Pelithine Divinity

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The Theoi and Their Mantles

• The nine Theoi were the shard-god Primarchs of Pelithos. By the end of the Time Storm, they had ceased to exist, and little is known about them or deeds.
  • Their names are not remembered, so they are known only by their titles.
  • They are generally believed to have sacrificed themselves to contain the chaos of the Time Storm and the attempted escape of the titans.
• Each Theos shattered into three parts, referred to as Mantles, each a combination of the god's divine focus and their soul.

The Builder

• God of Form. Traditionally represented as an older, muscular man with a crooked leg. He was the craftsman and architect of the gods. Serious, perfectionist, curious and creative, sometimes even a little playful in his works.
• Mantles
  • The Key
  • The Hammer
  • ???clay (argilos)

The Mariner

• God of Life. Represented as a muscular, bearded man in his prime, boisterous and passionate, fond of revels. He had a fiery temper, but was abundantly generous and forgiving when his ire was spent. Always roaming the seas in his ship.
• Mantles
  • The Trident
  • The Cornucopia
  • The Caduceus

The Weaver

• Goddess of Destiny. Depicted as a striking, older woman with the bearing of a matriarch. Regal and farsighted, she guided her charges with a stern hand.
• Mantles
  • The Loom
  • The Owl
  • The Pyxis

The Keeper

(death, man)

• Mantles
  • The Oboloi (ruler of the underworld, crucible, lead coins, gravity)
  • The Sickle (dying, entropy, killing)
  • The Amphora (psychopomp, gathering of waters, holds the memories/experiences of the dead; in vino veritas; poet speaks the stories of the dead? drink to forget / river lethe? maenads (lose the drinking contest and become a maenad, dionysus and thanatos)

The Sentinel

(day, woman)

• Mantles
  • The Aegis (protection, courage, hope)
  • The Wreath (charismatic leadership, harmony)
  • The Beacon (clear sight, revelation, truth, light)

The Reaver

(night, man)

• Mantles
  • The Helm (tyrany, domination, fear)
  • The Viper (treachery, discord, hate)
  • The Spear (mercilessness)

The Huntress

(summer, woman)

• Mantles
  • The Bow (speed, movement)
  • The Horn (sound, call to passion)
  • The Hound (swift, hungry, and howls)

The Dancer

• God of Pattern. Depicted as a youthful, androgynous figure, lithe and athletic.
• Mantles
  • "the edict" "the scroll" "the tablet" "the message"
  • The Lyre
  • The White Tree

The Witch

(winter, woman) - white witch vibe

• Mantles
  • The Jewel (greed)
  • The Wand (ice, cold; can't fully inherit until you have a daughter of your own)
  • The Veil / Shroud (stillness, heat death, grief, sorrow, regret)

The Imitheoi

• An imitheos (demigod) is a mortal bonded to one of the Mantles and able to wield its power.
  • Imitheoi are also know as Bearers (e.g. Trident-Bearer, Bearer of the Hound, etc).
  • The means of bonding varies among the Mantles, often taking the form of specific rituals or contests. The Mantles contain not only the divine power, but fragments of the original gods' souls. They are not conscious, intelligent artifacts, but the personality, attitudes, goals, dislikes and interests of the god uniquely color each Mantle's nature.
  • Mantles move on upon the death of their bearer, seeking a new one according to their preference. Some Mantles may reject and leave a bearer who falls too far out of alignment with it, and some can also be usurped from a current bearer.
• Imitheoi are not as powerful as Primarchs.
  • Despite representing a third of the original divine focus, a Mantle comes closer to wielding a quarter of its power.
  • To wield the full power of a Mantle requires both personal practice by the bearer, but also their attunement with the "personality" and nature of the Mantle. Many bearers never truly master their Mantle.
• The struggles and machinations of the imitheoi some of the main movers of events on Pelithos, collectively called the Theagonas (contest of gods).

Thrones

• The Apparatus has nine "slots" for the expected nine gods, termed Thrones. Imitheoi can, by various metaphysical maneuverings, attach themselves to these slots, greatly amplifying their power.
  • These (up to) nine Imitheoi are referred to as Enthroned (e.g. the Aegis Enthroned, the Trident Enthroned).
  • If each Mantle holds a quarter of a Primarch's full power; the remaining quarter residing in the Throne, to be wielded by its occupant. Enthroned imitheoi have much greater capacity for large-scale and long-lasting works; the creation of new beings or objects of power, kingdom-spanning enchantments, etc.
• The Apparatus "wants" one imitheos Enthroned from each Domain, but it's possible to overcome this.
  • The Enthronement of imitheoi from the same domain is less stable, so they often come into conflict, trying to dethrone one another to secure their own position.
  • Side-effects in the Apparatus result from the lack of an Enthroned domain. The domain's power may become weak, surge out of control, or fluctuate erratically. The other imitheoi and servitors can work to counterbalance this, but it also pushes them to take sides in dethroning a surplus bearer.

Heraldry

• The power a Primarch has to invest in heralds and exarchs is more fungible for the imitheoi.
  • Some Mantles distribute this power according to their own designs, but many bearers can bestow greater or lesser amounts of power upon their followers, creating sacred bands or fellowships called thíasoi (sing: thíasos).
  • Even when the Mantle permits the bearer to distribute its power to followers, the imitheos often has to learn the "divine engineering" necessary to bestow it as they intend, and the same rules that govern the Mantle successor and what it seeks in a bearer can color who is able to attune to its power, or gain its favor.

• An imitheoi sometimes inherits the thiasos of their predecessor, or its dies out soon after its creator, leaving them a fresh canvas to work on. Some thiasoi persist apart from the current Mantle-Bearer, conveying their now-fixed pool of foci to new members. Some war with a new imitheos, who may want to redistribute power to his own loyalists, or the thiasos may feel one of their own should now bear the Mantle.
  • Like all heralds, divine foci bestowed cannot be reclaimed without the acquiescence or death of the bearer.

• Without reliable access to stable, widespread organizations of heralds, "folk heraldry" fills the gaps for ordinary Pelithines.
  • Many people seek local servitors for their aid, resulting in a wildly varying set of arrangements ranging from harmony to extortion to bizarre ritual demands.
  • "Performances" of a domain (festivals, feasts, contests, or other public ceremonies) also offer a crude means of amplifying the domain in the participants. A feast and orgy could boost Life, and a brutal series of contests could boost Night prior to a battle.

Servitors

• Given the cosmological disarray of Pelithos, and the unreliable attentions of the imithoi in addressing it, the Apparatus dispatches many, many servitors to the realm.
• These servitors often stay for much longer than in other realms, lingering long enough to develop independence and personality. This gives Pelithos a very animistic host of divine beings, great and small.
• Servitors, especially powerful ones, often do not quickly bow to the authority of imitheoi, especially weak or untested ones.
• Many powerful servitors have become patron "gods" of regions, natural features, cities, or organizations.

Temenoi

• A temenos is the Pelethine term for a Forgeheart, one of the regional loci of Form across the realm.
• From them, one can exercise power over a wider area and achieve deeper workings.
• Most temenoi have been claimed as the territory of servitors. Some are claimed instead by long-standing heraldic cults.
  • They may attract ordinary mortals seeking heraldic aid, becoming holy sites, or site of pilgrimage.
  • Imitheoi often seek them out when they need to push their power beyond its normal limits, and some establish a seat of power at a temenos.

The Mantles

Sample Mantle

• appearance
• powers
• rules of succession
• famous bearers
• cults & focus distribution

Builder (Form)

The Key

• Appearance
  • a sceptre-like rod of truemetal, studded with geometric forms.
• Powers
  • (modulates the flow of fury energies; throw lightning bolts)
  • The Key oversaw the transduction of free and integral reality into one another. The titancults have long sought to claim it, believing it is the key to opening the Vaults and perhaps even deintegrating the cosmos. Other imitheoi have gone out of their way to protect the Key and keep it from their hands.
  • The Key can draw on the power of Fury, even though it can no longer transduce it. The bearer is a font of fury magic, should they learn to control it, and they can give savants the initial charge of power that allows them to begin performing it.
  • The bearer is said to be able to draw almost limitless Fury power, but this risks causing extensive environmental fury-corruption and the violent loss of the Key.
• Rules of Succession
  • The bearer's bond to the Key weakens as the level of fury power around them rises (weather, charon, furyborn, spells, etc). Unlike many Mantles, this doesn't weaken their power at all, but if it get weak enough the Key can be physically seized and attuned to its new holder with a modest exercise of fury magic.
  • In truly drastic concentrations of fury power (such as drawing on the Key's full power, or if the bearer dies while channeling a great deal), the Key may explosively sever its bond (and the nearby surroundings and bystanders) and be hurled away.

The bearer can always pass the Key to a chosen successor by simply drawing enough power to weaken their bond, and handing it over.

• famous bearers
• cults & focus distribution

Mariner (Life)

The Trident

(controls water, seas, rivers, rain; created the spring of Pyrgos)

The Cornucopia

(birth, fertility, growth)

The Caduceus

(healing, medicine)

Weaver (Destiny)

The Loom

(fate, beginnings?, order time and space)

The Owl

(guidance, strategy, farsight, wisdom, travel)

The Pyxis

(doom, disruption, breadkdown of space and time) ???the bearer is turning the box into a die to become chance (carved runes on the faces of the box, it can grow and shrink)

Keeper (Death)

The Oboloi

(ruler of the underworld, crucible, lead coins, gravity)

The Sickle

(dying, entropy, killing)

The Amphora

(psychopomp, gathering of waters, holds the memories/experiences of the dead; in vino veritas; poet speaks the stories of the dead? drink to forget / river lethe? maenads (lose the drinking contest and become a maenad, dionysus and thanatos)

Sentinel (Day)

The Aegis

(protection, courage, hope)

The Wreath

(charismatic leadership, harmony)

The Beacon

(clear sight, revelation, truth, light)

Reaver (Night)

The Helm

(tyrany, domination, fear)

The Viper

(treachery, discord, hate)

The Spear

(mercilessness)

Huntress (Summer)

The Bow

(speed, movement)

The Horn

(sound, call to passion)

The Hound

(swift, hungry, and howls)

Dancer (Pattern)

"the edict" "the scroll" "the tablet" "the message"

(language, law, commerce)

The Lyre

(music, art, stories)

The White Tree

(now a vestige)

Witch (Winter)

The Jewel

(greed)

The Wand

(ice, cold; can't fully inherit until you have a daughter of your own)

The Veil / Shroud

(stillness, heat death, grief, sorrow, regret, the wisdom and insight of regret)