List of Aekyrian deities
This list included the most well-known deities of the pantheon. Note that there can be regional variations in name, symbology, mythology, etc.
Sirune
Symbol: Seven-pointed star
Associated with: Safety, Community, Law, Judgement
Mythos
The legends involving the Goddess Sirune describe how a young and wild lady came to an abandoned palace in the clouds. Seeking refuge from storms outside, she sought to make a home out of the ruined place, setting to right its many broken objects and lighting fires in every hearth.
Though she was safe, in time she came to find that the palace had dangers of its own. Within its crypts many dangerous things were incarcerated, straining for freedom. She pleaded for help with the skies, but they did not answer except to increase the intensity of the storms. The earth was equally deaf. As was day, as was night.
Eventually, she grew desperate. Moreover, she was lonely and became discontent at the solitude in her newfound home. And so she made an agreement with one of the primordial beings she found within the catacombs. With him she strengthened the bastion. They had children, who would come to aid their parents in the defense of their home.
She is most often depicted as a statuesque and elegant woman of middle age, with regal features, carrying a shield in her left hand and with the right outstretched.
Iaco
Symbol: Clouds
Associated with: Air, Trickery, Freedom, Weather
Mythos
Iaco is a trickster who stole fire from dragons and stars from the sky. He caused great storms then fled deep under ground, where he was caught by his elders and locked away in the deepest pit they could find.
Many years later he was found by Sirune, who beat him in a game and made him laugh for the first time in many years. He gave her an oath of loyalty and so she let him go free, but he decided to stay with her and in time they fell in love and had children.
A caring husband and father, he still finds time to play jokes and travel. Unlike his wife, he does not loathe the storms, riding the winds as he pleases whenever he wishes.
He is depicted as a laughing man of middle age, with curly hair and loose-fitting clothes that seem to be caught in a breeze.
Falka
Symbol: A shield overlaid with a key
Associated with: Protection, Guardians
Mythos
Falka the firstborn grew up responsible for her siblings whenever her mother was busy and her father absent. Inundated with responsibilities she grew up a stern and watchful woman. As she came of age her mother gave her a choice between her left hand and her right hand. The left contained nothing at all. The right contained a ring with countless keys.
Falka chose the keys and thus became the guardian of the Chtonian catacombs, the great cellars beneath the Aekyr. She dedicates herself to that duty, keeping the palace and the world at large safe from the terrors below.
She is often depicted armoured and helmeted, with a lantern in one hand and a blade in the other.
Tigraine
Symbol: A radiant scepter
Associated with: Ambition, rulership/tyranny, war
Mythos
Tigraine is the daughter that Sirune taught the most, and her father loved the least. Or so it is said. Forever she ponders the maps painted of the world, and manipulaties her extended family towards her own ends.
Some myths say her mother sometimes spent time alone in her garden, where Tigraine was conceived when a whispering shadow seduced her in the dead of night. Some of that shadow's darkness made its way into her heart, and froze it against the suffering of war.
Tigraine is often depicted as a tall, wiry woman, stern of face, and sharp-eyed. She carries a scepter in the crook of her arm, or sometimes a morning star.
Kytho
Symbol: Scales
Associated with: Death, Loss, Perseverance
Mythos
Myths disagree on Kytho's nature, with some stating that he is the third child and first son of Sirune and Iaco, others that he was a wanderer in the night who appeared and begged shelter. A few state that he was always there, as old as the palace and the world itself. Kytho's masked and bizarre priests certainly won't give a clear answer. Whilst they solemnly tend the dead they give scant comfort to the grieving.
Sometimes called the drowned God, according to legend Kytho drowned himself in the river that bears the souls of the deceased to shores of the empyrean palace, stating that only the dead should judge the dead. Therefore it is Kytho who opens the gates of the palace to the soul upon arrival, judging who goes to the Malinyx, who may remain in bliss, and who must return to be born again.
Soldiers and sailors often swear with Kytho's name. ''Kytho's breath'' is a popular one, as is ''Kytho's balls.''
Kytho cuts a stern figure as a tall, cloaked, and masked man.
Paranthias
Symbol: Sun with rays
Associated with: Sun, Light, Knowledge
Mythos
Paranthias the lightbringer is the child of Tigraine and an unknown father, and twin of Hyperia. Some heretical myths say Iaco is their father, as he was drunk and the amoral Tigraine seduced him in a fit of jealousy. Whatever the case of his parentage, symbolizing the dual nature of fire, Paranthias is the fire that brings warmth and safety. That gives life to crops and people.
He is also associated with knowledge and curiosity, and is said to grant the spark of creation to craftsmen.
Paranthias is often depicted as a smiling young man with flames for hair who wields a quill.
Hyperia
Symbol: Burning Orb
Associated with: Fire, Stars
Mythos
Hyperia the starcaller represents the unpredictable and dangerous nature of fire. She is said to cause forest fires and is often blamed for house fires.
Not typically worshiped, Hyperia is depicted as a feminine shape wreathed in flames if she is depicted at all.
Myrcheli
Symbol: Three-faced woman
Associated with: Nature, Earth
Mythos
Myths differ on Myrcheli. Some say she is a daughter of Sirune, whilst other name her as an aunt or other relative who later arrived at the Empyrean Palace when all was made ready. This has led to several now considered heretical cults revering her as the most important deity of the pantheon.
Myrcheli's myths are often cautionary tales regarding the value of patience, appreciation for life, and acceptance of the inevitable.
Depictions of Myrcheli are greatly varied, usually carved in wood. A recent popular variant depicts her as a woman with three faces. One young, one middle-aged, one old. All have a serene look to them.
Actynia
Symbol: Wreath of flowers
Associated with: Love, Passion, Desire
Mythos
The golden-haired goddess of love is considered in many legends to be a playful and mischievous young woman whose passion sometimes gets her in trouble, though her charm and guile then gets her out of it again.
Bo Akho
Symbol: Bundle of grapes
Associated with: Pleasure, Festivities
Mythos
The oft-inebriated Boakho is generally depicted as the life of the party, albeit sometimes long after the party has ended. Stories about him are generally comedies, with many of the gods speculating who he is or where he even came from.
Menephosius
Symbol: Cresting wave / Winged serpent
Associated with: Healing, Water/Oceans, Remembrance
Mythos
The gentle Menephosius was born when his mother Myrcheli had a tryst with a ''man of the sea,'' sometimes thought to have been a primordial. He is considered to be a thoughtful man who weeps for the suffering in the world, and seeks to ease it.
In some regions he is a dual deity who has a dark side that is associated with the darkness of the ocean depths. This part of the God remembers the wrongs committed in the world and seeks vengeance against those who trespass too far.
Ghurkos
Symbol: Blooded Sword
Associated with: War, Violence, Struggle
Mythos
The youngest son of Sirune and Iaco is said to be a boorish man. Whilst he is a capable warrior and staunch defender of the palace, his many feuds with the other gods sometimes see him banished from the palace grounds by his fellows, leaving him with nought to do but cause war and bloodshed in the world.
List of Chthonic deities
Hishal
Symbol: Cracked hourglass
Associated with: Sorrow, Disease, Loss
Mythos
Also called the Bleak Lord of Bones, this ancient being's true name is said to be lost to history. The most obscure of heretical writings whisper the name ''Hishal,'' and thus he is named if he is named at all.
His worshipers are the deranged and those lost to despair and grief, seeking to drown the world in their pain. His effigy is sometimes placed in shrines as an appeasement, though such practises are considered heresy by Aekyrian priests.
He is shown as a gray-robed and gray-haired man, with bent back, dragging a blade behind him.
Halpheas
Symbol: Red Fanged Skull
Associated with: Greed, Contracts, Lies
Mythos
Halpheas the liar is the devil who comes to desperate souls and offers them a bargain. Every myth involving him has the bargainer coming out the worse, often getting what they asked for in an utterly detrimental manner.
He is depicted as a well-dressed and winged red skeleton. His staring skull symbol is still found on some old coins that were minted by the dreaded empress Nikephorea I. Production of those was stopped one generation and two civil wars later, but the valuable coins are still in use among merchants and nobles today.
Laiba, Mother of Monsters
Symbol: Waxing gibbous moon
Associated with: The Moon, Madness, Pleasure
Mythos
The wanton beast, she who howls, Laiba is the patron of lycanthropes. Said to have had a curse placed upon her (for theft, tresspassing, or something else, the telling varies) she was changed from a sharp-witted young woman into a slavering beast, most often said to be a wolf.
Laiba is sometimes honoured by free spirits who view her as a misunderstood deity, considering her unjustly punished and a patron for those who seek inspiration and non-conformity.
Xylani
Symbol: Nine-tailed scourge
Associated with: Pain, Violence, Anger
Mythos
She who bleeds a thousand deaths is the suffering Xylani, who was imprisoned when she turned her rage upon the gods. If Hishal can be said to burn cold, it is Xylani who burns hot in her anger. Ever straining against the bonds that hold her, she is said to seek out those who lose themselves in rage and battle-lust, ever increasing that spark within them until they lose all control and turn upon their loved ones.
She is shown as fierce and wild-haired muscular woman, wielding a long and many tailed scourge that strikes her as much as it strikes her enemies.
Crias
Symbol: Blue four-pointed star
Associated with: Winter, Darkness, Void
Mythos
Crias the giant is said to have been imprisoned when the world was bathed in ice and frost, and at his chaining the world thawed. Still, the barriers that hold him grow thin in the dead of winter, allowing him to reach out and freeze the blood in the veins of those who stray too far from the warmth of their hearths.
Crias is pictured as a bearded giant wielding an enormous frost-rimed axe.
Khukudea
Symbol: Claw marks
Associated with: Hunting, Darkness
Mythos
Khukudea, the cat that kills, is a predator who appears in many fairy tales and myths involving those lost in the woods or otherwise in a place where they shouldn't be. It stalks and terrorizes its prey, unseen, until the final moment it pounces from the darkness to kill.
It's not generally considered the kind of thing you could pray to, but some warriors secretly ask the cat for strength and speed, and cults arising out of that practise are not unheard of. Druids sometimes pay it homage as an apex predator.
If it's depicted at all, it is as a giant black cat with six legs.
Oc'holu'a / The Watcher
Symbol: A mass of eyes inside a lidless lizard's eye
Associated with: Visions, Madness, Knowledge, Secrets
Mythos
Oc'holu'a the baleful watcher is a thing only whispered of by madmen. Said to have been lurking unseen within the palace, it was cast into the deepest depths by a congregation of the gods.
Little is known or speculated about what it is or what it wants, if such motivations could even be ascribed to it. It is thought to always seek forbidden secrets, driven purely by the drive to know.
Malinyx
Symbol: Black spider in a web
Associated with: Prisons, Hopelessness, Spite
Mythos
Some stories hold that the Malinyx is not just a subterannean prison, filled with darkness and despair. It is a primordial power as well. Myths are conflicted as to her nature She is sometimes depicted as a woman abandoned by her lover in a barren wasteland. Sometimes as a gargantuan spider devouring all who are caught in her web.
Mention of the Primordials
Since the identity of the Primordials are mostly lost in time, here are mentioned only a few names that might still be known to Aekyrian inquisitors and well-read scholars.
Mikkelore
Who became enamored with light, and the alterations and subtleties of colors that came from one energy or another. In time, she developed an ongoing interest in the change of day to night. She created structure and pattern, she added the stars and moons to the firmament, influencing the tides and the shaping of the world.
Tul'kai'ro
The serpent of sky and stone, who is said to encircle the world. Often depicted as a blue-and-brown coiled and winged serpent. Its many travels threw up the mountains and shifted the continents and set the skies to swirl, creating cloud and mountain both.
Chal-Ighin
Who poured his spirit into the soil and gave it heat and cold, filling the world's heart with fire and its clouds with water.
Astheri
Who wove patterns from the chaotic elements on her great wheel, weaving the strands of fate loose, leaving room for luck in the empty spaces in between.
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