with a head surrounded by ten beams of light, with two faces—that of a man on the front side, and that of a lion on the back side–, and holding a plough in front of him.

Svetovid, God of Light, War and Power

Four-headed god of war, light and power. Svetovid and its variants literally mean "Lord of Power" or "Lord of Holiness" (the root *svet defining the "miraculous and beneficial power", or holy power).

Xors Dambog, Lord of the Sun

Dambog is the sun god, son of Svarog, winner of darkness, warranter of justice and wellbeing. He changes from a young man to an old man as he travels through the sky; he has two daughters accompanying him, the two Zvezda ("Morning Star" and "Evening Star"), and has a brother, the bald moon god (Yutrobog).

Xors Yutrobog, Lord of the Moon

Yutrobog is the moon god, but also the moon light at daybreak, whence the meaning of his name, "Morning God" or "Morning Giver". The moon god is particularly important, regarded as the dispenser of abundance and health, worshipped through round dances, and in some local traditions considered the progenitor of mankind. His brother is the sun, Xors Dambog.

Zyzlila, the Holy Mother

Goddess of hunting and of the forests, she is also known as the goddess of love and wedding, fertility and infancy.

Dodola, Lady of the Rains

Goddess of rain, wife of Boron, in this function also identified as Dodol, the god of the air. The name Borberuna is the feminine form of Boron.

Lada, Lady of Harmony

Polyfunctional great goddess of the earth, harmony and joy, symbolising youth, spring, beauty, fertility and love. Mother of twins (named either Dido and Dada in the north or Lel and Polel in the south) and mother (the north) or wife (the south) of Varpulis. She is the female counterpart of Svarog.

Maslenitsa, Queen of Winter

Rural goddess who grows sprouts, but at the same time goddess of winter. Her opposite is Zivena. Marovit is another name of Maslenitsa or her male counterpart, symbolising the dying sun; the root *mar means "weakness", "ruin" and "death". She is also the goddess of death, both young and old, associated both with birds and snakes.

Mokosh, Mother of the Earth

Mother goddess personifying the wet earth, associated with female works (notably weaving) and harvest. She is also the goddess of corn, the "Corn Mother". Her name literally means "Wetness", "Moist", and she is also known by the title Mat Syra Zemlya ("Damp Mother Earth") or Matka. In association with Boron she becomes dry and fiery, Ognyena, personifying the woman in her higher and faithful aspect; whereas in association with Skotibog she becomes dry and frozen, an aspect of Zhiva personifying the woman in her lower and unfaithful aspect.

Other Goddesses:

Zislobog

Karna

Kostroma

Lelia

Gabija

Ozwiena

Uroda

Velonia

Vesna

Other Male Gods

Chur

Dogoda

Varpulis

Ovsen

Krsnik

Morskoy Czar

Nemiza

Torokelle

Poreviht

Pogvist

Ragdihost

Rugievit

Simargl

Stribog

Skotibog

Yarillo

Cosmology

The cosmology of the Urunkharian religion is visualised as a three-tiered vertical structure, or "world tree", as common in other religions. At the top there is the heavenly plane, symbolised by birds, the sun and the moon; the middle plane is that of earthly dwarvendom, symbolised by bees and dwarves; at the bottom of the structure there is the netherworld, symbolised by snakes and beavers, and by the godess Mokosh.

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Permeated Organizations

• Grand Knyzate of Urunkhar

Divines

• Cherbor

Controlled Territories

• Cathedral of the Dual Truths

Related Species

• Dwarves
• Humans

Related Ethnicities

• Bočetti
• The Urungká - East-Folk