Uutak Genesis: Echmeri Gods and Worship

The following two texts, Varities of Faith In Imperial Territories: Yneslea and Gods and Worship On Yneslea, discusses the Echmeri religion known as the Collective of ATEDA. Enjoy the reading.

Varieties of Faith In Imperial Territories: Yneslea
Author: Brother Wardein of the Imperial College, Circa 4E 135

Editor’s Note: This pocket guide was written by Brother Wardein with the aid of the scholar Vorst Infernus Weard for the benefit of both the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion for future communications with the twin islands of Yneslea in the Padomaic Ocean. Due to the sensitive nature of its contents (many citizens of the Empire haven’t even heard of ‘Echmer’ due to their reluctance to travel to Tamriel), only authorized persons are able to read this. Complaints can be sent to either the Imperial College or Master Weard directly.

Well, here is my attempt to categorize the deities of the islands of Yne and Slea (commonly grouped together as the Yneslea), belonging to the islands two main groups of inhabitants. While this list is incomplete in nature for the Hyu-Ket (they reportedly have an incalculable amount of deities, similar to the Redguards), it does however list all of the entities that the Echmer worship as a whole. Many of the names of these entities can be matched up to possible Tamrielic counterparts, but the Echmer clearly disagree with these being aspects of the deities of the Starry Heart. I have also included brief descriptions of the members of this pantheon as well, for your leisure (unfortunately, not much on the Hyu-Ket religion could be learned and so their descriptions are mostly vague).

THE TWO PANTHEONS
ECHMER: ALORKH, AZRAH, CATH, CINEH, CLAVIL, ERPHYTE, GANUS, HRAHNDEYL, JULLS, NEDARR, NOCKT, MAR, MEHAGON, MERID, MOBAL, MORRAH, REVE-WUM, TOSH

HYU-KET: Hiri-karasha, Lorka-karasha, Mala-karasha, Mefa-karasha, Meri-karasha, Yefiri-karasha

NOTES ON THE DIVINE SPIRITS OF THE ECHMERI PANTHEON
ALORKH (Dead Mallet): Source of Space, and the Echmeri Lorkhan. The Genius Loci of Creativity. Interestingly, both he and TOSH are equally the least revered out of all the entities in the Collective of ATEDA, unlike their Tamrielic counterparts. It was his actions that created, but it is also he that almost led to its destruction. For breaking the nonnegotiable Law, the other ATEDA stripped him of his power and chained his fractured shade to the world with forbidden sound for eternity.

AZRAH (Day To Begin): Source of Dawn and Dusk, and the Echmeri Azura. The Genius Loci of Beginnings and Ends. She watches over the infamous trials of her people from their conception to the long awaited result, as well as making sure all things run its course in due time.

CATH (Thrice Keeper): Source of Echoes and the Genius Loci of Reverberations. At first glance he merely seems like an aspect of Malacath, but deeper study indicates he is also fused with Arkay and Trinimac as well. As CA he is the Guardian of the Forgotten. As AT he is the Guardian of the Perished. As TH he is the Guardian of the Driven of Will. But even these three have their own divisions, and they all cannot be listed here.

CINEH (Beast Tongue): Source of Hunger and Genius Loci of the Hunt and Pursuit. An aspect of the Daedric Lord Hircine. CINEH is the creator of animals and also their protector, but at the same he advises the Echmer on how to properly run down his charges and take them back home for substance.

CLAVIL (Creator of False Truths): Source of Lies and Genius Loci of Deception. The Echmeri aspect of Clavicus Vile. He is a trickster god of sorts and is widely despised amongst the Echmer population. He is known as the Great Liar, the Wish Maker, and the One-Who-Makes-Facts-Untrue.

ERPHYTE (Codify With Wrath): Source of Order and Genius Loci of Arrangement and the Law. If the sounding of the name doesn’t say it, then records clearly show that this is in fact the Echmeri Peryite. Interesting, Echmer records show tell that his ‘tune’ broke off from the tune of TOSH, but now they are different beings. ERPHYTE’s anger is terrifying; he forbids unruly behavior and infects those of unlawful practices with horrible inflictions.

GANUS (King Elder Gone): Source of Magicka and the Genius Loci of Reflected Sound. The father of both MORRAH and MERID and enemy to his brothers ALORKH and TOSH. Is the Echmeri version of Magnus. He is the Suzerain of the Locked Spectrum, and is also known as the Great Abandoner. GANUS was the one who originally helped ALORKH by fashioning a system of complex clicks to channel the creation of the Aurbis. However, he fled after his creation with his many children and never returned. His Mirror Realm is closed off to all who attempts to enter it.

HRAHNDEYL (Talk Incarnate): Source of Talk and the Genius Loci of Speech and Sound. Appears to be an Echmeri god-hero similar to Reman of Cyrodiil and Ysmir of Skyrim. Apparently ascended into godhood by creating the Pleonastic Spire to pierce the Black-Welkin – the Echmeri afterlife – according to Echmeri records. HRAHNDEYL is the most well respected out of all the ATEDA. Interestingly, there are Tamrielic deities that share similar phonetic names and spheres of power with him as well. His nemesis is LYEDNHARH.

JULLS (Rationale-Spitters): The Sources of Modification and the Genius Loci of Repair. The daughters/sheddings of TOSH who were created by ALORKH to help pacify the former’s insanity before the Dawn ended. They are the ones that fix the errors in time their father purposefully or accidentally creates. Sometimes attributed to be the Echmeri version of the mythical Jills, who are reportedly female dragons.

LYEDNHARH (Silence Incarnate): Source of Silence and the Genius Loci of Quiet. An obscure deity that is only mentioned in records of HRAHNDEYL. He is the Talk God’s enemy, and the most hated god in the Echmeri Pantheon. According to some doctrines he will supposedly herald the end times.

NEDARR (Breaking Stone): Source of Work and the Genius Loci of Mercy. Appears to be a bizarre fusion of the Imperial deities Stendarr and Zenithar. During the Dawn he was charged with guarding ALORKH but failed in his duties. However, he was given new life by GANUS before the latter left. According to Echmeri records, the tears that he shed during his brief period of sadness fell down and solidified into the metal that they use to build their constructs and cities.

NOCKT (Glorious Wonder Dark): Source of Darkness and the Genius Loci of Shadow. Evidence points to her being the Daedric Prince Nocturnal. She is the most well respected of the ATEDA after HRAHNDEYL and the Echmer consider themselves birthed from her abyss. It was in her warm embrace that we started on our path to prominence and who we dwell with always. She guards the entrance to the Black-Welkin with a sword made from composite shadows.

MAR (Open Kiss): Source of Love and the Genius Loci of Caring. Linked to the goddess Mara of the Eight Divines. She is invoked by the Echmer for matters of the heart, but is also surprisingly followed by many of their scholars, who claim that she is both love for ones family and love for ones work.

MEHAGON (Destroying Change): Source of Destruction and the Genius Loci of Revolution. Is clearly nothing more than another face for Mehrunes Dagon. Frowned down upon by the Echmeri people in certain cities, MEHAGON is the force that violently destroys unworthy schematics and ideals unfit for the drawing table. At the same time, however, he is also the one that causes new ideals to be born.

MERID (Burning Sigils): Source of Light and the Genius Loci of Luminous Keys. Undeniably the Daedric Prince Meridia under another name. A Rebel Warrior of NOCKT, she is often scorned by the Echmer due to her brightness. Old accounts dictate that she was driven away from her former home within the Locked Spectrum by GANUS, her father.

MOBAL (Ungraceful Dominator): Source of Domination and the Genius Loci of Subjugation. The Echmeri Molag Bal. A cruel, unforgiving force; MOBAL guides the Echmeri into placing power under their control and has been known to convince mortals into foolhardy pacts for said power. Is also associated with the acts of procreation by some Echmeri scholars as well.

MORRAH (Old Hoarder): Source of Knowledge and clearly an Echmeri Hermaeus Mora. The Genius Loci of Erudition and Forbidden Talk, it was his counsel during the Dawn that allowed the other ATEDA to chain up ALORKH and quasi-kill him. He resides within the Pleonastic Spire surrounded by all instances of Talk that will ever be and is, but he hardly shares this information. HRAHNDEYL before his ascension was MORRAH’s apprentice during his latter years as a mortal.

REVE-WUM (Dead Sound Singer): Source of Undeath. Scholars believe that he is linked to Revenant, the ‘God of Worms’. The Genius Loci of Unjust Revival, he is both mysterious and evil in his actions. REVE-WUM is the enemy to both TOSH and MERID, who tore him into two and now he is no longer a full chord. He is also the enemy of CATH, who he steals echoes from to create the Tone-Ghost(s). The few that follow him proclaim he has always existed, but others say he hasn’t.

TOSH (Completely Broken Rationale): Source of Time, and is the Echmeri Akatosh. The Genius Loci of Split Music. According to the Echmer people, he is literally insane and constantly attempts to disrupt their Trials by chronomorphing into his various forms and would only succeed if his own psych didn’t betray him first. His enemy is ERPHYTE, and the Tone-Ghost(s) are associated with him due to their chaotic nature.

NOTES ON THE DIVINE SPIRITS OF THE HYU-KET PANTHEON
Hiri-karasha: An aspect of Hircine. The God of Foraging and Meat.

Lorka-karasha: An aspect of Lorkhan. The God of the World.

Mala-karasha: An aspect of Malacath, and their godly patron. God of the Hyu-Ket.

Mefa-karasha: An aspect of Mephala. The Goddess of Secrets.

Meri-karasha: An aspect of Meridia. The Goddess of Sunlight and Starlight.

Yefir-karasha: An aspect of Y’ffre. The Goddess of Nature.

Gods and Worship On Yneslea
Author: Vorst Infernus Weard, Circa 4E 134

Editor’s Note: Vorst is a Breton member of the Imperial Office of Foreign Affairs, and wrote this tome as a sister document to Varieties of Faith in Imperial Territories: Yneslea, which he co-wrote with Brother Wardein of the Imperial College.

Within our beautiful home of Tamriel, the Gods and Goddesses are commonly viewed in different ways to the diverse cultures of our land. Most of the Merish and Mannish pantheons are in direct conflict with one another in terms of the nature of deities. However, the views on divine forces are ultimately left to the individual themselves. If one wishes to worship Aedra forces, they may do so. If one wishes to worship Daedra forces, they may do so. And if one wishes to worship neither of these forces (which is a strange and nearly impossible accomplishment), they may also certainly do so.

On the islands of Yneslea, this belief is also upheld among the Echmeri people. The Collective of ATEDA – the Echmeri Pantheon – resembles the pantheons of some Tamrielic cultures as being a combination of both Aedric and Daedric divinities, as well as their own god-heroes. Unlike the races of Tamriel, the Echmeri people themselves do not deny this and when asked about their pantheon they state in their own words that all entities have a way of benefitting or not benefitting the citizens of Mundus.

However, the Echmer do not attribute the gods of Tamriel to their ATEDA. To their people, the ATEDA are in reality the verifiable source behind the gods and goddesses, or in other words their spheres. There are no cultural representations of the Collective that can be found anywhere in Echmeri settlements, because to the Echmer these beings are merely just their Spheres. MEHAGON, for instance, is not Mehrunes Dagon. He is instead purely the Sphere of Destruction. When his ‘worshippers’ (if they can even be called that) invoke him, they are merely invoking the source that can be proven to exist. The Echmer actually frown down upon and some even mock the totem worship of the Hyu-Ket, a race of intelligent goblins they peacefully coexist with in their native homeland because of these beliefs.

Because of this, the Echmer also believe that even without worship the ATEDA would continue to exist without them, because these Pure Sources do not need the power of prayer to sustain themselves. These Sources are also apparently capable of manifesting and walking amongst the Echmer; the Echo Folk have several accounts that record these events in their entirety. Our religious scholars our trying to interpret what could be meant by such things.

Another interesting concept among the Echmeri people is their ‘Black-Welkin’. According to them, it is their afterlife, the place where they go to when they perish in Mundus. When asked if it was one of the Planes of Oblivion or another name for Aetherius (which we would’ve found odd, as Aetherius is commonly referred to as a realm of light), the Echmer laughed at our face and stated firmly that is the domain of HRAHNDEYL, the Talk-God. This deity is apparently a type of ascended god-hero of the Echmeri people, and is the main reason why the believe in the existence of the Black-Welkin; when he ascended into godhood in front of his people, HRAHNDEYL was seen piercing through the Black-Welkin by climbing/building his Spire through it.

Ah, Yneslea. Perhaps we shall never truly understand it, or its inhabitants.