Palictara and Tullactara

[Jubal]

These are two regions eastward of the Heirophancy.

Palictara consists of some sizeable floodplain valleys and forested areas, down to their relevant coastline. Tullactara effectively loops around Palictara, consisting of the mountains to Palictara's north and east, and also continuing into the island chain to its southeast and south. The peoples of each region have closely related but separate languages and share a religious pantheon, and are respectively simply referred to as Pals and Tuls.

The major political powers in the region are the inland Palictaran city of Sante, the Palictaran coastal realm of the Murtec dynasty, and the theocratic Tullactaran isle of Mestapesh.


Politics
Sante maintains its position as much on the strength of unequal alliances as anything: its inland plains produce grain, but its real strength has come in creating a trading hub for Tullactaran goods from smaller settlements to move down onto the plains, a position it guards jealously.

The Murtec Kingdom is run by its titular house, a dwarf family whose rule is notoriously extravagant. "With all the turtles of a Murtec noble" is a Palictaran byword for wealth (turtles being a delicacy along the Murtec coastlines, especially served at royal tables in vast numbers). The Murtec house (through some different branches and at least one fifty year split-and-reunification cycle) have ruled for around 250 years. Their most popular early ruler having been Chalrashecte "Glass-hand", famed for his generosity - the epithet refers to his penchant for handing coloured glass beads to ordinary subjects.


Religious Practice

Pal and Tul religion is pantheistic. One of the largest curiosities of it is that they believe that mankind was invested with certain authority with regard to heaven as well as vice versa. This particularly emerges in civic religion and ceremonies to select deities to perform certain functions in the pantheon beyond their core aspects - the most major such decisions being selecting the ruler of the gods, though in rarer cases leaders may move to make or annul marriages or add or revoke the functions of certain deities. Selecting the ruler of the pantheon may be done at any time there is widespread agreement among a realm's leaders that it is needed or prophesied, especially at times of war. Often certain Oracles will encourage all the region's rulers to have their say at once or give some indications which lead to a bit of alignment, but it is still not uncommon for there to end up being competing claims as to who is the legitimate current ruler of the gods - which, if a war wasn't already happening, would probably provoke one.

The system is made significantly more complex by the very different ruling systems across the region's major and minor polities. Sante's people are fiercely protective of their right to elect their leaders, and likewise their gods, whilst the Murtecs contend that their dynasty is descended from Milnashecte (which is often acknowledged even by other regional powers) and thus uniquely divinely inspired (which is not). For the Mestapheshis, all the priests of the island gather and may choose any deity other than their own: when there is a change of supreme deity there is also a change of leadership as that deity's priesthood is accorded the supreme executive functions of the state.

Priests and priestesses across the region must be ordained twice, the birthing and binding: first they are ceremenially "born to their deity", and then bound to their temple (and thus flock). All deities have priests and priestesses alike. Being bound to their temple is a ritual that requires the participation of every household in a settlement: it is thus easy to veto a priest's binding and this happens not infrequently. Potential priests who are born to their deity but rejected by their chosen community, or who cannot find a temple, have a number of options: large temples may take subordinate priests either by having pseudo-temples that nominally serve a single household, making the binding ritual easier to manage socially. Alternatively, some create their own household-temple and bind themselves to it, becoming a sort of hermit or monk: such a hermitage is not treated as a "true" settlement, but the most important of them attract other people in similar positions and may become oracular sites: visions created by various means are an important religious practice.

Finally, some may choose to become Tephe, literally "reachings" of their deity. This is also done by a ritual process that must be agreed to by several other priests of the deity: it is a difficult road, for among other things Tephe may carry no name, only that they are a Tephe and of whom. They are granted charity and supplies but they may not take more than three days' hospitality under the same roof. They are wanderers who are accorded a revered status, and generally carry out functions particular to their deity - some Tephe become fearsome warriors, others become law-givers, or healers, or spend their days calling for alms to go to the poor: some may even be brutal avengers of sin.



Gods and Myths

Milnashecte is a demi-god figure, usually presented as a male dwarf though this is debated. He is attributed a range of heroic acts, including having created the written script of the Pal language, thrown mountains into the sea to create both the plains of Palictara and the Tullactaran isles. He is usually not given a role in the pantheon formally, though this has happened once or twice in the past (and a good deal of theologians' ink has been spilled on the topic of whether this was a good idea).

The Roles of Deities vary: at the least in any given year, the Court of the Gods has a ruler, a general, a steward, a judge, and a petitioner, the latter of whom guards the voices and prayers of mortals. Other common roles for gods to be named to include those of admiral, mason, poet, smith, treasurer, perfumer, and counsellor.

Habombagi is a deity with trickster attributes, given roles in the pantheon seen as undergoing or indeed needing uncertainty and change. Those in power often strive to prevent Habombagi being named King of the Gods, due to the presumed danger to their own positions, though it has happened on occasion.

Fuur Ina is a deity with attributes around change, movement, and sorcery. Unlike the fickle changeability of Habombagi or the new growth of Gur Las Eshte, she represents mystical and permanent change, a striving for power or travel or wealth. She is often named Treasurer of the Gods and favoured by merchants, though she has been named Queen of the Gods at various points.

Gur Las Eshte is a deity with youth attributes, seen as the idealised figure of renewal and new life. He brings fertility to fishermen or farmers, rebirth to kingdoms,

Gur Lok Duul is the brother of Gur Las Eshte, and seen as a god representing strength and raw power. He brings storms as a sea-god, labour as a farm-god, brutal simplicity as a smith, and crushing power as a god of war.

Astaka the Chronicler is a deity with attributes related to time and remembrance, often given roles in the pantheon after a major or catastrophic event, or to commemorate one. She is looked for when a volcano's ash has settled, a bloody war stilled, a catastrophic drought lifted. She is rarely given the head of the pantheon, though it is not unheard of: the Murtecs successfully pressed for her to get the role to mark two centuries after the death of Chalrashecte.

Medrasan is a deity of wisdom, stability, and age. He is relatively often named King of the Gods, but also may be called upon to be the god of whatever needs calming: a war-god to bring a time of peace, a sea-god to quell storms, a treasurer for cautious trading.

Verigasala is a two headed deity, whose heads argue wisdom with each other: she is a goddess of balance, one of the most neutral but also most just deities, often taking roles of judge, treasurer, queen, or counsellor of the gods.

Taemma is the zither-playing deity. She and Astaka are the most common court poets of the gods, though she can be named to any role where creativity and the unexpected are welcome: she could be the builder of the gods when great designs are needed, a warrior-goddess of ingenious strategems, a fleet-goddess for exploring new lands.