Thaunicca: A Religion of Ash

To those who are on the TNPRP Discord, you'll know that I've been doing a lot of worldbuilding with a religion named Thaunicca. If you don't know what Thaunicca is, it's a pagan religion from my main nation, Andrenne. It is essentially a forced marriage of Norse paganism and ideas and inspiration I pulled from the Dark Souls/Soulsborne series. I usually keep a lot of my stuff on a Google document, but I thought I should finally throw some of this stuff onto the forums so that not only can everyone read it but so it's properly canonized as well. So here it is.

Thaunicca is split into four ages. The Age of Kindling, the Age of Fire, the Age of Ash, and the Age of Embers. I'll be posting mythological stories and information in the order that I write them, but they'll all have an indicator of what age they're from at the top so hopefully you won't get confused while reading them. I'll also eventually link a spreadsheet (because spreadsheets on the forums are hellish) of all the gods and deities mentioned in Thaunicca and even some that aren't. Hope you enjoy!

The Age of Kindling

He whom guided creation, Thaunell

Our universe began simply as a primordial, chaotic abyss. An abyss in which no light shone, no fires burned, and no life lived. An abyss of perfect silence, of pure darkness. Mist and smoke were all that existed within this realm. Slowly this mist and smoke coalesced within the abyss, Metälija, and as they combined birthed the great being known as Thaunell. Thaunell was alone within Metälija now. Endlessly alone. This loneliness was so intense that he tore his own arm in twane so that he may have some form of companionship. It was the blood from this wound, as dark as the abyss itself, that dripped into Metalija.

From where the blood had dripped into the void sprung forth a patch of grey soil, and from this sprung a tree. A tree so large and strong that it split Metälija in two. The first two branches were created from this separation. The mist of the void formed into the lowest branch, Nimurykja, and the smoke formed into the highest branch, Värrykja. Nimurykja gathered around it the coldest that the void had to offer, and Värrykja the warmest. Thaunell was awe-struck by the power of his own blood, and so let his wound drip further into Metälija.

His wound never stopped bleeding. It bled for so long that it created a seemingly endless Sea of Blood, which fed both the soil around the tree and the tree itself. Slowly but surely, Thaunell had created a third branch within Metälija itself. A domain to call his own within the abyss- Radija. This domain was dominated by the Sea of Blood, the color of which dulled to a deep reddish-grey over time. Over this endless sea formed great and constant storm clouds.

However, Thaunell was still a lone guardian over an empty universe. From his already torn arm he ripped it’s fingers, which with the blood of Thaunell grew into the first gods; the Rädiga. The head of these new gods was Zaviir, proclaimed the Great Thane of Storms and Sea, taking domain over the endless Sea of Blood and dark clouds of Radija. Four more Gӧstika came from Thaunell’s right hand, these being Gamallta, Lady of Time, Bressaan, Grand Thane of Ash, Solja, Lady of the Sun, and Låna, Lady of the Moon.

Despite now having children, Thaunell was not satisfied. His other arm was torn off of him by his children at his command, as were it’s digits, and from them came the first of the Neskana, originally Rädiga themselves, Alvårdal, Valkaan, Savaathuun, Uldir, and Ijmira. Thaunell grew increasingly malformed as he commanded his children still cleave more from his body. His legs and toes for the remaining branches of what he deemed the Tree of Cosmos, and his right eye for the sun and his left for the moon. His children could not watch him do this any further, and so devised a plan to kill their father Thaunell for his own good.

Whilst he slumbered, they carried his body into the Sea of Blood that he had created from his own wound and drowned him. They burned what remained of his body and spread their ashes into the abyss, creating the stars and the rest of the cosmos. His bones yet remained in the Sea of Blood for all of eternity.

Those who are of Ash and the Betrayal of the Left Hand

It is often said, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust”. After the death of Thaunell at the hands of his own children, there were none who could simply create new life from their bodies alone. Not a single Rädiga was able. Bressaan, Grand Thane of Ash, pondered on the problem they had created and his solution was simple yet ingenious. It was also heretical in the eyes of his siblings, but if he did not proceed forward with it then this universe would be eternally dead. So it was during the burning of Thaunell’s cadaver that Bressaan secretly stole a handful of his ashes.

In secret of the other gods, Bressaan brought the ashes to his hidden forge in Värrykja, and upon arrival scattered the ashes into a heap of burning cinders. It was the embers of this scattering that he collected into his own hands and pressed into the Soul of Man. He pushed the Soul of Man deep into the heap of embers and ashes, and smothered it with soot. It was from this that the first man, his name lost to history, arose.

He was not long lasting for as soon as he took his first step, his body collapsed in on itself and his soul withered away. Bressaan regathered the components and continued his experimentation until a stable man was made subservient to the god that created him, and subservient to the gods as a whole.

Though it was not within the foresight of Bressaan the creation of man would go on to be both a burden and a blessing in many ways. Yet now there was a new issue. Bressaan could not keep his creation from the others for any longer. When it was discovered what he had done a division formed within the Rädiga. Those that supported Bressaan were those of the Left Hand of Thaunell, and those that viewed his act as heretical, the Right Hand of Thaunell. In fact the Left Hand was so supportive of Bressaan in the defiling of their father’s corpse that they wished to go a step further.

The Left Hand of Thaunell, Alvårdal, Valkaan, Savaathuun, Uldir, and Ijmira, believed that if their father’s ashes had such power then surely they should take them for themselves. It was with this idea that Alvårdal, first of the Left Hand, reached deep into Metalija to steal his father’s ashes for himself. From this point forward he became Alvårdal, Touched by the Abyss, and he would spread this power to the rest of the left hand. Though he offered this power to Bressaan, Bressaan outright refused and warned Alvårdal that too much of this power was corrupting, especially if used on oneself.

Alvårdal, Touched by the Abyss, and the rest of the Left Hand abandoned the other Rädiga within Radija and took five realms for themselves. Alvårdal took Kaldan, Valkaan took Tyhra, Savaathuun took the primordial realm of Nimurykja, Uldir stole Värrykja from Bressaan, and Ijmira moved for Lurdaan. This left hand no longer referred to themselves as Rädiga, but rather as the Vaaneskana. They became the sworn eternal rivals of the Rädiga and it would appear that the course of Thaunic history was set in stone. Of course this was not the case, but the foresight of the Old Gods was not able to see that.

The End of the First Age and Creation of the Alabaster City

The Age of Kindling was the shortest of all ages having begun with Thaunell and ending with the creation of Istarvaan — the Alabaster City, the City of the Gods. It was within the first domain, Radija, that the gods began the creation of a divine city to house themselves, their divine children, and the followers who worshipped them; the ashen ones which called themselves man. Istarvaan was greatest city to ever have been created, the gods took residence in their massive Ringed Palace, which had a cathedral dedicated to themselves attached known as the Cathedral of Uulaviir. It is said the gothic spires of the Ringed Palace and Uulaviir Cathedral scraped the very clouds of Radija. It was with this city built by the servants of the gods that the First Age was brought to an end by Zaviir. He decreed that the Age of Kindling was finished; it had played its part and now it was an age of gods. The Age of Fire.

It was within the Uulaviir Cathedral that the Rädiga had their children blessed as gods by spreading Thaunell’s ashes and the dust of his bones upon their skin aloft the root of the Tree of Cosmos that the Cathedral was built around, thus imbuing them with the divine powers of their greatest forefather and creating the lesser Rädiga, later known as none others then the Stårse. The Rädiga ushered forth an age of enlightenment. Those that lived within the Alabaster City, Erdjor, or Valasaan prospered. The Age of Fire would be eternal and the gods would never falter. At least, this is what they believed.

The Age of Fire

The Sentinels of Istarvaan

The great Alabaster CIty, Istarvaan, was unmistakably vital to the gods as its capital. This being true, Zaviir searched the branches of the Tree of Cosmos and Istarvaan far and wide for great champions. He would eventually find a select few, referred to as Zaviir’s Right Hand, just as the Rädiga were Thaunell’s right hand.

This Right Hand was composed of a lesser god, demigods, and the greatest that humanity had to offer, the greatest that Zaviir could gather-- Knight Samijra of Valasaan, Knight Idran, Knight Gajl, Knight Anryy, and Knight Syris of Erdjor. It was this Right Hand that was chosen to defend both Istarvaan and the Ringed Palace (and by extension the Cathedral of Uulaviir).

Samijra of Valasaan was the greatest human warrior that Valasaan could offer, chosen personally by Zaviir when he toured Valasaan. She wielded a great swordspear, later blessed by Zaviir with the power of storms. Idran, the “Index Finger” of the Right Hand was a lesser god, the Firstborn son of Myra, who herself was the Firstborn daughter of Låna and Zaviir. He wielded a greatsword, the blade of which was as wavy as flames themselves. Knight Gajl was a demigod, the son of Bressaan and an unknown woman from Asilija. He wielded a great two handed mace, capable of crushing the bones of even giants.

Knight Anryy was another demigod, the Fifthborn daughter of the Index himself, Idran, and Lady Elejna of Erdjor. Knight Syris, on the other hand, was to Erdjor as Samijra was to Valasaan. He is stated to have come from a land of the Far East, and his armor and weaponry matched this idea, wielding a great curved blade foreign in design to the gods and a shield bearing a truly exotic pattern.

The Age of Fire

The Stårse in the Second Age

The Stårse, or as they are known in the Age of Fire the Lesser Rädiga; were the children of the old gods. Blessed by Thaunell’s Ashes and Bones at birth, they were divine beings just as their forefathers were. Stårn, for who the group is later renamed after, was the Firstborn of Zaviir and Gamallta. He would later take up Zaviir’s mantle, although Stårn was often far more stern then his jolly father as a result of the Third Age. It was said in prophecy by the Pontiffs of Uulaviir that these Stårse would one day inherit the universe after an age of chaos and death, but of course this prophecy was ignored by the Rädiga who thought their age unending.

Also among these Lesser Rädiga was Sol. Firstborn daughter of Solja and Bressaan. It would be Sol that played such a pivotal role in Thaunic history at the end of the Age of Fire, who would sow the Age of Ash and, as a result, the Age of Embers as well. Sol, who would cause the tragedy of her son Gvyn, Sol, who would sacrifice her own child just out of spite, and Sol— who would bring about the end times.

However Sol would stay the course of the Rädiga for most of the Age of Fire. It was not until the end of this Age that she became truly vital to Thaunic history. The Lesser Rädiga had their own children, who would later go on to be Stårse as well, be it major or minor, some even becoming Vaaneskana after the Third Age.

During the Age of Fire, the Lesser Rädiga prospered just as everyone else did. They brought prosperity to man and, occasionally, even meddled in mortal affairs where and when needed. They were humble and jolly; a far cry from their later selves for some. The Lesse Rädiga chose many locations to reside, though the most important of them still lived within Istarvaan. Many others chose to settle within Valasaan or Erdjor, a welcome break from the massive City of the Gods. Their stories were, during the Second Age as everything else about them was, generally much happier and less grim in nature.

(This one may be added to over time.)