Cathedris Themesong

He'an

Beauty in life, beauty in death

Our people have a deep, deep respect for the moon. For our He'an. They've always been the most beautiful of all the gods... it's only fitting that they're also seen as the most beautiful object in the night sky.
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— Citizen of Moonfal
  He'an floats unmoving in space. The God-husk is massive -- largest of all 14 gods. Seen as beautiful above all else, the genderless 6-armed God-husk is curled tightly into a ball, all arms wrapped around knees that are brought up close to their chest. Their marble-like skin appears to be unblemished despite the harsh environment of space -- He'an reflects sunlight, lighting up the nighttime skies.   Before The Seven Day War, He'an was one of the most, if not the most, loved god on all of Cathedris. He'an had a very special relationship with all humans they cared for, and because of that, they were seen as the most caring and loving god. Humankind that lived under He'ans protection were unchanging, free of suffering, danger, or hardships. They had no need for water or food, shelter, or clothing. He'an would provide all of it to them, listen to their problems, and provide solutions. One popular myth states that He'an gave away all of the silver hair off their head, save 6 strands, to clothe all of the humans of Cathedris.  

The strength of love for the humans

Before their death, and before Apathae was blasted and split into two separate continents, He'an called the western portion of Apathae home. It was here that, over the millennia-long rule of the gods, He'an cultivated their following. Population grew constantly under the protective hands of He'an, and soon Apathae was the most populated continent of all of Cathedris -- something the other gods envied.   The other gods levels of envy only increased through the ages, as He'an earned special names from their followers, showcasing their devotion. They called them "He'an the Beautiful", "He'an the Great", and occasionally "He'an the Almighty and Kind". These kinds of names showcased a closeness with the humans that the other gods often coveted, or despised.  
Of the other gods that also called Apathae home, only Old King Caed had a close relationship with He'an. While not considered overly close with eachother, documents show that the two gods were still friendly with one another, and receptive to requests.
  Qur to the south, and the Winter Giants to the north also lived upon ancient Apathae. The Winter Giants cared not for humans, instead focusing on their own personal in-organic projects -- thus the constantly growing population of humans under He'ans care annoyed them. The shining sun-god Qur shared a similar annoyance, believing that the humans were being coddled under He'an's care, and were capable of their own feats of might, so long as they were pushed to do so.

Scraps from The Comprilith

  • A very roughly written love-letter to He'an, unsigned
  • A meticulously crafted sketch of He'an's face -- this is the only remaining image of He'an's face, as the god's head faces away from the planet in orbit.
  • Three large coils of silver twine. The twine exhibits extraordinary strength, and is believed to be coiled strands of He'an's silver hair -- however some propose they are recreations.
  •  

    Shattering of the Union of Gods

    I don't think we'll ever know who killed our beautiful He'an. Not while all the gods are husks, at least. He'an's in space, we can't see how they died, and we can't go asking anyone if they did it either. But between you'n me... Qur did it.
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    — Moonfal citizen
      Meetings between the gods were always momentous events, and most of the time, recorded. In the days leading up to He'an's assassination there were two recorded meetings, one with Old King Caed and one with Qur. The dates on the records are unclear, so it is unknown which one took place closer to He'an's death. Rumors from that time say that He'an was also intending to meet with Xiuthan, but it's unknown if that meeting ever took place. These meetings, among other pieces of evidence, place Qur, Caed, and Xiuthan high upon the list of possible suspects for He'an's assassin.
    he'an.png
    the moon, he'an by Stormbril

    Birth

    Born on the 4th day of the 19 Days of Creation.

    Kill Count

    He'an never killed any other gods.

    Death

    Was assassinated first, initiating the The Seven Day War

    Killed by

    Theorized to be either Old King Caed, Xiuthan, or Qur

    Present-day Power


    Movement

    He'an is um-moving and unchanging, frozen in stable orbit as they gracefully float around the planet. All 6 of He'an's arms are wrapped tightly around themselves -- in the 3,000 years that people have looked up at He'an in the sky, they've never been seen moving once.
     

    Creation and Destruction

    He'an, as far as the world below can tell, is fully and truly dead. They exert no apparent creative or destructive forces -- however, the substantial size of He'an has still managed to affect the world of Cathedris, in the form of tidal forces.
     

    Awareness

    He'an exhibits no awareness of anything at all. The god appears to be really and truly dead -- people of Cathedris theorize that He'an is the only god that never fell into a Husk-state, however it is impossible to know for sure. There are some, particularly among the Deathrites, that believe He'an is a God-husk just like the rest, one who's loop is to merely observe from the night sky.

    Frightful Fauna and Fervent Followers

    Hexachord Longbow


    Descriptions of He'an's weapon tell of a massive, otherworldly longbow, crafted from the finest celestial wood that has existed since before time began. The longbow was strung with 6 fine strands of silver hair from He'an themselves, all of which could woven into a single strand, or left separated, on a whim of the bow's wielder.   The Hexachord longbow fired no arrows, no physical ammunition -- instead, hyper concentrated sound waves shot forth when the bow was fired.  

    Maximum Potential

    A fully powered Hexachord longbow was able to fire very precise sound waves that circled the entire globe. These waves were often strong enough to knock down any tree in their path, or blow over primitive structures. However, He'an did not use the bow for these purposes. Instead, they would untwist the 6 silver strings of the bow, and refasten them to create a massive 6 stringed musical instrument.   He'an was then able to create the most powerful music, with a calming and healing effect.  

    Current Power

    The Hexachord is gone -- it was destroyed over the course of The Seven Day War. Two days into the war, a day after He'an's assassination, the longbow was found in a mountain range in southern Moonfal. It lay there against a mountain, fiercely smouldering, day after day. As the godly infighting raged on, the flames grew higher, until 6 days later when Qur ended himself and Avartarian, the Hexachord longbow crumbled to ash.
     
    When we say we don't see any movement from He'an, up there in the sky, we're not exactly telling the truth... There are things moving. It's just not our god.
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    — Follower of He'an
     

    Space Infestation

    In the brutal environment of space, He'an moves not a muscle -- they've remained motionless for 3000 years. Yet there is still movement that occurs upon the god's frozen expanse. Small creatures, parasites, are always frantically scattering across He'an. It's an idea that has not been fully confirmed yet, but the leading theory is that He'an too is host to the monsters that all other God-husks spawn as well: Rendlings -- monsters that have grown out of the presumed dead body of He'an, mixed with the very magic that made them into a god.   These Rendlings somehow manage to survive in this harsh environment. What they are doing up there, and how they are surviving, is entirely unknown. They occasionally scamper about, congregating around spots upon He'ans body for days at a time, before breaking off and retreating to the dark side of He'an once again.  

    The two faiths of He'an

    Every single God-husk across Cathedris has it's own followers. Many of the modern countries of the world trace their routes back to what their patron God-husk once stood for, before their death. Many countries share worship of a single god-husk, like how Russin, Estana, and Falaradun all worship Sharenskus. In this, followers of He'an are not that different from followers of other God-husks. Most worshippers of He'an live in the two western Apathaen countries, Moonfal and He'a.   However, because He'an does not reside on the planet anymore, their followers have had less to keep them together as one cohesive group -- thus two distinct groups He'an worshipers were formed.
    The steadfast Deathrites
    The Deathrites, seen as the most popular religion of He'an, mostly reside within the country of Ha'e. The followers of this particular religion believe incredibly strongly that their god was the single most important of all of the 14 gods -- deemed to be the holy sacrifice that would elevate humanity to the next stage of their evolution.   Deathrites consider He'an's death as the positive turning point in the world, the time when all the energy hoarded by the gods was released into humanity as a whole.
    The Cryptic Rescuists
    Rescuists of He'an have fewer followers than the Deathrites, but are far more fervent. The Rescuists have a similar belief that He'an is the most important of all 14 gods, but believe He'an was wrongly ejected into space. They hypothesize that He'an is the only remaining living god, frozen in the brutal expanse of space. Thus all Rescuists believe it is their life's purpose to bring He'an back to the surface of Cathedris, no matter the cost. Believers of this faith also collect any and all information of He'an before The Seven Day War, viewing it as sacred.
     


    Cover image: by Ivan Vranić

    Comments

    Author's Notes

    First prompt of Summer Camp 2020 DONE! This was a bit of a big one to start with -- there is no way I'll keep that up. I still need to update and redo some of the art. Mostly, I want to redo He'an's protrait. They deserve full effort!   Thanks for taking the time to read! If you liked it, I'd love to know what you think :)


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    Jul 2, 2020 07:21 by Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

    This was such an interesting read! :D I particularly liked the section about the hexachord longbow! :)

    Emy x
    Explore Etrea
    Jul 6, 2020 05:49 by Stormbril

    Thank you Emy! I really enjoyed writing about the longbow too, I think it's my favourite part of the article :)

    Jul 2, 2020 08:12

    As soon as I saw the prompts, this was one of the articles I knew we'd get and I was looking forward to. I'm glad we got it early because your god-husk articles are always amazing, and this is no exception - cathedris is just brimming with character and unique style.   So very good. <3 Keep being amazing, Stormy


    Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.
    Jul 6, 2020 05:49 by Stormbril

    Super super happy to provide more God-husks then! :D   Thanks for always being inspiring and pushing to create, Q! <3

    Jul 2, 2020 14:41 by Caitlin Phillips

    This is beautiful and heart-wrenching. I love the god-husks so much!

    Cait x
    Jul 6, 2020 05:53 by Stormbril

    Thank you so much :) I'm always so happy to receive comments like this!

    Jul 2, 2020 18:09 by Grace Gittel Lewis

    WONDERFUL! Love the idea of the moon just being a straight up corpse. Moon parasites? Also great!

    Jul 6, 2020 05:54 by Stormbril

    SPACE COOOOOOORPSE! Riddled with space parasites! :D Have to thank Q for the prompting for that one, wouldn't have gotten there without his help :)   Glad you enjoyed the article though, thanks for the comment Time! :D

    Jul 6, 2020 20:52 by R. Dylon Elder

    Love it. The idea of the moon being the corpse of a god is just strange enough to be unique but I could see a culture believing this in their mythology... course its a fact in this world but you get what I mean. It's a beautiful idea.   I also love the use of pronouns here. I wish I saw that more. When the moon is usually a female deity, you flip the scrip and activly make it genderless. It's a breath of freash air. Excellent work. The rendlings are an excellent touch as well. Can you imagine how horrifying it would be to see that on our own moon. jeeeez.

    Jul 7, 2020 03:57 by Stormbril

    Thanks Dylon! Early on when planning out what caused the gods to all kill each other, I knew I needed a fairly big event... so why not kill one and turn it into the moon? :D   I'm happy to have made He'an genderless, and I want to try for more diversity among the god-husks for sure.   Thanks for once again another fantastic comment! :D Hope you're having a great summer camp :)

    Jul 7, 2020 13:34 by R. Dylon Elder

    Its going quite well thus far. Thanks. Hope it's the same for you. And again. It's no problem!

    Jul 11, 2020 20:47 by Diane Morrison

    I always enjoy your work! It's so imaginative and so tragic!

    Author of the Wyrd West Chronicles and the Toy Soldier Saga. Mother of Bunnies, Eater of Pickles, Friend of Nerds, First of her Name.
    Jul 13, 2020 01:11 by Stormbril

    Thank you so much Sable! :)

    Jul 12, 2020 00:16 by outer spec

    I love them. They remind me of Kars from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

    キタワァ*・゚゚・*:.。..。.:*・゚(n‘∀‘)η゚・*:.。. .。.:*・゚゚・*!!!!!
    Jul 13, 2020 01:12 by Stormbril

    Thanks! :D   Jojo's is one show I've never watched, merely observed from the outside and been confused hahaha. I might have to look into it to see if I can catch the similarities as well! :P

    Jun 6, 2021 16:57

    Aaaaa this is beautiful! ;o;   I've been wanting to have a look at Cathedris for a long time - I picked this up first and I was amazed. I want to hug He'an! Poor child! I reckon I would need very big arms to do so.   I loved the detail about the bow that turns into an instrument :) They seemed like a very wholesome god.

    Jun 6, 2021 18:23 by Stormbril

    Thank you so much Nae! <3 I really appreciate you taking a look at Cathedris :D   He'an is a great place to start too, I really like them and their wholesome nature as well! I'm sure some crafty Cathedrans have made He'an dolls to be able to hug instead of the moon itself.

    Aug 3, 2021 23:54 by Morgan Biscup

    He'an. <3 He'an is the best moon god ever.

    Lead Author of Vazdimet.
    Necromancy is a Wholesome Science.
    Aug 5, 2021 16:30 by Stormbril
    Oct 15, 2022 17:51

    Hey friend =D, I only just came across your world today via the worldanvil showcase on twitch and wowzers. This is some of the most creative writing ive come across and your formatting is absolutely top notch. I will certainly be following this project and look forward to absorbing this world into my gooey little nerd brain. Truly a vast and inspirational world

    Oct 27, 2022 22:35 by Stormbril

    I'm sorry it took me so long to get to this comment! But thank you so much, it means SO much to me to read a comment like this <3 I plan to always work on it, so it's my hope it remains enjoyable and inspirational! :D

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