Faiths of Sublanarya: The Maiden and the Louse (Boreana, Pomona and Scourge)

The tale begins on a perfect day in first-flower (spring). The sun was bright but fair, a gentle, warm and inviting embrace and the skies as clear and brilliant blue like the most primal and exact shade of that color incarnate. Even the gods have peaceful and lazy days, from time to time, and this perfect day inspired them to play among the mortals.

Even Soffia, the diligent and wise warrior goddess of the air, was overwhelmed with a desire to join the other gods in their frivolity. Experiencing these distracting moods for the first time would not do for Soffia and so she spilled the moods, good and bad, out of her head. The two currents formed into two goddess daughters: Boreana, the ill-tempered and strong, and Pomona, the weak and fair. Both were beautiful but Pomona had the eye of every male. Boreana was austere but too aloof. Pomona, on the other hand, seem to invite their interest, returning their leering gaze, and playfully inciting their desires. They mistaked her friendly and joyous demeanor for an easy target. She was as capricious as her sister but they did not see the trap.

 A few of the bachelor gods began to argue over who would be the first to court her but one emerged, despite the odds, to court Pomona.

Scourge the Violator was an upstart god. A disgusting and disturbing mortal who acquired power by illicit means but was, on the whole, regarded as a loser and a fluke by his rivals. The audacity of the ugly creature, his insectoid features and shrieking voice, made him a target of ridicule. He was a pest but it was too fun to see him fail to crush him. He had a way of failing spectacularly and coming out in one piece. That was how he became a god in the first place...

And so it was that Scourge made it clear that he would be the one to woo the windy maiden and Aurelian found the cocky lesser god's confidence amusing. He encouraged the disgusting creature to try and commanded the other male gods to not intervene in their entertainment. And so, Scourge took the form of his alter-ego, a handsome and wide-eyed mortal youth, and made his way to the field where Pomona could be found.

Scourge's disguise seemed to work. It seemed that the god's experience in his schemes being undermined by a noble young hero gave him insight into his performance as he acted the perfect gentleman, earnest and forthright, and earned the attention of the new goddess. It seemed like love at first sight as the foul god played on the maiden's naivete and he would impress the gods with his romantic pursuit.

But then Boreana noticed the bachelor gods watching the little romance unfold and, curiosity and jealousy, had her demand they explain why they were watching her twin sister's fun with such rapt amusement. When she heard of the game they were playing and of Scourge's deception, the wind turned.

The skies darkened and it began to rain. Their perfect day was ruined. The courting couple tried to run for cover and Pomona did not have a cloak. It seemed that Scourge had allowed himself to become too invested in his game, wrapped around the pretty goddess's finger, and used his cloak to protect her from the rain. As the rain hit his disguise, it washed away and revealed his true form to Pomona. The goddess was disgusted, pushing him away, and fled.

Scourge felt more than just defeat. The lie had become real. He felt something new and, as he knelt in a puddle, looking in the direction that Pomona fled, he would hear the voice of Boreana:

"I hoped you enjoyed your perfect day, Scourge. It will be the happiest day of your life, past, present and future. You will never know a more perfect day. You can chase it but it will always be just out of reach. In the past. I promise you that."

And Scourge the Violator knew the pain of loss and only in seeing others suffer the same  pain would he ever feel temporary relief in his broken heart.

Faith of Sublanarya: Gorgyra the Queen of the Black Sun and Iris the Divine Message

 

Some say their worlds will end in fire. Some say in ice.

But on Narya?

The end times, in many cultures of Narya, depict ophidians, snakes and serpents, as the deliverers of said end times. Whether it is the tail of world serpent Jormungandr devouring the sun and killing the All-Father himself or the Niddhog's poison finally killing the World Tree, serpent gods are constantly framed as the ultimate threat to the world. Certainly, there are some snaked gods with less than evil intent and not all serpents are evil, but generalizations against snakes and serpents on this world come from myth, legend and prophecy of such creatures being inherently villainous. Rumors of underground cities of yuan-ti ruled by ancient undead Ophidean sorcerers and of entire empires of serpents in undiscovered jungles certainly don't help this view.

And neither does Gorgyra the Doom-Mother.

The story begins with the daughter of a titan who fell in love with the radiant and beautiful sun god Aurelion. She wished to become his queen and rule the heavens. To achieve this end, she sought out power from the snake gods, who are all enemies of Aurelion after he defeated one of their number as a child. They gave her a poisoned laced cup of gold and told her to have him drink of it. After doing so, he would fall for her and become her slave.

She managed to find him celebrating his daughter Iris's birthday. Iris is the daughter resultant of Aurelion's relationship with the princess of a Wyrd Wars empire. She is the goddess of rainbows, auroras, and all beautiful tricks of the light in dawn or dusk. She serves as the mistress of the angels of the Heavens, sending banner and herald angels to carry messages to the various gods of the pantheon, and is as beautiful as her father. It is said that she has eyes and ears throughout the material plane and that she can find out anything that happens under the rays of the sun.

Iris did not trust the stranger, especially when she offered a gift to her father rather than to Iris. Her suspicions strengthened when she discovered the guest, as she sat enchanting her father with her beguiling eyes, had recently been visited by serpents. When she saw the goblet that the pale Gorgyra had brought, she noticed a glint in the bottom of the cup. She had Yollo, fastest among the gods, to swap her cup with Aurelion's and disguise hers so she would not realize it was the gift she had intended for the sun god.

When the time came for toasts, Gorgyra made a toast to their host and lifted her glass. As they all drank of the heavenly nectar wine, she let out a blood curling shriek, and her cup fell from her hand, clattering to the floor, and dissolving into a dark pool of serpents. She clutched at her throat, Aurelion moving to her side, but it was too late.

Gorgyra was transformed into a monstrous form: her hair became black serpents like in the pool that she had fallen into as she was consumed by the terrible darkness. It seemed the serpent gods had intended not to win Aurelion for Gorgyra but to curse him with some terrible poison. Before she could harm any of the guests, Aurelion acted.

Gorgyra was banished from all that the sunlight touches, forced to retreat into shadow and darkness, some deep dark cave or realm beyond mortal eyes, where she would be unable to ever gaze upon the beauty of the sun ever again.

As she withered in isolation, she gained control of her new found monstrous power and today Gorgyra is known as the mother of the gorgons, the medusae and the cockatrice. She is the goddess of assassins, darkness and deception and, one day, she believes her servants will succeed in darkening the sun's hold of the material plane forever so that she can rule as queen.

GORGYRA
Title(s)

Queen of the Black Sun, Serpent Mother, The Dark Queen, The Dark Goddess, The Mother of Lies

Pantheon(s)

New Gods

Power Level

Intermediate Deity

Alignment

Neutral Evil

Symbol

A coiled black serpent around a sun

Realm

Twilight Realm

Portfolio

Poison, assassination, lies, deception, darkness, envy

Domains

Trickery, Arcane, Death,

Worshipers

Assassins, yuan-ti, medusae, troglodytes and other underground dwellers

Favored Weapon

The bow

IRIS
Title(s)

The Queen of Heralds, The Bright and Brilliant, Her Radiance, The Princess of the Dawn, The Rainbow Messenger

Pantheon(s)

New Gods

Power Level

Lesser Deity

Alignment

Lawful Good

Symbol

An opalescent sun

Realm

Elysium

Portfolio

Truth, honesty, information, dawn, dusk, rainbows, auroras

Domains

Protection Light

Worshipers

Heralds, messengers, scholars, judges, translators, guardsmen,

Favored Weapon

The bow

Faiths of Sublanarya: Yollo the Angelic Herald

The story of Yollo begins with a young inventor being trapped in the Tower of Rowa, a prison for one set upon a  island, by the cruelty of his king. He had been trapped there until he devised a new weapon of war for the king. Yollo was a brilliant but foolhardy young man and attempted all manner of escape from the tower only to be rebuffed by the prison guards, vicious waves, sharp rocks and sea monsters surrounding the small island prison. He managed to escape the confines of the tower many times but always found himself back in the tower. Eventually, Yollo looked to nature for inspiration and saw gulls flying from island to island, safely, and nesting in the rocky outcroppings between.

Quickly, he set about searching the tower for the supplies he would need. Yollo was a terribly clever inventor, having used the meager supplies within in all his escapes, he set about a grand design: he built a mechanical harness and, taking feathers from the birds he found along the shower and weaving them together with wax from the tower's candles, created a pair of gorgeous wings that he could control. He had watched the bird's long enough that, without a trial, he put on his makeshift wings and leaped from the tower. His genius design worked and Yollo took flight.

Yollo felt freedom and power that he had never felt before, soaring and gliding and rising and falling at his own whim over the waves below, as a great hybrid of bird and man. As naturally as an angel, he flew higher and higher, up into the sky and broke through the clouds above. He saw the sky before him, a domain untouched by the likes of mortal men, and was overwhelmed with a desire to embrace it. He saw the sun, flying towards the warmth of it, and wishes to catch Aurelion himself. Unfortunately, in his hubris, he forgot the wax of his wings. As he flew higher towards the sun, the wax of his wings began to melt, feathers fell away and, when he realized he was losing control, it was too late.

Yollo fell from the heavens.

When Yollo's body struck the sea, his bones were broken and he began to drown. The gods had seen his ascent and, in their mercy, they saved him from the sea. They had witnesses his ingenuity and wished to reward him. They fixed his wings and made him an equal to the angels of the heavens, Aurelion himself putting him in the service of his daughter Iris, where he became a messenger in her service. He became a favorite among the gods: he flew faster than any of the angels, performing his duties with impressive timing and without fail, and his pleasant demeanor, mixed with his quick-wit and cunning, allowed him to become a staple companion to the gods of good.

His true test came in the war between the New Gods and Titans.

While best known for his good humor, Yollo had little sympathy for evil, using his speed to cut down villans and, in the events that brought about the Wyrd Wars, Yollo rose to the status of godhood by showing great courage and capability, helping the New Gods in their struggle, and helping to banish/slay/imprison the Unnamed God.

Since the Wyrd Wars, Yollo has continued his work as a messenger and companion to the gods, often found in the company of Aurelion or Iris, if not playing some game of skill against the other trickster gods like Reynardo the Fox, and is the patron of free passage throughout Narya-- whether it be the free trade of ideas and merchandise or in the safety of travelers or in the freedom of the good and innocent.