"It was so obvious! How could they have missed it! This story makes no fucking sense!"
I don't know. A couple weeks ago our system was down at the store I worked at so we could only accept cash. We had signs plastered all over the front door. Our greeter was telling each customer as they came in. We had signs throughout the store. We had signs where customers went to get into line at the various registers. We were periodically making announcements over the PA system...
and still about 40% of customers made it all to the register with 'no way of knowing' the store was only able to accept cash. 🙃
Forgive me. My life has been taken over by The Nursery Nurse. To quote so many others; the chokehold one woman and her many wigs has on me is absurd.
So like, I’m a writeblr first but I’m definitely a TNN fanblog for the foreseeable future. If you can tolerate how I vagueblog about things then hi, we’re friends now
I said I was going to be doing more of these, so here’s another one!! This one is mostly about the deities that are worshipped on the Contient. Some of them are universal, worshipped in all three kingdoms, while others are more local, mainly worshipped in one kingdom or one area. Once again, if you need an intro to the world of ATQH, check out the worldbuilding tab on my WIP page, HERE.
Now, let’s get started...
Universal Deities: The Light and the Morrigan
There are two main deities that are worshipped across the entire continent, and beyond. These are the Light and the Morrigan. They are very much opposites and form a nice light/dark duality for the more religious folk of the Continent.
In general, most people at the very least believe in the parts of these mythologies relating to death and the afterlife.
The Light
The Light is a deity that has no shape, form, or gender. There is no face or image typically associated with it, and if pronouns are ever assigned to it (which is rarely), the pronouns used are it/its.
The Light is the deity of all things good in the world: life, rebirth, etc. It is said that after death, the soul is floating in the Abyss, an empty void where they may float forever if not rescued. The Light serves as a beacon, shining in the dark of the Abyss and guiding souls home to the Afterlife. There is little lore on what this Afterlife looks like. Most religious scholars say that “[the living] are in no place to make assumptions about life after death. We will know when it is our time and not before.”
A traditional engraving on a tombstone is “May the Light guide [them] home.”, sometimes with the added phrase “and out of the dark.”
Marriages across the Continent are blessed by the Light, in hopes that it will keep a brightness over the marriage. Marriages are most often held in chapels to the Light, and some noble families even have their own chapel rooms for this purpose.
The Light is most often invoked by saying “By the Light”, which is somewhat equivalent to saying “oh my god!” or something along those lines. The phrase is most often said when making a promise or when swearing an oath, though it can also be used as an exclamation of surprise (though not anger).
The Morrigan
The Morrigan is the Light’s foil. She is the goddess of death and war, and those who purportedly practice dark magic are said to act in her name (though it is rather well established that there has been no true magic on the Continent for multiple centuries, and the people who make these claims are often idiots.) However, she also shepards souls who do not find their way to the Light’s beacon, and allows them to serve her.
She is said to have some control over fate, and it is in your best interest to have her on your side in battle. However, since the continent has not experienced war since the war between Anvia and Oryn ended nearly a century ago, this part of her lore has rather fallen to the wayside.
Her name is often invoked as a curse, especially when the speaker is angry. (Ex: “what in the Morrigan’s name is going on here?”)
Additionally, since she is said to be nearly all-seeing, it is not uncommon for her name to be invoked as in “Morrigan-knows-what”, etc.
NOTE: I took the name of the Morrigan, as well as some inspiration for her role from the Irish deity of the same name. However, I mainly chose the name since it is the name I use online. I needed a name for a death god, and I thought it would be ironic for “me” to be the all-seeing goddess of death, since I am, in fact, all seeing when it comes to my story.
The Minor Gods are older deities that were worshipped prior to the Light and the Morrigan arriving on the Continent. As such, they have more specific roles, and are often worshipped locally and without great ceremony.
Minor Gods: Harvest Goddess
The havest goddess is a minor deity worshipped almost exclusively in Anvia. She is said to have control over the growing of crops, as well as childbirth. It is not unusual for Anvian marriage ceremonies, especially those in agricultural areas, to have a secondary blessing from the Harvest Goddess.
Minor Gods: Mountain God / Warrior God
The Mountain God, sometimes referred to as the Warrior God (though that name has fallen out of fashion due to the Morrigan’s role as a war goddess) is a fiece and wild god said to roam the mountains of Oryn. Those in rural Oryn aften ask for his blessing before a hunt, for success, or before entering a mine, for luck and survival.
Taking a brief break from Star Fox, I want to talk about another project I'd love to work on someday:
I've posted a few fics featuring her already, but I created the character Montoya 'Monty' Cooper for a 'Sly Cooper: The Next Generation' type story.
With Monty being Sly and Carmelita's daughter who chose to become a cop. She struggled with the Cooper legacy and feelings that she must prove a Cooper can live a law-abiding life. She feels like her superiors are just waiting for her to crack. To steal. To follow in her father's footsteps.
Monty thinks her story is that she is not defined by her ancestors.
Then she encounters a criminal that Interpol can't stop. Not legally. At best they catch the criminal then their lawyers gets them out. The only way to take this criminal down, is the Cooper way.
And Monty realizes her story is learning that the law is not the be all end all when it comes to justice.
Instead, the story about not being defined by one's liniage, is her partner's.
Her partner is Tony Baxter. A hulking bulldog of a man who, just a few years ago, discovered his father was none other than Mad Dog Muggshot. One of the most infamous gangsters Interpol ever had dealings with. Not that it's particularly shocking he's related to Muggshot. He looks just like him. This irks Tony to no end. All his efforts to become a towering hunk of muscle were to protect people like his mother. That was also his motive for joining the force. To protect people like his mother from people like his father. Discovering who his father is was just icing on the cake... and a doubled edged sword as many in Interpol like to compare him to his father.
Tony joins Monty when she goes to take down the crook. He is the muscle of this new Cooper Gang. Yet he does not become another Muggshot. He still only uses his strength to protect the innocent.
...And to bail his dumbass of a partner out of trouble.
(The third member of this new Cooper Gang is Danni. Bentley and Penelope's daughter who has always been just fine being on the 'wrong' side of the law. Though she is not an unsympathetic ear whenever Monty or Tony have doubts about what they're doing. She just asks them "Why are we doing this again?" and it's usually enough to help them focus on the task at hand.
Like Monty she's studied the Thievius Racoonus. Like her parents she's a tech genius. And, like Murray, she's the team's driver.)
So like, working in retail sucks, but you learn a very interesting lesson:
Those stuck-up antagonists that seem almost cartoony with their entitlement you come across in media? They seem so over-the-top they can't possibly exist.
Then you start working retail and discovered that not only do they exist, but there are even worse versions out there than you could have possibly imagined.
