The Fullblooded

A pantheon of humanity's guardians in the Blue

May we always relish the breeze at our back, the mist in our face, the calm before the storm. Grant us the strength to stand against the gale, to dance among the deluge, and brave the Maelstrom's eye. But above all else, help us know the difference.
— Excerpt from Hymn for the Tempest
  The pantheon of the Fullblooded has a long and storied history in the Wilde Blue. Centuries of an Imperial campaign to destroy all records of the religion's existence have left many gaps in its history, however, the scraps of knowledge that were hidden by the few religious brave enough to stand against the Empire are truly fascinating. Keep in mind, that everything listed below is pieced together out of tiny fragments of a larger picture, and sometimes huge leaps of logic are required to make sense of it all. Many things stated as fact could be completely wrong, and there is little way of knowing.  

History

 

Origins

The exact origins of the worship of the Fullblooded are entirely unknown. There are two common theories, however, that are largely accepted by the academic community.

Anthropological Origin

The simplest explanation comes from standard human behavior: pattern recognition and obsession. Human beings are superstitious by default, and when presented with the static of an un-tuned radio will eventually start hearing voices. Life among the early colonies in the Empire was dangerous and random, and it comes as no surprise that several of those colonies developed a figure that they believed was watching over them, protecting them. Over time, as the connections between colonies became sturdier and travel between islands safer, it makes sense that these beliefs would spread and change, eventually grouping up into the full Pantheon we have records of today. This is the opinion officially taken by the Empire, and few Imperial historians dare to challenge it.

Religious Origin

There are those who believe that the Fullblooded actually existed, however, for one distinct reason. In one of three surviving religious documents of worship of Vola, the goddess is described as teaching a young slave how to fly. The story itself is largely inconsequential, depicting the goddess' belief that all things should be free, but she teaches this slave boy to fly by gathering air underneath him, so that he could walk out over the Aether and away from his masters. This story is traced back to the early days of Querk, which was originally named Iovia, approximately 1300 years before the first Skyblood was discovered. Said Skyblood, Sibylle Lichti, was able to float just above the Depths by artificially increasing the density of the air underneath her.
Whether a shared set of rituals and superstitions or actual immensely powerful sorcerers is impossible to know, but that does not stop lengthy debates on the subject that fill the discussion halls of many Clan institutes on Sayles.  

Early Worship

Before the war and subsequent banning of all worship of the Fullblooded, the ten different gods and goddesses were worshiped all over the Empire. The most common way to worship your deity of choice would be to head to a shrine devoted to a particular Fullblooded. The ruins of these shrines can sometimes still be found on abandoned colonies or on the outskirts of towns, and it is believed that people would often travel long distances if they needed to ask the Gods for something. While you could in theory ask any deity for any task, each one had their own specialty. If you needed someone healed, you asked Spoer; if you wanted to know something you asked Erite; and so on. Practices at the different shrines differed, which the religious chalk to up the different opinions of the Gods who supposedly actually visited and lived in such shrines, and the anthropologists mark as another sign that these were originally separate religions that were joined together.  

House Glesseal

 
NB: There is much more information about this period of the history of the Fullblooded, because while officially the documents about House Glesseal were destroyed along with the rest of the House, in reality they were kept in the Imperial Archives. A large cache of these documents were stolen several years ago and released to the public. It is unknown exactly how much more the Empire has locked in the Archives.
  House Glesseal was formed in the year 1033 CA from the family of the high priest of the newly-completed Temple of Spoer on the colony of Cirta. Cito Glesseal, the new Noble Head, did not have much actual family, and so House Glesseal was instead more of the priests of Spoer. This was a unifying event for worship of the Fullblooded, and it gave Spoer the unofficial position as head of the Pantheon, as his priests became the High Priests of the entire religion and his temple on Cirta the primary temple for worshiping any of the Fullblooded.   Cito Glesseal, and later his daughter, Lydus, organized the contstruction of several more temples, one for almost every single God and Goddess. The only two exceptions were for Erite and Zinua, who appear to not have had the following required to need a large temple. Worship at these temples were much more formal than the simple requests recorded at the early shrines, with detailed ledgers of trades promised by each worshiper. People would come asking the Gods for gifts, and in return they would offer something. Originally, these offerings would be tasks, usually within the domain of the God being prayed to. If you wanted rain, for example, you might offer up to Ligo a promise to care for the nearby community garden. The priests of each temple, along with the general upkeep, would make sure each member follows through on their promise, whether the Gods fulfilled their end of the recorded bargain or not. Strangely, it is recorded that almost all of these requests were honored, though most historians think that these were completed by the priests or random chance rather than an actual listening deity.
The Fullblooded
The Fullblooded by Griclav
The ten symbols of the Fullblooded. Listed below starting from the top, and continuing clockwise.

Deities

Spoer, God of Hope
Temple: Mimsam (destroyed 300 SA)
A miraculous healer, Spoer was said to be able to turn back aging if he so wished.
Erite, Goddess of Truth
Temple: Unknown. Speculated to have been located on Ilysium.
Guardian of knowledge and learning, Erite was credited with remembering everything ever discovered.
Zinua, Goddess of the Hidden
Temple: Unknown, likely candidate found on Lutonia
The most reclusive of the deities, Zinua only ever appeared to care for those left in the shadows, often taking them with her to a paradise unknown by anyone else.
Vola, Goddess of Flight
Temple: Stobi (abandoned 252 SA)
The fiercest warrior of the ten, Vola spent most of her time hunting down injustice and imprisonment.
Cobal, Deity of Change
Temple: Scarwe (destroyed 267 SA)
Patron of the Shiftblood, Cobal embodied the transient nature of life.
Santi, Goddess of Emotion
Temple: Sutnet (destroyed 278 SA)
The finest musician ever to exist, Santi singing voice caused the stars themselves to weep.
Fular, God of Chaos
Temple: Nembfer
A shepard of storms, Fular guided the inherent randomness of the Blue to where it would be most useful.
Ligo, God of Rain
Temple: Boreana (dismantled 246 SA)
A gardener of the entire Blue, Ligo was the most motherly of all the gods, caring for each and every creature.
Nulae, Goddess of the Anvil
Temple: Olympus (dismantled 252 SA)
A master of creation, Nulae developed and made the weapons the other Fullblooded carried.
Igni, God of Heat
Temple: Unknown, likely candidate found inside Mount Fornax
An embodiment of warmth, Igni was tasked with keeping the Blue heated through the long nights of Nadir.
Over time, such trades were no longer acceptable to House Glesseal. Virgo Orosius, the 5th successor to Cito as Noble Head of House Glesseal, and faced with huge quantities of worshipers, started prioritizing those who offered goods to the Temples specifically, instead of the community as a whole. His successor, Asinia Caepio, took it a step further when she started allowing prayers to be directed to the Fullblooded for a small sum of Aeris. Here is where Imperial records start to fail again, and officially Asinia was the last Noble Head before the war. However, a surviving religious community passed down tales of a priest whose name time has forgotten. Referred to in these tales as simply 'Prophet', this woman claimed to be sent by Vola to clean the corruption from House Glesseal and the Empire as a whole. According to these myths, Prophet replaced Asinia as Noble Head and started making sweeping changes to House Glesseal.  

Prophet's Crusade

 
NB: It is important to note that this entire section has very little verifiable basis, is primarily about a myth rather than historical fact. However, there are a few key details, like the abandonment of the colony of Stobi, that means that this story cannot be fully disregarded.
 
"Prophet started her reforms in the Temple of Spoer directly, by casting out any priest that used their position to enrich themselves as Asinia had. Several dozen religious offices were stripped of valuable robes and jewlery, and the furnishings in the temple itself were melted down and spread back out among the community. From there she visited the other temples, doing exactly the same until she reached Stobi. Stobi was home to a temple to Vola and one of the wealthiest colonies in the Blue, second only to Ilysium. Prophet, upon reaching Stobi, saw that the corruption was too deep for her to root out alone, and called upon Vola to teach her followers a lesson. Vola answered, walking among the streets of Stobi alongside Prophet for ten days. They saw the greed, the suffering, the slavery, and Vola decided that she would abide by it no longer, going to cast the entire island down into the depths. Prophet stayed her hand, telling the goddess that the people of Stobi were not to blame, and Vola caught the island after it had only fallen a few feet. When asked who was to blame, Prophet directed her towards Ilysium, and Vola flew off towards the capitol of the Empire. However, she never arrived. She found more pressing concerns to deal with, but one day, maybe soon, Vola will return and the whole of Ilysium will fall out of the sky for their crimes."
-The Prophet's Tale, as recounted by Tranio Amantius, Children Elder

Stobi was abandoned shortly before the start of the Glesseal Imperial War, and there is a single surviving Imperial report of the account. It is mostly in tatters, but it does claim that the entire island started falling through the sky. To this day there is no explanation for such an event, and the official Imperial position is that the document is fabricated. However, the fact that a document hidden in a private collector's collection for centuries roughly matches a myth that was told in secret for centuries on the complete other side of the Blue leads many to believe that the Prophet may have existed in some regard.  

The War

The Glesseal Imperial War was devastating for worship of the Fullblooded. A handful of temples had already been torn down in the decade prior to the first shot being fired, but in the conflict, every temple that remained standing was destroyed. The ruins of most of them can still be found,except in one case. The very earth where Temple of Spoer sat was torn from the rest of Cirta and cast down into the depths in a way that is oddly reminiscent of Vola's threat towards Ilysium in the story of the Prophet. After the war was concluded, worship of the Fullblooded was banned in every sense, and the Empire started its campaign of trying to erase them from history.  

Current Day

The ban on worship of the Fullblooded has lasted to this day in the Empire, and anyone found worshiping any of the deities usually disappears without a trace, though having been 2000 years since the end of the Glesseal Imperial War means that enforcement of the law can take up to a week, giving the offending citizen plenty of time to appear to the courts or flee to the Trade Union. The Trade Union has no such ban on worship of the Fullblooded, and as such has had a resurgence in worship. Three clusters of worship escaped the Imperial purges, and after the Trade Union Revolutionary War, all three of them sprung up again in the Free Worlds.  

Fular's Eye

By far the largest of the three sects, the Eye follows the teachings of Fular, God of Chaos above the other Fullblooded. Fular's original temple was on Nembfer, and was rebuilt in secret a generation after the war. Kept hidden by a large storm, which the worshipers call the Tempest, the Eye was already a the size of a small clan when they revealed themselves to the Trade Union.  

Prophet's Children

Followers of Vola, Goddess of Flight , the Children claim to still be in direct contact with their God, like their namesake was hundreds of years ago. They are viewed as a bit of a fringe group, but are considered harmless by the Trade Union, and tolerated. Despite their apparent extremism, they manage to draw in many followers who hope to one day follow Vola in casting the Empire down into the depths below.  

Ligo's Blooms

The smallest of the three sects, the Blooms have prayed to Ligo, God of Rain for generations, asking him to make sure it continues to rain above Boreana. Without the rains, the colony would quickly be turned into a slave colony, and so worship of Ligo easily found root among the colonists. However, almost the entire sect was destroyed a decade before the Trade Union Revolutionary War, and while the survivors fled to Sayles, even after a generation and a half they have not yet regained their former numbers.  

Mythology

While the three sects of current worshippers of the Fullblooded have largely the same creation myth, there are differences. Mostly minor differences, and the telling below largely uses the Eye's version, but the key differences are highlighted.    

Fular's Eye

Prophet's Children

Ligo's Blooms

Before Ilysium before the Wilde Blue, there was only the Depths. Poisonous and deadly, nothing could survive in the horrid storms of acid and poison. Nothing, but Caedis. Many times it tried to populate the sky, making creatures and setting them free, only for them to choke on the toxic gas of the world. Curious, it continued for eons. Why could it live while everything else could not? But it could not find an answer. So long did it question this topic that the Depths calmed into a gentle sea, and the Aether rose to the top. Finally, creatures could survive, and Caedis set about making them a paradise for them. It lifted islands, placed the stars in the sky, and made sure everything was perfect. Finally, it was no longer alone. For a while it was content to watch the creatures it had made frolic, but soon it grew lonely. Its creations lived longer lives now, but they still died. It decided to keep testing, as it had before, finding exactly what made its creations so... mortal. Slowly it tortured its children, pulling them apart or boiling them or crushing them, just to find out why they died. But, just like before, it never learned. Finally, in a moment of desperation, Caedis shared its gift of creation with ten of its favorite creatures. These ten, their veins flowing Full of power, had finally escaped death. But they were not happy.
Long had choices been made for them by Caedis, unable to change, unable to grow in its paradise.
Long had they been kept prisoner by Caedis, unable to explore the rest of their lives.
Long had they been harvested by Caedis, lives cut short before they could enjoy them.
The Fullblooded, all ten of them, rose up against Caedis, and using their gifts of creation, banished it beneath the Depths. But they know that one day Caedis will return, and so they stand watch, waiting and protecting:
the ability to change and grow.
all of life's freedoms.
the sanctity of life itself.
 

Tenets of Faith

One of the most fascinating places for differences between the three sects are in their main tenets. All three seem to be drawing from a single source of four tenets, but each has a distinct spin that very closely mirrors the domains of their favored Fullblooded.  

Fular's Eye

  1. Do not upset the calm for only your own change
  2. Have your wind at other's backs, not faces
  3. Always progress, never regress
  4. Change endlessly and risk losing perfection

Prophet's Children

  1. Imprison no one, for no reason
  2. Free the enslaved if they cannot free themselves
  3. Do not simply fly away from the past
  4. A bird is still free if an open cage is the best place for it

Ligo's Blooms

  1. Never uproot any life before it has bloomed
  2. Guard the fragile flowers before they are trampled
  3. Do not clear the old growth simply for the new
  4. With each new sprout make the garden better
 
Tenet One
The first tenet seems to be coming from the common ground of "Do no harm to others". However, the specifics of each sect's wording reveals quite a lot. Firstly, the Eyes, who are usually all about constant change, constant chaos, understand the first tenet to mean that the calm of others, or the calm of society as a whole is more important than personal change. Next, the Children, they see imprisonment as harm, and depending on the fanaticism of the person you ask, that could range from Imperial slavery to all agreements. A binding word is still a harmful and wrong binding in some of their eyes. Naturally, most of the members of the Children do not believe such extremes, but there are those who do. Finally, the Blooms, they view all life as sacred, and shouldn't be harmed, though they make the exception "before it has bloomed" because in order to survive we must consume.  
Tenet Two
The second tenet also seems rather simple, all about supporting or protecting others. Again, it is very easy to see the differences between each sects worldview just from the differences in these words. The Eyes vouch for supporting others with your changes rather than fighting against them. Among the Children, there's a bit of disagreement about the meaning of this tenet. Some argue that it should be interpreted "Free the enslaved only if they cannot free themselves" while other say that it should read "Free the enslaved especially if they cannot free themselves" The former of the two groups tends to be more forgiving and less fanatic, while the latter tends to advocate for raids on Imperial towns and cities. The Blooms make it clear that if they do not stand up for the fragile beings of this world, they will be trampled, and it is a duty to protect them.  
Tenet Three
This tenet is a little more varied and harder to pin down than the last two, but most religious folk agree that it is about how we treat the past. For the Eyes, history is to be remembered so that the mistakes of old are not repeated, and that sentiment is mirrored in their version of the 3rd tenet. The Children seem to be addressing a common theme among followers: the urge to run away from everything in our past. Many Children run from something in order to be free, but the third tenet specifies that you should not turn your back on the past for no reason, and many priests say that even when becoming free by moving away, you should never try to forget where you began. With the Blooms, all life is sacred, but after a creature has had its prime, and it can be "uprooted" as the first tenet says, why let some old being take the resources away from a young one? Because the old growth has value inherently, the third tenet says, and will fall eventually, as all things do. Embrace it while it remains, and do not hasten into the future.  
Tenet Four
The fourth and final tenet is the most different between the different sects, but when boiled down, is all about improvement, becoming the best you can, or being the the best place, or leaving the world better off. With the Eyes, much like the first tenet, it seems to be cautioning against constant nonstop change. Improvement is good, but it must be to a point. You must realize when you are the best you can be and stop forcing new changes on yourself. The Children similarly caution against always flitting from once place to another as it seems Vola teaches. Freedom in an open cage is still freedom. Some of the more conservative priests argue that this last tenet also teaches that sometimes temporary imprisonment is good, that a bird will never enter a cage of its own free will but might choose to stay once set free if it is cared for. Last, but not least, the Blooms give their members another directive: to leave the Blue a prettier paradise than how we found it.  

Worship

Worship of the Fullblooded among the three sects is largely similar to the early worship in the Blue, with each community having a small shrine to which they ask for favors. With few documents surviving, most prayers and practices were passed down orally, and have shifted over time much faster than some other traditions found throughout the Blue. The most notable change is becoming more prevalent in the years since the end of the Trade Union Revolutionary War, as holidays that were small affairs practiced in secret have become huge ceremonies. Fular's Eye's holiday, named "Temersday", a sordid affair with an emphasis on spontaneity, has become immensely popular on Sayles, despite the original only being celebrated in the center of the eye of the Tempest. The priests of Fular's Eye embrace the change, however, often taking part in some of the grander displays of revelry in the streets of Sayles.

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