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 +====== Introduction ======
 +For time immemorial, various cultures on [[Nave]] have worshiped or otherwise tied concepts and forces—ranging from the physical to the abstract—to the entities known as //Gods//.
  
 +This practice is not without good reason, for divine influence has been both readily observed and speculated upon, and hushed whispers tell of direct communication with or even manipulation of the //Gods// being possible through devices such as the lost [[Armillogion]]. Some even believe new //Gods// can be //created// with enough concentrated belief.
 +
 +Most religious worship on //Nave// is externally quantifiable as a polytheistic belief in a //"world of gods"//—a //Pantheon//—with apparent similarities between the cultures. For instance, in [[Tindrem]] prior to [[The Irruption]] the main gods were //Zelua// and //Camulos//, //Gods// of //Wisdom// and //War// respectively, and they both had much in common with their [[Nordveld|Nordveldian]] counterparts.
 +
 +Many of the celestial bodies of the [[solar system]] have been named after the //Gods//, though whether or not these planets, moons, and stars are the physical manifestations of the //Gods// which share their names remains a matter of intense theurgic as well as astrological debate.
 +
 +Some of the //Gods// are considered to be //Ancient// or //Old Gods// and most of these—although usually seen as important and powerful—aren't commonly worshiped directly.
 +
 +════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 +
 +====== The Dawn of Creation or On Arkhe, Ma, & Mu ======
 +Prior to //The Irruption//, surviving fragments of ancient, presumably [[Shinaria|Shinarian]] philosophy—well-guarded in one of the great vaults of [[Tindrem#Pre-Irruption Magic & Science|Clerus Magica]]—were still being copied and studied in modern [[Tindremene]] theology, calculus and science of matter. Although not completely translated or understood, according to these, //"nothing existed before Arkhe and Ma"//, as //Arkhe// was the beginning and //Ma// the space to be filled.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== The Mu Paradox =====
 +The //Ancients// believed that all things—including hypothetical things or abstract concepts—must have a //True Name//, and the name of this hypothetical //"nothing"// was //Mu//. And as //Mu// symbolizes a thing, a concept, this in turn presented the //Ancient// thinkers with the paradoxical mystery: //"Mu existed before Arkhe"//. As this obviously couldn't be possible, what then, did //Mu// mean?
 +
 +It seems that for a very long time the //Mu// paradox had no obvious solution. Whole incomplete chapters are filled with accounts on conflicts and listings of separatist cults. It even threatened to completely shatter the ruling //Ancient Theurgy//, until finally a solution was found.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Oglab's Axiom =====
 +There are several versions of what became known as //Ogloab's Axiom//, but it is usually presented something similarly to the following:
 +  A man who has been honest and righteous for all his life is asked the question “Have you stopped stealing 
 +  from the offering shrine?”
 +  
 +  The answer "yes" is wrong because it implies he used to steal from the shrine and then stopped, but the
 +  answer "no" is also wrong because it suggests that he is still stealing from shrine.
 +  
 +  The correct answer is "Mu", meaning "your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect
 +  assumptions".
 +  
 +  Ogloab the Arbiter (year unknown)
 +
 +Thus it was agreed that //Mu// is not just nothingness—it is an absence of anything, including meaning, so complete it collapses within itself. The name can be interpreted as //"un-ask"//, as in //"You are asking the wrong question, unask it."// Yet another reading is //"not even wrong"//; an answer to a question or an argument based on assumptions that are known to be incorrect, or on theories that cannot be falsified or used to predict anything.
 +
 +Some //Ancient// scholars theorized that if //Ma// is all-encompassing, //Mu// must also be the answer to what exists outside //Ma//. Further, if //Arkhe// and //Ma// are eternal, //Mu// is how to properly address what exists after them. There are no accounts on //Mu// being worshiped as a //God// or power, rather it was widely feared for its qualities as a metaphysical paradox—//Mu// has enormous implications as it is the //"Destroyer of Significance"//, //"Undoer of Significance"//, or //"Vitiator and Invalidator"//.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Mathematics =====
 +The //Mu-symbol// is however sometimes used in the calculus of the //Ancients//, but it is not a number like how for instance //Ma// can be translated to //zero//. It isn't even similar to an empty space where a number is supposed to be written or the absence of a number. If used in an equation, it seems to mean that the inputs are invalid, or that the result is //"not a number"//; the equation is meaningless.
 +
 +════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 +
 +====== The Rule of Dawning & Evolution ======
 +This section is an analysis of evolution in the settings of //Mortal Online// and //Mortal Online 2//, written to explain the processes of evolution and how deities can and have interfered with it to **//players//**.
 +
 +**While its implications are //canonical// and some in-world theologians are aware of //The Rule of Dawning//, it is //not// written from an in-world standpoint, and should be both //read// as well as //referenced// accordingly.**
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Evolution =====
 +On //Nave//, life is based on evolution. While somewhat different from real-world evolution, it follows the principles of natural selection, adaptation and genetic drift. This means a creature will develop according to its environment. What most obviously differs from real-world evolution is the speed of this evolutionary process; it is progressive and could be said to have a memory.
 +
 +To be more specific, //"genes"//—which take the form of [[Etherworld#Sheut – The Shadow or Mold|Sheut]] from an in-world perspective—may sometimes change and adapt during a creatures actual lifetime, meaning for example that an individual that develops extraordinary strength during its life may actually pass this on to its offspring. This process is somewhat similar to the old theories of inheritance of acquired characteristics or pangenesis.
 +
 +For instance, putting a flock of wolves on an isolated island would not only produce a new wolf-race, it would probably lead to a new type of wolf-species in a matter of only a few generations. This quick adaptation comes with a price though, as overspecialization breeds in weakness.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== The Rule of Dawning =====
 +The //Gods// or //rare magic// have historically interfered with the evolutionary process, although it is now forbidden by the //Gods// themselves by the ancient //Rule of Dawning//. However, if one were to break that rule, this kind of manipulation must still obey certain primary rules of nature, and it costs a lot of energy. In essence, the more a creature is to be changed, by forcing evolution in a certain direction or by speeding it up or reversing it, the harder it becomes and the more energy is required.
 +
 +If a //God// for instance wanted to create an entirely new type of creature from nothing, the energy cost would be tremendous. Conversely, modifying or combining already existent species according to their hereditary possibilities would be much cheaper.
 +
 +Due to the nature of //Sheut//, creatures may undergo relatively dramatic changes in a short time. Over some generations, a species may re-shape its arms to fins to adapt to a life underwater for instance, although naturally adapting by evolving an extra pair of limbs would be very rare as there would be no rudimentary limbs to start from: it would have to happen as a result of a mutation or as an atavism—characteristics from a much earlier stage in evolution would appear again.
 +
 +On the other hand divine intervention, life-manipulation rituals, or controlled breeding opens up the possibility for recalling such features on a wider scale, although that knowledge together with the conscious creation of new species are regulated and forbidden by the //Gods// as mentioned earlier.
 +
 +Before the //Rule of Dawning//, several creations came into existence as a result of forced manipulation by the //Gods// themselves or by intelligent beings wielding great power. These manipulated creatures combined different traits from various evolutionary branches, giving rise to beings such as [[Griffin|Griffins]] and the [[Murnahas|Murnahās]]—more commonly known as //Minotaur//.
 +
 +Those that weren't overly specialized for their //"purpose"// managed to survive the ensuing events and produce offspring. Over time, this led to the emergence of new species and races as they too adapted to the environment. Moreover, many //"intelligent"// creatures—in this case referring to conscious beings—were also brought into existence through similar events that required even greater power.
 +
 +Apart from the //"natural"// creatures of the world, so-called magical beings also exist. They could be said to follow the same evolutionary rules as the natural ones—but as most magical creatures exist only temporary or are powered by a magical or divine source—the energy cost of modifying them is much less than for permanent creatures, allowing for far more flexibility. This is true for both spirit beings and artificial life such as the [[Magic#Necromancy|undead]].
 +
 +Finally, there are truly ancient creatures in the world that were created when not even the primary rules of life and nature where set in stone among the //Gods//.
 +
 +════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
 +
 +====== The Greater Pantheon ======
 +The following is a **highly incomplete** list of reasonably well-known deities and deity-like entities, as well as what information on them is accessible in the wake of various disasters such as the recent //Tagmaton Irruption//.
 +
 +It should not be interpreted as the //Pantheon// of any specific culture, as those //Pantheons// are both reasonably exclusive and very often fluid in terms of which //Gods// are included.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Akana =====
 +Also known as [[Khurite#Khurite Religion|Ankha or Anğa]], //Akana "The Earth Mother"// is a [[Khurite]] deity whose [[Khurite#Khurite Religion|flesh is sometimes described as the earth and soil which provides a way for life to flourish]], very notably excluding the cold rock below. All life is said to have a connection to //Akana//, with the connection being stronger among wildlife and weaker among their domesticated cousins.
 +
 +She is the warm sister of //Tjaka Baarve//, and also one half of the //Khurite// [[Khurite#Symbolism|Feng]], itself made whole alongside //Jumal "The Sky Father"//.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Anam =====
 +Mentioned here as the [[Alvarin]] religion is not well-understood by those outside of the clade, the //Anam// are said to be the spirits or essence of nature which reside in all things.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Astraia =====
 +An unconfirmed //Tindremic// //Goddess// who may be associated with //Light// and //Justice//.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Caerus =====
 +The //Tindremic// //God of Fortune//, //Caerus// is celebrated in //Tindrem// through the [[Tindrem#Pre-Irruption Culture|Raffle of Caerus]], a yearly event in his honor demonstrating the //fickleness of Fortune//. His will is represented during this event by //Krampos Buccus//, a maddened man wearing the head of a [[Urial]].
 +
 +{{wiki:krampos_buccus_transparent.png?0x200}}
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Camulos =====
 +//Camulos// is the //Tindremic// //Old God of War//, and is frequently honored in statues, the most prominent of which is one of the //Colossi Geminus//, massive statues on either side of [[Tindrem#Introduction|Tindrem's Arx Primoris]]. Notable also is the extremely ancient statue of //Camulos// in the fallen monastery known as [[The Undercroft]].
 +
 +{{wiki:camulos.png?0x300}}
 +
 +As these statues depict //Camulos// holding a greater moon, there has long been speculation that he is the larger of [[Solar System#Moons of Nave|Nave's two visible moons]], or at the very least charged with keeping it in the sky.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Carpo =====
 +//Carpo// is the //Tindremic// //Goddess of Autumn//. She is celebrated annually during the ten-day //Feast of Carpo// which takes place in the //Gardens of Tindrem//, with the gardens themselves decorated by autumnal flowers and branches in colors of orange, red, and yellow.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Chronos =====
 +//Chronos//—also known as //Khrónos//, //Cronos//, or //Krónos//—is the deity which lends its name to the material [[material_lore:metallurgy:Cronite]]. Little else is known at this time about the deity.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Crepitea =====
 +A //Tindremic// deity known as the //God of Insects//, some believe the [[Tagmaton|Tagmatons]] to be tools through which it conducts its influence. The [[Solar System#Crepitea|asteroid belt Crepitea]] shares its name, and perhaps the countless asteroids are a parallel to the uncountable insects on //Nave//. 
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Echidna =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_echidna.png}} No known records documenting the nature of //Echidna// itself have survived //The Irruption//, though the jungle region in the southeast of [[Myrland]] known as the //Stairs of Echidna// has inspired much speculation.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Erebus =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_erebus.png}} No known records documenting the nature of //Erebeus// itself have survived //The Irruption//, and depictions of the planet which shares its name are [[Solar System#Erebus|frequently inconsistent]].
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Geeredh =====
 +A bird-like //Khurite// deity whose scope is //Justice//, commonly associated with a [[Khurite#Khurite Religion|legendary defeat of a "Evil Serpent"]] which itself is often [[Tindremic Empire|depicted as a Dragon]]. In some tales, //Geeredh// is the lover of //Tjaka Baarve// and their children are the mortal [[Syenah|Śyenah]].
 +
 +{{wiki:morin_khur_entrance_geeredh.jpg?0x200}}
 +
 +Statues depicting //Geeredh// are a common sight in [[Morin Khur]] which historically acted as the only permanent //Khurite// settlement on //Myrland//, and prior to //The Irruption// equipment styled after the deity were often seen among the most elite of //Khurite// guardsmen due to his association with //Justice//.
 +
 +{{wiki:khurite_lictor_front.png?0x200}} {{wiki:khurite_lictor_side.png?0x200}} {{wiki:khurite_lictor_rear.png?0x200}}
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Jumal =====
 +Also known as [[Khurite#Khurite Religion|Tenger or Deywos]], //Jumal "The Sky Father"// is a [[Khurite]] deity associated with most non-carrion birds, but is said to have a particular divine connection to birds of prey. These birds are seen as his messengers or even avatars.
 +
 +//Jumal// is one half of the //Khurite// [[Khurite#Symbolism|Feng]], made whole alongside //Akana//.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Kepher =====
 +A [[Sarducaan]] beetle deity who rolls //Sunna// across the sky to usher in day and night.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Maal =====
 +No records documenting the nature of //Maal// itself have survived //The Irruption//, however now-ancient //Tindremic// maps of //Herabalter// make note of a //Mount Maal//, a volcano, and its flow into the northern coast, //Maal's Tongue//, on the continent. This—coupled with the rare and fiery-red mineral [[material_lore:petrology:Maalite]] borrowing its name—may indicate some connection between //Maal// and volcanos, lava, and/or magma.
 +
 +Further, //Maal// may have some connection to depictions of [[Solar System#Maal|the planet which shares its name]].
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Mors =====
 +//Mors// is the //Tindremic// //God of Death//. For unknown reasons during the //Imperial Campaigns//—long before [[The Conflux]]—the [[Tower of Descensus]] and its many //Huérgar//-excavated tunnels were constructed as a temple to the deity.
 +
 +There have been some recent questionable reports from adventurers claiming to have found an object described as a //polyhedron// with the sigil of //Mors// upon it, and when interacted with the object vanished—in its place appearing a legion of the walking dead.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Nave =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_nave.png}} Often worshiped as a goddess, [[Solar System#Nave|Nave is the vessel]] whose boundless blessings serve to enable survival for myriad life and is seemingly always in the eyes of the other //Gods//.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Nemesis =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_nemesis.png}} No reliable records documenting the nature of //Nemesis// itself have survived //The Irruption//, though one highly unverified claim in a journal written by an adventurer at some point in time after [[The Conflux]] states they were told by a rumor monger that it was or is a //Goddess of Death & Revenge// venerated by the [[Risar]].
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Nyx =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_nyx.png}} //Nyx// is a //Primordial// or //Ancient Godess of War// that the //Tindremenes// associate with [[Solar System#Nyx|the largest of Nave's three moons]]. The //Tindremic Old God of War, Camulos,// is frequently depicted as holding the moon aloft and demonstrating his control and dominance over both //Nyx// herself and her domain of //War//.
 +
 +{{wiki:Camulos.png?0x300}}
 +
 +The uncommon black—and sometimes purple-hued—mineral [[material_lore:petrology:Nyx]] seemingly borrows her name.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Oghma =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_oghma.png}} The [[Oghmir]] //Goddess of Stone & Metals//, she is associated with the [[Oghmir#Origin|creation or lineage]] of the [[Huergar|Huérgar]] people. Accounts of this event among the //Huérgar// vary, with some suggesting the great //Motsoghmir//—first of the //Huérgar ersu// or kings—being her son. A more popular version of the tale suggests that //Oghma// transformed an entire tribe of cave-dwelling //Humans// led by //Motsoghmir// into the first //Huérgar//.
 +
 +In comparison to //Tecton//, worship of //Oghma// is much more popular among people who favor the subsurficial domain as opposed to the lowest reaches of //Nave//. 
 +
 +There exists a inaccessible //Temple of Oghma// in //Tindrem//, perched high on the cliffs above the mostly-fallen pillars of //Vica Levita//, though it is unclear if the temple is still occupied or in use after //The Irruption//.
 +
 +Lastly, there have been some recent questionable reports from adventurers claiming to have found an object described as a //polyhedron// with the sigil of //Oghma// deity upon it. When interacted with, the object vanished—in its place appearing a legion of //Minotaur//, or as they're known to the underground //Huérgar:// //Murnahās//.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Ophion =====
 +//Ophion// is a //Primordial// or //Ancient God of Wisdom// that the //Tindremenes// associate with [[Solar System#Ophion|the middle of Nave's three moons]]. The //Tindremic Old God of Wisdom, Zelua,// is frequently depicted as holding the moon aloft and demonstrating her control and dominance over both //Ophion// himself and his domain of //Wisdom//. 
 +
 +{{wiki:zelua.png?0x300}}
 +
 +//Tindrem's// gardens once contained an ornate fountain depicting the //God// with his scaled hands holding an ewer, and the //Tindremenes// have a traditional horn instrument made of [[material_lore:metallurgy:Messing]] called an //Ophis// or //"serpent"//. This instrument is said to mimic the horn-like calls of //Dragons//, though it's also said that it sounds remarkably similar to calls made by the //Sator//.
 +
 +{{wiki:ophion_fountain_art_book.png?0x300}} {{:wiki:ophion_fountain_tindrem_gardens.png?0x300}}
 +
 +Further, some speculation is possible about a relationship with the [[Cold Broods#Sator|Sator]] and perhaps even [[Dragon|Dragons]] based on his name itself as well as some objects and materials which share its prefix.
 +
 +Among these materials are the fabled [[material_lore:animal_materials:Ophiosquami]], [[material_lore:animal_materials:Ophiodermi]], [[material_lore:animal_materials:Ophium]], and [[material_lore:animal_materials:Ophiocorni]]—the scales, hide, teeth, and horns of //Dragons// respectively—as well as a green stone favored by the //Sator// called //Ophite//.
 +
 +Perhaps the strongest terrestrial connection to //Ophion// can be found in now-ancient //Tindremic// maps of //Herabalter//, which make note of a //Mount Ophion// in a mountain range on the west side of the continent.
 +
 +Lastly, there have been some recent questionable reports from adventurers claiming to have found an object described as a //polyhedron// with the sigil of this deity upon it, and when interacted with the object vanished—in its place appearing a legion of //Sator//.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Pontos =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_pontos.png}} No records documenting the nature of //Pontos// itself have survived //The Irruption//, however now-ancient //Tindremic// maps of //Nave// make mention of the //Flow of Pontos//, a massive flow of water erupting from the ocean somewhere north of //Herabalter//.
 +
 +//Pontos// may have some connection to depictions of [[Solar System#Pontos|the planet which shares its name]].
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Skadi =====
 +By all appearances and evidence, //Skadi// is a [[Kallard|Kallardian]] //Goddess of Snow & Ice//. She is also associated with the incredibly dense silvery-white metal [[material_lore:metallurgy:Skadite]], a very rare mineral known also as //Skadi//, and a massive ice floe on the northern coast of [[Nordveld]] called the //Shards of Skadi//.
 +
 +Further, some connection between the magical school of [[Magic#Harmonism|Harmonism]] and //Skadi// may exist, for such magic was suspected to have been employed by //Ingunna the Drummer, Noaid of Skadi// during [[Nordveld#The Branthian Sack of Tindrem's Harbor|the sacking of Tindrem's harbor in 29 AD]].
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Sunna =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_sunna.png}} While no reliable records documenting the traditions and culture surrounding //Sunna// worship have survived //The Irruption//, it is not difficult to understand why worship of the ever-present, life-enabling, and warmth-providing //Sunna// has historically occurred.
 +
 +Indeed, there is little doubt that //Sunna// the deity [[Solar System#Sunna|is Sunna the sun]].
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Tapio =====
 +An obscure spirit, deity, or historical figure associated with at least one forest that may rest or have rested at some unknown point in history on the southern border of //Nordveld// and/or the northeastern border of //Sarducaa//.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Taranis =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_taranis.png}} No records documenting the nature of //Taranis// itself have survived //The Irruption//, though symbols associated with the deity may indicate a connection with lightning, thunder, and storms.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Tark =====
 +Also known as [[Khurite#Khurite Religion|Tarch or Tarğ]], //Tark "The Darkness"// is a //Khurite// deity with a number of roles and associations, not least being [[Khurite#Khurite Religion|the underworld below the earth or soil itself]] in both the abstract and literal senses.
 +
 +The //spirits of Tark// are said to be present in most reptiles—but particularly the [[Cold Broods]]—and she is known to infect the soil above with her coldness in the form of frost and permafrost. This belief has extended into the names of some underground life, such as the air-purifying lichen //Tark's Breath//.
 +
 +//Tark// is also said to be the //arbiter of the// [[Etherworld]], though some //Khurite// tribes attribute this role to //Tjaka Baarve// instead, or attribute the role to both.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Tecton =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_tecton.png}} Also known as //Tekton// or //Thraukhthon//, //Tecton// is a cthonic //Tindremic// //Old God// that is said to precede over the underground—as in bedrock and subterranean matter beneath the living soil, not to be confused with the spiritual or physical //"underworld"// and/or their denizens.
 +
 +//Tecton// is often implicitly blamed for earthquakes, and //Tekton// is even a word for //earthquake// in the //Tindremic// languages. Commoners frequently use the words somewhat interchangeably—//"It's Tekton again."//—meaning most would simply say he is the //God of Earthquakes//.
 +
 +Regarding //Tecton's Fault//, the uneducated populace of //Tindrem// has been known to think of //"Tecton's Fault"// as //"Tecton's Error"//, a factoid being propagandized by myths where //Tecton// is the agent of this faux pas in his clumsy interactions with //Nave//. Perhaps this is even where the name originates from, whether or not it upsets scholars who have several other theories on how the name of the deity or the fault came about.
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Thalassa =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_thalassa.png}} No records documenting the nature of //Thalassa// itself have survived //The Irruption//, however now-ancient //Tindremic// maps of //Nave// make mention of the //Mouth of Thalassa//, an unusually massive whirlpool somewhere to the south of [[Sarducaa]].
 +
 +Borrowing from its name are a common water snake, the //Lesser//—and perhaps //Greater//—//Thalassa Snake//, and //Thalassa// may have some connection to depictions of [[Solar System#Thalassa|the planet which shares its name]].
 +
 +━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 +===== Themis =====
 +{{wiki:symbol_themis.png}} //Themis// is a //Tindremic// //Goddess//, though no records documenting her nature have survived //The Irruption// outside of a [[Apocryphal Tales#The Santa Elves|questionable tale involving child sacrifice]].
 +
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 +===== Tjaka Baarve =====
 +Also known as [[Khurite#Khurite Religion|Tas Araat'n or Kerkes]], //Tjaka Baarve// is a legendary vulture-like bird-creature of //Khurite// mythology said to be the //"Cleansing Wind"// that sweeps the earth, enabling new life albeit not seeding it directly. Associated with carrion birds, she is also the //"Devourer of Corpses"//.
 +
 +She is sometimes said to be the //arbiter of the// [[Etherworld]], though some //Khurite// tribes attribute this role to //Tark// instead, or attribute the role to both.
 +
 +Lastly, she is the envious sister of //Akana The Earth Mother//, and in some tales the lover of //Geeredh// with their children being the mortal //Śyenah//. 
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 +===== Zelua =====
 +//Zelua// is the //Tindremic// //Old Goddess of Wisdom// and is frequently honored in statues, the most prominent of which is one of the //Colossi Geminus//, massive statues on either side of [[Tindrem#Introduction|Tindrem's Arx Primoris]].
 +
 +{{wiki:zelua.png?0x300}}
 +
 +As these statues depict //Zelua// holding a lesser moon, there has long been speculation that she is the smaller of [[Solar System#Moons of Nave|Nave's two visible moons]], or at the very least charged with keeping it in the sky.
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 +
 +====== Tindremic Sculptures ======
 +Historically, official //Tindremene// sculptors were charged with crafting statues of the //Gods// in the classic //Tindremic// sculpting style, with their faces only rarely shown and gender only hinted at.
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 +
 +====== The "No-God" Thought Experiment ======
 +The //"No-God" thought experiment// is an analysis of the divine metaphysics in the settings of //Mortal Online// and //Mortal Online 2//, first written to explain some of the fundamentals behind what exactly a //God// is and how one might be created to **//players//**.
 +
 +**While its implications are //canonical//, it is //not// written from an in-world standpoint, and should be both //read// as well as //referenced// accordingly.**
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 +===== The Experiment =====
 +Imagine founding a cult centered around an entity known as the //"No-God"//, a being that is not a //God//. You manage to gather a significant following of believers who share the conviction that any and all traditionally acknowledged //Gods// do not exist, thus there are no other divine entities to contend with.
 +
 +Concepts such as //"belief"// and //"sacrifice"// hold tangible power on //Nave//, directly influencing the metaphysical realm and //empowering// or even //creating// the subjects of these practices.
 +
 +As your cult gains momentum and acquires more devotees, the //"No-God"// ascends to the //Pantheon//, or the group of acknowledged deities. This development poses an existential threat to the established //Gods// and the entire divine realm. After all, the defining paradoxical characteristic of the //"No-God"// is that it fundamentally rejects the notion of being divine and refutes the existence of any other divine beings.
 +
 +In contrast, many of the established //Gods// hold deep connections to various aspects of existence, including //agriculture//, //time//, //war//, //knowledge//, //mountains//, //famine//, //sanity//, and so on. The emergence of the //"No-God"//—fueled by an ever-increasing number of followers—incites immense upheaval.
 +
 +Chaos ensues, enveloping not only the //Pantheon// but the world itself. If the //"No-God"// amasses a critical mass of believers, its power becomes formidable, capable of reshaping or even obliterating the very fabric of the world and everything that has been brought into existence.
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