Part 22 of the Palaververse: Ungulan Faiths · 1:05pm Jun 3rd, 2016
We're getting into more abstract territory now. The various faiths and beliefs of the world came out ahead in the last round of voting, and so they'll get their due coverage this week.
In part, at least. Due to the variety and volume of the subject, I'll pull another Equestria and cover one half this week and the next part in a subsequent week. I'll fit Ungula's traditions into this one (it being somewhat more fleshed out) and cover Dactylia, Ceratos, and the dragons next time. If I'm lacking for sufficient words then, then I could always dive off into a related topic that people are interested in. Past that, little especial to say, save that themaskedferret is to improperly proofread texts what Batman is to Gotham's criminal population and deserves all due acclaim.
I'll also be away the rest of the weekend on a trip to Orkney (typing and uploading this with spotty train wi-fi). If I'm not responsive in my usual glaikit fashion, don't worry, I'm probably still alive, albeit internet-deprived. In lieu of pony (and due to Scotrail wi-fi regarding Derpibooru with all deserved suspicion) have a pretty building relevant to both Orkney and the post subject.
Below said pretty building, the various religious and semi-religious traditions of Ungula await!
Across the known world, across all sapient species and creeds and walks of life, there are things held in sanctity. Whether heroes from ages gone by, sacred grounds or places, or high and separate concepts held worthy of devotion, there are things regarded with veneration, awe, and from which lessons about the world are derived by their believers. These objects of faith vary from place to place and people to people, emerging and evolving during the march of history, and coloured by the circumstances of individual cultures. In Equestria, the two ancient alicorn sisters are held in respectful veneration, if not outright worship, by most Equestrians. In Zebrica, the river Neighle herself and her associated spirits of Sun and Sand and Sweet Water are worshipped. In Ceratos, the workings of Heaven and the machinery of its celestial bureaucracy are held above the imperfect mortal world. In the cosmopolitan port-cities of Asincittà and Al-Antalus and others, all these and more find followers, along with yet more esoteric cults and doctrines.
In the midst of such variety, no particular belief set enjoys dominates hearts and minds the world over, and many live happily without any belief at all. But for those who hold to such faiths, nearly all provide some account of how the world came to be, the powers and rules underpinning it, and how to live a good and moral life. And if nothing else, they give something to curse by whenever hammers meet unwitting extremities.
Across the relative harshness of the northernmost continent, Ungula, a range of beliefs hold sway amongst its nations and races. Although these beliefs often vary, a hoof-ful of rough similarities exist between them, over which opposing theologists can come to some begrudging agreement before the inevitable academic brawls. One particular piece of common ground is the existence of an immortal soul possessed by each being, surviving after their death and passing on to the unknown Hereafter, to variously undergo judgement, watch the mortal world tick by, or offer guidance and/or haunting to their descendants. Another such similarity is belief in a finite reality sparked into existence by a prime mover; some initial source from which the universe sprung back in prehistoric aeons. This prime mover has been given a range of names in a myriad of languages — some less flattering than others — but the most common across them is simply the Creator.
Views on the Creator largely fall into three broad camps, with each informed by the countless challenges and pains faced by mortal creatures in the world, and with no especial acrimony existing between different adherers. The first of these camps regards the Creator as something entirely alien and above the affairs of the world. Its motives — assuming it might even have something recognisable as those — have no resemblance to the motives of mortal creatures, who are just unwitting or accidental or negligible parts of the Creator’s design. The comforts of mortals didn’t feature in the Creator’s design, don’t feature in whatever the Creator might be doing now, and it therefore falls to mortals to fashion concepts of comfort and love and sanctity without the Creator’s supervision.
The second camp assumes a mind for the Creator with recognisable parallels to a mortal mind, including senses of imagination, duty, and compassion. With those, the Creator is indeed cognizant and caring in regards to mortals. However, some fetter must exist on the Creator’s actions in order to account for the world’s imperfection, and what that fetter might be, none can agree — whether the Creator spent all its power in the world’s creation with imperfect foresight, whether it acts in a state of kindly ignorance with regards to the exact needs of mortal beings, whether it’s reluctant to act again for fear of causing more misery, or just wishes to let mortals exercise their free will absent its direct interference.
The third camp generally occurs to beings whenever said wordly imperfection comes at their expense, and presumes the Creator to not only have a recognisable mind, but to also be happily and pettily malevolent in its intentions and actions, setting up the world’s miseries in the same way a brat of a child might set up a magnifying glass over a stream of ants. For those who adopt and adhere to this position, cultivating morality and compassion and suchlike things in the face of an unjust universe can be as much a matter of petty spite as anything else —though basing your convictions on that alone would be terribly Creator-like, of course.
Whatever the camp on Ungula, overt worship or even much by way of regard paid towards the Creator is rare (barring an optimistic few in the second camp who believe that with enough prayer and patient guidance from its followers, maybe this time the bloody Creator will get it right). Instead, cultures and species tend to invest their reverence in other, more immediate objects and concerns, most often in the form of ancestral worship or regard paid to exemplars amongst their kind, whether historical or as-yet-living.
One such state that experiences those forms of faith is Equestria itself, in which direct Creator worship is nigh-nonexistent, but in which nearly everypony could tell you the tales of old pony heroes and pioneers and legendary figures. Starswirl the Bearded, for example, is held up as a paragon of unicornkind along with several of the old Princes and Princesses, and stories of him are held up as the example for young mages to emulate. Loamheart and Thunderstorm, the legendary first earth pony and pegasus to respectively discover the secrets of earth magic and weather-crafting, feature in foal’s stories and academic treatises alike. The legends certainly aren’t always believed, and scholars are keen to point out the foibles of those whose historicity is beyond dispute, but the lessons inherent in their stories are highly-regarded, and the various virtues of harmony, courage, wisdom, compassion, and determination in the face of mighty odds all have a place in the tales of the great Equestrians. Their spirits watch from the Hereafter, it is said, and honourable and dishonourable acts by their inheritors will draw their ghosts back from the Hereafter into the mortal world to inflict all appropriate praise and/or hauntings.
A great deal of veneration is awarded the ruling alicorns as well, especially for the two oldest amongst them. Their embodiment of Equestrian virtues is inherent in their position, and their track record of devotion and striving on behalf of their little ponies is beyond question. They remain normal ponies at heart, though, and Celestia, the biggest and longest-standing beneficiary of such attention, has endeavoured to keep herself respected whilst within the bounds of critical regard. She has quashed unquestioning worship of her and the other alicorns wherever it risked arising, whether through direct intervention, simply maintaining a direct and non-aloof presence at court and in government, or through covertly allowing personal foibles to enter the public eye. Absolute reverence can be tricky to muster when the object of said reverence has a known affection for practical jokes and an indecent regard for fine gateaux, after all, and cake-slathered muzzles can be a frightfully undivine look when conveyed far and wide through the press.
The next country along, Asinia, has similar traditions of Creator-disdain and reverence of folk heroes, though the latter is distinctly downplayed compared to their Equestrian neighbours. Good Queen Ancien and the revolutionary Jackplate may have due regard sent their way (though the former’s star was somewhat tarnished by her tyrannical descendants martyring the latter) but the oldest and greatest object of awe and veneration by donkeys has always been the sea itself. In the eyes of many donkeys, the sea was and is more than worthy as an object of otherworldly respect — its terrible power, mystery, and all-encompassing nature speak for themselves. It both gives generously and takes ruthlessly, and centuries before Theian scholars even started spouting phrases like ‘self-replicating molecule’ and ‘primordial soup’, Asinian mystics spoke of the sea vomiting life onto the land in its vast and unfathomable caprice.
Debates over whether the sea was one vast deity, a collection thereof, or whether it could dance on the head of a pin were largely sidelined in favour of just trying to appease it and travel safely on its waters, and many sailor’s superstitions have their roots in the first Asinian sailors throwing anything at the wall and seeing what stuck. A bottle of wine being broken on the side of each new ship and dripping down from there into seawater was intended to present the boat as an alcohol-bearing friend to the sea; bright pennants being flown from its top were meant to show that the boat and its crew had no sneaky or underhanded intent towards the sea; giving ships oft-whimsical names was intended to inspire something between amusement and pity in the sea’s heart in order to let the boat remain unassailed; and so on. Nowadays, many modern Asinians regard themselves as a comfortably hard-nosed and skeptical folk, and finally having achieved something like mastery over a former object of reverence acts as a point of pride for many. However, the old superstitions hold on, and those captains who fail to give the sea its deserved measure of respect rarely live long upon it. Old tales persist of what befalls those who disrespect the sea and pay the ultimate price, giving nightmares to foals and half-believed even by many adults. Those who earn their death through disrespect towards the sea find no comfort or justice in the Hereafter, but instead haunt the endless Depths, eternally sailing upon ghostly armadas that drift through the darkness underneath the world and held beyond recovery by their pitiless and hungry captor.
Eastwards of Asinia, in the mountains of Capra, the Ungulan tradition of ancestral worship has its strongest form, with said worship intertwined with the mountains themselves. Many modern scholars have suggested that the common beliefs across Ungula have their roots in Capric influence over their conquered territories in the days of the Empire. In pre-Empire days, cairns were raised atop the mountains to honour the prestigious dead, and were journeyed to by those wishing to meditate before these cairns in order to gain insight from their past heroes. Over time, this custom shifted into carving effigies of the fallen from mountain-rocks, and acquiring collections of those effigies whose deeds best match the desires of the devotee. Seven particular mountains at the heart of Capra are traditionally held in especially high regard, and high temples at their summits host monks who dedicate themselves both to praying to honoured caprids and to carving their effigies into their mountain’s rocks with exceptional skill.
These forms of worship still have a strong presence in modern Capra, and most households will have a shelf of effigies in their main living area. The figures represented by these effigies range from mythological caprids — such as Thaw, the legendary thief who crept down to the very heart of the earth to steal fire for his people, and who accidentally created the sun by hiding part of the fire in the sky when the underworld came hunting for their treasure — to some of the more well-regarded Imperators, to direct ancestors of the family in question. In a place as old as Capra, contained and protected by its even older mountains, it stands to reason that the wisdom of its ancients doesn’t lack for abundance, and that proper respect and communion with said ancients can ensure that living caprids receive that wisdom into their hearts. These commemorations are rarely extended to living figures, with many caprids finding the Equestrian veneration of their living Princesses somewhat vulgar and presumptuous. Time alone will tell whether they’re worth honouring in such a fashion, after all. Even the Capricious Crown and its centuries of rule has barely shifted this tradition, and the Crown is as yet largely respected and feared as a representative of supreme national and imperial might, rather than as something divine.
East of Capra, in Bovaland, ancestral worship finds itself replaced with a close cousin. Veneration of bloodlines has prevailed in Bovaland for millennia, acting hoof-in-hoof with its longstanding monarchy and enshrinement of hereditary rule. Quality is held to run in blood, and bovines who become exemplars of virtue, talent, and valour in their day are believed to live on in some capacity in their descendants. As the current king of Bovaland and a purpoted descendant of the great Bullwalda Amberhorn himself, Bullwalda Greenhorn is held by traditionalists to be Amberhorn himself, in a sense, and ensures Amberhorn’s legacy shan’t perish from the earth. While the nobility have been the greatest beneficiaries of this belief, it also extends to great artisans, artists, and other talented bovines from the lower classes. Descendants of great smiths who take up their ancestor’s trade will find more custom coming to their door as well as higher expectations placed on their work, and so on for other trades and walks of life. Indeed, a lower-class bovine who earns the honour of being knighted through their actions inherently proves that their descendants will also be worthy of knighthood simply by virtue of being their descendants. Those who fail to live up to their bloodline’s standards call the propriety of their lineage into question as a result, and pressure is placed on every member of a family to live up to their name.
These bloodline beliefs have found their star on the wane, as new egalitarian and revolutionary sentiments grow ever-more common in bovish society. Manifestations of their original form are hinted at in the ancient barrows and stone circles that dot Bovaland’s landscape. Many bovish believe that the deceased can take the items they’re buried with into the Hereafter, and the old barrows indicate that this belief was practised in pre-Empire days. The stone circles are more of a mystery, however. Some especially morbid scholars have suggested that they served a role as consecrated and separate execution grounds, where condemned criminals were ritually sacrificed in order that their obviously tainted blood could be cleansed and fail to infect future bovines. Many dismiss this grisly theory, though the myriad of alternatives have just as little evidence in their favour.
South of Capra, the cities of Ovarn and their communal mass of citizenry have as many philosophical differences as there are cities, and the Archons and philosophers of old are respected and venerated, if perhaps not to the same extent that they are in other Ungulan realms. One similarity does arise amongst all the Ovish, though, which sets them at odds with the rest of Ungula. Belief in a distinct and separate Hereafter tends to be lacking amongst the Ovish, and some traditions in a few cities even doubt the existence of an immortal soul. Instead, many believe that immortality comes only from the ripples you leave in the world. What you build in life and what it turn enables others to build is all that lives on of a sheep. For most sheep, this immortality comes from dedicated work in the name of their city. Each city is vastly larger and older than any of the sheep within it, and so long as it prospers and endures based on the work of those sworn to it, then the sheep who provided said work lives on in the spirit of the city itself. Threads in a tapestry may fade, but each is a seamless part of the tapestry as a whole, and through their collective effort, the tapestry exists and the threads thus have meaning and purpose through their support of something greater than themselves.
While those who contribute to their cities and communities may be blessed and immortal as a result, those whose impact is purely destructive and detrimental to the social order are truly cursed, and punishment as an eternal flaw is often considered punishment enough. In extreme cases, however, cities may deem the worst and most destructive among their criminals and traitors to be entirely forgotten after death, with every record of them scoured and even their family forbidden to speak their name. Immortality and existence are denied them forever after as a result, and their immortal tapestry can shrug off their influence all the more easily.
The Ovish belief in immortality through what a being leaves after them has its own cousin in the traditional beliefs of the corvids next door. From their earliest days, corvids embraced the notion of an aloof and alien Creator, leaving only a world full of blind and indifferent chaos for mortals to survive in. Beings were born to live in strife and struggle, and the Creator certainly wasn’t gracious enough to set up a convenient Hereafter or to grant them immortal souls. The universe does no favours for mortal beings. Only mortal beings can do that for themselves, say the corvid storytellers, and those living in this cruel world can redeem it through their deeds rather than waiting for any outside help. Hope and justice and suchlike concepts don’t exist in the Creator’s design, but the ongoing efforts of mortals could see them take proper shape one day. Nothing so convenient as immortality is on tap either. But beings can make that for themselves as well, and true immortality lies in having your name spoken and remembered long after your kin peck your bones clean. What has its name yet spoken can never truly be dead, not so long as memories and tales of them live, and those whose names inspire others to fly forth and forge their own legends are reckoned the greatest of all.
Living up to this belief takes many forms. Chieftains and warriors across Corva shamelessly flatter their clan bards and storytellers in the hopes of their glorious deeds being spun into songs, and families pass the tales of their grandparents and great-parents and so forth down to each generation of chicks. While many songs and tales have been created, sung for a time, and eventually forgotten, some persist, and the tales of the Cormaers are amongst those. Each Cormaer secures their place in corvid history, and thus their own immortality as their tales and lessons are endlessly told and re-told — most especially the great and nation-building First Cormaer, and even the feckless Second. Each and every one of them is truly immortal, alongside a scant few other corvid legendary figures, and thus they help redeem the wickedness of the world.
Outwith the major nations, other species have their own separate beliefs and customs. The creation myth of the Diamond Dogs says that the world was born in fire, with layers of earth and ash gradually building up around the Heartfire to form the shape of the world. The Heartfire shed sparks to form the distant sun and moon and stars, and once enfolded by earth and ash, these sparks then became the first living creatures in all their forms and varieties. Many of these primitive creatures strove up towards the surface world, but many remained behind, and those who stayed formed the first civilisations at the heart of the world. The Diamond Dogs were among them, but they were then mere slaves to much greater creatures and spirits who ruled their civilisation with iron fists, and grew splendid and decadent and cruel over long aeons.
However, their decadence and cruelty finally got the better of them, and these ruling creatures turned on each other in a storm of violence and magic which laid waste to their civilisation, and disgusted the Heartfire so that it expanded to swallow them all whole and undo their creation. The Diamond Dogs fled the devastation, taking the lessons of these legends to heart, and each pack embarked on an odyssey up through the dark until they reached the surface world. There they still dwell, and there they shall until the time is right to venture down to the Heartfire once more and show it reason to be proud of its creation, absolving the sins of the first rulers once and for all.
Amongst the other major sapient species of Ungula, little is known of whatever faith the changelings may possess, save possibly for the old tales passed down by changeling queens to their young of ancient grandeur and changeling dominance across the world. Finally, as for the griffons, their religious sentiments are as varied as the tribes and sub-groups into which they divide themselves, with practically more creation myths, parables, and moral codes than there are griffons. Some tribes adopt the beliefs of those nations in which they settle or spend the most time, with many of the Equestrian griffons similarly venerating past legends and holding the Princesses in awe. Other nomadic tribes assemble a hodge-podge of different beliefs, and cast new alloys of faith and folklore out of their mix. And some yet cheerfully thumb their beaks at the whole business, and get on with surviving and prospering in the world without questioning the whole business too deeply.
Whatever the belief, it has a home and a few practitioners on Ungula, and it can largely co-exist alongside other beliefs in peace. The continent’s a big place, after all, and host to many nations and species, countless cultures and communities, and all manner of mysteries as yet unsounded. It can fit a few sacred things into the mix as well.
"...They remain normal ponies at heart, though, and Celestia, the biggest and longest-standing beneficiary of such attention, has endeavoured to keep herself respected whilst within the bounds of critical regard. She has quashed unquestioning worship of her and the other alicorns wherever it risked arising,...
Mostly by attending services, sitting in the back pew, and giggling whenever the High Priest(ess) reads from their interpretations of historical events.
"And Lo, didst the Goddess of Light arise over her followers on the Fifth Day to bring forth from the Heavenly Storehouses such wonders as the Faithful had never seen before, and they were... Pardon me, Your Worship. What is it now?"
"Oh, nothing," said Celestia with an additional giggle and a dismissive wave from the back of the chapel. "It's just... pizza, if you must know. That poor group of pilgrims looked so hungry that I dashed off to a pizza place in town and brought them all back a stack of their best pies."
"Pizza?" The High Priest of the Divine Radiant Eminence took a very slow and deliberate look downwards at the Book of Divine Knowledge and the Holy Relic enclosing it as a cover, which, if examined closely, could possibly be a cardboard box with squiggles on it that could be interpreted as 'Sunny Sky's Pizza Pies - You Like Or Next One Is Free.'
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I imagine it would be like Jesus in South Park or Family Guy.
Fascinating. I'm a huge sucker for creation myths and belief systems, so I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment of this one. I do like how both the caprids and Diamond Dogs invert the Prometheus myth. The latter I expected, but the former, not so much. Still, it does make sense given the mountainous terrain.
Still, I have to question the caprids poo-pooing alicorn veneration. Some of them I can understand, but Celestia isn't exactly a recent development. How much more time is needed to tell if she's worthy?
(On the other hand, anypony feeling reverence towards Flurry Heart in the near future may be a bit too eager to venerate anything with wings and a horn. And Twilight getting worshipped... hoo boy. That's going to be awkward for everyone involved)
I guess we've officially shifted from history and geography to culture. This ought to be fun.
Although, comparing this to my own efforts, it certainly makes me feel inadequate. Another reason to continue carrying out my eternal duty, I suppose.
"Another such similarity is that in a finite reality sparked into existence by a prime mover, some initial source from which the universe sprung back in prehistoric aeons."
Something seems to be missing here; I'm not parsing this as a complete sentence.
"ancestral worship find itself replaced with a"
"finds"?
Quite interesting (as usual); thanks. :)
This is great, though I love the Bovaland one and the Diamond Dog creation myth the best, I think. Very inventive!
I hope you have a lovely time in Orkney too, it is a very beautiful place. I was up there recently, and then moved on up to the Shetlands, visiting the outer islands of Bressay, Whalsey and Yell. Gorgeous, but so windy! Hope the good weather follows you up north!
Fascinating. I await part two with interest.
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Sunny Skies, you say? So in her spare time Celestia decided to form her own chain of pizza restaurants under her most-common pegasus pseudonym?
Yes. This makes sense. She naturally wants to divert the service, lest it be discovered how many of the most well-regarded foods in Equestrian history are the product of her hoof, and she be saddled with the title of 'The Tastegiver' or something similarly tacky.
3995244 Or maybe it worked the other way around, and she named her pegasus disguise after her favorite pizza restaurant?
I guess it's unsurprising that religion fails to dominate lives quite as much in a world full of magic, immortals, and where if you think angry spirits are causing floods you can deal with it via calling up Pegasi Pest Control rather reliably.
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Then she's no longer miraculous whereas this way she's destroying the priest's faith without mentioning that, oh yes, actually it's kinda merited!
Sounds like they rather agree with Chef.
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The tricky part is, someone is only judged worthy or unworthy of veneration based on how they lived their entire life, and for all the caprids know Celestia could not even be halfway there yet. She could still screw up for centuries to come. Now, I imagine caprid theologians would be happy to venerate Celestia as soon as she does the polite thing and dies.
Whatever cuts down on overdue library books, amiright?
One thing's missing in all this—Antlertis. Given Antlertis' impact on Ungula in so many other areas, I imagine that there must still be some remnants of Antlertean faiths, whether they were along the lines of the three major schools or something other. Cryptic engravings on the walls of one room in an Antlertean outpost here, an ancient soapstone statue of disquieting appearance venerated there, oral traditions passed down from generation to generation, that sort of thing.
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Half of the Diamond Dog creation myth seems to revolve around the fall of Antlertis.
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No dice. Antlertian writings are barely translatable, and those who can read such writings tend to go mad or knurd. Those who encountered Antlertean artifacts before the writings were translatable also went mad, and it was their madness and exposure to warped magic that sparked the original awareness/worship of the Outer/Elder/Eldritch Gods and their ilk.
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The diamond dog is describing a separate civilization, that they secure in high security museums of passed down artifacts with the rest of the eldritch under-civilizations recovered from securing mining tunnels that breached another pocket of Lovecraftian ruins filled with Dwarf Fortress !FUN!
The only fiction in the Diamond Dog creation myth is the Hearthfire.
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Celestia is 1500 years old, ignoring Discord time bubbles.
The Capric Empire's ancestral history is about 4000-6000 years old.
Back from Orkney, and once more in possession of both internet and a properly-functioning laptop. Apologies for the delay.
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Benevolent and trolly in the best of Celestial traditions. I approve greatly.
Though I suspect even if she hadn't wanted to nip any abject worship in the bud, that sort of behaviour would be far too tempting for any self-respecting divine figure to pass up on. For the dignity of everyone involved, don't ever let me start a cult.
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Glad you like it, and glad you're looking forward to the next one. Re. caprids disapproving of alicorn veneration, like others point out, the prevailing notion among the caprids there is that you're only ever worthy of a full accounting once your life's played out. Celestia's showing no signs of stopping any time soon, and barring outside intervention, she's presumed to have all the time left in the world to potentially cock up. If the matter were ever discussed by in-universe theologians ...
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Glad you approve! Abstract stuff should offer fun avenues to explore. And giving the devil something to feel morally-upstanding in comparison to is certainly a great and eternal duty, and one you perform well.
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Fixed, and thank you!
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Orkney was exceedingly lovely, and the good weather followed me there all the way from Dundee. Stayed in Stromness most of the time, though a wee jaunt out to Kirkwall to see the Jutland commemoration poppies around the cathedral also happened. Affa bonny, all of it.
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Thank you! Hope part two fascinates as well.
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That informed part of my thinking for all this. Inasmuch as early forms of faith served as explanatory tools for natural phenomena ("Lightning? Oh dear, Thor's out on the skite again.") then it made sense to reduce the importance attached to them when manipulating said phenomena's much more available to the beings involved. Instead of blaming the Thunder God, you can just go and tell the pegasi to dunt that nonsense on the head, you're trying to sleep.
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Chef's description's not a bad point of comparison for the third camp. He'd get a fair number of nods wherever they congregate.
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Antlertis's own faith or faiths will be touched upon in the next post, though I can't promise much elaboration there. Some things ought to be kept mysterious, after all - and more awkwardly for the explorers, telling exactly what's meant to be and do what in an Antlertean ruin can be a brain-contorting challenge.
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There's probably some parallels, though the Diamond Dogs themselves don't think so. Antlertis Fell across the sea, after all, while the Creation War raged underground. There's definite parallels between the varying accounts of a great flood in real-world faiths, and there's all expected scholarly bickering over the matter.
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Earliest Capric records go back just around three thousand years. Still enough to comfortably eclipse Celestia's lifespan, though, and enough to encourage them to take a long-term view. The rumoured Chinese Premier's remark on the aftereffects of the French Revolution - "Too soon to tell" - seems applicable.
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Good to have you back, Carabas. I hope you enjoyed your holiday
I look forward to part two greatly. Indeed, this whole blog series has been a real treat.
Umm... Need a Link from the Index.
Vote for Magic Systems! ... What's still available to vote on?
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The holiday was indeed enjoyed. Nice weather followed me up there, but Orkney tends to be a lovely place in rain or shine alike. Worth visiting if you haven't already been.
Thank you!
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Index updated! I'm far too neglectful an owner of the poor thing at times.
We're past most of the major concrete stuff for nominations, though stuff like various forms of magic is certainly free for nominating (remind me of that in the next post's comments, in case I'm my usual glaikit self and forget to check back here). Stuff like minor nations and species (Breezies, etc) could also be worth a post, other general and abstract stuff like military capabilities, anything broadly culture-related ... or anything at all that comes to mind that you might be interested in.
I believe you mean "it being somewhat more fleshed out"?
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FIxed!
Day 22: Ungulan Faiths
- Equestrians are on the line between veneration and out right worship of the alicorns. If Celestia declared the alicorns to be gods, then most Equestrians wouldn't make much of a fuss.
- Atheism seems to be stronger in the Palaververse than in our own world. Are they a majority or just a large portion of the Palaververse's population?
- Agreement between theologians? Heresy!
- Is the Hereafter more like Heaven or the Greek afterlife?
- The Creator has been called less than flattering names by the denizens of the Palaververse? What a surprise!
- There should be a fourth camp where the believers believe that the Creator just made the Palaververse to entertain itself and others.
- If the Creator created a Utopia, then the denizens would somehow ruin it and it wouldn't be the Creator's fault.
- If they can't worship Celestia then they should just worship the cake instead. Everyone knows that came is the most divine dessert ever created. Especially chocolate.
- The ghost armadas are going tomrise from the depths one day, I just know it.
- The seven mountains sounds like the seven hills of Rome.
- Was the pony who died during the Capric Invasion of Bovaland buried in the barrows beneath Cromlech Taur and can there for possibly be awaken again as a spirit?
A very collectivist culture, Ovarn.
- Do these greater creatures the Diamond Dogs speak of still live deep below the surface or are they all dead?
- I wonder if a griffon could become an alicorn. A unnerving thought, but maybe they could become some form of advance griffon?
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- Potentially ... though most of them haven't been exposed to the concept of what we'd consider a 'god'. It might take a bit of explaining and fuss.
- It's a bit stronger, but not hugely. A lot of Ungulans are probably closer to deists or maltheists of some description, albiet not hugely enthusiastic ones.
- A shocking state of affairs, certainly.
- Who can say? Nobody's reported on it, so far as credible sources can confirm.
- Insolent wee bastards. They're getting meteor showers for that.
- That would probably fall into the 'malevolent' camp for Ungulans. "We're ... we're just entertainment to it?!"
- That'll be my excuse, and I'll stick to it.
- Heresy! Lies, dare I say.
- What're the chances?
- They're an inspiration there, certainly. Only bigger and more ... mountain-y.
- Nah. There's centuries between Amberhorn's last battle and the raising of the Barrow, and none of the original knights are interred there.
- Very much so.
- They reckon they're all dead. At least, they hope so.
- Alicorn magic could be available to anyone with the proper mix of harmonious qualities.
Ah, the sounce of https://tvtropes.org/Fanfic/ThePalaververse's Unwanted False Faith entry!
Had to go to the Oceans to confirm what Ungula was. Elementals of Harmony made me need to confirm that it's a continent and not a world.
I wonder what death rituals Equestrians have?
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I actually thought about their funerary customs for a never-as-yet-written story, though primarily for the different tribes during the time of the Founders and early Equestria - after that, there's been enough time for the customs to get a bit more fluid and be adopted by one another.
Earth ponies, I'd imagined, would favour straight-forward burial, with the explicit overtones of returning their bodies to the earth and giving back what they'd made use of in life. Unicorns would lean towards cremation, drawing a symbolic link between the magical energies they employ and the fire consuming the deceased, as well seeing in the rising smoke the soul going to join the stars. Pegasi would dabble in cremation with a similar rationale, but some of the traditionalists would go in for sky burial - leaving the dead on a high peak, and leaving the rest to exposure and scavengers.
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Changelings who died undercover would most likely have the funeral of whoever they were undercover as.
Desert living races would most likely be buried as wood would cost too much for pyres.