They Multiply Like Rabbits

 I did it again. I recently updated religion to have twenty-four Archons instead of twelve. 

We're at thirty-six, now.

Every God will have three children, or chosen Archons, who will help to build the world at their command in the creation story. Afterward, they will exist among races of mortalkind with avatars and represent their chief deity.

Jeohan, the Light God, has a child for the moon, the sun, and color. Harskael is Archon of sun and fire.

Kurdah, the Earth God, presently has a child for stone, metal, and jewel. Urwal is the Archon of stones and non-gem minerals.

Jhordone, the Air God, presently has a child for weather and scents. A third slot is under development. Bismodus is the Archon of all forms of weather.

Ividnon, the Water God, presently has a child for water, ice, and taste, as taste is seen as being paired with saliva. Shamaal is Archon of water.

Ta'al, the God of Sound, has a child for rhythm, voice, and vibration. Adinathi is the Archon of language and speech.

Aowar, the God of Body, has a child for fauna, flora, and fungi. Jarn is the Archon of fauna and is responsible for all variety of non-civilized animals.

Ordea, the God of Motion, has a child for speed and rest. A third slot is under development. Rest is associated with gravity. 

Probihan, the God of Instinct, has a child for emotion, intuition, and morality. Morality may be too similar to intuition. Eudis is the Archon of intuition.

Belgor, the God of Time, has a child for beginnings, ends, and the eternal. Eril is the Archon of ends and governs death and finality. Cern is the Archon of the eternal and governs the unending cycles such as seasons and the motions of the stars.

Akra, the God of Mind, has a child for perception, memory, and dreams. Dreams may replace morality under Probihan. Rubalkai, the Wandering Eye, is the Archon of perception and is every watchful of mortalkind, said to enforce the Gods' will with mortal death and punishment upon the soul. Groth is the Archon of memory and gifted mortalkind with written languages with which to catalogue history.

Balki, the God of Entropy, has a child for chaos, paradox, and arcana. These terms are in a state of flux at the moment.

Gorojin, the God of Balance, has a child for duality, harmony, and fortune. Parkareth is the Archon of duality and governs not only extremes, but the spectrums and varieties between them.

Of note, I've moved Rubalkai from Balki's custody to Akra's. 

I'm going to have a lot of naming and decision making to do.

Other notes:

Archons are worshiped as heavily as the Gods themselves. They are often worshiped in trinities by certain professions, such as Flora, Harskael, and Bismodus for luck in farming. Always present is a smaller idol to Fortune.

I'm not sure which Archon will be associated with the tide. Classical cultures are smart enough to understand the tide is tied to the moon somehow, and the moon is a child of Jeohan. Tides are a predictable perennial system, however, which is Cern's domain. And of course, Shamaal oversees the oceans. It could be an association with this trinity.

The painted forest of Atavai is locally known to be the product of Flora and Color's marriage celebration. 

Fungi is now its own child. I've decided not to leave it to the philosophers, after all.

Rest is associated with stillness and gravity is said to be Rest beckoning all things to come to a stop.

Birth defects and freakishly bizarre events are attributed to Chaos, Balki's child, but illnesses are Eril's domain.

Ordea is proving to be the most difficult to wrap my head around dividing into three. Jhordone isn't much easier.

Emanation Consolidation

Quick Overview of Changes

It's been awhile. I'm overhauling the Gods and Archons again. I had been thinking about it for a bit, but I uncovered a note where I had not only added a God, but named them as well, so I must have been on this path for awhile. Sadly, I doubt I'll be able to find any other notes on it. Here's a breakdown of the changes.

•  No lesser and greater Gods this time, and the months will be named according to the twelve Gods, not the Archons. 
• Only Archons will have avatars with which to speak with mortalkind, as mortals cannot handle the presence of the Gods themselves. 
• Archons themselves will be upped from twelve to twenty-four to make them more numerous and feel truly lesser or like "children" of their master God.
• Archons will have a much stronger influence over mortalkind in the third era. Previously, they had a stand back and watch approach. After the second era collapse, they'll more strongly govern civilization to keep it from happening again.

God Heirarchy

Thrum, the Prima Materia

The four faces/hands of Thrum - Matter, Energy, Law, and Life

The twelve Gods - Earth, Water, and Air for Matter, Light, Motion, and Sound for Energy, Direction, Balance, and Paradox for Law, and Body, Mind, and Emotion for Mortality.

The twenty-four Archons 

• Named:  Harskael* for Fire, Urwal for Minerals, Bismodus for Weather, Sharmiil* for Fluids, Adinathi for Voice, Groth for Thought, Eril for Death, Rubalkai for Arcana, Jarn for Fauna, Cern for Perception, Parkareth for Harmony, and Eudis for Intuition.
• Unnamed: Metals, Ice, Music, Chaos, Flora, Emotion, Scents, [light], [motion], [motion], Birth, 

The Emanations (Basic Form)

All things existed at once as one incomprehensible entity by the name of Thrum. This state of existence shattered, called a gift by some and a tragedy by others, creating the first emanation of Thrum. This pulse split Thrum into four primordial entities, sometimes called the Hands or Faces of Thrum: Matter, Energy, Law, and Life. This emanation spread to the boundaries of inconceivable existence.

The emanation echoed back and Thrum gave out the second emanation, further dividing existence into understandable parts. Each Face or Hand begat three Gods. Matter became the Earth, the Water, and the Air, giving birth to Kurdah, Ividnon, and Jhordone, respectively. Energy became Light, Motion, and Sound, birthing Jeohan, Ordea, and Ta'al. Law became Time, Balance, and Paradox, birthing Belgor, Gorojen, and Balki. Life became the Body, the Mind, and the Pathos, birthing Arkvunda*, Akra, and Probihan.

As the pulse made its way across existence, before it echoed back to Thrum, these Gods fought for dominance. There are places in the world said to be remnants of this fighting, such as canyons believed to be where Jeohan struck at Kurdah and missed, gashing the Earth instead. This volatile state was interrupted as the echo made its way back to the core and Thrum let forth the third emanation. This emanation further divided the definition of the world and created the Archons. Each Archon shadowed a deity as a tutor and extension of them, expanding upon their chosen master's domain. Because Parkareth expanded on the notion of balance and opposites to have spectrums and diversity as well, the other archons were able to add a variety to the world, such as Urwal creating a vast array of minerals and gemstones out of the Earth and Jarn weaving Body into all manner of animals. The conceivable world was complete, and when the pulse echoed back, it came to rest. 

...unless you're one of those heretics that believe the world is on its fourth emanation...

Heretics tend to explain the emergence of magic and spiritual powers as awakening in this theoretical emanation.

To see the old description of things, see this entry.

Reincarnation

Opposite of the world as we know it is the spirit realm. This is the realm where the soul is returned to Thrum or sent back into the waking world with a new life. It is believed this is the realm entered by shamans across the world. Almost every God (according to their Archon's avatars) has forbade any entry into this realm for the safety of the mortal involved. Rubalkai is expressly concerned with enforcing this, and is monikered "the Wandering Eye" for Its vigilance traveling and seeking out heretics from the shadows.

Death occurs in the waking world when Eril, the Archon of Death, harvests the soul, the particle of Thrum in every living being, and brings it before Eudis to be judged. A pure soul is allowed to rejoin and merge with Thrum. A soul not yet ready to rejoin the whole is given to the Archon of Birth* to be remade into the waking world again. Purity is obtained by the mortal by following the guidance of the Archons, adhering to their teachings and overcoming their difficult and often unseen trials. It is said that it takes an unimaginable number of lifespans to reach Thrum.

The Gods and Archons monitor mortalkind, guiding them along a path of purification until they can return to the whole. When enough of Thrum's fragments are returned to the whole, Thrum will be powerful enough to draw all of existence back into itself and all will be one with everything again. The Archons encourage explicit attention to their teachings and wishes to further their soul along, giving mortals incentive to submit to their will.

The Avatars

Each Archon is tied to a body chosen or given to them. These individuals retain their identities unless special conditions are met, in which case the Archon takes over, allowing them to communicate with mortalkind. Aside from a semi-annual meeting of Archons (how many years apart as yet undecided,) these situations are very rare. This is how the divines were able to communicate religion to the initial peoples of the world.