Arthryn, Goddess of the Arthwyd
Arthryn is the head of the Arthrynite Pantheon and the most central figure. Whatever the truth may truly be, the Arthwyd believe that Arthryn formed their civilisation, founded Greenbay and taught them how to farm. Arthryn is the central pillar of the Arthwyd and Arthwydish civilisation revolves around Arthryn.
Arthryn is considered the Goddess of the Arthwyd, but just what is considered to be the Arthwyd is murky. It could either be the political group known as the Arthwyd, the cultural group known as the Arthwyd, the ethnic group known as the Arthwyd or those who worship her as Arthrynites. So far, the question remains not only unanswered, but unasked as all of these groups have been the same for as long as they have existed.
Unlike some foreign deities, Arthryn does not require sacrifices or tribute and such things as a violation of her ways for they waste the community's resources. Instead, Arthryn is revered by following her teachings and looking to her for guidance. The Arthrynites will show their worship to the goddess by doing their best to help their community by doing their duties.
That said, the Arthrynites do have ceremonies and rituals, but they are meant to teach and celebrate, doing so at the same time for the most part. The majority of the Arthrynite ceremonies and rituals will celebrate some aspect or aspects of Arthryn or her Daughters, but at the same time, they will tell a lesson about how a proper Arthrynite should act.
Ultimately, Arthryn and her worshippers have an abnormally friendly relationship, almost camaraderie in some ways. For the Arthrynites that revere her, Arthryn is not some high up deity that is either outside them or beyond them, but simply the oldest and greatest of them. Arthryn is the oldest member of the Arthwyd and they are all Arthwydish. Arthryn is respected, but that respect is closer to the respect given to a wise and trusted elder than the respect given to a deity.
As a result of viewing Arthryn as one of their own, the Arthwyd view Arthryn as the greatest of them and use her as measuring stick of what is good in the world. Arthrynites will consider someone who follows the teachings of Arthryn to be virtuous while Arthryn defines the Arthwydish standard of beauty with looking closer to Arthryn's appearance being considered more beautiful.
While she has no direct domain outside of the Arthwyd, Arthryn has plenty of concepts and beliefs that she is associated with. Cats are seen as her sacred animals and hold a special place in Arthrynite society for that. She is primarily associated with soil and stone thanks to teaching the Arthwyd how to farm. Arthryn is also seen as a mother figure thanks to the rest of the Arthrynite pantheon being her daughters and being the founder of the Arthwyd.
Arthryn's commands to her followers are simple for they are to follow her teachings to the best of their abilities. While there are many lesser teachings such as how to farm and the importance of it, the main two are about equality and the community.
The former is about how everyone is born equal and while the choices of a person and the world around them can make them greater or lesser, every individual comes from the same place and no one inherently superior or inferior to those around them.
The latter is about looking after one's community. A proper Arthrynite is do their duty to the community as best they can, to aid and help their neighbours and to show kindness and loyalty to their people. An Arthrynite is stand by their community and their community is to stand by them.
Personality wise, Arthryn is rather relaxed and forgiving. She indulges the particularities that her individual followers have and understands that her worshippers will make minor mistakes from time to time. She is kind and motherly, but also stern and willingly to stand by her principles without compromise. Just she is benevolent to her people, Arthryn will ruin the day of any other entity who stands against her or tries to go after her people.
When it comes to appearance, Arthryn is the pinnacle of beauty in the eyes of her followers for it is her that they use as a measuring stick. She is a tall individual with a lean and muscular figure that has a curvy bosom and wide hips. Her eyes are blue while her brown hair falls down to her shoulders. While Arthryn is always depicted as being youthful, she is always at least twenty winters old and often closer to thirty.
Wyrn, Goddess of Stories, Trickery and Arts
Wyrn is the eldest daughter of Arthryn and the only one that can claim a blood relation to her. In many ways, Wyrn is a counterpart to Arthryn as she is younger and less restrained than her strict, but fair mother.
Wyrn is the main sponsor of culture and arts within the Arthwyd. Those who tell stories and create works of art look to Wyrn for guidance and the goddess eagerly gives it. In many ways, Wyrn is one of the most influential goddesses in the Arthrynite pantheon as she indirectly shapes the culture of the Arthwyd rather the guidance that she gives.
When it comes to her personality, Wyrn is carefree and lively, bordering on recklessness and being irresponsible. She fully embraces being a goddess and the perks that come with it, taking full advantage of her divine power. She revels in the freedom and power that she has. Yet Wyrn stop short of being irresponsible and never shirks from her duties. As much as she likes to relax and enjoy herself, Wyrn is very careful in how she influences the Arthwyd and she makes sure to never push the Arthwyd down a dark path or abuse her divine power.
While Wyrn is primarily associated with her stories and arts, the goddess is also seen as the one who knows how to have a good time the best. This is mainly due to her carefree nature and general desire to have fun. When an Arthrynite wants to have a good time, they will turn for Wyrn for guidance, especially if it is risqué in nature. This has had the knock-on effect of getting Arthwydish culture the tendency to be lewd and vulgar in nature.
Appearance wise, Wyrn is considered to be almost identical to her mother with the main difference being their age. While Arthryn is mature if youthful as a mother figure, Wyrn is youth and barely of age as a daughter figure. Furthermore, Wyrn is often portrayed more light-heartedly and casually compared to her mother.
Ymarn, Goddess of Life, Wisdom and War
Ymarn is an adopted daughter of Arthryn and an ascended mortal who Arthryn adopted as her divine daughter for her deeds in life. Ymarn's divinity is related to her deeds in life, wisdom for her wise leadership of the Arthwyd, war as she oversaw the Arthwyd's first period of warfare plus her founding of the Cateyes and life due to her exceptional longevity as a mortal.
When it comes to her domain of war, it is primarily strategic in nature and is focused on logistics, strategy and overall war rather than on battles and personal combat. If an Arthwydish needs help in war beyond an immediate fight, they will seek out guidance from Ymarn.
As the goddess of wisdom, it is expected within Arthwydish society that all leaders will seek guidance from Ymarn, so that they can lead their communities with her wisdom. In this regard, Ymarn sees more worship from the higher rungs of society through plenty of common people will seek her wisdom to help them with their lives.
Ymarn is primarily associated with leadership within Arthwydish society, both helping leaders and providing good leadership herself. Ymarn is viewed as a wise figure, the epitome of the elder system that existed before the Cadlons and still lingers to this day. That is little passion to her, but there is great respect to Ymarn.
Personality wise, Ymarn is a wisdom incarnate, a kind elder who has experienced all that life has to offer and knows exactly what to do thanks to her all-knowing wisdom. While she and everyone knows that she isn't actually perfect and has her fallibilities, Ymarn projects an air of grandmotherly confidence and is someone that everyone can go to for help with their problems. Ymarn is a steady presence who rarely indulges in acts of passion and stands steadfast as a rock of stability.
With her appearance, Ymarn is youthful and beautiful like all of the goddesses in the Arthrynite pantheon. While not as old as Arthryn, Ymarn is the most mature of her mother's daughters with a shapely figure, knowing green eyes and long hair that bears the silver of the elders that Ymarn is the exemplar of. As the goddess of war and founder of the Cateyes, Ymarn is most commonly portrayed in the garb of the Cateyes despite never being one herself.
All-Seeress, Goddess of Truth, Knowledge and Pathfinding
The All-Seeress is the oddest member of the Arthrynite pantheon and the goddess who fits in the least. This is primarily due to the fact that she was not originally a member of the Arthwyd like the rest of the pantheon and was an outsider deity who was adopted into it.
Before she was the All-Seeress, he was the All-Seer, the original god of the Merntir. Following the Arthwyd-Merntir war and the Merntir Civil War, the All-Seer was adopted into the Arthrynite pantheon by Arthryn as her daughter in an act of mercy. Her original domains lost to time, the All-Seeress became the goddess of truth, knowledge and pathfinding.
The All-Seeress is associated with the truth and the desire to find it and other knowledge. She plays a vital role in Arthwydish society as it is her magic that allows the priesthood to tell the truth from falsehoods and other deceptions. While she has other useful magic, the truth detecting that the All-Seeress grants is a vital part of Arthwydish society and one of the reasons that the priesthood is so trusted. She plays little part directly in the lives of most Arthwyd, but her presence indirectly shapes the lives of all.
With her personality, the All-Seeress barely has one. Stern and dour, the goddess brooks no nonsense as she is completely focused on her duties. Considered the opposite of the humorous and playful Wyrn, the All-Seeress cares for nothing outside of finding out the truth, to furthering knowledge and finding the right path.
When it comes to her appearance, the All-Seeress is the standard youthful beauty with only her white eyes and long blonde hair. Her most striking feature is how she is slender rather than lean, lacking the muscles that her mother and other siblings have.
Evalyn, Goddess of Battle, Death and Leadership
Evalyn Boarslayer is a very popular goddess thanks to her deeds in mortal life and easily the second most worshiped member of the Arthrynite pantheon after Arthryn herself. As a goddess, she has the domains of battle thanks to her work as a warrior and spending much of her life on a battlefield, death due to battling the undead and how much she was involved in killing others and leadership due to being the first Cadlon of the Arthwyd and being the greatest warleader of the Arthwyd.
All rungs of society favour Evalyn. The leaders of the Arthwyd turn to her for guidance on how to be good leaders as the goddess of leadership while the warriors of the Arthwyd seek her guidance when it comes to tactics, battles and personal combat. Everyone gives respect to the goddess of death as the one who guides them to Arthryn's realm when they die and go to be with the goddesses.
Evalyn also enjoys a good amount of popularity that is left over from her mortal life. A boisterous, but approachable leader, Evalyn is fondly remembered as someone who the average person could approach and have a good time with. She is also remembered as the Boarslayer, the individual who slew Vervov and led the Arthwyd to victory in their darkest hour. It was Evalyn who defeated the Caradysh and personally saved the Arthwyd from Urth and the evil undead of the Cursed Forest. Evalyn was a highly popular folk hero in life and that has followed her when she ascended into divinity.
Evalyn is often compared and contrasted with her sister Ymarn with Battle matching War, Death matching Life and Leadership matching Wisdom. Rather than be opposed, the two goddesses are considered to be complimentary as what is a War without Battles or Life without Death or Leadership without Wisdom?
Personality wise, Evalyn is a cheerful warrior and an approachable leader. While not the greatest Cadlon, she is certainly the greatest warrior and is considered the epitome of a Catclaw with her friendly and boisterous manner. While she never acts irresponsibly or shirks from her duty, Evalyn has little restraint when it does not impact on her responsibilities and greatly enjoys a good time off of the battlefield.
With her appearance, Evalyn is a beautiful warrior-goddess with a noticeably muscular figure, green eyes and a fiery mane of red hair. She is always portrayed as warrior and it is almost always a Catclaw thanks to being their founder.
Bronwyn, Goddess of Beauty, Love and Charity
Bronwyn is the most recent addition to the Arthrynite pantheon. Famed for her peacetime deeds, Bronwyn is something of a household name and a popular goddess even if she lacks the sheer fame of Arthryn or Evalyn. The youngest member of the Arthrynite pantheon, Bronwyn has the domains of beauty thanks to her legendary looks while she has love and charity thanks to the kindness and compassion she showed both her own people and the refugees fleeing the horrors of the barbaric lowlands.
Said to be as beautiful as Arthryn herself, Bronwyn is the champion of looking good and being pleasing on the eye. If an Arthrynite desires to improve their looks or make something look pretty or prettier, it is Bronwyn that they turn to for guidance. Bronwyn is also the goddess that the Arthwyd turn to when they seek out love. Her guidance is sort out by young lovers, those pursuing a potential partner or an individual who is looking for some love in their life.
Beyond matters of love and beauty, Bronwyn plays an important part in charity and other acts of helping others. She is the main sponsor of providing help to others, especially when that help is freely given. Bronwyn is the benefactor of refugees who seek haven within the Arthwyd and those helping them integrate into Arthwydish society.
In terms of her personality, Bronwyn is humble and compassionate. While she is beautiful and appreciates beauty in other people and things, Bronwyn does not let that turn into vanity and keeps the value of beauty in perspective. She is also renown for her kindness as she is willingly to show empathy and compassion to all.
Appearance wise, Bronwyn is almost identical to Arthryn and matches her mother's looks as closely as Wyrn does. Like Wyrn, Bronwyn is younger than Arthryn thanks to being the latter's daughter, but beyond that, they share the same beautiful appearance.
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This is all of the individual info posts compiled into a single big post. I originally planned to just do this one post, but I ended up posting each section individually.
Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to. Feel to ask questions for more details and information.
