Saya
Saya is cold, death and knowledge, all in one. Saya entered the world through the Second Gate. From dead Life the Land arose, and when Life was given knowledge of its mortality, animals appeared. Among them, the giants knew the most and feared death the most.
To this day the Second Gate is surrounded by icy desert, domain of cold winds. The cold spreads from there, and on the edges of its influence the Touched reside. The Touched believe that they were "touched" by the influence of Saya that granted them sacred knowledge from beyond the Gate.
The cold, death and knowledge represent three states of matter - uniform, chaotic and organised, and Saya represents the continious flow from one state to another. The Touched say these three symbols can be used interchangeably with ice, smoke/wind and steel/coal.
Saya is considered the patron deity of scholars, prophets and magi, of warriors and spies and many more.
As any other of the Five, Saya has many regional sects that worship specific aspects of it and have much more definite rules of worship. The most widespread are Ash, Dust, Winter*, Silver, Silence, Ferrymen and Smoke.
Followers of Ash believe in the inevitable end of the world even if the Fifth Gate stays closed and everything to be meaningless. The only purpose of us is to dance beatifully in the air, slowly burning away, before falling on the ground and joining the primordial ashes.
Many followers of Dust call themselves Reyashny'k (pulvomancers, magi of dust) and claim to have achieved immortality and nearly unlimited powers. Some of them turn out to be liars, some of them wander away from civilazation or seclude themselves on one of holy mountains. In all, Dust offers one of the most hopeful ways of worshiping Saya and many follow it for this exact reason.
Followers of Smoke are found almost exclusively in cities, in their own separate districts as only there they can build and sustain a system of stoves and pipes that constantly spew noxious smoke. The thick black smoke is corrosive, toxic and can induce psychosis, panic attacks or euphoria and addiction after a prolonged exposure. Moreover, it is extremely hard to isolate. It seeps through smallest cracks, it eats away at iron and pollutes air and water alike.
Most cities regulate the amount of smoke produced and the conditions of its use. Special suits and equipment are necessary for maintenance workers and the smoke must be dilluted and filtered before contact with anyone. Most of it just gets spewed into the atmosphere and the followers of Smoke seem to be satisfied. It also common among the followers of Smoke to chain themselves or someone else in a room with undilluted smoke in it and without any protection. The "victim" always tries to escape from enlightment, but chains are keeping them put. Those who survived the exposure (and a lot of them did) are considered holy despite any side effects.
Many of the followers rarely remove their characteristic heavy suits of blackened and rusted iron, eager to return once more to the labyrinth of pipes.
Worship
Saya is usually worshipped through general respect and reverence towards it and what it brings: cold, death and knowledge. The contact with it and enlightment is the greatest goal one can achieve, and moving to it is greatest evidence of devotion.Ash
Ash is the most popular sect of Saya and claims that cold (uniform) is the primordial form of matter, and everything will slowly return to it. The three states are not equal, and over time more things become chaotic and then uniform than organised. Many Mt. Eyesh'kohn or Mt. Khe'estrhonte prophets are followers of the way of Ash.Followers of Ash believe in the inevitable end of the world even if the Fifth Gate stays closed and everything to be meaningless. The only purpose of us is to dance beatifully in the air, slowly burning away, before falling on the ground and joining the primordial ashes.
Dust
The way of Dust is characterized by the notion that the direction of natural change of states can be changed if one has contacted the ever-present spirit of Saya. Saya is the property of existence that slowly destoys itself only to return again from beyond the Gate. But Saya is also an entity shaped by thought and form of reality, so one can bend the very rules of this world for a brief moment in a small area with nothing but their will and their connection with Saya.Many followers of Dust call themselves Reyashny'k (pulvomancers, magi of dust) and claim to have achieved immortality and nearly unlimited powers. Some of them turn out to be liars, some of them wander away from civilazation or seclude themselves on one of holy mountains. In all, Dust offers one of the most hopeful ways of worshiping Saya and many follow it for this exact reason.
Winter
We are all slowly turning into dust. Why wait? Why not embrace the force that wears down anything that dared to exist? The cold steels the body and sharpens the mind, and pain blows away petty distractions. Why await the end, when you can bring it onto yourself and become meaningful for a moment? Ever since we began, we are ending. The Winter merely accelerates this process and opens our eyes. The way of Winter is the most popular way of worship among the prophets and northern magi. Even Yorn the Frozen and Terchet the Blind were followers of Winter.Silver
The followers of Silver are quite reclusive. This sect is also unique in that it is also a sect of the Beasts of Sun and Moon (known there as Silver Snake). The way of Silver values the power to end and the beauty of death. They rarely interact with others, but accept silver coins with engraved snakes and secret contents as a payment for their... services.Silence
Followers of this sect take the vow of silence and devote themselves forever to art. They create delicate tools and frightening weapons, paintings and sculptures depicting cold, decay and death, clothes that protect from northern winds and intricate trinkets with various purposes. Goods, produced by followers of Silence, are considered luxury. Many work at home, but many more gather in Towers of Silence that defy the fierce winds.Ferrymen
Ferrymen are something of a separate culture that worships Saya. They have little in common with the Touched. In fact, they live on the opposite side of the Ocean of Despair and gained their name by offering to ferry goods and passangers across the entire ocean. And successfully doing it every time. Ferrymen only ask all passangers to be blindfolded first, and so far no one survived a voyage otherwise. They live in the least hospitable place of all - the edge of the Shattered Lands. Because of the constant storm building too close to water is also dangerous. Ferrymen settlements end up between crags midway between the Ocean and the mountains. Little is known about their habits and their lives. They have outposts on all edges of the Ocean, but rarely go far inland. They worship fire and build wooden towers-torches that are perpetually lit. The rituals surrounding bonfires and the carved symbols and statuettes suggest Ferrymen associate fire with death - the central aspect of Saya.Smoke
Smoke is the technically not considered heretical, but has a distinctly bad reputation. The way of Smoke takes the idea of "suffering as a tool for self-improvent" from Winter and "beauty of ending" of Silver, and emerges with a philosophy of pain as ultimate reward, pleasure and sign of personal and literal growth and of spreading this reward to as many people as possible.Followers of Smoke are found almost exclusively in cities, in their own separate districts as only there they can build and sustain a system of stoves and pipes that constantly spew noxious smoke. The thick black smoke is corrosive, toxic and can induce psychosis, panic attacks or euphoria and addiction after a prolonged exposure. Moreover, it is extremely hard to isolate. It seeps through smallest cracks, it eats away at iron and pollutes air and water alike.
Most cities regulate the amount of smoke produced and the conditions of its use. Special suits and equipment are necessary for maintenance workers and the smoke must be dilluted and filtered before contact with anyone. Most of it just gets spewed into the atmosphere and the followers of Smoke seem to be satisfied. It also common among the followers of Smoke to chain themselves or someone else in a room with undilluted smoke in it and without any protection. The "victim" always tries to escape from enlightment, but chains are keeping them put. Those who survived the exposure (and a lot of them did) are considered holy despite any side effects.
Many of the followers rarely remove their characteristic heavy suits of blackened and rusted iron, eager to return once more to the labyrinth of pipes.
Comments
Author's Notes
If you want to learn about some aspect of Saya in particular, feel free to ask! If you liked what you read, have any suggestions or spotted some errors or typos, let me know!