Barbarian Gods (western)

BARBARIAN GODS (western)




WAHU, Who Administers the Sacred Cut
Taught mankind the Peaceful Cut, which allows animals to die without pain and sends them to the good afterlife.
Teaches men to survive and fulfill the circle of life or whatever.  gives men moral guidance in life.  renders the meat of the animal.
guides animals and men into death.  Promises that Heroes shall never die.  Teaches men warfare.  priests are spiritual leaders / social psychiatrists and preside over many important functions of hunter-gatherer society
Epithets: Gentle One, Found-Child, Peaceful Slayer, Butcher-God


BONE-SMITH GOD, the Sculptor of Corpses
Processes the dead animal to make tools.  Melts hooves & bones for glue.  Uses feathers for fletching.  Uses bones as needles or arrowheads.
Tans and sews hides.  Makes bowstrings from guts.  Makes thread from hair.  Renders dead trees into timber and charcoal.  Renders the Earth's bones
into knives and other tools.  mastered fire and invented art, weapons and traps.
Works with Wahu to ensure nothing goes to waste.  Guides dead animals to the afterlife.  priests are craftsmen; better craftmanship = more favor, but they are viewed as creepy corpse-handlers by some.  Sometimes said to be an aspect of the
Iron Lord
Epithets: Great Renderer, Skinner-God, Old Bones, Rattler


DOG-FRIEND, Who Guards the Herd
Simple god who is friend to gentle animals.  Protects the herd and also disciplines them.  He & Wahu are allies.
Guards the spirits of animals on their way to and from the afterlife.  Chases Sun-Elk across the sky and eats her at night.
Then he regrets it and howls at the moon til she is re-incarnated the next morning.
Priests are intelligent dogs or dog-trainers or people who love dogs.  this cult is mostly popular amongst the Dog Folk Tribe and is considered subsidiary by all other Animal Nomad Folk
Epithets: Brother-Dog


MOTHER DARKNESS
Friends: None. Primordial goddess.  Lives in the dark places of the Earth and between the stars.  Ally of creatures which prefer
darkness.  Teaches witchcraft, shape-changing, how to stay hidden and contact spirits.  Some say all will return to her one day


GRANDFATHER MORTALITY, Who Judges the Dead
The first man, and also the first to die.  Sun-Elk licked him from the ice. Mated with Mother Darkness and so produced the human race.
Resides in the afterworld and judges men according to their deeds.  Jealous of the living.
Epithets: Flesh-Man


SUN-ELK
the first animal, a cow with nourishing teats who also carries the sun in her antlers.  she licked Grandfather Mortality from the Primordial Ice.
Nourishes the world with her milk.


The MOUNTAIN that WALKS
Primordial being of the earth, mountains, and ice.  he is currently deep in slumber, and has been for eons.
it is said that in ancient times, he mated with the Sky-Serpent to produce the World.
Said to resemble a furry mountain with immeasurably large tusks and gaping caverns for eyes
worshipped by mountain animals and the Wild Polar Tribesmen.  prophecies say that one day he will come out of the North
to crush all before him and freeze the seas, ushering in a new ice age.  his worshipers despise technology, and most humans.
Sometimes considered foremost among the SULLEN GODS of the NORTHMEN


BULL-GOD is also worshiped in the WESTERN BARBARIAN LANDS of PARAX


STAG-LORD, God of the Forest
Stag-Lord lives in the Wildwood.  He teaches human worshipers mastery of the bow, and encourages them to hunt other men.
He hates humans who deface the forest and wishes to see them brutally slaughtered.
his antlers are wide and his arrows drip with human blood.
Wild forest animals obey his call.
there are some Pygmy-Tribesmen who worship this red-tooth'd god, and a few others here and there in the isolated forests of BARBARIAN PARAX, in the WEST