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Gryphon's Musings 1: Mythos and Mythologie

Journal Entry #1: Creation of Nuverta, rundown and background of the common mythos of its inhabitants
Author: Teebs
       In the beginning, there was nothingness, a cosmic array of matter. It was a dreadful existence, subsumed by the complete entropy of the void, motionless and still. Within the darkness, a wonderous spark awoke. The heavens turned alive, upon which great constellations arose shining within the deep darkness of space. The forge of creation was lit, the great deities of the great cosmos awakened by a mysterious force beyond their comprehension. These cosmological deities, now known as the Seers by their creations, quick went to work sculpting the clay of the universe. Under their watch, the Universe contorted and shifted, lighting up the skies with brilliant stars and vast galaxies.
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There are 6 Seers total. The first three (Kaira, Cyrus, Medeia) form the Seers of Order driven by their divine purpose and duty to organize the cosmos. The remaining three being (Phraedus, Hypatia, Xanithar) form the Seers of Chaos driven by impulsive desire to manifest change, uninhibited by any authority. Each have their own unique personality and goals, all united in their desire to create. Eventually, the Seers found themselves lacking purpose within this abyss of emptiness; their creations constantly degrading and passing away to the natural entropy of the universe. They knew this to be the work of the void, the natural entities that existed even before them, constantly eating away at everything they would create. In time, even the Seer's themselves would succumb to the natural darkness they had once banished with the light of the stars.
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The Seers convened together desperate for a solution, pooling their power together to create something that could resist the endless entropy of the Void. Between them white orbs materialized, a manifestation of their combined personality and desire to create. They could not understand it yet, but this small insignificant object would eventually be referred to as a "soul." The power held within was astronomical, a symbol of their combined power condensed into a single sphere. The soul could take many shapes and forms, the orb acting as a conduit to express its new appearance and power. An entity created from a soul was capable of great good... or great evil.
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       The Seers astounded by what they had done decided to experiment further. They first create two different planes, that of Mortalis and Aetherius. Most of you will know these as the realms of life and death. Of course, the seers needed to fill these empty planes utilizing their elemental powers. First, Phraedus would manifest the very earth, great plains of rock and stone spires. Next, Medeia filled the great basins with nourishing water as the first oceans and flora to emerge. Then, Cyrus and Hypatia introduced the elements of darkness and light, manifesting as cycles of day and night to nourish them. Finally, Xanithar introduced the aspect of fire to be an agent of inevitable change with Kaira finally added the spark of lightning which began the inevitable passage of time. A great scar on the world remains where these elements entered the world known as the fountain of creation, a magic tainted desert swirling with chaotic magical outbursts.
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       A soul would spend its existence living upon this new world in life, then proceed to be judged for its actions and cleansed accordingly before being allowed to emerge in a new form in a cycle of reincarnation. No soul was the same, some holding more energy than others or being more prone to certain aspects of the seers which manifested in the personalities of their forms and magical manipulation. To their surprise, the souls harnessed and created a new pantheon of mortal gods pledged to life and death respectively. To mediate these realms and prevent infighting over possession of souls, the Seers created a divine series of arbiters whose purpose was to act as a way for the realms to exchange mediate between them.

The Pantheon of Creation:
       Being creatures of the cosmos, Seers have no tangible form and hence usually take the form to interact more intimately with mortals. These illusions can manifest as entire planes of existence outside of the planes of Mortalis and Aetherius such as Xanithar's chaotic inverted realm within the mindscape of the one they are communicating with. Unfortunately, in recent times these Seers tend to bicker with one another over the fate of the mortal which causes a multitude of conflicts. Due to this, they have chosen avatars they imbue with their blessing to empower them into demigods who represent their ideals upon Mortalis and battle in their place. Additionally, exploration into the bending of magical elements will be explored in future chapters. For now, it is fine to understand that magic flows around us and that knowing how to access an element comes from dedication to a Seer's values.
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Kaira: Seer of Order
       Often seen as the head of the Seers, Kaira maintains the importance of civilization and orderly society above all else. To her, utilitarian use of resources and manpower is necessary despite the circumstances that may underlie the system of a society. To her, the most ordered society will benefit mortals on the long run even if they are somewhat oppressive to the lower castes (For Example: feudal protection is better than death in the wild). It is only natural after all, that souls should seek civilization and improve their lives as much as possible in order to root out evil. Despite her relatively cold nature, she genuinely cares for the well-being of mortals as if they were her children and is often responsible for mending the chaos Xanithar causes. Her avatar manifests itself as a kitsune and dragon hybrid. She is the holder of the element of lightning, and hence those who wield it must strive with self-righteousness and submit themselves to the judgement of her divine fury.
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Medeia: Seer of Tranquility
To Medeia, death and violence are but an endless cycle of vengeance which she seeks to silence. Mortals should be allowed to live in peace and appreciate the short existence their form has on the mortalis before their memories are wiped away. She ensures the coming of the spring rains and ensures that the ocean will not sweep over the many coastal settlements. But with her song comes endless tranquility, and a desire to abandon one's body to join her in her realm of absolute purity. It is said that Medeia choses the avatar form of an aquatic creature, an equally beautiful and terrifying alien form that is incomprehensible to all but her most devoted disciples. They stress the advance of inner-peace and scholarship, and mercy upon all those who can be redeemed. This seer strives to end violence and warfare, and hence often comes into conflict with Phraedus's "only the strong survive" ideology. She is the holder of the element of water, and hence those who seek to manipulate the waves must seek internal peace to move in rhythm with her sacred dance.
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Hypatia: Seer of Passion.
Known as the two-faced goddess, Hypatia is a patron of the inner desire and passions of mortals. She tends to interfere with events by lighting the passions (good or bad) of mortals who strive to accomplish their most carnal desires. She judges those brought before her by the strength of their will above their peers. To her, souls should strive to accomplish something in their short existence instead of wasting away with a life of wanting, whether that is dedication to a craft or greed. She has two forms she presents herself in corresponding to the dual nature of her follower's intentions, hence her title. In both she appears as a lioness, one with dark fur and harsh red eyes while the other in soothing blues with silver fur. Her disciples preach ambition above all, to satisfy one's own desires and goals. She is the holder of the element of darkness, and hence those who seek to control the darkness must prove their dedication and ambition to control them lest they lose concentration lose themselves to the shadows.
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Cyrus: Seer of Hope.
The father of time, Cyrus is the flickering torch of hope that blazes inside the hearts of all creatures, inspiring mortals even in the darkest of times. His avatar, said to be that of a mighty Ox in shining armor, is said to appear before hopeless armies and encourage them to fight on in their final hour. To Cyrus, all mortals should determine their own fates as they see fit with the time they are allowed. The mortals who live long enough into their old age are said to be blessed by him, as they have survived trials time and again in order to attain a peaceful rest. He challenges Hypatia's beliefs, praising those passions should not interfere with the livelihood of others. His disciples preach to freedom above all else, and to remain stubborn rather than subjugate under another's selfish intentions. They also adhere to elders, who Cyrus has blessed with long life and timely insight. He is the holder of the element of light, and hence those who seek to control the rays of the sun must show patience and excise righteousness and charity under his rejuvinating light.
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Phraedus: Seer of Nature.
Phreadus encompasses the natural state of mortals and the inherent struggle that all beings in nature experience to survive. To him, war and conflict is the natural way to harden souls into capable leaders and advanced societies. It is but a step in improving society through natural selection of those who are weak, and therefore not fit to survive. Yet, this god also ensure that all mortals are given a chance to succeed if they take the initiative. While he approves of cunning, he despises trickery that would allow for a weaker opponent to succeed. His anger boils at the idea of civilization... "taming the wilds" to the whims of weaklings. His avatar is said to be that of a mighty gnoll covered in the grim trophies of his worshipers. His disciples stress the importance of physical strength the seer should one day test you. He is the holder of the element of the earth, and hence those who seek to wield its power must bend the very stone with their sheer conviction and rage.
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Xanithar: Seer of Chaos.
The most devious and mischievous of the Seers. He is one of the main agents of change as he spreads his influence throughout the continents. While he is generally viewed as "evil", his actions tend to result in beneficial advancements after periods of chaos and lead to the destruction of oppressive societies. In the end, Xanithar just enjoys messing with mortals, and loves seeing how they react to his interference; his role serves as a counterbalance to Kaira, who's devotion to order would ultimately lead to totalitarianism if unopposed. While the worship of Xanithar is banned in most civil society, the chaotic nature of the seer rests in the hearts of all mortals. Much of his worshipers, mostly in mountainous tribes and rural societies praise the bringer of change as a needed force of renewal to the world. He is the holder of the element of fire, and hence those who seek to control the blazing flames must be fierce and unpredictable, able to burn away the work of those who would prevent change within the world.
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Avatars and The Elemental Lords
Servants of the Seers, avatars are mortals who most wholly represent their ideals empowered directly by the Seers to become virtual demigods. You should not confuse this with the avatar forms of the Seers despite the same name. Unlike the avatar forms of seers, these mortals only have a portion of their god's power. This can be a permanent affair or temporary should a Seer decide it. Of course, due to their limited influence on the Mortal plane there can only be a small amount of these avatars at once. Elemental Lords are the elementals left behind when the Seers ripped the cosmos away from Mortalis and Aetherius to manage the elements in their absence. Should an elemental lord be slain the magic they represent would cease to exist should another elemental not take the mantle.
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       Unknown to the Seers, this newest creation had been the final straw for the entities of the Void. Wielding matter was one thing, those would eventually disintegrate given time... but life and death... it was a continuous and endless cycle. The condensed energy within these "souls" were immune to the natural entropy of void. It was a crime against the very nature of the natural order, a pandora's box of possibilities. The insidious entities of the void had to act and pledged to destroy this subverted creation and take back the power stolen from them. The Seers could only watch in horror as the Void began to forcefully tear into their sacred construct, destroying everything it touched with its gooey tendrils. Once again tormented by the prospect of losing their work, the Seers tore the planes apart from the very fabric of the universe to protect their children. From then on, the stellar cosmos would only appear as distant stars in the night sky to its denizens. The Seers were still able to influence the plane, but with only a fraction of their divine power. In their hurry, they created grand elementals which would watch over their respective elements on the planes. The Void, frustrated by this development instead chose to influence the plane through dark whispers that rang through the minds of mortals.
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       The mortal gods, being separated from their creators, turned to the fates for direction only to find an undetermined path before them. The arbiters would exist only to perform their sacred duty of maintaining balance between the planes of mortals and the aether, nothing more. With that, the unending cycle of mortality truly began as each soul was left to its fate. These pantheons would grow and change over time but stay relatively true to their original purpose of balance despite many believing otherwise.

The Pantheons of Life and Death:
       A good note to make now, the gods of life and death are directly tied to the magic of the seers and hence is not considered "elemental magic". Instead, it is a manipulation of the power within souls of the user and individuals around them. They are mortal like any creature with a soul, but when a god passes away, they simply instantly reincarnate after a time as their immensely powerful souls just reform their bodies anew. If one could stop this process, however, the god would not be able to reincarnate and simply be in stasis. The Fates have been mentioned before, but just serve as judges who determine when a soul should pass away or reincarnate to make sure no side has too much power.
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       Life, the pure manifestation of it anyways, is the essence of mortality itself harvested from souls. It is a natural consequence of the Seer's creative magic stored within the soul orbs. The pantheon is led by a white fox named Soleia, a kind and gentle figure visited by many mortals seeking to be cured of ailments. She overlooks the realm of Mortalis, ensuring the Void's corruption or any other threat does not endanger her fellow deities. She is accompanied by the Primals, the first member of every animal species whose soul influences the instincts of all their kin. The Elder Spirits are more spiritual guides who perform certain tasks for mortals such as the Dream Shepard Miro. He safeguards and guides mortals through their dreams and nightmares, so they do not lose their way. Many of the deities live apart from one another, tending to their groves and kin across Mortalis. There are additionally several mortals very capable in life magic, and hence form an order of druids who serve these deities directly. Unlike the magic of the Seers, life magic depends upon utilizing the power of souls within mortals to manifest the pure aura of life. This can be used to invigorate allies or cause growth of flora etc. It should be mentioned that all the gods of life created animals, children of their own who do not have souls orbs but instead depend on the magic of their creators for sustenance on Mortalis. Hence, they have a much lower sense of identity and self-awareness than their "mortal" counterparts.
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       Death, the loss of mortality, is as natural as life. Anko, the head of the pantheon of death, rules over Aetherius with an iron fist due the nefarious nature of his courtiers. The Court of Shadows is usually portrayed as a medieval court, full of intrigue, ambition, and betrayal. It is here that souls are punished by shadowbinders (dead mortals committed to maintaining the cycle) in order to extract the corruption engrained during their lifetime. This causes the souls to "bleed", the essence being harvested for select nobles of the court. Once a soul has been purified, it is sent back to the Court of Shadows where it will be held by a courtier for safekeeping until the Fates demand it be returned for reincarnation. They maintain their purpose, despite their devious nature as they fear the judgement of The Fates above all else. One group that does defy The Fates are known as liches, a sort of black-market soul dealer that allows for souls to pass between Mortalis and Aetherius behind back of the arbiters. Like the life pantheon, the magic of death also is dependent of souls. Therefore, souls are viewed as a powerful currency and desired among the Court of Shadows. One can manipulate the power of souls to drain the life from their bodies or manipulate one's will to the wielder's advantage. In certain cases, magic of the caster's soul can be used to reanimate corpses.
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The memories of the souls are stripped before it can be allowed to return to the realm of life, and finally written down in detail upon the sacred scribe's scripts in the Court of Shadows. A final recollection of each soul and the existence that was allowed to prosper within the endless cycle of death and rebirth. In rare instances, a soul will refuse to forget its memories and form. For the good of the cycle, the form is forcibly ripped from its soul by The Fates to ensure it passes to rebirth. The remaining soul-less body is reborn as a demon, a creature in constant need of something, no anything... to mend the wound within their torn core. Demons tend to become creatures of malice, hoarding souls and being relatively selfish and reckless in their hopeless existence as phantoms of their former selves. Excellent examples of both are the goat chimera demon Kaguuroth, the mightiest of demons who sits upon a throne of souls he feeds upon for power and Saiya, a raven demoness who ripped the barrier between the mortal realms in order to reclaim her soul and rule an empire of corrupted and undead.
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       The remnants of the void, separated from their source of power by the rift would become what we know as the Void lords and the element of goo. Their hold on this hostile plane extremely tenuous, these entities tethered themselves to objects or places to avoid being banished away. There is very little we know about these strange, eldritch creatures but this is a general synopsis from my studies.
      
The Pantheon of the Void:
The "pantheon" of the Void can be little more describes as a series of eldritch and horrific monstrosities which hide away in the pits of madness. Unlike the creative gods driven by emotions, they are driven by pure instinct. This force of pure destruction seeks retribution for what it views as unnatural and irrational to natural order. There is no one "leader" of the Void, moreso the Void itself being a cabal of nefarious beings beyond mortal understanding. Their whispers can be heard within the minds of their servants and those afflicted with the Void's corruption. The void is represented by goo, a physical form of magic (think about the relationship between matter vs energy) which aggressively consumes the natural magic of the mortal plane to propagate itself. Goo expands as it feeds on magic, hence giving it a natural anti-magic property, attractive as a potential military technology (albeit extremely dangerous).
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Two "servants" of the Void left over from the rift created by the Seers are the Goo elementals and Void Lords. As mentioned before, these beings must tether themselves to something in the plane to avoid banishment such as Cedrax being tied to a mask that can take over the body of the wearer. Inchoates such as Rivyn and Vuul are goo elementals, being completely composed of goo with a powerful natural affinity for controlling the substance. Vuul is tethered to his corrupted tomb where his soul was irreversibly tainted by the taint of the void while Rivyn uses a technique to drain magic from her victims to maintain herself without a direct tether.
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The goals of all beings from the void are not all equal however. Some void entities such as Nysanthea seek to study and coexist in this new world, curious to learn about the plain so alien to their own, while others like Cedrax do not wish to consume but enslave the mortals of the world to their will. Each creature/god associated with these forces are driven by their basic instincts, and stive to accomplish their desires in their own unique ways. They are all, however, very dangerous and should be avoided if possible.
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Foolish mortals can attempt to control goo if they are skilled enough, though such a hostile element should be taken very seriously. Unlike the creative elements, goo is a force of destruction and therefore cannot be harvested from the winds of magic that flow through the world. One must carry a vial on themselves, and "feed" the goo magic in order to expand and starve the goo to shrink what they are working with. As any substance affiliated with the void, the whispers of the void will boom through your head as you perform these tasks. Many fall victim to the whispers and end up submitting to the void as insane servants bent on destroying Mortalis itself. Many cults corrupted by the Void exist within the world hidden away where the Seer's cannot unroot them. Due to this "goomancers" are viewed as fugitives and generally hunted down even before they succumb to the Void's corruption.
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One of the many horrors that emerged from the void, murkmites are vile tentacled parasites defined by a single eye that feed upon living beings by draining the magic inside of their souls after taking over their bodies. The more magically potent the soul, the more powerful the murkmite host will become as it absorbs the magic to propagate its own form and power. Thankfully these creatures would eventually be banished by the Great Warlord Vuul's sacrifice leading to his corruption into a goo elemental.
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        Within the centuries since the creation of this cycle, many events have challenged the balance of this sacred cycle of life and death, creation and destruction. There are many stories to tell, the travels of many souls to speak of written within the tapestry of the scribes of death. In the end, the story continues to move forward regardless of the actions of gods or mortals. The souls, imbued with mysterious energy of creation itself have not wavered over time, and remain as bright as the constellations of their creators in the sky. Throughout these musings you will hear of my own stories and other souls I bore witness to along my many travels.
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