Divine Domains

Gods are gods of stuff. 

Malkis is the god of Chaos, Nadinis is the goddess of Nature, and Martha is the goddess of Life and Creation. But if I'm in a foot race, who do I pray to for fleetness of foot? There's no god of Running Fast.

Also, what is Chaos? That's a pretty abstract term. It's pretty broad. Is a 3 year old a force of Chaos? Is Malkis the god of 3 year olds? What about storms? What about political assemblies? Language is hard and often ambiguous. One word could mean a myriad of things.

We say, "God of Chaos" as a shorthand, but if we just leave it like that there are so many questions left unanswered. That's why we talk about Divine Domains. When we say "Malkis is the god of Chaos*", we put a little star on Chaos because it needs some clarification. I've always had a half decent idea of what these broader domains are, but now it's time to codify this information for viewers at large. 

I've got an old, pubic, document on The Overview of Gods where I'm making my notes if you want to poke you head in and see. I've just started last night, so we're far from complete, and the details there now may change before... blah blah blah, yeah it's a work in progress. 

Here's the details of where we are now. I'll make another post here when we're much closer to done. Below the notes I'm going to talk a little about Malkis' domains as a glimpse into the process, and about why we're working on this topic at all which will have some mild The Lazarus Expedition spoilers.

Divine Domains

Astair: Law, Order, Stability, Truth, Unity, Cooperation, Teamwork, Protection, Acceptance, Mountains

Felumbra: Afterlife, Void (?), Moonlight, Spirits, Cold, Negative Energy, The Lost, Suicide, Sinkholes

Illumis: Sun, Light, Warmth, Positive Energy, Fire, Deep Friendships, Bravery, Courage, Wrath, Sun Beams, Rays

Malkis: Chaos, Movement, Swiftness, Travelers, Silence, Glibness, Excitement, Humor, Lies, Teenagers, Secrets, Secret Passages, Mischief, Canyons

Martha: Life, Creation, Motherhood, Children, Empathy, Compassion, Forgiveness, you’ve got too close to mama bear’s cubs energy, Springs, Wells, Rivers (?), River Valley

Nadinis: Nature, Animals, Plants, Fungus, Flowers, Growth, Rain, Creeks, Streams, Puddles

Tempos: Time, Fate, Destiny, The Elderly, History, Writing, Seas, Storms

Voraci: Death, Destruction, Journey to the Afterlife, Cold, Endings, Parting Ways, Deep Water

Malkis

Malkis is the god of Chaos, and the god of humans. Fun stuff. But what else falls under his domain? What situations might you pray to him? Why might you curse him? What parts of life and the world might he be associated with?

Movement, Swiftness, Travelers: These are all related concepts that are chaos adjacent and belong in his house. If you're a runner in a race, before it starts you might give a little prayer, "Malkis give me fleetness of foot". If you're going on a long journey, you might ask, "Malkis, shield me from woes along the road".

Glibness, Excitement, Humor: These are states or things that flow easily and clumsily. Excitement can blind you to details, glibness is rife with oopsies, and humor turns expectations on their head with hilarious results. 

Lies, Silence, Secrets, Secret Passages: Withholding information and subverting expectations is another thing under the realm of Chaos that deserves to be called out. Of these four, Silence is still poorly defined. Sure, Malkis is the god to which you pray when you wish to move quietly across a room, but is he the god involved with the quiet of night after a thick snow fall where things are so still you can hear your heartbeat? Probably not. That's probably Aaris, goddess of Tranquility. So silence here will need some adjusting.

Teenagers, Mischief: This needs no explanation.

Canyons: In the list given above, there are some physical features of the world or terrain assigned to the gods. This is still very much a work in progress, but I think it makes quite a bit of sense. Certain natural elements are imbued with the personality of certain gods. Mountains are strong and stable, like Astair, and Canyons are... well they're complicated. They're multifaceted. How you feel about a canyon is going to be very context dependant. 

If you're walking across the land when you come across a great canyon with steep walls and a river at the bottom, to which god do your thoughts turn? Malkis deals with canyons, Astair deals with mountains (and isn't a canyon just an inverted mountain?), and Martha deals with river valleys. 

When you see the canyon blocks your route, you may exclaim, "Malkis be damned!" in frustration. This canyon is foiling your travel, throwing your plans into disarray, and generally being a big pain in the butt.

If you decide to climb down one face, cross the river, and climb up the other face, you may take a quick knee and pray, "Astair guide my feet as I make this climb". The climbing of the canyon recontextualizes the walls into the domain of mountains and Astair.

If you stop in the valley below to drink water and rest by the river, you may give thanks to Martha for refreshments, shade, and the cool breeze blowing down there. You might also make a quick prayer to Malkis that there be no flash floods during your rest, because that's a thing that happens in Canyons and that's why their in his domain.

Why now / mild TLE spoilers

Coming up in The Lazarus Expedition, our party will be reaching the Great Pyramid of Heatstroke and undergo the final chapter in the acquisition of the Scroll of Resurrection [there's still getting out of Arcadia to deal with though]. At the pyramid, they will be met by representatives of the gods who have been gathered there to address this holy quest. 

As I was figuring out the exact role these clerics are to have in our story, the subtleties of the divine domains became a core part of the process. What would Astair have to say, or want to ask? How might he get involved in this process? His representative will (blah blah blah, work in progress, blah blah blah) seek to uncover some truths about why the party is here. Truth is certain within the domain of Astair, and it fits well for these needs, and yet nowhere in my records, public or private, do we associate Astair with Truth. Malkis, God of Chaos, certainly has domain over mischief, but since that is his role in what is to come, it felt like that needed to be written down as well.

Because Arcadia has been mostly run in The Age of Iron, where the gods are more hands off, we haven't run into the need to really sit down and flesh out this honestly super important part of the pantheon yet. I mean, it's been brewing for a decade now, but it finally became time to put pen to paper (or pressure to keyboard) and nail this stuff down once and for all.

So this will be one of the little projects I'm working on, and in the link above you can see the document where the notes are being made if you wanna check in. I'll announce a "done" state eventually, but even then it'll be a rough draft that can continue to be expanded upon as new questions need answers. Maybe one day there will be a campaign that centrally features a conman (as if every party wasn't a traveling conman bigrade) and we'll need to know which god such a charlaton will feature. Is that Malkis? Is that Jexel? Is it Chis? I don't need the answer to that question today, so none of the god are going to get that domain, but one day we'll need it. That's why the list will never be done. There will always be more details to add.