uod

Heteri Religion

Pantheon

Utan the Destroyer

God of Warfare and Sovereignty, the Earth and The Sky and Oracle of the Fallen Bleeding Cities

Utan the Destroyer is the god of Warfare, the Earth & the Sky (in metaphoric terms). All the other deities are considered his slaves. The Heteri people recognize him as the greatest of gods, but holds that he ultimately cares little for his people. Legend has it that Utan was the first chief of the Heteri people and slew the elder gods, gaining immortality by consuming their blood and flesh, and birthed a new family of deities. From them he learned the secrets of the world and taught his people the ways of herding and husbandry. He raised his brothers and sisters, other chieftains up to the heavens to rules beside him. Utan iconography often includes dogs, specifically the steppe hound, with its long legs and lion-like mane.

Utan favors the bold, those that offer prayer and worship, but do not need it. Utan’s number is 6, his color yellow, and his favored sacrifices are reptiles or a male goat of adult age. On high holy days, clergy of Utan strip to the waist and paint themselves in yellow ochre. To honor Utan’s name, fast in remembrance of the first tribe’s famine.

Symbol: horizontal hemisphere overlapped with splay of 5 vertical lines (like fingers)

Hilinavyu

The Coal God

The Coal God governs mining and construction, metals, fires, and the hearth. Hilinavyu was the father of the Gods and keeper of the secrets of the mountains. Priests seek “secrets under the mountains” in Hilinavyu’s name and blacken the skin around the eyes when acting in his honor. Heteri seek out Hilinavyu’s blessing over the hearth in a new home or other construction. Large temple complexes devoted to Hilinvayu can be found in Narrosh and Bolog. Statues of Hilinavyu are always carved and depict the eyes surrounding by black or represented by shiny coal orbs. His number is nine and his color black. He has no animal, but rather a fire-ravaged tree.

Eluus

Eluus is also the Maetah Goddess of Vegetation and Fertility, but her worship originated long ago among the Heteri. Her colour is red, sacred number 4, and scared animals the goat and the mantis. It was common for women, especially widows and those who lost their children to serve Eluus, and many would act healers and midwives for the village. Women who were pregnant, hoping to become pregnant, or had ill children would keep an idol to Eluus hidden below their (or their sick child’s) bed. New families and marriages seeking children will burying an idol below the ground upon a house is built. Children born with red-hair are considered bless by Eluus and to bound for strength and good health.

Prayers to Eluus are said at dawn, and weekly worship is done before dawn at the beginning of the work week. Annual feasts are held at the beginning of spring, midsummer, and at harvest time. The central act of the spring celebration is for worshipers to have sex in their fields the night before planting. It is common for priests and priestesses of Eluus to participate, usually in exchange for an offering to the temple. During the summer celebrations, sacrifices of a young calf are offered to the god, slaughtered by the local priest, and left in the center of fields to be devoured by birds. If the whole carcass was gone by morning, the field was especially blessed by the goddess. In Maetah or northern regions, a shallow pit is fug in the center of fields, and filled with the bones of animals and dried crop offerings.

Chuglaior

The Whisperer of the Sleeping Cold

God of Spirits and Knowledge. Chuglaior comes in the form of a man with the visage of a shark or crocodile. He is thought to dwell under the waters and is called The Whisperer of the Sleeping Cold as calls the souls of the deceased to the afterlife in Utan’s realm. His color is a reddish-pink and his number 10. Holy acts in is honor take the form of bathing or diving in cold, unknown, or dark waters. Chuglaior’s sacrifices are invertebrates of that dwell in his watery realm. He stands in opposition to Lihoe, goddess of Weather and Fortune.

Bekalas

Bekalas is the God of Wealth and Trade. His number is five and his color blue, his animal the crane. Bekalas is a trickster god that also stands in opposition to the good fortune of Lihoe. His holy act is cleaning and purification of temples and sacred areas and his sacrifice is an offering of cakes and sweet foods.

Kos

Kos if the God of the Desert and the Natural World and known as the “Burrower of the Dawn”. Kos is said to guard the barrier between life and death, but has no role in the afterlife - that is Chuglaior’s domain. His number is 2, his animal the turtle, and his color the orange of the sunrise. Iconography of Kos shows him as hawk in the sky, a turtle superimposed upon a rising sun, or a scaled man with the head of a hawk.

Lihoe

Speaker of the Dusts of Time

Lihoe is the goddess of Horses, Weather and Fortune. Her favours are sought by travellers or those about to undertake a journey. An aspect of an old god, Jotesh, has been integrated during the strugle against the Mindat, seeking special favor for rebellion. Her animals are the snake and the horse. Iconography shows her a human faced horse with only 3 legs, one of which was stolen by Bekalas to weigh the scales of fortune. Her color is white and her number 12. Lihoe is said to “Dance with Eluus” to bring needed rains for farming.

Shobok

Thirster of the Ravening Wastelands

Shobok of the goddess of the Poor, the Sick and Diseased, and the patron of those seeking justice or vengeance. Her animal is the spider, her color is violet, and her number 8.

Practices

Elements of Regions

Standard Mythic Elements

Miscellaneous Elements