Yazak Steppes
by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary DaviesYamag (Terra) - Balance of the life cycle, birth, prosperity and fertility, earth
Karaash - Humanoids, strength, war, victory, conquest, tactics
Tabak (Ixion) - Sun, fire, light, knowledge, order
Wogar - Goblin, war and military tactics, conquest, ferocity, predators
Wotan (Odin) - Sky, winds, storms
Hel - Reincarnation, death, darkness and cold energy, corruption
Notes:
1. The ancient humanoid cult is derived from the traditions of Urzud, inspired by the beliefs of the beastmen changed by the passage of time. He has replaced the original creator figures of Hel and Wotan with Yamag and Tabak, who have become the mother of life and the keeper of the universal order, symbols of the eternal and unchanging life-death, day-night cycle, which marks the slow unrelenting flow of time. To them was also later added the cult of Karaash, which has taken from Tabak the domination of war. Karaash now embodies the warrior and mercenary ideal to which has always inspired the first humanoids, and therefore has a position of high importance in the Yazak pantheon, even if not the chief (title that has been given to Yamag).
2. The cult of Wogar is particularly popular among the tribes of Yazak goblins after the XII century BC. Wogar is considered an important Immortalised ancestor; the patron of the goblinoid races, ferocity and superiority in battle, and is frequently opposed to the followers of Karaash in order to gain the veneration of all the humanoids. His cult remains however for now confined only among the tribes of goblins of the steppes.
3. Wotan has remained in the Yazak mythology as lord of the skies and Immortal of storms and rain, and therefore was worshipped especially in relation to his importance for the sheep-rearing and agriculture.
4. According to the Yazak mythology Hel is the queen of the afterlife and has the task of reincarnating the spirits of those who aren’t worthy of becoming one with Yamag and Tabak, in the great cosmic cycle. Hel is seen by some as the antithesis of Yamag: while the latter is the symbol of fertility, life and nature, the former instead embodies death, darkness, sterility and the icy breath of corruption. Other shamans instead consider her more simply an entity that is part of the great cosmic cycle, without an openly negative value, the one who presides over death as Yamag does life, charged with rejecting whom aren’t able to enter into harmony with the creation and to give them a new possibility through the reincarnation. Therefore according to the Yazak mysticism, only those who live following the path traced by Tabak, Yamag and Karaash can hope of joining them and the spirits once deceased. Those who instead are still not ready are condemned to be reincarnated in a form chosen by Hel until his spirit has been purified.