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Cestia

by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary Davies

Pyro/Ixion - Light, sun, fire, strength, war, knowledge, preserving order
Protius - Oceans and marine creatures, water, capriciousness, travel
Oloron/Viuden (Odin) - Storms, sky, winds, authority, knowledge, wisdom
Astanti/Valerias - Love, passion, desire, arts, fertility, sexuality, protection
Korotiku - Wisdom, guile, liberty, jokes and fun, cheating
Ninsun - Fertility, agriculture, prosperity, knowledge, magic
Mother Earth (Terra) - Creation and protection of all forms of life (animals and plants), balance of the life cycle, birth, prosperity and fertility, earth, shepherds and farmers
Ka - Protection of life, prosperity, healing, knowledge, rakasta
Varellya (Vanya) - Victory, war, conquest, pride, honour, strength
Spider Queen (Aracne Prime) - Aranea and evil planar spiders, deceit, oppression, obscurity
Notes:
1. The island was initially colonised by a group of Neathar in 1500 BC. Followed by a mass exodus of the Oceanians in 1200 BC, the two groups ought to live together on the island not without tensions, successfully, in some cases, mixing peacefully. Cestia presently is divided into four kingdoms: Morovay and Ambiroa are populated by a mixed Neathar-Oceanian ethnic group and makes up the northern coast of the island; Manakara instead is the kingdom that occupies the central part of Cestia, extending from the east coast to the west and bordering all the other kingdoms, and is occupied by the descendents of the Oceanians; Androkia makes up all the southern part of the island and is the oldest kingdom, composed only by the descendents of the Neathar who arrived on Cestia in 1500 BC.
2. Morovay and Ambiroa are two peaceful kingdoms dedicated to the trade with the Pearl Islands and the small kingdom of Cathos in the north of the Sea of Pearls. Given their vicinity to Oceania however, they are often victims of attacks carried out by night dragons, to which they try to react to with lookout posts on the various observation towers built all along the northern coast and constantly illuminated by the Sacred Flames, that is magical braziers created by the priests of Pyro. The Sacred Flames are able to project a long beam of solar light adjustable at any hour of the day and night, and were used both for better watching the sky, the land and the sea, and in order to send signals from one position to another and in order to repulse the assaults of the dragons that hate the light. Because of the importance that the light receives, the cult of the sun and of Pyro (Ixion) is the most favoured in these two nations, followed by that of Korotiku and of Oloron (Odin), lord of the skies and storms, to whom are also added the followers of Protius (lord of the seas), of Ashanti (Valerias) and of Ninsun, the former worshipped in Ambiroa and the latter in Morovay.
3. 90% of Manakara’s population are pure Oceanians, which keep faith with the ancient traditions, and also here the cult of Pyro is strong also viewed as lord of strength and war (event to which the Manakarans are helped given the nearness of the belligerent and xenophobic Androkians). Besides him, the Manakarans also pray to Korotiku, patron of liberty and guile, Ninsun, the great mother patroness of magic and fertility, as well as Ka, patron of knowledge, health and the tribes of pardasta rakasta that live in the Manakaran Forest.
4. Androkia is a nation with a Neathar majority that have always refused to mix with the Oceanian refugees and with any other foreign race of dark skin, were often in conflict with the Aryptian and N’djatwa merchants, as well as with the nearby Oceanians and the current inhabitants of the other three Cestian kingdoms. In Androkia the ancestral Neathar cult is strong with devotees to Viuden, lord of the skies, to Protius, lord of water, and to Mother Earth (Terra), as well as those of Ixion, Valerias and Varellya (Vanya), imported in the preceding millennium by the Davanian empires of Milenia and Varellya by now fallen centuries ago.
5. The forests of Cestia are infested by many aranea once part of the great Arachnid Empire and followers of Aracne Prime. After the collapse and abandoning part of their motherland, they have regressed to a savage state and now live in the heart of the Cestian forests, using their shapechanging powers in order to prey on the unaware Cestians who believed that they had been assaulted by raiders of one of the other kingdoms, in order to never reveal their presence.