Cults of the Dalhat

 

 

Women's Cults

 

Maruyet, Queen of Shepherds

When the world was young, Maruyet and her husband Pamenha were queen and king of the world. It was she who cursed him and all his sons with a weakness of the blood for his cruelty and infidelity, and her daughters who form all the six kins of the Marukhas to this day. All these kins still owe fealty to Maruyet under a thousand auspices, but the Dalhat keep to the oldest way of all.

• Symbols: Horses, giant bearsquirrels, bows, lassos, mountains, menstrual blood.
• Membership: Dalhat women.
• Minor Abilities: 
• Cure Stock 
• Ease Birth
• Hasten Mount
• Swift Arrow
• Major Abilities:
• Fertile Herds 
• Hasten Squadron

Maruyet, Queen of the Dead

In the valley of the river Helyente, there is a great depression, worn away by the waters throughout time immemorial but now left dry. Beneath those sands lie the stone skeletons of tens of thousands of ancient beasts, killed in some great cataclysm before time. The priests of the Queen of the Dead make a faith of raising them back to life as war-mounts for the nobles of the Dalhat.

• Symbols: War-birds, crested civets, crossed daggers, the grinning skull.
• Membership: Dalhat noblewomen, especially Valley Dalhat.
• Minor Abilities:
• Cure Wound
• Exsanguinate
• Sense Life 
• Speak With Beast
• Major Abilities:
• Raise Beast
• Raise Dead

Maruyet, Corpse Eater

The Qilqil kin, despite close relation and shared language, have long been the deadliest foe of the Dalhat. With enmity comes contact—raiding and incorporation, argument and ceasefire. One does not fight for so long without learning from one's opponent.

• Symbols: Ravens, elk, bows, lassos, mountains, the hanged man.
• Membership: Western Dalhat women.
• Minor Abilities:
• Avert Decay 
• Befriend Carrion
• Blight
• Blood Drinker 
• Major Abilities:
• Call Carrion
• Distant Eyes

Dalhat, First Queen

Maruyet's youngest daughter was the greatest, or so it is said. When she was exiled into the northern forests, she drew together her people amidst great hardships, drove out the weak folk who had lived there before, and birthed a kin to last the ages. Her cult has lessened in importance over the centuries, but it is still strong amongst the folk of the new-conquered east, and as always, in the family of the Queen herself.

• Symbols: Mother's Mountain, the Beast, maces, Dalhat's Crown.
• Membership: Dalhat noblewomen, especially Far Dalhat.
• Minor Abilities:
• Hasten Mount
• Physical Prowess
• Swift Arrow
• Trace Ancestry
• Major Abilities:
• Hasten Squadron
• War Mantle

Quandar, Warden of Heaven

When the winter snow melts, girls who have just survived their eleventh winter and completed their first initiation are sent with their family's priest of Quandar to learn those mysteries they had not yet been privy to. That these priests are most often sages, shamans, and scholars from distant lands is no matter—their education in the ways of the Dalhat is thorough.

• Symbols: Silver genets, falcons, constellations, styli.
• Membership: Eunuchs, especially enslaved foreigners.
• Minor Abilities:
• Heavenly Almanac
• Read Stars
• See Fabric 
• Speak With Dead 
• Major Abilities:
• Call Ancestor
• Starfire

Yandazan, Mother of Dawn

Far to the east, Maruyet's malcontent younger sister is said to be the tutelary goddess of the Tubay people, who are in many ways sisters to the Marukhas just like their deities. Despite the ill-will involved, the Dalhat still keep shrines to her, for she is family, and she holds the Holy Ones of the southern mountains to be sacred in her name.

• Symbols: Golden eagles, Holy Ones, axes, the rising sun, gold and jewels.
• Membership: Dalhat noblewomen, especially Great Dalhat.
• Minor Abilities:
• Befriend Eagle 
• Find Prey
• Flame Arrow
• Sense Wealth 
• Major Abilities:
• Flame Storm 
• Take Wing

Ginishana, Lady of the Snow

No one can quite decide whether the Lake People are truly Dalhat or merely tributaries, least of all the Lake People. Still, though their mighty goddess has been overtaken or syncretized in much of the marsh, her cult still persists in a purer form in the western reaches—and none could find it in themselves to deny her power when her snows blanket the frozen waters in an endless white waste.

• Symbols: Owls, spears, lanterns, the moon.
• Membership: Lake People women.
• Minor Abilities:
• Crystal Skin
• Frozen Wind
• Light
• Resist Cold
• Major Abilities:
• Icicle Spear
• Snowstorm

 

Men's Cults

Pamenha, King of the Sky

Maruyet's husband was once a magnate in his own right, before she cursed him for his misdeeds. Now he is much reduced, a mere subordinate, but still his powers are great: without him, the grass would not grow and the wind would not blow. His is the power of life and light, and none would do well to forget it. All his sons still know his name, and across the steppes his cult has never diminished.

• Symbols: Geese, sheep, spindles, the steppe, the sun, the sky.
• Membership: Dalhat men.
• Minor Abilities:
• Bless Armor
• Call Wind 
• Ignite
• Mending
• Major Abilities:
• Call Storm
• Fertile Grass

Pamenha, Depths of the Lake

Not all the Dalhat live careful, fragile lives on the high steppe, eking out a living from the thin soil amidst countless sheep. Around the deep, mighty, frigid waters of the great Lake and his many tributaries, the art of farming the rich earth is well-known and well-practiced. Pamenha's sons have not wholly given up their nomadic ways, of course, but by his power, they can dwell still for a while.

• Symbols: Ospreys, seals, nets, plows, deep waters.
• Membership: Dalhat men, especially near the Lake and rivers.
• Minor Abilities:
• Call Fish
• Call Wind
• Mending
• Seal Form
• Major Abilities:
• Fertile Grain
• Quell Storm

Rahyan, Keeper of the Flame

In the western mountains live the Half-Men, huge and mighty folk with the bottom half of a yak and the top half of a squat, ugly man. When the world was young, their mighty god Rahyan deserted them to serve Maruyet. Ever since, he has been held in high esteem among the Dalhat, for his wool is finer and tougher than any sheep's, his hearth kinder than any man's, and his steel sharper than any city-made thing.

• Symbols: Yaks, Half-Men, yurts, looms, anvils, grindstones.
• Membership: Dalhat men, especially Western and Great Dalhat.
• Minor Abilities:
• Ignite
• Filling Meal
• Sharpen Blade
• Warming Flame
• Major Abilities:
• Masterwork
• Warding Light

Mayanat, Far Wanderer

Not so long ago, a man called Mayanat was born to a Muryan mother. Fate was never kind to him; his family was raided and forced into exile, and he wandered the world for many years, becoming by necessity fiercer and wilier than any man should have to be. After he had made his way all the way across the world and back, visiting every land, he returned, and saved his people from great peril. His fame has spread across all the Marukhas.

• Symbols: Gulls, horses, shoes, staves.
• Membership: Dalhat men and female eunuchs, especially Valley Dalhat.
• Minor Abilities:
• Concealment
• Gift of Tongues
• Hasten Mount
• Invigorate
• Major Abilities:
• Boundary Line
• Safe Travels

Timenka, Great Hunter

Hunting is a way of life to the Dalhat, important enough to be restricted to neither women nor men, but the techniques of the wide open steppes and high mountains do not lend themselves to the close, dark forests of the north. Even the Forest People, weak as they are, have something to offer. They do not hunt the reindeer, holding them sacred, and so neither does the Dalhat cult who has adopted their god, though many of their sisters are not so scrupulous.

• Symbols: Bears, reindeer, bows, skis, snowshoes, trees.
• Membership: Forest Dalhat men and women.
• Minor Abilities:
• Concealment
• Darksight
• Swift Arrow
• Resist Cold
• Major Abilities:
• Tree Meld
• Silence

Doryeshant, Weaver of Darkness

There are secrets not fit to be spoken outside the holiest of holies, and even then, they are to be whispered. Such mysteries does the Spider of the Deep, who binds the sun beneath the earth each night, keep safe in her web, and the only mortals with whom she shares them meet in secret to receive them silently. It is said the Spider Riders, or perhaps Half-Spiders, of the distant north consider the Dalhat friends for their shared reverence of the mighty one.

• Symbols: Spiders, webs, torches, caves.
• Membership: Dalhat noblemen, especially Forest Dalhat.
• Minor Abilities:
• Brew Poison
• Call Darkness
• Call Spiders
• Silken Snare
• Major Abilities:
• Mother of Monsters
• Star Cloak

Yaisodek, Lord of the Marsh

The King of Birds may now serve the Queen of Shepherds, but if she could have conquered him, she would have. One cannot kill what one cannot grasp. Now his people paddle from northern sea to eastern sea, trading with all they meet, and any who would waylay them must reckon with their so-called masters. It is not so bad to pay tribute, especially when one's fame and cult grow among all who traffic the waters.

• Symbols: Serpents, snakebirds, spears, canoes, coin.
• Membership: Lake People men and Dalhat men, especially near the Lake.
• Minor Abilities:
• Assess Value 
• Calm Waters
• Find Path
• Poison Strike
• Major Abilities:
• Call Serpent
• Snakebird Form