The Real Steppe: Udgans & Böös
[edit] updated some wording, phrasing, tried to add more clarity and went over to try & spot factual errors & emphasise I am not an authority.
On the Azim Steppe we encounter some udgans like Sadu Dotharl and Tumulun Mol. What is an udgan and why is there 'böö' in the title?
A 'böö' is a shaman, whereas an 'udgan' is a shamaness. Talking about shamanism on the Eurasian steppe is a big topic. So at the end, I'm going to recommend some extra reading for those who want to delve deeper. I am not an expert on the subject and have collated what I have learned but will provide resources of better sources. So the aim of this article is to high light parallels and references rather than teach about shamanism on the Eurasion steppe as I am not an authority on the subject, especially as this only scratches the surface of what those beliefs are. I will also try to keep this up to date if I find inaccuracies, because I have come across an alleged trustworthy source before on Tuuli that was wrong, however, my main source for this article is a book written by a Buryat Shaman, so if you are legitimately interested in the topic, I would suggest following up on other sources and I linked her website at the end of the article.
Overview
When we talk about shamanism on the Eurasian steppe we tend to be talking about practitioners belonging to Tengerism, which is the classification of religion practiced by many Mongolians but expands out of Mongolia's borders, such as into Siberia like in Tuvan and Buryatia.
The main principles around Tengerism revolve around the sky gods, known as the Tenger, but also around animism and nature.
And Shamans are able to connect with the spirits and see the cosmos and there is a whole perspective of it that can be mapped in a person's 'ger' or 'yurt', so where things are placed is important, how you move within it too and there are rituals that may be performed within them.
When it comes to animism, it is this idea that there are spirits in all things, so there is a spiritual connection to be made everywhere. Milk is seen as having a spiritual property, just like you might think of with holy water, so milk products are often used as offerings to spirits and part of rituals and spiritual practices. Milk vodka and kumis might get used for example, as they're drinks made from milk. I bring up milk and views of the cosmos because there are interesting implications I will come to with some of the lore of the Azim Steppe.
For the sake of this post, I want to focus on a few points that can be related to FFXIV. Those main focuses are:
Types of Shamanism
Milk & also it's relation to the Ugund
The cosmos
Souls, Afterlife and Reincarnation, with ties to the Dotharl
But this only touches the surface of a much bigger topic.
Types of Shamanism
Tengeri Shamanism is split out into 3 types, though we do not really see them explored in Final Fantasy XIV and their udgans, but I think they can leave some room for speculative analysis.
The three types are: yellow, black and white.
Black Shamans:
They get the name from the direction they drew their power and they are supported by black deities and spirits and they also worship their ancestors. They intend to overcome evil by pitting might against might.
White Shamans:
They personify humanity and their practices relate to deed and call upon peaceful masters from the white side and directing their worship in that direction. They have people commune with nature and earth spirits and pacifying any angry ones.
Yellow Shamans:
There were introduced in Mongolia by the spread of Tibetan Buddhism, it is closer to white shamanism but incorporates Buddhist beliefs and practices.
Reinterpreting for FFXIV:
Sadu's job/class is represented as Black Mage, though she is referred to as an Udgan. But in the world of Final Fantasy XIV, certain 'jobs' appear in different parts of the world under different names and practices. Like Warriors with their berserking and the Chaghan tribe with the Will of Karash. Or how Geomancers of the East are like conjurers of the West. So with Sadu she appears to be a black mage, but is practicing magic of steppe shamanism. And pitting might against might sounds like her thing and also true of black mages with the use of the Void. Unlike Black Mages we do not see Sadu draw power from the Void. But I feel Sadu's magic would be more in tune with the concepts of Black Shamanism if we wanted to relate FFXIV jobs.
On the note of White Shamanism. There's the calling upon peaceful masters, communing with nature and earth, which sounds very White Mage/Conjurer like. Though I sincerely doubt there are any intended connections, but these may be the kind of connections I tend to think about when writing a character related to the steppe (as an RPer).
The Significance of Milk
In FFXIV we have reference to some of the milk-based drinks you will find in Mongolia. There is kumis, arkhi and steppe tea. Ever wondered why they put Ala Mhigan salt crystals in the crafted recipe for Steppe Tea? It's likely because it's based on 'Suutei Tsai', which is the name given to a savoury tea from Mongolia, which is very milky and savoury (hence the added salt).
But in terms of religious practices, if you see milk arkhi served in a ger in Mongolia, you might see somebody dip their finger in and offer some arkhi vodka to the sky, the earth and to their forehead. This is an offering made to the spirits that may be done before they drink it. There's many ceremonies that involve milk as something akin to holy water, such as at weddings where they may drink kumis or milk from respective families to the bride and groom or during shamanistic rituals.
On the Azim Steppe there is also a tradition relating to milk and that's with the Ugund tribe. Their flavour text is below:
When members of this tribe die, their heads are removed from their bodies and placed in a jar of fermented goat milk. Once the liquid has been drunk by the head (in other words, evaporated), the head is then buried under an anthill so that the tiny workers can carry the spirit to the afterlife. The journey is thought to be a terrible one, the road filled with ghosts of the damned, so ensuring the spirit is drunk helps ease the journey.
At first glance it looks like the idea is that the spirit finds comfort in their journey to the afterlife by being intoxicated, but it does specify milk. Given it 'holy' nature, I expect this would provide a boon to the dead spirits of ugund in their journey.
The 3 Souls & 3 Worlds
I find the 3 souls concept of Tengrism interesting, though it can be more than 3 souls depending on beliefs, but in short, each of us have at least three souls within us, the suns, suld and ami.
The suld sits in our crown chakra whilst the suns and ami sit in our chest. The suns and ami have to be in balance with each other, else you may be susceptible to illness. A shaman is able to perform rituals that help rebalance them. It is also possible for suns and ami to become disembodied, but the suld is vital to life and you will die if you lose it. If the suns and ami are gone for a period of time then you will fall ill.
Suld - This resides in nature after death. This is vital to life, without it, you will die. This has a connection to father heaven and the tengger that live there. It's the most individualised and it is your nature spirit. It carries no past-life experiences but develops characteristics to distinguish you from other people, like your charisma and dignity.
Suns - Reincarnates after death. This contributes to the formation of your personality and carries the collective experiences of past lives. It's also comes from the lower world and in death will return there and may also return as a ghost. The suns has the strongest past-life memories. But significantly evil suns may end up extinguished forever. The suns can temporarily leave the body and sometimes wander as far as the lower world.
Ami - This is the body soul, which also reincarnates after death. It is called the 'breath' soul, if it exits the body it'll result in illness. It returns to the world tree in death and roosts in the tree branches between heaven and earth in the form of a bird. They tend to reincarnate through relatives and carry genetic or ancestral memory and these enter the body at birth.
As we reference three worlds here too: they are comprised of the upper, middle and lower worlds, which I referenced in my post on Morin Khuur with its symbolism. The upper world is represented by the heavens and the lower world can possess evil and malicious spirits and has more superstition and taboo surrounding it. The crossing over into the lower world is also represented as crossing a river.
There's a few nuggets of information I've represented above that may elicit some connections. So I will break them down.
The idea of the suns and ami souls reincarnating can maybe be related to the Dotharl, where only the udgan can tell a person's previous life, this remains consistent with the point that in Tengerism only shamans can see these souls. Could it be that the Dotharl follow the 'suns' soul and sense its past lives to know who it once belonged to and help them learn who they were and continue their life in a new body?
The talk of the Ugund journey to the afterlife being filled with the ghost of the damned could be referencing the suns of the lower world.
And one can draw a comparison to the lower world and life stream if you wanted, though there is not causal relationship here in Final Fantasy lore, but the similarity can make for comparison. But of course, something like this in Final Fantasy could have been inspired by something like the River Styx, as it's not an exclusively Tenger imagery used for passing into a lower world.
The Cosmos
Towards the start I referenced how a ger/yurt can be used as a map of the cosmos and it's spiritual significance and use in rituals. I like to think this is relevant to the Mol, they talk of communing with the old gods who are capable of revealing truths from the cosmos and the mol can interpret judgments from the gods themselves.
One of the Easter eggs involving the Mol is that their dialogue changes at different parts of Shadowbringers and Endwalker if you go back to them after those points. They comment on the things the WoL is doing on another shard but also provide a vague sight into the future of Endwalker. Just as a shaman in a ritual within a ger might reach out to the Tengger and connect with them based on their directions in the cosmos, it may perhaps be the way Mol reaches out to their elder gods to gain insights to the greater cosmos. Sadly, the lore does not go too great of depth of the Mol practice. So this is maybe a loose parallel, however, I've generally interpreted the elder gods as sky gods, because of the Mol's reading of the cosmos allowing me to draw parallels with the Tengger and how shamans reach out to them based on the map of the cosmos within the ger (based on cardinal directions) used in certain rituals.
Learn More:
This is a huge topic and this post scratches the surface, but I thought these were interesting aspects that have some references (some loose) in FFXIV's lore.
This is a pretty good online resource, the author is a Tenger Shaman and I also have a copy of their book, which covers much of what's on there as well as some of the rituals: http://buryatmongol.org/a-course-in-mongolian-shamanism/
And a video of a Tengger Shaman talking about his profession:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DONJywWRjf4