Heirophantic religion does not have a pantheon of larger-than-life gods about which stories are directly told, in the way that the pantheons of Chardil, of Palictara and Tullactara, or of Camahay do. They nonetheless have a lively appreciation for stories, and of human heroes in particular. The core conceit of Heirophantic faith is that the universe demands that mankind - in the form of the Heirophants - keeps nature in balance, and heroic tales that emphasise that balance or condemn characters who lack it are commonplace among the heirophants and their subjects alike. The folk-tale versions might be less observant of some of the behavioural norms expected in a courtly version, of course.
Here are some of the characters found in their stories -
Zard is a principal heroic character: he is generally thought by Heirophantic scholars to have lived over one and a half thousand years ago but no point on his biography is considered reliable. His storied adventures include sailing the circuit of the Dragonfly Sea in a coracle, and most importantly the battle at Jastamene, a now long ruined city that is a site of pilgrimage. The generally best accepted tale of Jastamene is that he stopped a great invasion of giants but failed to save the city. In some grimmer versions he actively sacrificed the city, getting all the animals and people drunk in a huge feast and then waiting until the giants are drunk too from eating them. Zard's travelling companions are numerous and can include Ehuar (see below), Meyron the Slinger, Kyar-Dun the Fire-dancer, and the troll-maiden Esteae.
Syar-Hrau is one of the first three of the clan of the Syarami to be considered a heirophant, and did live around eight hundred years before the setting's present, though many of the circumstances of his life are unclear and it was another generation or two before the Syarami really began to spread. The other two, Syar-Sulon and Byai-Amur, tend to be more representative of internal struggle toward balance and tend to be of primary interest to theologians. Syar-Hrau on the other hand is seen as the first person to declare the necessity for a state to spread the forces of balance across the world. He is less of a common character in more popular folktales, but he does appear.
Ehuar, sometimes epitheted as the judge, is another pre-Heirophantic hero like Zard. Whereas Zard's tales are often focused on monster-slaying and travel, stories about Ehuar often focus on his role as a bringer of order and justice, solving others' problems through his wisdom or leading battles and armies to resolve problems. Some tales say he fell at Jastamene, others that he went west with Zard after the battle, others that they quarreled over a lover, and others still insist that the two men never met and that Zard chose Jastamene as his battle site because it was already famed as Ehuar's grave.
Heiamon was a Heirophant who lived around five hundred years ago, at the approximate height of the empire. He is often depicted as a musician, and is a popular romantic character - usually for the love of Anudrae, a woman born deaf and so the only person who could not hear his music, though sometimes the peasant girl Curimae is substituted and depicted as simply not appreciating the subtleties of his lyre or duduk playing. Heiamon is also sometimes made to be an adventuring character, and particularly plays a role in encounters with fey creatures.
Parivast, the Emperor of the Birds, is a frequent character in tales. Capable of both great foolishness and immense wisdom, he is often an agent of chaos in other stories, and sometimes depicted as a fey creature. He has a complex relationship with the hoopoe-shah, who unlike him is consistently wise but not so powerful as Parivast, leading the Emperor to often ignore the King's advice.
Curimae is a commonplace stock character in peasant tales: she fulfils a role of speaking truth to power, and represents simplicity and straightforwardness. She is dragon-slayer in some stories, but usually by fooling the dragon who believes such a simple girl is incapable of harm, even if she directly and plainly tells it otherwise.