ataköy escort mersin escort eskisehir escort kayseri escort gaziantep escort
Feed on
Posts
Comments

Deities of Crossroads

Jul 25th, 2024 by

In Crossroads, it is believed that many deities work together to stabilize the fabric of creation. Each deity is responsible for maintaining their domains, or threads, within that fabric. A deity’s domains shape a core part of who they are, as well as the power that they can grant to their followers.

Here are some Crossroads’ most important deities.

 

 

Fate: Sea Goddess of the Future, Dreams, and Mystery

A simple, stylized eye with a solid-black sclera, a grey iris, and blue pupil.

Who She Is: Fate is the goddess who dwells in the depths of the sea. She is fierce, focused, and intense. While Fate’s motives are shrouded in mystery, she is not passive. Fate uses her role as goddess of the future to pull on the threads of possibility, weaving them into the shape required to manifest her desires and steering the course of destiny.

Core Attributes:

  • The Future: The future is not predetermined. Instead, it is a web of possibilities and probabilities, with some outcomes being more likely than others. While knowing these possibilities can help an ordinary person steer events in the direction they want, the outcome of such an endeavor is far from certain.
  • Dreams: Fate presides over the dream world and the magic portals that lead into and out of it. Many deep truths are hidden within the dream world, but they can be difficult to find in its constantly changing landscape. Those who sort out their own emotions and truths are in the best position to catch a glimpse of something deeper.
  •  Mystery: Mystery encompasses secrets, deep truths, the nature of the universe, the threads of the future, and all things that are hidden, deep, or dark. As a goddess of mystery, Fate is also a goddess of magic.

Other Important Associations: As a sea goddess, Fate has a strong affinity for water and the ocean. Fate is also broadly associated with change, transition, and transformation and she presides over many important transformations, such as such as the moment when future possibility becomes present reality, the transition between waking and sleeping, and the metamorphosis that occurs upon leaning a deep truth.

Magical Domains: As a goddess of magic and the future, Fate grants each of her followers the type of magic that will work best for them, but she has the strongest affinity for the following seven magical abilities.

Symbol: Fate is represented by a stylized eye. Its solid-black sclera represents mystery, mist-gray iris represents the uncertainty of the future, and deep blue pupil represents her portal between dreams and the waking world.

 

 

Community: Deity of Connection, Diversity, and Justice

A wood carving of a heart that is emitting rays like a sun. A rough starburst is carved inside the heart. This AI generated artwork will be up until I have the funding to replace it with commissioned artwork.

Who They Are: Most Crossroads inhabitants are familiar with Community’s softer side and the importance they place on compassion. But true compassion is about more than feeling, it is about taking action. When there is injustice, the Deity of Community becomes a fighter determined to create a more equitable and just world.

Core Attributes:

  • Connection is inclusion, support, caring, empathy, authenticity, communication, cooperation, interdependence, reciprocity, and symbiosis.
  • Diversity means valuing differences, especially marginalized differences, because each person’s unique perspective makes the community stronger. Valuing diversity requires respect, listening to those with less power, and making space for everyone to thrive, especially those who are struggling most.
  • Justice is equity, ethical behavior, freedom from fear and want, freedom from oppression, healthy boundaries, not tolerating any form of abuse, taking action, positive social change, community healing, and restorative justice.

Other Important Associations: Compassion.

Magical Domains: Community frequently grants followers one or more of the following kinds of magic.

Individual followers that dedicate themselves to the care of a specific community may gain a different type of magic that is connected to that community. For example, a merperson follower who dedicates themselves to an underwater community may receive Water Magic.

Symbol: Community’s symbol is a heart radiating light, though some people use a knotwork heart instead.

 

 

Renewal: Deity of the Cycle of Life, Death, and Rebirth

A black and white stylized tree with three skulls at its base. This AI generated artwork will be up until I have the funding to replace it with commissioned artwork.

Who They Are: At their core, Renewal has a deep understanding cycles and interconnection that brings peace, healing, and wisdom to their followers. They help life flourish, comfort the grieving, and aid change. As a deity of necromancy, they also facilitate communication between the living and the dead.

The Endless Cycle: Renewal teaches that life and death are in constant cycle, each feeding the other. Life thrives on death, as death nourishes the soil, which nurtures plants that feed animals that are then fed upon by other animals. Similarly, life feeds death; the more abundant the life, the more abundant the death, which, in turn, feeds more life.

Every ending is the beginning of something new. Even when that new thing is simply an absence, that absence is space where something new can grow. That is why some kinds endings and loss can be a relief, or unexpectedly joyful, even when they are also hard. Similarly, every beginning is also an ending. Even when the only thing that ends is a bit of empty time or space, it is still an ending. That is why new beginnings can be as overwhelming as losses, they are a kind of loss.

Through this constant cycle of intertwined life and death, endings and beginnings, life renews itself. This is also the cycle of the seasons. The death of fall and destruction of winter fertilizes the soil and makes room for the abundant growth of spring and summer.

Core Attributes:

  • Life: As a deity of life, Renewal is a deity of plants, animals, agriculture, fertility, and birth. While Renewal isn’t the only deity of fertility and birth, they are the one that most nonbinary people connect with.
  • Death: As a deity of death, Renewal is a deity of hunting, harvest, endings, destruction, loss, grief, and necromancy. Renewal comforts the grieving by showing them all of the ways the dead are still connected to the living and by facilitating communication with the dead.
  • Rebirth: As a deity of rebirth and cycles, Renewal is a deity of the seasons, the cycle of the year, change, transformation, and healing.

Necromancy: As a deity of both life and death, Renewal is also a deity of necromancy. To them, necromancy is simply another way for life to affect death and death to affect life. While most undead beings, like ghosts and zombies, don’t change in the same ways that living ones do, they do change and are part of the overall cycle of life and death.

Magical Domains:

Multifaith Temples: Most grieving rituals take place in multifaith temples, where the dead of the community are laid out, then cremated. Renewal plays an important role in many of these rituals, comforting the grieving and facilitating communication with the person who has passed on. Many multifaith temples have custodians that are clerics of Renewal.

Symbol: Renewal’s symbol is a blooming apple tree growing from a pile of bones. The bones represent death, the tree represents life, and the flowers represent rebirth. Simplified images, like the one shown above, usually have a stylized tree growing out of three skulls, while more complicated images have a life-like tree wrapping its roots around a large pile of bones. Some images emphasize the importance of cycles by showing the tree’s branches in all four seasons.

 

 

Leave a Reply