Archenian mythology

The ancient war, and the prophecy of Ermengand

In a time, far too long ago to be remembered by man, the realm of the gods was ruled by Ansgar, the single-horned god-king, who had created humanity to be their subjects. Ansgar's rule was good and just, but Perkeos, the god of air and deception, resented having to take orders from anyone but himself, and started to create dissent among the gods. Through a series of lies and trickery, he convinced Balduin, the husband of Irina, the goddess of grief, vengeance and oaths, to go against Ansgar. Balduin was killed during the ensuing argument, which caused half of the other gods to reject Ansgar's rule, too. A great battle raged on earth, with monsters, animals and humans on both sides. In the end, Ansgar's side lost. Their powers taken away, they were banned to Nomor, the underworld, by the other gods, and became known as the Nomari. Nomor is also the place where the dead reside, waiting to be freed from this place during the time of Ermengand, the final battle of the gods in which the great mechanical Hounds of Kor will destroy their chains and the Draken will reclaim the skies once more, where they will fight alongside the Nomari to claim their rightful place again.

List of gods:

Furnir
God of steam, fire, blacksmiths, war

Tyr
God of water, the sea, ships, trade

Haylia
Goddess of earth, plants, forests, houses

Perkeos
God of air, wind, deception, murder

Yngvdall
God of beer, ale, taverns, festivals

Tanoi
Goddess of wisdom, care, grace, books

Eodui
Goddess of sorcery, seduction

Borgeir
God of wolves, swiftness, night

Irina
Goddess of grief, vengeance, oaths

Honir
God of horses, light, day

Ways of worship

The Archenians gather in temples, which can be specific for one god in larger cities, to worship. They also pray at home, but they do not have a special place for that, nor does this require any special objects. The only god who is not worshipped in temples is Yngvdall, because he dislikes boring places like that - you worship him simply by drinking a lot of beer or ale and having a good time. There are a lot of statues in the streets of Archen as well as inside of the temples. The statues inside of those buildings are often equipped with highly complex mechanism which enable them to move their arms or head, make noises or glow from their eyes, hands, mouth etc. , to inspire the faith of the audience during a sermon. Some objects are often dedicated to a specific god. For example, weapons might be dedicated to Furnir or a ship to Tyr.

So this is the official main religion of Archen, modeled mostly after Norse and Roman mythology, with some of my own stuff added. Should there be a lot of animosity towards people who don't follow this, or do Archenians simply not care?

Nicely done. I think that there should be varying degrees to which the Archenians believe or not believe, but I'm thinking the majority should at least believe somewhat. Maybe some follow or perfer one god/goddess over the rest.

I agree with Obs; each person could favour one god over the other, which they can choose at a specific age (in a nationwide festival, or something).

If this is gonna go ahead, then Savv's favoured god is Borgeir, and her favoured goddess is Tanoi.

I guess we could do it like that, although you said Savv was the only person on the continent to speak Paplonian...so she's actually from another continent? This definitely wouldn't be the religion she grew up with, although she might have converted to it later.

I was wondering whether we could have the religion followed by all, but only the lower classes would believe in it these days. Belief is encouraged by the middle/upper classes as it keeps the undesirables in their place. Not that most of the priests believe it themselves.
Apart from a few individuals (who could be interesting to write), the Archenian church is largely a shell of belief coating corruption and greed.

Makes sense to have this a corrupt church of people just going through the motions and not believing since it is the official one of Archen, and the government of Archen is also corrupt. Goes together nicely, I would say!

Testing to see if I can use this...

Sounds like the religious organisations we have here on earth. ¬_¬

And ya, you're right; Savv's island isn't on the map that Spikey drew. *nod* I'll have to think of a different religion, then. ^_^

Maybe religion just wasn't that important to her in her old life, but now, she just started believing in the gods of her new home? Or religion isn't that important to her anyway, so she doesn't really believe in anything...I don't know, she can believe in this religion, or whatever other religion you'd like to invent.

I think Savv just thinks the gods and goddesses are cool, and is perhaps attracted to the outfits they're wearing? She tends to keep her reasons for things extremely shallow to prevent her from thinking to hard about things (which starts to depress her), so that sounds good enough for me. *nod*