The Star
The Great Tiger
One of the Four Great Spirits of the Crane Basin and one of the ancient Wildes Champions from the War with the Wildes in the time before recorded history of mortal men. The Star is the great guardian of the Basin, who prowls the encircling mountains of the continental island. Where it walks, the storm follows and persists and though the Bale-Fire clan claims it as their patron spirit and progenator, you would never find one foolish enough to believe the Star was a tame spirit.
Artifacts
The only known artifact of the Star is the Sacred Treasure they bestowed upon the Bale-Fire clan, their progeny at some point in the Age of Legend within the Crane Basin. The artifact is known as the Mantle of Ceremony and it is said to hold but a sliver of the Star's power, able to manifest when worn by a memebr of the royal line or a champion of the clan.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Common symbols associated with the Star include a nine pointed star and a Bale Fire or a brazier. ANother common symbol would be a small bell.
The nine pointed star is in referrence to the cycle of nine lives the cats of the Crane Basin believe they live by the providence of the Star, who leads them back into the cycle of reincarnation every time they die until the last. Often, this symbol can be found stitched into clothing or etched into wood or metal, often adorning armor pieces and within the maker's mark of neko smiths.
The Bale Fire and the brazier are both in referrence to the clan honored tradition of lighting Bale Fires for myriad uses that only the clan knows the specifics and breadth of capabilities. These traditions and skills were said to have been taught to the clan by the Star in the Age of Legend while founding their city of Jiji.
The bell is both a common accessory piece for the cats of the Basin as well as something of a religious tool. It is believed that when a clansmen dies and enters into the realm of death, they are led back into the cycle of reincarnation by the light and gentle rining of a bell. Therefore, clansmen wear bells in homage to this, but also in hopes of leading their loved ones back from death to a new life.
Tenets of Faith
There are three primary tenants within the perview of the Star that all of their faithful understand and follow, even if they are not of the Bale-Fire Clan, as the Star is a Great Spirit first, patron god second.
Hope would be the first tenant, hope for a brighter tomorrow, hope for good and fruitful seasons, hope in the face of utter despair. The Star teaches that even in the midst of great doom, Hope is the strongest cause to endure. This tenant is reflected in the Star's tireless charge of wandering the mountains for eons in order to protect the Basin as a whole. It did so with the Hope that one day the Basin would not need to rely on it alone to protect it.
Purpose is the second of the tenants the Star teaches. It emphasizes the purpose each person has in their lives, the role they have to play and that no one is insignificant, nor any one deed too small. The Star teaches that life is a journey, as it walks the mountains, and on that jounrey, one way or another, everyone will find their purpose and all should strive to help those aimless fokl find their purpose.
Renewal is the third tenant the Star teaches. It appears as a final teaching, culminated from the previous two; through hope, we will endure to find our purpose and by finding our purpose, we will be renewed into the best versions of ourselves we can strive to be in life. This tenant also teaches that their is always a chance for a change and a renewal of the puropose and hope, creating a cyclicar set of tenants.
Physical Description
Identifying Characteristics
The Star, being divine, is known to take a myriad of forms when it comes upon its followers or even in the wild, where it is sometimes known to prowl. The forms are as varied as there are stones in the bed of a river, but there appears to be at least four common ones that have been documented within the chronicles of the Basin.
The first and most common depiction and recorded visage of the Star is that of either a still nine pointed star in the sky or a shooting star with twin tails of baleful white light. The still star is something that has been adapted most often into the iconography, where the shooting star is often spotted from time to time around the mountains surrounding the Basin. Both are seen as good omens, the still star often seen as domestic fortunes, while the twin tailed commet is often regarded as a good omen in times of travel or war.
The second common form the Star has been recorded to take is the form of a snow white tiger with black stripes that seem to bristle and writhe as it walks. The tiger is described to have the starry night eyes of the Star and is seen as an omen to be approached with caution. Smart trtavelers, who see this visage would leave out some food as an offering or ring a bell lightly in order to earn the Star's favor. Foolish travelers would try to scare the tiger away or simply leave the area. Very few foolish travelers have lent their accounts to the records.
A form the Star has been recorded to take, but only in the presence of very few and very worthy persons is that of a humanoid woman, naked and pale white like the flames. She carries the iconic eyes and her feline features on an otherwise humnoid face are framed by cascading locks that appear like the clear night sky. If the Star takes this form, it is only to those they deem most worthy and are exalted as some sort of champion. To behold such a being step out of a Bale Fire is something one would not soon forget.
The final form that is both most curious and most rarely seen is what the scholars of the basin refer to as the true form of the Star, the form the Wildes Champion once held even further back in time to the Age of Legend. This form has only ever been described, but no authentic account can be verified to coraberate the mythical stature of this form of the Star, only by cross examining the accounts with others from such places as Deities' Reach can any form of certainty and truth be found. A horrifying thought to be sure.
The true form of the Wildes Champion known as the Star is that of a behemoth quadripedeal beast breathed in brilliant white and black flames. Its claws are taloned as are its twin tails, like that of a scimitar. Its maw can split into four mandibles and sports rows upon rows of flaming teeth and all along its snout, mane, and neck oscillate hundreds of vaccuous eyes. Writhing about the molten form are tendrils of barbed muscle. Its roar is silently sundering, said to echo the sound of a star winking into existance, a mythical feat the spirit is ascribed to have performed; roaring the stars into existence.
The form of the Wildes Champion can only be seen as an omen of ill tidings as to be in its presence, surly is not and would not be a pleasant experience. And to think that was the form one would see could only mean that something dire enough to evoke an ancient form such as that was occuring. Gods and great spirits are not to be triffled with, gods and spirits with such stories legends as the Star is surly no different.
Mental characteristics
Morality & Philosophy
Despite its grand status as a Great Spirit with all of the pomp and circumstance following that title, the Star is also well known for being a fairly unbiased spirit in the realm of natural selection and what some may call baser instincts. According to its tenants, those who loose hope, reject their purpose, or rebuke the idea of renewal, are feed or a waste of potential and therefore should not get in the way of others who have yet to stray from the Star's idealistic path. This dubious morality has lent an air of distrust to the Star, which it does not seem to be bemoaned by, in fact, it seems pleased by this, sighting that even the most wayward may still bear the hope in their hearts that the Star does not come upon them on their journeys.
Divine Classification
Great Spirit
Religions
Current Status
Roaming the Mountains of the United Grove
Current Location
Realm
Church/Cult
Age
Eons old
Children
Pronouns
They/them
Sex
Unknown
Gender
Nonbinary
Presentation
Varies by form
Eyes
A plunging blackness dotted with myriad celestial stellar bodies
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
A brilliantly blazing coat of white fire with tiger stripes that change color frequently
Height
varies by form
Founded Settlements
