The Gods of Tekumel

The Supreme Principle of Stability, the Lord Whose True Name May Not Be Known, Master of Light, and Foe of Change.
Hnalla

Hnálla seeks light without darkness and the ultimate prescence of Changeless Radiance throughout the cosmos. He is the final goal towards which the other Lords of Stability strive, each in his or her own fashion.

He aids those who serve Stability, rewards those who establish and maintain the order of things, and provides for those who are industrious, pious, temperate, and of dignified mien.

Hnálla is depicted as an abstract symbol: a double joined circle (like the ‘infinity’ symbol). He has 51 known Aspects. His priests and priestesses wear white robes and silver skullcaps.

The Pure Light Society of the temple of Hnálla supports Thúmis’ more pacifistic factions.

The Cohort of Hnálla is Drá: the Uncaring, Singer of the Hymns of the Gods. He is difficult to comprehend; the total disinterest of the Perfect Light in the phenomenal things of this universe. Drá is thus the closest thing to a ‘mystical’ deity to be found on Tékumel; his followers affect complete indifference to this world. Drá is shown as a lumpish, unkempt, and unremarkable man of middle years dressed in a tattered and dirty robe. His emblem is a pair of circles connected horizontally by a wavy line; he has no known Aspects.

Karakán serves Stability through active change, but change always towards a more stable social order, war for the expression of courage, war for the destruction of the Dark and the victory of Light. He aids those who are valorous.

Karakán is shown as a youthful champion with a head rather like that of a hawk, winged, and armed with a sword and shield. His emblem is a stylised lightning bolt. He has 56 Aspects. Priests and Aridáni warrior women of his sect wear red robes, armour, and tall golden helmets with fanciful scarlet crests. Other devotees attire themselves in scarlet garments and bear Karakán's emblem upon a breast amulet.

The Sword of Righteousness Clan of Karakán's temple urges an active role in politics, and has been known to collaborate with the Incandescent Blaze Society of Vimúhla to support military expansionism.

The Cohort of Karakán is Chegárra: the Hero-King, Swordsman of Glory and Victorious Lord. He is ‘Courage Applied’: the experienced warrior, the resourceful ruler, the sagacious statesman, and the patron of armies. He is shown as a bearded soldier of early middle years, fully armoured, and often striding forth over the bodies of slain demons. His emblem is a doubleheaded silver axe, and he has 33 Aspects.

Thúmis seeks total wisdom, cognition without the limitations of the ego, and an understanding of the universe in order to serve the eventuation of Hnálla’s Changeless Radiance.

Thúmis aids those who seek knowledge for the benefit of society; and who heal, teach and study.

His commonest depiction is as a seated scholarly man with a golden halo and a book-roll in his hand. Some of his Aspects bear the traditional Staff of Power (although Thúmis was not worshipped until Engsvanyáli times), and the hem of his robe is blazoned with stylised eyes, signifying omniscience and wisdom. His sign is a square in which the Tsolyáni letter for ‘th’ is centred. He has 47 common Aspects, and his clergy (both males and females) wear grey robes and simple black skullcaps.

The Temple of Thúmis is dominated by the Brotherhood of Supernal Wisdom, which holds that Stability must triumph through the acquisition of knowledge, strong political action, and even missionary zeal—but not through violence. Smaller factions within Thúmis clergy argue that the temple should adopt a more militant stance, while still others urge no involvement in political life whatsoever.

The Cohort of Thúmis is Keténgku: the Many-Eyed, Knower of All, Master of Scrolls. He is ‘Wisdom Applied’: patron of scholars, physicians, apothecaries, scribes, architects, engineers, and all those who use knowledge for the benefit of society. He is represented as a bald, seated scribe holding a book-scroll open upon his knee. He has four faces looking in each of the four cardinal directions, signifying his omniscience; his symbol is a stylised silver eye, and he has 27 Aspects.

Avánthe seeks a smooth-running and well-ordered world, one in which all things flow gently along towards Hnálla’s final Perfect Light. She stresses a patterned rhythm of cooperation and symbiosis, and her ceremonies commemorate the cycles of nature: the spring, sowing, the rains, and the harvests. Avánthe aids women in all circumstances, those who maintain the clan and the community, men and women who are devout pillars of society, the supporters of justice, and those who struggle against Change.

Her symbol is a circle with rays descending from it. She has 93 Aspects, and her priests wear sky-blue robes and chaplets of gold, while her priestesses wear similar robes but have headdresses of blue-lacquered Chlén-hide and golden bracelets and armbands.

The Girdle of Purity society of the Temple of Avánthe desires stronger, more militant measures and an active role in politics.

The Cohort of Avánthe is Dilinála : the Lovely Maiden of the Turquoise Crown, Aid of Lovers, Solace to the Weary and Handmaiden of Avánthe. She is ‘Woman as Woman Alone’: femininity without the polarity of male versus female; the innocent virgin, the beloved daughter, the loyal sister, the platonic confidante to whom a lover may tell his yearnings, the wise woman of many years, and even woman in love with woman. She is represented as a demure woman of great beauty and chaste purity holding out her hands to comfort the worshipper; her emblem is a hand extended, palm down, in silver and blue on a light blue field. She has only 9 known aspects.

Belkhánu sphere is not of this world but of the life after death: the journey onward to the farther Planes and the eventual goal of Hnálla’s Perfect Light.

He aids those who are close to death, those who mourn, those who would contact the dead, those who fight against Change, and those who are attacked by Sárku’s undead minions, an abomination to him.

His commonest form is that of a four-armed being with a round, featureless head. In each hand he bears one of the insignia of Paradise: a yellow gem, a staff, a bowl, and an orb of gold. His symbol is a golden ‘V’ resting upon three stylised waves. Belkhánu has 67 known Aspects. His priests wear yellow robes and tall yellow headdresses with a coif of gauze to mask the face. His priestesses are attired in similar costume, although the details differ.

His temple is split between the Sect of the Golden Sphere of Eventual Transcendancy, which presses for a middle course between activism and pacifism, and the Group of the Amber Glow, which devotes itself to theological and doctrinal studies and has little to do with the concerns of this world.

The Cohort of Belkhánu is Qón: the Ancient One of Pleasures, and Guardian of the Gates of Hell Against Those Who Would Come Forth. He protects the soul against the perils of the Hereafter, and aids those attacked by the powers of the Dark. He is depicted as a six-legged beast-like creature; in his forepaws he bears two carved maces. His symbol is a stylised mace set vertically, and he has 19 Aspects.

Hrü’ü seeks the Dark, an end to choate form, a negation of this world of phenomena, and a return to the Nullity which existed when time was not. When this Nullity is achieved, he will then bring forth a new and chaotic beginning, and this in turn must be brought down, destroyed, and replaced with another Being, and so again and again for all time to come. He glories in Change without cessation, neverending, random and unpatterned, always roiling and shifting.

He aids those who fight for Change, those who attempt to undo the social order, those who bring about their own glory with no thought of others, and those who are of a secretive and yet grasping nature.

Hrü’ü is usually depicted as a bulbous, featureless circle of purple from which eight slender arms extend outward like the rays of the sun. In each of these hands he holds the insignia and devices of his power: swords, lamps, a barbed hook, a scroll, etc. His symbol is a circle of purple with a scarlet slash running down across it from left to right. The Aspects of Hrü’ü number 78. His priests and priestesses conceal themselves beneath purple robes and go masked in velvet and Chlén-hide shaped into the likenesses of his demon servitors.

His temple is dominated by the Cusp of Night Society, which supports the Ndálu Clan who seek power through political intrigue.

The Cohort of Hrü’ü is Wurú: the Unnameable, He Who Appears Where Evil Dwells, the Many-Legged Serpent of Doom. He is the active antagonist of Stability, pictured as a great serpent with many centipedal legs, antenna, and six great staring eyes. His symbol is a stylised serpent's head with tongue protruding, and he has 18 Aspects.

Vimúhla is the catharsis and the cleanser through the Flame. He would thus annihilate all matter and bring about the Final Conflagration, after which the cosmos must be reborn in the heart of the Flame, as Hrü’ü decrees. True victory is to he but an ephemeral, scintillating spark in the heart of the Inferno, then to know no more save the terrible burning joy of unity through annihilation.

He aids those who fight heroically and fanatically for Change, those who start conflagrations, and those who revel in destruction and pillage.

His usual depiction is as a coneshaped being with stylised flames in place of arms and legs, surrounded by black clouds shot through with orange-red lightnings. His symbol is a stylised flame. Vimúhla possesses 87 Aspects. His priests wear flame-orange robes, armour, and headdresses crowned with lacquered Chlén-hide flames. His priestesses are garbed in flame-orange skirts, collars of garnets and gold, and lighter coronets of gold with flame symbols engraved upon them. Both males and females leave their hair loose and unbound.

The Temple of Vimúhla is partially controlled by the Incandescent Blaze Society, which urges violent action and intrigue but has little in common with the activists of the ‘Dark Trinity’ (Hrü’ü, Ksárul and Sárku) and instead sometimes collaborates with Karakán’s Sword of Righteousness Clan since both support military expansionism.

The Cohort of Vimúhla is Chiténg: Lord of Red Spouting Flame, Drinker of Blood and Reaper of Cities. He is the patron of the armies of Change, the beseiger of cities, and the overseer of torments. He is depicted as a mighty warrior covered with lizard-like scales with a lizard’s head, often wielding his terrible two-handed sword, Bloodsong, which is his emblem. He has 20 Aspects.

Ksárul seeks knowledge, like Thúmis, but for the Doomed Prince wisdom has no meaning in the abstract, nor is it to be used for the benefit of society. Knowledge is power, and power is the individual’s greatest instinctive goal. Indeed, if a society is to exist at all it must be for reasons of individual aggrandisement, and the ultimate final ‘good’ is the victory of Ksárul. His godhead must continue even after the Final Change to be wrought by Hrü’ü. Magic, science, technology, and wisdom are all means to this end.

He aids those who would learn forbidden secrets, those who would contact the dwellers on other Planes, seekers of knowledge, and those who would serve him against the forces of Stability.

Ksárul is shown as a young man of slender build with a smiling, yet emotionless face, dressed in black velvet and carrying a staff topped by an azure beetle. His emblem is this same beetle over a pale crescent moon. He has 62 Aspects. Priests of Ksárul wear black robes, smiling masks of silver, and squarish mortarboard-shaped headdresses of black velvet. His priestesses are similarly attired, but their masks are of black wood for doctrinal reasons

His temple has three major factions: the dreaded Ndálu Clan, which seeks power through political intrigue; the Society of the Blue Light, which gathers knowledge for its personal and collective power; and the Reflugent Blue Curtain Society, which keeps its wisdom secret until it can be used to return Ksárul to supreme authority over the Gods.

The Cohort of Ksárul is Grugánu: Knower of Spells, Black Sword of Doom, and Reader of the Incantations of the Dark. He combs the Planes for knowledge and sorcery which may aid his Lord, and aids Ksárul’s followers in their own quests. He is shown as a hulking anthropoidal half-human figure concealed in black draperies, and with a head like a small buzzard or serpent. His emblem is an open hand with claw-like fingers outspread to seize or strike. He has 27 Aspects.

In many ways this Goddess is the antithesis of Sárku. She seeks the existential reality of the Now—changes as they occur at every moment, and the pleasures and pains of sense perception. She desires to attain the heights of ecstasy, the depths of sensuality, and the purely egotistic joy of perceived experience. She is the ultimate hedonist who cares nothing for others or for the ‘good’ of society. Only the self matters, and although she follows Hrü’ü in seeking ultimate Change, yet she must savour every moment along the way.

She aids those who seek sensual pleasure and immediate gratification, those who engage in her orgies and her ceremonies in the service of the Demons of the Dark, and those who are hedonistic, selfish, and uncaring of others.

The depictions of Dlamélish are varied: a wanton maiden, an Aridáni warrioress glorying in the sensual pleasures of carnage, a bestial, obese human female with a head like a sort of monstrous crocodile, etc. Her insignia consists of an emerald green drop falling into a silver oval. She has 101 Aspects, plus some others which are known only to the inner Circles of her temple, it is said. Her priestesses dress in revealing and lascivious robes of emerald green, wear tiaras of silver, and hang tiny silver bells from their wrists and ankles. Her priests defy description: dissolute youths, depraved old men, capering legions of the perverted, ox-like young men who serve at her orgies, etc., all in some variation of her emerald and silver livery.

Her temples are divided into several small factions: some are devoted to her rituals and the service of the Demons (eg. the Order of Argent); others desire only to practice her hedonistic sensualism (eg. the Society of the Emerald Radiance); and a few (eg. the Society of the Emerald and Silver Crown) are activists who work with their counterparts in the other temples of the Change—or even with Avánthe’s Girdle of Purity Society.

The Cohort of Dlamélish is Hriháyal : the Dancing Maiden of Temptation, Harlot of the Five Worlds and Mistress of the Thirty-Two Unspeakable Acts. She is the supreme orgiast, patroness of the ancient Mysteries which date back to Bednálljan times, and patroness of gambling. She is pictured as a voluptuous dancing maiden holding a curved dagger; her emblem is a vertical silver oval with a wavy emerald line drawn horizontally through it. She has 34 known Aspects, and perhaps several more venerated by her Inner Temple.

Sárku seeks a slower, colder winding down in Hrü’ü’s final Nullity: the low and certain transition of life and death. To the Worm-Lord, life is but a brief orgasmic spasm before the long, dusty eternity of the tomb. Yet life and death are only two aspects of the same being, and the latter is the more perfect because it endures. The one condition of Sárku’s faith is the survival of the conscious intellect—the ego—which must continue to live and have awareness even in the sepulchre. The other demands of the body do not persist after death, but if the intellect has cognition throughout all eternity, it can witness and savour the final victory of the Dark.
Sarku

His realm is the necropolis, and there he aids those who serve his undead legions, those who worship the intellect and care little for the needs of the body, and those who send the living down to him in the unutterable stillness of death.

Sárku is represented as a mighty serpentine form having five vermiform heads, each with a gaping, suckered maw. A mass of coiling tentacles hangs beneath each head, and these bear some symbol of the grave: bones, rotted cerements, skulls, and corpse-candles. His emblem is a wavy black or copper line (Sárku loves copper and dislikes iron) with a red circle at one end, signifying the Eternal Victory of the Worm. He has 108 Aspects. His priests and priestesses wear earth-brown robes, whitened armour (females don a bodice of grave-hued cloth), and headdresses of skulls. His clergy (and also his ordinary worshippers on festival days) also paint their faces with white pigment in the form of grinning skulls.

Sárku’s priesthood is split between the Copper Tomb Society, another ally of the Ndálu Clan, and the Brotherhood of the Victory of the Worm, which cares little for this world and devotes itself to the rituals of the catacombs.

The Cohort of Sárku is Durritlámish: the Black Angel of the Putrescent Hand, Opener of Catacombs. He marshals the undead, and is depicted as a rotted corpse seated upon a throne of bones, holding a bowl in one hand from which smoke rises. His emblem is a stylised image of this bowl, the Vessel of the Vision of the World in which all the Skeins of Destiny of every creature in the universe may be seen. He has 16 aspects.