For Glogtober 23’, answering the prompt “Failed Gods and their Consequences”
The Poisonwood
A god of death and isolation.
Demeanour: Recalcitrant, callous, parochial, racist
Symbols: Twisted vine, corpse impaled on branch, the Seal of Tul
Common Worshipers: Once, the Tuliath people. It was a local god.
Why do people suffer? The world is a flawed design.
Ban: Entering the forest uninvited.
Wrath: Respiratory failure.
Sacrament: Living Sacrifices
Blessing: Poison immunity.
An ancient speaker, in times remembered only by the most robust of oral histories, made himself a god. He made himself a forest god. An empire no longer remembered was coming to conquer the high forested valleys of Tul. The speakers of the land came together and begged their spirits for help, but their spirits deserted them, for the enemy speakers were mightier and more persuasive.
So one speaker bound himself to the land. And the land became a poison that made any but the Tuliath sick as death, or sicker. They were conquered anyway.
The Wilds took them a long time ago, but maybe that green wood still roams the lost lands - killing that which it encounters.
The Praeceptors
Council-gods of hubris and vanity.
Demeanour: Squabbling, manic, genius, forgetful.
Symbols: Eight-pointed star of peacock feathers, eight green eyes, gold hand.
Common Worshipers: Makhlans and certain insane wizards.
Why do people suffer? Reality is decaying.
Ban: Disobedience, ignorance and reality damage.
Wrath: Mental disassembly, incorporation into memory library.
Sacrament: Sorcery, learning and reality repair.
Blessing: Powerful spells and enchanted staves of gold.
A council of wizards from lost Makhlar. The sorcerer-king Rakh-Nua oversaw their transformation - skin plated in living gold, crowned in adamant, eyes replaced with gems, souls transformed into a living hymn to the world. They went mad immediately, of course - hyperspell matrices and lattices of light consumed them. It’s possible they’re still there, casting their cosmic spells in the ruins of old Vul-Khimeros, wherever it may be.
The God-Eaters
Small gods of predation and violence.
Demeanour: Varies, but often arrogant and hotblooded.
Symbols: Open fangs, barbed spear impaling a hand, lion with two mouths.
Common Worshipers: Hunters, members of their packs, each other
Why do people suffer? Philosophy is a pointless exercise.
Ban: Weakness.
Wrath: Being hunted.
Sacrament: Strength.
Blessing: An offer to partake in the flesh, and become a God-Eater yourself.
They summoned an Aspect to Aclas, and they ate it. Piece by bloody piece. The lords of Orosara consumed the holy flesh and stole some mote of transcendence. They still roam the world, in horrible packs of quartergod megalomaniacs and their devoted family-cult. They are insane, all of them. A religion of shooting you in the leg with a feathered arrow and slowly, slowly, following you as you bleed out.
Their philosophy is nihilistic - everyone is just a tube that takes in living things and produces shit. People are hardly special. Eat, men, eat.
The Tree of Measured Time
A god of failure and false hope.
Demeanour: Pained, patient, compassionate, irrational.
Symbols: Triunic geometry (above), branch and bird, white apple.
Common Worshipers: Taremi people, Triune revivalists, certain wizardly sects.
Why do people suffer? The world is broken.
Ban: Destroying anything beyond memory.
Wrath: Nothing.
Sacrament: Remembering and restoring lost things.
Blessing: Nothing.
Once, a sacred Spirit-Tree planted at the heart of the lands of Tarem, high in the forested mountains. The Triune, the sorcerous sages of legend, worshipped as lesser gods themselves, were its keepers. The Tarem calendar was based around its growth, hence the name. The Triune attempted to transform it into a transcendent being, to expand the Ward and return the lost world to us. In pursuit of this noble goal, many transgressions were made - much sacrifice, much challenge and many setbacks overcome….
All amounting to nothing. The Tree is lost and the Tarem lands are fractured. The world is still ruined.
The Medicant
A god of the greater good, and of healing.
Demeanour: Meditative, compassionate, silent, patient.
Symbols: Blue lotus, hands in a prayer gesture, glowing flowers.
Common Worshipers: Necromancers, healers and anatomists.
Why do people suffer? They’re wounded, and need to be healed.
Ban: World-destruction and Shattering.
Wrath: Immobility, twisting, cancer.
Sacrament: Compassion and medical necromancy.
Blessing: Regeneration, longevity, growth.
The ultimate goal of a deranged necromancer, who wished to heal a world that refused to be healed. They fought him every step of the way - and, damn them, they succeeded in staying sick and wounded.
He didn’t fail, but his work did not succeed. He vanished, and the sleeping god lies in wait - ready to ꜱᴇᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ʀɪɢʜᴛ.
The Anti-Sun
A god of hunger and rejection.
Demeanour: Insane, alien, sociopathic, mechanical
Symbols: Sun made of negative space, black circle, cracked gem.
Common Worshipers: Vampires and ghasts, nearly exclusively.
Why do people suffer? SCREAM LOUDER
Ban: Living, fighting and dreaming.
Wrath: Darkness
Sacrament: Nobody knows, though theorised as undeath.
Blessing: Never gained
Built atop the highest mountain in the long-gone land of Terthada, to give the vampiric nobility a final and permanent solution to the golden light of Vanar, inimical to those life-stealing jiangshi horrors. It was something like a great reverse lens, imbued with stolen transcendence derived from god knows where. The nature of a God is not darkness, and the Anti-Sun did not… work.
Well, that’s not right - it worked too well.
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