Orina, The Bottomless Ocean
Deep beneath the waves, in the unreachable depths of the ocean, lies the final rest of all mortal souls. From the grand palaces that welcome those who passed triumphant and covered in glory, to the crushing cells in which the wretched that went against the laws of the gods now suffer for eternity, plunged in eternal darkness, this underworld often simply called the Depths is the domain of Orina, who serves it as both ruler and warden. But there is more to this realm than simply death, for it is also a domain of untold wealth. Riches accumulated across the ages from the myriad of treasures lost at sea, and greedily hoarded by Orina. From her dark and watery realm, she watches the mortals up above, knowing that sooner or later all will pay her toll, in glittering gold and salted tears.
Sacred Attributes
Orina’s Sacred Symbol is the Sinking Tear (Vitilis), representing the cries of the dead from which the seas saltiness originates. Her Favoured animal is the Sperm Whale, who serves as both messenger and guide between her realm and the surface, and her Favoured Colour is Purple, which adorns both her hair and the lips of the drowned. Finally, her Sacred Weapon is the Spear and Net which she uses to catch the souls foolish enough to try and escape the Depths.Description
As the first amongst the denizens of the Depths, Orina most often takes on the form of aquatic beings. Almost exclusively womanly, the specifics of the race can change though traditionally she is represented as a Triton, the most well-known of the undersea civilisations. No matter the race, she always appears adorned in riches from the sea, vibrant corals covering her forms and seashells adorning her purple hair. Although beautiful, she acts coldly and distant at all time, her delicate trait only ever showing severity or, for the unlucky, anger. Besides the humanoid shapes she takes on to interact with the mortal races, Orina is known to be fond of traveling beneath the waves and along the waterways in the shape of brightly coloured sea creatures. Purple fishes and strangely marked whales are known guises that the goddess takes on whenever she wishes to make her presence either more discreet or more cryptic.Personality
Due to her association with death and the afterlife, Orina is often a deeply feared goddess, and yet she is not depicted as intrinsically evil in any major religious work. She does have vices, mainly greed and vanity, leading to her habit of dragging to her domain the ships of those that she deems disrespectful toward her, but for the most part Orina stays neutral towards the affairs of the living. She is simply uninterested in mortals, up until their death, at which point they become subjects of her realm, and of her judgment. In the Depths, Orina administers her domain with unexpected indolence, preferring to partake in her hoarded riches rather than administering the countless souls that pass through her gates. Her supervision is swift and superficial, leaving day to day tasks to her myriad of servants, and to those that do take more of her time than necessary she can prove most cruel and venomous. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Orina is known to favour visionaries and entrepreneurs, gatherers of wealth. That said individuals shower her in offerings only amplify that, and although unproven, there are tales of men and women who managed to bargain with the Goddess, offering riches in exchange for bending the rules of the underworld. But those tales always end the same, for no one truly leaves the Depths once entered, and even her word is rarely to be trusted.Worship
Orina’s worship is synonymous with the sadness of grief and the loss of cherished ones, for it is in those times that her name is called, pleas addressed to her to accompany the soul of the freshly departed. Here lies the most common goal of worshipping Orina, communicating with the deceased. Prayer to the grim goddess are often filled with messages to deliver to the residents of the Depths and, if the right rites and offerings are conducted, the hope of an answer of some form. And as the soul is bound to the Depths, so too is the body. By far the most common way of disposing of a body in the Kaladean Empire is through underwater burial. Officiated by clerics of Orina, this near universal practice is usually performed in the presence of the closest relatives of the dead, who bring the cadaver on board of a ship to carry the offshore. The cadaver is then pushed overboard and into the waters, either encased in a metal coffin or, for the poorest, weighted with stones as to ensure that the body sinks. The practice is believed to help the soul find their way to Orina faster, hoping to earn her favour by facilitating her job. Of course, Orina’s worship serves other purpose at time. To sailors, a prayer can serve to avoid catching the ire of the goddess, and alleviate the fear of seeing their ship dragged to the Depths. And to ambitious businessmen, the worship of Orina can hopefully bring them the luck to find for themselves some of the same wealth that she hoards in her gilded domain. But perhaps no other type of man worships Orina as fervently as the pirates and privateers that roam the sea in search of gold and death. No surprise then that those superstitious folk would devote their prayers to the goddess that govern both, hoping to earn her favour, bring them wealth and perhaps even escape the fate usually reserved to killers and thieves. This last point is often of utmost importance to pirates, who go to great length to assure themselves a better place in the afterlife by appealing to the goddess’ vices. Beside regular offerings, it is not rare for rich pirates to bring with them treasures in the afterlife, adorning their coffins with gold and gems and even sinking their ship along their body as the ultimate offering to the goddess. As for those that devote their lives to Orina, priest and priestess of the dead, it is said that they share a peculiar relationship with their goddess. Easily recognisable with their purple shrouds, they are often as feared and shunned as their goddess is. And yet, they are irreplaceable. Not only to perform funeral rites, but also to petition Orina in favour of their fellow men. While cleric of all kind are able to bring back the dead, it comes far more naturally and easily when done directly under the auspices of the ruler of the afterlife. Especially once the soul has found its way to the Depths, does negotiating with Orina becomes essential, and even the most silver-tongued of individuals would be well advised to consult with a cleric of Orina before any attempt. Most of them can be found in harbours or near shores, crowded places with easy access to the seas where they can best provide their services. Their temples often hide great wealth inside, tributes and offerings waiting to be returned to the sea, and double as shipyards where the sinister ships of purple sails wait to bring the dead offshore. And while the exterior of those temples tend to be rather plain in the mainland, as to not attract jealousy or thieves, the wealth of Orina’s clergy is fully displayed in the Orcadian Archipelago, where her cult is at its stronger. the Great Temple of Orina, in Akryssia, is the epitome of this luxury, with sumptuous architecture and rich interiors, the main building opening on a marina where a small fleet of the clergy’s ships are anchored and maintained daily, knowing that none, especially the feared pirates of the region, would dare touch a single stone of the place. In exchange, it is not rare to see a member of Orina’s clergy as part of the captain retinue of many great pirate captain, where their service is sometime so crucial.Divine Domains
Holy Books & Codes
The Deep Sea Logs
Divine Symbols & Sigils
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Favoured Animal: Sperm Whale
Favoured Colour: Purple
Sacred Weapon: Spear & Net
Tenets of Faith
Holidays
7th, 8th & 9th of Oreos: The Days of the Departed (Three days dedicated to the mourning of the dead, during which gifts are thrown into the sea as offerings to Orina and cenotaphs are decorated with sea-shells and purple trinkets.)
Divine Classification
Deity
Alignment
Chaotic Neutral
Realm
Church/Cult
Children
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