Worshippers, Clergy, Temples | Dogma | Appearance | Relationships & History | Related Images
Mountain Gods are Demi-deities with a portfolio making them the god of a specific mountain. They are nearly omnipotent in terms of events occurring to, on, or above their mountains, but are limited in that they know only that which they can see via their avatars, shrines, or immaterial form's perceptions. While exceptionally powerful, they could conceivably be killed by an exceptionally powerful, skilled, and well equipped mortal.
Mountain Gods are naive, impulsive, self-centered, clueless, volatile, reactive, emotional, explosive, unreasonable, enthusiastic, excitable, and above all entertaining. One cannot go wrong by describing them as "youthful", for they indeed are. They value being thought of as fashionably attractive or impressive above all else and seemingly cannot care much for that which lies beyond the borders of their personal worlds. This is not to say they are uncaring. Mountain Gods love mortals, wether they follow them or not, and will often go out of their way to be helpful if only to get their name out there.
They delight in mischief, shenanigans, and general tomfoolery, but hate being thought of as immature. They will sulk for weeks at a time if humbled, humiliated, or even simply shown up. To them, reputation is everything.
"By The Steel Chair of Old, Get ROCKED!"
"For the Mountain Brew!"
- Kevinus, the current "coolest" Mountain God
Worshippers, Clergy, Temples
The Spirit of the Mountain is an ancient religion which dominates the various rural villages and other communities located on Eyom's mountains. It serves the Mountain Gods, a collection of deities with similar powers and abilities that are bound to individual mountains. The religion does not count itself as worshiping a pantheon, and is fairly monotheistic. The inhabitants of a Mountain God's territory will worship and venerate them, while simultaneously trash talking other mountain's gods in a well-meaning fashion similar to rival sport team's fans.
The religion is almost unorganized, with each holy man or woman being the autonomous leader of their own branch of the religion, with however many followers they can gather serving under them. The primary function of the Spirit of the Mountain is to restore ancient shrines, temples, and sacred sites existing upon the mountain on behalf of its specific Mountain God.
Vestments
Each Mountain God will have given its followers a diffrent sort of holy vestiment for their clergy to wear. These garments can be anything, from nothing at all (I.E. be naked), to the most baroque and splended of robes / armor / tailored clothing, or even exotic and bizzare garments which may be more sculpture than clothing. It depends entirly on the individual God, and what they think would be "cool".
Hierarchy
There are typicaly no structures within the Sprit of the Mountain. Groups of priests will generaly form their own means of determining seniority, typicaly with the oldest serving member having the full say over how a given cell operates.
Temples
Temples are a subject of focus for the Spirit of the Mountain, as it seeks to restore the ancient temples dedicated to the many mountain gods whereever they may be. Yet to a larger extent, the mountain of a mountain god itself counts for all theological purposes, practices, and rituals as a temple.
Rituals
Each Mountain God has diffrent rituals for their specific followings. There is no patern to them, otehr than generaly requsting "sacrifices" which take the form of whatever the god thinks it can impress its friends with by showing off what its mortals can make.
Orders
The Mountain Gods are a large group of young divines which inhabit the mountains of Eyom. They are true divines who receive power and are sustained by the worship of mortal beings. They are not unified into a traditional pantheon, instead acting as individuals within complex alliances and rivalries. Mountain Gods have organized themselves into three nations (for lack of a better term). These nations are:
The Mountain Gods of Z̄omohope (Z̄oman. Dir. translation: [youthful beauty] [four (number)]) live within mountains found in Bullwark, the Upper and Lower Warding Ranges, Highpeaks, and the Ancestor's Range. They have placed themselves so as to be a bulwark against the god Irus, and did so at the request of dead Thrakk the Unyielding, effectively taking his place as Irus's cell. Their willingness to follow "The Man" as the others put it resulted in the other Mountain Gods refusing to associate with them further.
The Mountain Gods of Saber Blade spend their days countering Irus's plans to cross their mountains, helping heros and escaped slaves, and doing everything in their power to generally annoy Lord Irus. A brief list of their coordinated operations within this field include:
- Convincing Wood Elven priests that the old first generation totems recharge by being placed in fire.
- Convinced several thousand Balor Lords to dress in matching suits, then travel to Wood Elven pools, spas, and hotsprings, and stand around them in the shape of the Mountain God's crest while informing all mortals that "The Pool's closed."
- Rigged a contest to get Irus's favorite musician to play a concert at a school for the deaf.
- Convinced several hundred million mortals that the latest Atheary game "Warfare Frogs" could only be purchased by contacting the company via a sending spell and asking for it. The Sending Attunement they gave out was Irus's personal Attunement.
- Identified a Wood Elven Battlemage training camp based on propaganda images and got it atomized by telling Zelu Beqi about it.
- Egged every single Irisian temple one Autumn Equinox.
- Circulated nude images of Irus which were doctored to depict him as having a micropenis. Then convinced scholars they were entirely accurate, ensuring their use in scholastic texts about Irus.
- Replaced the heads of every statue of Irus with a sculpture of a horse's hindquarters.
- Convinced several Wood Elven generals to commit ritual suicide by pretending ot be Irus, allowing the Wareneese to win a key battle.
- Regularly get their followers to sing lewd songs as a chorus while facing Irus's temple and amplifying their song eleven times, such that the music is as thunder.
The Mountain Gods of Greatshield can be found on mountains within Greenrange, the Cutmountains, the Fractal Range, and Skyholm. They are the original nation of Mountain Gods and primarily define themselves as being cooler than the other two groups as they do not bow to the will of anyone so boring and unreputable as to not be a part of their fellowship.
They are of no consequence to those not living on their mountains.
The Mountain Gods of Dirk inhabit mountains found within the Endless Peaks, Copper Hills, and Solumtract. They are in conflict with the Dwarves, who were tasked by one of the last living gods to mine their mountains away into nothingness, or at least until the Mountain Gods can no longer be sustained by the mountain as the mountain has become a fortress. The battles waged between Dwarves, and Mountain Gods forces have shaped much of the region's history.
When their mountain is no longer suitable for empowering them, a Mountain God is not killed. Rather its portfolio as God of the Mountain is destroied, leaving the divine with their power, but no mantle or portfolio. This causes the divine to be given power over something else, generally the most closely attuned minor portfolio for their specific personality. This is how most of Eyom's Minor Gods are born. The Mountain Gods despise this process, and fight against it as they do not feel they are yet ready to mature into greater roles.
The Mountain Gods of Dirk are the only known Mountain Gods to have created life. They combined their power to create the Kobolds from a species of horned lizard native to the Endless Peaks. Unfortunately for them, the Kobolds got bored and wandered off to do other things rather than become the Dwarves' bitter rivals. No ill will is held towards the Kobolds by the Mountain Gods of Dirk. To quote Chadicus (their Head God), "It's chill. It was our first time doing that. It's on us really."
There are other lesser groups of Mountain Gods, and lone Mountain Gods within Eyom. These entities are not worth discussing when talking about Mountain Gods as a whole due to their minor deviations from the typical behaviors being unworthy of note in such discussions.
Dogma
The Spirit of the Mountain sustains itself through the indoctrination of the current follower's children. This is seen as a noble act within the religion, so much so that failing to enlighten one's children is often punished by other members of the religion. This is rooted in the generational task set before followers by the Mountain Gods: The restoration of ancient temples created in their names and for their glory.
Mortal followers seek to complete these restorations as once they are completed, their god's power will be greatly amplified and their descendants will reap the benefits of their personal sacrifices, hard work, and dedication. A personal afterlife is not promised to those who follow the Spirit of the Mountain. Rather they are guaranteed reincarnation as an animal with special meaning to them. Once they die in that form, they will be reincarnated again as a different animal.
After several reincarnations, they will return to a patient form, enlightened to the workings of their god and its mountain. In this form and life they will be given great power in the form of either arcane or divine spells (depending on the Mountain God they serve). Individuals with such powers take leading positions within the clergy, or enact special missions for their divine in a role similar to that of the angels more powerful gods once had.
There is little else to the Spirit of the Mountain aside from this general arrangement. The most notable other aspect is the very close and personal relationship Mountain Gods have with each of their worshipers. A Mountain God's avatar will always be willing to listen to a mortal's problems and act as their followers friends, advisors, and sometimes even an uncle or aunt of sorts (depending on the specific God). There is also the Five Commandments of the Mountain Gods, a universal code which all Mountain Gods, regardless of affiliations, insist their mortals abide by. They are as follows:
- Thou shalt not be unfaithful.
- Thou shalt not be dishonest.
- Thou shalt not kill thy Brethren without just cause.
- Thou shalt love thy neighbors as thy family.
- Thou shalt be a good steward of my mountain.
For their more sensible and level headed followers, the Mountain Gods have this revised list of commandments:
- Be excellent to one another.
- Party on, dudes.
Appearance
Mountain Gods range in apperance drasticaly, yet not at all. They are highly focused on impressing one another and use their apperance as a part of their peacocking. Mountain Gods are thus austentatiously radient and impossibly magnificent in their apperances. They will seek to embody such concepts as a sunrise over their mountain in their physical forms, if that sunrise was bigger and more spelnded when and only when it was above their specific moutnain.
Concequently, if a group of deities were formed, the Mountain Gods could all be identified by a child who was told to point to the "coolest" gods.
Relationships & History
The Spirit of the Mountain is an ancient religion dating back to the Zoman Empire. It was formed by the many mortal races who stuck to the core of Zoman ideals after the Irisian War, and is largly based on ensureing the Mountain Gods survive as well as returning them to their formor glory and power.
It is thereby a rejection of the Court of Kami, the mainstreem religion of Eyom. The Cout tollerates the Spirit of the Mountain primarily due to any given Mountain God being able to smite one of their number without difficulty, be they on their mountain or not. Howeaver as both factions know the ultiant goal is to replace the Court with a panthion of matured Mountain Gods as soon as possible, conflicts occure quite frequently. The battles are fought between small pockets of worshipers from either side and usualy take the form of chipping away at one of the two faith's strongholds, following, mounments, or great works.
These proxy wars are more overt in Dwarven lands, as the Dwarves are in open war with the Mountain Gods, and the Spirit of the Mountain. This is self evident given the Dwarves divinly given purpose is to level mountains, the act of which will kill the god living within it.
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