Only one person! But I'm also a member of a group of six.
This blog will be "filled out" and polished as we actually get posts running so please ignore random lorem ipsum paragraphs or broken links until then
Admin (she/her)
Currently a high schooler. I grew up speaking Spanish so I am currently focusing on Spain's accounts of Cykloism in native communities like in the Philippines. Also the most organized person here.
Bread (he/him)
Currently a high schooler. Our best theorizer; He can connect dots that probably shouldn't be able to and was the one who first found out about Cykloism. Currently focusing on really really old stuff from the Indian sub-continent
Spider (he/him)
The adult of the group. Started off as just our (very appreciated) chauffeur, but now he's as interested as us. Does the adult things for the low price of getting to be involved in anything he wants at that moment. Has college so he's not super active
Strawberry (she/they)
Highschooler, loves the creatures and myths. Has better memory than all of us. I'm pretty sure she has Volumes 1-3 memorized but I don't want to ask. They are working on our unofficial dictionary.
Mint (he/him)
Currently a high schooler and Bread's cousin. Also bilingual, so he's my current co-partner on Spain's stuff. He lives in a different town so we don't physically see each other often
Cactus (he/him)
Currently a high schooler, but has a license! He doesn't focus on anything specific, just helps with online researching anything we need at the moment and was the one to suggest sharing our little project (he wanted an actual website, but beggars can't be choosers)
Gods are obviously the most important part of any polytheistic religion, but something interesting about Cykloism is its categorization of gods.
Di-Tiyak : The Gods We Can Never Prove
The only information we have on these extinct gods is from Past, who has never given us a sure answer on what exactly di-tiyak gods are after a spook she went through in Volume One's Preface. The (probably omnipotent) gods were aware that Past was looking at them from the future and sent a message to us:
"Go forth and continue the cycle we have created [...] The purpose of your existence is to continue existing. Fight for this. [...] The meaning behind your existence is to enjoy it. You will fight harder for something you love"
This is the core of Cykloism; it is the one purpose that Cykloist's believe all existence has. To overwrite that would be to challenge the di-tiyak gods, and that's something you do not do. They are the most respected gods, although they were completely gone by the time the sa gabi gods were born. They used all of their abok to form everything that exists. In a way, they still exist... Just reincarnated as Everything.
We don't know why they destroyed themselves or really anything about them. This is why in Tagalog they are referred to as "di-tiyak", or "indeterminate/uncertain". There is a very interesting theology paper from Germany on the reliability of Past's account of these gods, something we'll get to after we finish the basic guides and cataloguing Spain's artifacts.
Sa Gabi: Before Light There Is Always The Dark
After the di-tiyak gods created everything and basically died, there were gods born as sort of "basic" gods. These were gods that represented the instinctual concepts humans have. Water and Land, Light and Dark, et cetera. These gods can "age and mature" (which implies they were babies at some point) but cannot die as the things they represent can't really cease to exist in all of human memory. Because they are immortal, they don't really require human worshippers to convert miscellanous abok for them; its more out of a need for power. There's still some discrepancy as to whether or not these gods can have parents or if they were simply formed along with everything else by the di-tiyak gods. (Something discussed below)
At some point in Volume One, the Enlightenment happens. This is a period of time when humanity experienced an explosion in culture, resulting in concepts/gods like Writing. The sa gabi gods existed before the Enlightenment, which is why they are called "sa gabi" or "of/from night" as the period of time before Enlightenment is usually associated with darkness.
Dambana : The Dawn Of A New Generation
TLDR; they are the man made, man powered gods.
With the Enlightenment also came an explosion of new gods. These gods rely on human worship to get abok; War being the most notorious for her questionable methods of getting followers. If they run out of abok, they cease to exist and are forgotten in human history. They are younger than the "primordial" sa gabi gods, obviously.
Although the rule of thumb is that older gods are more respected than younger ones, the Four Civils are the exception. These gods are essentially the government of the Surface and are never questioned by sa gabi or dambana gods. The Four Civils have also sworn to never have offspring or let their siblings do so either, lest they become too powerful or biased.
"Dambana" is a word in Tagalog that means shrine or sacred ground. It makes sense, since these gods require worship to exist, but my friend believes there may be a double meaning I think is worth mentioning. He's been focusing more on Cykloism's similarities to Hinduism and on artifacts from the Indian sub-continent. He says maybe because these gods are the only gods you can kill, the Sanskrit root word for "dambana", "ālambhana" is the original name for these gods and native Filipino Cykloists simply updated the name as the word evolved. "Ālambhana" can mean "killing". I personally think this is unlikely as the word (from what google tells me) usually refers specifically to the killing of sacrifices for worship.
So can gods get married? Have children? How are they born?
Our current theory is that there are "cause" gods (like Water) born from nothing and their offspring, the "effect" gods (like Rain and Sea). My favorite example of this is Land and Sea's child, Shore. Land and Sea became "married" long before erosion formed the sands of our beaches, back when the world was much newer. Therefore, their child ended up being the "outcome" of their union. We call this our "Cause and Effect" theory.
Gods do fall in love from time to time, with Love and Tragedy probably being the most, well, tragic example. Water and Wind were in love at some point, but they never had a wedding or promised each other anything. They don't love each other anymore and often avoid each other. Sea accidentally promised Land to only love her and never leave her side for all of time, so I guess in a way that's marriage? Gods live for a long time, so it's unlikely that they have something like our marriages.
All dambana and sa gabi gods have the ability to have children. Some just choose not to, we guess
In Cykloism, there are lots of different mythological creatures you can come across. Some are benevolent, some are extremely dangerous. However, there are only three creatures that Cykloists believe are Conscious. These are humans, kerubin, and gods. They all are tied to abok in some way. All Conscious creatures look fairly similar when they are born. This has lead to younger, more humanoid gods being able to blend in with humans.
What is a human?
A human is a creature that has the ability to "conceptualize" things. They can create new concepts or ideas that will have a unique abok to them. Because they can essentially convert different abok types, they can also have shrines and temples for gods and worship them by converting miscellaneous abok into a god's specific abok. They live in the human realm and, through their lifetime's events, dye the thread associated with their lifespan with different abok. They populate through biological means.
What is a god?
(This description mostly applies to only sa gabi and dambana gods)
A god is a creature that is the manifestation of a concept. They do not have control over abok that is not their own. They are essentially concentrated abok in the shape of something. The more followers a god has, the more abok they have. Age and how large of a concept they control also affect how "powerful" they are.
No god is born with a purpose; they all go through the rite of passage of choosing(*1) a name after a concept they've become attached to. They also gain better control over their appearance and identity the stronger/older they are. This is why, in Volume One, Shore is referred to ambiguously as simply "the child" until he is older and named.
Gods don't really have set anatomical structures or sexual organs (as far as we know), but regardless there are still familial relations and offspring. For example, Morality and Immorality see each other as siblings, and Water is the mother of River and Sea. There is also possibly a human-like approach to gender as most gods are referred to with specific pronouns.
There are three different types of gods with different worshiping and "birth" rules that deserve their own post.
What is a kerubin?
Confession; we're not actually sure if "kerubin" is the proper word for these beings. The problem is, our copy of the Volumes is from the Philippines after Christianity had significantly influenced the culture and this of course includes the native Cykloists. The word comes from the Christian concept of a "cherub". However, to avoid confusion that there is any correlation with the Christian definition of the word, we've kept the word in its Tagalog form(*2).
A kerubin cannot usually be worshipped, nor can they create concepts or manipulate abok. They are essentially the "jack of no trades" of Cykloism. Gods hire kerubin with the purpose of assisting them with the tasks tied to hyper-specific concepts. The first kerubin we really get to meet is Treaty, who works for Writing.
Kerubin cannot have offspring or create beings. Their appearance can only be changed by their god or by humans, and the amount of abok they have is directly proportional to how widely known and respected they are, not by how worshiped they are. They essentially have no families and how well treated they are by the gods really differs. They are at best treated like a god's own child and at worst tragic puppets. Witness, a much respected and wise kerubin, is treated basically like a god.
(*1)Tragedy is the exception. She was the first and only god to be born with a specific abok she was not aware of. However, we have our own theories on her.
(*2)We'll make a post explaining our current dilemma with Tagalog, culture, and our own amateur/kinda biased approach to things eventually.
One of the more endearing beliefs in Cykloism are (literal translation) Fear-Eating Frogs. Personal bias, but I find them cute
The first time we ran into the words rana comemiedo (sometimes sapo comemiedo) were in Spanish documents from the Chichimeca War. There are accounts of a particular group in Zacatecas ceremoniously feeding their warriors frog legs before battle. To paraphrase, one observer said the purpose was because the frogs, blessed by a god, would sit in a person's stomach and could eat the "centipedes of fear".
Currently, we're sifting our way through works during the Spanish colonialism period and have found similar accounts of fear frogs during their time in the Philippines. We have a lot of theories involving the Philippines, but they require a whole section of their own.
The only myth mentioning fear frogs is in Volume Three. Here we meet a kerubin with no name in charge of a very deep pond full of frogs. These frogs are given to sleeping children to swallow once they are too old for childish fears. They act as a sort of guardian angel throughout a human's life by trying to eat all of Fear's centipedes. We are never given a description of fear frogs, but there are some frogs painted on the gilded pages of Volume One we believe are meant to represent them.
Admin's Notes: Personally, I think the kerubin Nebula meets might either be named Bravery or work for Bravery. A lot of Tragedy's children have benevolent counterparts, but Fear's opposite is never mentioned. This is one of my favourite myths and it's interesting how influential one minor creature in a myth can be on whole groups of people.
