Do any of the Bright Ones have names besides the four? Are they merely stars or are they minor deities? Is the Guiding Light that Alte-re makes in The Courtship sentient? Does it count as a Bright One?
The Guiding Light is Alte-re’s Mnyn! And yes, Guiding-Light is a deity in their own right.
Ivri-roh definitely has a Mnyn, too; they were the first of the M’ega deities to have one--Ivri-roh, of course, was the one who *made* the Mnyn--made them before the M’ega, actually.
Ivri-roh’s Mnyn is named Myn-the-Fantastic, and is commonly referred to as Myn.
The M’ega and the Mnyn have a semi-shared mythology system; the Mnyn put emphasis on different things than the M’ega, of course.
Ivri-roh is sometimes conceptualized as a Mnyn by the Mnyn; this is a possible source of the idea of Ivri-roh’s shapeshifting powers. The first meeting and courtship myths might, from a historical perspective, represent the convergence of two different belief systems--one involving the worship of the ocean, the other involving worship of heavenly bodies--and one could hypothesize that the ocean-worship religion was more Mnyn while the star-worship religion was more M’ega.
The Mnyn version of the creation and courtship myths are kind of lovingly exasperated in tone; the attitude of the Mnyn towards the *M’ega* deities sort of is a kind of loving exasperation. “These beautiful, well-meaning, powerful idiots”.
Which is sort of the Mnyn attitude towards the actual M’ega, too--the Mnyn loved the M’ega for Ivri-roh’s sake, at first, because Ivri-roh loved them so. But they loved the M’ega for their own sake, soon enough, and felt the urge to take care of them. The Mnyn are the M’ega’s mythological older siblings, really.
The Mnyn attitude towards the Mnyn deities is more respectful, but still pretty familiar in tone; it’s more like ancestor worship/worship of the dead, which the Mnyn also practice. They sing songs of remembrance, listing the names of the beloved dead. These name songs of course vary individually; some are quite long, others quite short. An individual might ask for help from one of the people in their remembrance song.
Myn-The-Fantastic and Guiding-Star are also prayed to by the Mnyn, although they are immortal, not deceased.
The Mnyn pray to the non-Mnyn-shaped deities, too, but it’s common to ask for things through the relevant deity’s Mnyn. “Myn-the-Fantastic, please tell Ivri-roh to calm down; we’ve had more than enough sea storms this year.” Things like that.
There are definitely other M’ega deities, too, besides Alte-re, Ivri-roh, Khel-tek, and Malir-tek. I haven’t gotten them figured out yet, but I plan to post things about them when I do! I know all three moons are deities. (I’ve got one designed, but I haven’t yet decided on her name) The M’ega consider that every heavenly body/constellation is a deity, although the deity might be very minor.
Even the stars and suns of other planets are deities!
The M’ega are very polytheistic, and accepting of other religions. “Of course your gods are nice, too!”
This is probably extremely frustrating to the leaders of any monotheistic religions from other planets who encounter the M’ega; the M’ega will happily add your god to their religion, but it’s nearly impossible to actually convert them.
And the M’ega--as they get more technologically advanced, and start discovering new stars, new heavenly bodies, and just how vast the universe is--they don’t actively worship every single star, although some of them will get very attached to odd stars or other heavenly bodies.
Like how so many humans are so emotional about Pluto. The jokes about how demoting Pluto made the God of Death mad at us, and that’s why the world is so messed up right now. It’s not really a sincere belief, but there’s definitely a sincere feeling behind it. Like Santa Claus--adults don’t believe, but a lot of them are extremely attached to the concept, so attached that NORAD ‘tracks’ Santa Claus’ ‘journey’ on Christmas.
We don’t believe it’s literally true, but we believe in the wonder/love/generosity feeling behind it.
Some of the M’ega don’t even really believe in the main deities of M’ega, and this is accepted even by the temple leaders. Alte-re gave them absolute freedom; religious M’ega see this as encompassing even the freedom not to worship or believe in the gods.
Unbelief isn’t blasphemy. Harm to others committed in the name of a deity is blasphemy.
The religion of the M’ega is primarily concerned with how you behave towards each other, rather than towards the gods.
