Fictional mythologies for Dummies: Unsounded gods
[The webcomic Unsounded can be read here:
http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic+index/
You can also check the Wiki of the webcomic here:
http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/world/index.php?title=Main_Page
It also has a Tumblr and a TV Tropes page, so don’t hesitate to check it out. ]
In the world of Unsounded, there are four gods, named the "Twins" because they are basically all twins to each other. # Yerta, the Eldest Sister, is the mother goddess of the pantheon. Interestingly she, likes all the other gods, lives outside of our world, not in it, because the world (the world itself, as well as all of its elements and inhabitants) is located in Yerta's belly. She is forever pregnant with the world - as I said she is a mother goddess, if not the ultimate mother goddess. Associated with pregnancies, childbirth and motherhood, she is also a goddess associated with the earth, plant life and wild animals, being a sort of "Mother Nature" figure. The wisests and the most benevolent of the four, always represented as a fat and pregnant woman with a skin blue ornated with white clouds (aka, with the pattern of the sky), she is said to be a harsh goddess, but that always take care of her "children" and acts for their best interest. She is also said to have a pet fawn, or rather a flying blue deer named Niper, that is the fastest being in the universe, able to travel from the beginning to the end of time, and whispering to her all that it saw (so Yerta knows of both the past and the future of our world). Her holiday is the first day of spring. # Riv, the Eldest Brother. Brother and husband to Yerta, he is the father-god. Yerta's womb was originally just a barren and arid earth until Riv put his seed inside her, allowing life to grow. The male deity by definition, embodiment of virility, manhood, power and domination, he is the archetype of the typical "king of gods" in mythologies (such as Zeus, Jupiter or Odin) - he is a tyrant, a tempestuous god, angry and violent, and our world would have probably be destroyed a long time ago if Yerta hadn't protected it. For Riv still obeys and bows to Yerta's commands and orders. A beautiful singer, associated with the birds and singing whales, he wakes up Yerta every morning with his beautiful song, and when Yerta opens her eyes, the light floods into the world. Well... that is the nicest version. Another legend rather claims that the sun is not the eyes of Yerta but rather a hole in her belly, leftover from a fight she had with Riv (the two of them not always getting along together, and Riv often abusing her, but Yerta always gives back every hit she receives). If Yerta is associated with the sky, Riv is associated with the sea, throbbing eternaly against the female earth. Ruler of the creatures of the deep, protector of the ships, he is worshipped by the sailors - as well as by those whose people died recently. For, if the dead are judged by Yerta, Riv is still the one that guides them through the afterlife, and he can decide of their fate whenever Yerta is unsure of it. Riv is quite lustful, having many affairs with all sorts of living beings, making Yerta quite jealous (despite them not being married), on the contrary of Baelar and Tirna who don't have any official "mate" (even though they are known to seduce mortals from time to time). His holiday is at the beginning of the first great heats of summer. # Baelar, the Youngest Brother. The younger brother of Riv, Baelar is the embodiment of the "warrior-poet". On one side he is the god of the war, prayed to by soldiers and blessing weapons, but he is careless and distracted, deciding arbitrarily of the battles outcomes, sometimes favoring those that are willing to die for their cause, sometimes blessing the cowards. It is said that all those that are brave soldiers, or that wish to succeed in a difficult task, should wear an iron ring around their neck (the iron ring being traditionally an archer's target), thus confusing the fickle god. On the other side, Baelar is also the god of everything that is said to be intangible: poetry, literature, mathematics, sciences... He also invented the webcomic's equivalent of magic, and the patron of this world's sorcerers. He is a practical craftsman, but also a dreamer that enjoys the craziest ideas, adores beautiful things and will fight anything that he can't control with his magic. Baelar and Riv don't hate each other, but they are aloof and distant, as well as polar opposites, Riv being a macho warrior and a sailor that likes to hunt hurricanes and storms (represented as giant whales) with his axe/lightning, while Baelar is rather a thinker, scholar and wizard, that enjoys knitting and sewing more than anything (for exemple, magic is basically sewing and knitting the cloth that is reality). As a result legends say Riv often bullies his "little brother", while Baelar tries to stay out of his way. Baelar also tried to stay away from the wild Tirna, due to being quite shy - he often spends his time sitting near Yerta, either spinning his wheel to create more magic, either combing Yerta's hair into "purple storms and golden dawns". Worshipped by craftsmen and artists, Baelar's holiday occurs during the night of midwinter, and it is known to be a scary celebration with bonfires and people wearing scary costumes, as well gift-giving (if you don't give a gift, bad luck will follow you for the rest of the year). # Tirna, the Youngest Sister. She is this world's equivalent of Prometheus, as well as the embodiment of the Trickster archetype, usually spreading chaos and disorder. The "child" of the four, a reckless goddess, not said to be evil but to be "imperfect", an abomination to the eyes of the other Twins ; yet she is also the goddess that is the closest to humanity, and people relate to her much more than the aloof, all-powerful and majestic other Twins. We know that Tirna was offended in some way by the creation of humanity, and tried to wipe out the entire human race by feeding Yerta a poisonous plant. This plan was foiled by Baelar, and Yerta, to punish her sister, devoured her, banishing her to the mortal world, imprisonning her inside her own belly. This legend however has two different outcomes. Some people believe that she seeks to repent for her crime, by helping and aiding humans, sending them prophecies ; while others believe she refuses to repent, that she is rather eternally enraged. Tirna's cult also practices human sacrifices, either to appease Tirna's wrath against humanity, either for Tirna to please Yerta by sending back to her the humans she loves. Associated with sickness, starvation, disasters and other human frailties, she is often represented as being split in two, one side filled with compassion, the other with callousness. Her holiday occurs in the middle of autumn. For you see, humanity was created by the Yerta and Riv, to act as their "children" (and making Baelar and Tirna the "uncle" and "aunt" of humanity), but they only accept them as their "real" children once they proved their worth, using the physical and mortal ground as a "testing ground", with cycles of births and rebirths until the humans become perfect. Once they are perfect, and judged as so by the Twins, they become this world's equivalent of saints, the Victori, lesser deities born from local heroes and legendary characters, beings that take care of all of the prayers and problems that are not worth of the Twins' attention. Some other traditions and ideas: # The dead should be buried in the earth, that is the flesh of Fat Yerta, in order to "return" the body to what it came from. # Sexuality is no taboo, after all they worship an eternally-pregnant mother-goddess, an always lustful and horny father-god, and think the world as created by sexuality. Still, sexuality has to end up being between a man and a woman, in order to procreate and perpetuate a bloodline. Homosexuality is either seen as 1- something not evil or bad, but not serious either, just a distraction, something that helps to "blow out the steam" or can save a wedding, but ultimately shouldn't be taken seriously 2- A bad habit and shameful vice people should learn to stop practising, like gambling addiction or alcoholism.
