Deity Drop 6: Dretha
And now we move on to… Well, a deity that will probably be rewritten at some point, especially with the coming Remaster books doing away with alignment. I speak of course of our first look into the orc pantheon: Dretha, the Dark Mother.
The orc pantheon was originally delved into around 2014 to 2015, back when the general assumption that orcish culture was as brutal as they’ve been depicted in systems, which is problematic on it’s own, but then there’s that dash of misogyny by placing one of the female deities of orc-kind as being subservient to the male members of the pantheon.
Now, am I saying there is no place for evil orc gods? Of course not. Pretty much every ancestry that has deities associated with them has at least one villainous god among them. Do orcs deserve to have more variety? Of course.
Now, we can kinda excuse this by saying that this in particular is the orcish pantheon worshipped by the orcs of the Hold of Belkzen, whose reaction to being driven to the surface by the Quest for Sky and all the stressors of being forced to raid to survive during and after Age of Darkness led them down a dark path where dark gods answered their prayers and influenced their culture. However, I will be adding notes on the orcish deity entries to give them more depth and nuance on how they might be rewritten.
For posterity, however, I will be recounting Dretha and her kin as they currently are in addition to my own notes as well.
On that note, there is actually one update to how the orcs worship their deities, which is to say, not really worship so much as emulate in order to become strong enough to challenge and supplant them in the afterlife. Not exactly a perfect solution, but a sufficiently orc-like one.
So… Dretha, the mother goddess, or perhaps “a” mother goddess of the orcs. It is her that orcs pray to in order to ensure plentiful healthy births, but also the survival of the mother and the protection of the children and the home. While different orc tribes may venerate different male gods, all pay homage to the Dark Mother in some form or another, and typically depict her as the mate of the male god they hold in highest reverence, though it’s not said who she actually prefers, though it is possible that she has shared her company with all of them over the years. However, while Dretha is often depicted as subservient to the male members of the pantheon, she also seems to resent that, and harbors deep hidden fury against them, which might manifest at any time if she were to be disrespected.
Dretha is depicted as a female orc heavily pregnant with a motherly but powerful body, though her head and limbs are somewhat smaller than the proportions of her torso. She is also often depicted as being surrounded by many orc infants and toddlers. Whether these are specific deific children of hers or simply artistic interpretation is unknown.
Like all orc gods and demigods, Dretha’s home is Volkorgoth, a stable continent in the cosmic sea of the Maelstrom. No information is given about exactly where she dwells, but I imagine she likely maintains a home near the blood red river valley that serves as neutral ground to orcish deities, other denizens of the island, and visitors from the Maelstrom proper come to discuss business.
Dretha is worshipped exclusively by orcs that follow the brutal ways of her pantheon, particularly by female orcs hoping for fertility and easy births, not to mention strong children, but also in protection of the home and the tribe.
As mentioned before, Dretha is the lover of at least one, but likely multiple male orc deities, though she also resents them as well. She also likely shares a cordial relationship with other fertility deities save for Lamashtu, whom she hates as a patron of birth defects and general awfulness associated with fertility. She also is the enemy of deities that are less brutal than her, seeing them as weak.
As a chaotic evil deity, Dretha is likely served by some demons, but also by the spirits of orc defenders given the blessed duty of defending and serving her, as well as likely a few proteans more interested in the generative aspect of chaos than the destructive side. Not much is known beyond that. I’d imagine that a revised Dretha might have more unique servants associated with protection and fertility, though.
The domains of the Dark Mother Chaos, Community, Evil, and Protection, with the subdomains of Defense, Demon (by way or either Chaos or Evil), Family, and Home. These reflect her role as a mother and protector, but also as a vicious and deadly defender of the pantheon’s way of living.
The Belkzen orc pantheon has not been touched in 2e, so no domains are given for them.
They also haven’t been given an obedience either, sadly.
Dretha hasn’t been mentioned in Starfinder either, and given that orcs have been forcibly stripped of their culture in most cases on Apostae, she may be forgotten, but I imagine there may be secret shrines dedicated to her in orc nurseries on the wandering planet and other places where orcs have set up shop.
That does it for today. This entry illustrates how Pathfinder still has room to grow as understanding grows and old harmful tropes of the hobby are laid to rest, but it is still interesting and important to remember how we got here. In any case, look forward to the next entry tomorrow, where we get a little cosmic!
