Thanegioth Archipelago
by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary DaviesManwara (Protius) - Oceans and marine creatures, water, capriciousness, travel
Korotiku - Wisdom, guile, subterfuge, liberty, clear thinking, aranea, jokes, cheating, fun
Pyro (Ixion) - Light, sun, strength, knowledge, war, balance and order
Crakkak - Sharks, shark-kin, predators, hunting, strength, ferocity
Ninfangle - Rakastas, bravery, adventure, travel, battle, hunting
Rakhnee (Aracne Prime) - Evil aranea, deceit, oppression, obscurity
Uí (Ordana) - Nature, protection of forests and sylvan races
Marau-Ixuí (Terra) - Balance of the life cycle, terra, birth, fertility, seasons
Uatumá (Zirchev) - Hunting, survival, bravery
Gorrziok - Sea and storm giants, oceans, extreme natural phenomena, creation and destruction
Slizzark - Kopru, domination of the weak, power, corruption
Oloron (Odin)-Sky, storms, winds, authority, knowledge, wisdom
Notes:
1. Manwara is worshipped both by the natives and by the Twaelar, the merrow that live in the water around the Thanegioth Archipelago. The Twaelar believe themselves to be the chosen of Manwara, the only ones that are able to boss around on the seas of the south, and practice a politics strongly aggressive in the confrontations of the ships that cross their territorial waters, frequently attacking them and making the direct route from Brun to the Archipelago extremely dangerous. Also travel in canoes and boats between the islands of the Archipelago are monitored by the Twaelar, which nevertheless allow the indigenous to freely travelling in exchange for offering and gifts left regularly by the natives, with whom they have better relations.
2. Korotiku is worshipped by the majority of the inhabitants of the Archipelago, aborigines of Tanagoro blood descendents of the explorers who arrived from the rest millennia ago, and in small part Makai that stopped on the island during the migration that brought the Makai from Davania to Brun over two thousand years before. The strong Tanagoro imprint of the Thanegiothians is evident in the predomination of the cult of Korotiku in the villages, followed by those of Manwara and Pyro (Ixion), typical of the Tanagoro culture.
3. Crakkak is worshipped as Sharp-Tooth by the natives in his aspect as patron of sharks and predators. Given that the majority of the Thanegiothians live as fishermen, many pray and make offering in order to ingratiate Sharp-Tooth before leaving for the fish. The fear that the natives have in the battles of Crakkak is reverential: he is considered a benign though unpredictable Immortal, the embodiment of the strength of the greatest of marine predators, the sharks. In his honour they complete sacrifices and ceremonies in order to invoke the strength of Sharp-Tooth on the warriors or on the raiders before any battle.
4. Ninfangle is worshipped by the savage rakasta that live in the forests of the larger islands of the Archipelago.
5. The aranea present in the thickest jungles of the Thanegiothian island are divided between worshippers of The Rakhnee (Aracne Prime) and of Korotiku, with a percentage of followers slightly favouring the former. They are extremely primitive aranea, who abandoned their destiny after the dissolution of the Empire of Aran millennia ago, and prey on the weaker creatures for survival, using their own shapechanging ability only in extremely rare cases, when they must entertain peaceful exchanges with the natives (which however are sporadic, given that the majority of the aranea adopt a isolationist and xenophobic policy).
6. In the islands of the Archipelago there are also communities of phanatons present descendents of the ancient slaves of the aranea. At the moment the phanatons have forgotten their past history, but continue to detest and fight the aranea as instructed by the Immortal protectors of their race, Mother Forest, Mother Earth and the Hunter.
7. The cult of Gorrziok is present both among the natives and the sea and storm giants that live in the Archipelago and in the Sea of Dread. The extreme natural phenomena like tornados and typhoons are frequent, and the humans associate it with Gorrziok, lord of the waves and storms. He is invoked to placate the natural calamities or for asking for them, and some tribes pray to him in order to send typhoons and seaquakes against their enemies.
8. Slizzark is worshipped by the few kopru that remain hidden in the heart of the Isle of Dread and in the sea surrounding it, last descendents of a large empire that encompassed all the Sea of Dread and that had collapsed millennia ago. These individuals are sly and ruthless, greedy and tyrannical, and constantly conspire in order to gain new slaves and return to extending their domination on the humans of dry land and on the merrow underwater.
9. Oloron (Odin) is worshipped by the inhabitants of the Isle of Mantru, situated on the shores of the volcanic lake in the north of the Isle of Dread. They are descendents of a Neathar tribe once dominated by the kopru and now almost extinct, which nevertheless are able to survive in a wild area thanks to the progressive isolation and to the presence of a source of sweet abundant water (the volcanic lake) and of fertile soil for the relatively poor cultivation of the Mantruans. Oloron represents the only memory of their ancestral past, associated with the more potent and unpredictable atomic elements, and to wisdom as mysterious knowledge directly handed down from the Immortal (which places the cleric of Oloron in a position of great power in the village of Mantru, second only to the village chief).