Pantheon Introduction - The Four Dieties

The pantheon of The Four Kingdoms is as simple as it is complex. At the heart of the pantheon, you have The Four Deities. I’m sure you can guess more or less who they are. The Spring Goddess, the Winter Deity, the Summer Goddess, and the Autumn Deity. Each deity has their own personality. Their domains. The directions they tend to go. If you go to a town in the Winter Kingdom, you can bet good money on the town worshipping the Winter Deity. Don’t know why you’re betting on that, but you’ll get good money out of it.
This is where the simplicity ends.
Because each deity has dozens of underworships, religions based around one aspect of the deity in question. The Summer Goddess is worshipped as the Radiance, the Woman of Woe, the Raywalker, Paxathi. The Radiance is very different from the Woman of Woe. The Radiance is a being of light and strength, the sun setting on a day’s hard work, the sun’s rays spilling over the mountains the next day with all the security of a fact of the world enduring; she rewards the devote with stalwart dedication and straightforward, truthful living. The Woman of Woe revels in chaos and destruction, a creature of erupting volcanoes and weeping lovers, shifting sands and burning sun; her followers sow trickery and sometimes outright misfortune wherever they go. The Radiance is the Summer Goddess. The Woman of Woe is the Summer Goddess. But the Radiance is most definitely not the Woman of Woe and while the followers of both underworships will share things in common and some camaraderie as a result, they are also likely to be at odds in some of their beliefs.
And the same goes for every deity.
So I shall explain the core traits of each deity and the underworships with the biggest influence. However, these traits are fluid as all hell and so is something so ephemeral as influence. And you might follow an underworship that is a bit more obscure (cough cough, a god from a different setting or of your own creation that is modified to fit into the pantheon) than those listed here.

The Spring Goddess

Most often portrayed as a younger woman with very long, flowing hair. The Spring Goddess is associated with life, growth, and benevolence. Widely regarded as a very loving deity intent on nurturing those in her care.

The Lady of Flowers

Goddess of floral growth and love freely given

Symbols: wreath of flowers, a single flower with three petals
Follower beliefs:

Flowers are sacred objects and gifts from the Lady

Love freely given is the most precious thing in this life

Love required will atrophy and rot the soul

Ulaa

Goddess of cultivated plant growth and animal care.

Symbols: a hoe and reins
Follower beliefs:

That which is grown will give you growth

You must cultivate that which you care about in order to thrive

Sometimes you must kill that which you have cultivated in order to further grow

Spring

Goddess of...spring. Just kind of generally. Bit of a generic catch-all goddess…

Symbols: flower bud, cluster of leaves, clasped hands
Follower beliefs:

Spring is a sacred time

Kindness to other beings is essential to prosperity

Why worship an aspect of a god when you can worship the whole deity but only the parts you like

Considered an underworship rather than a main faith by most people due to its central and core beliefs in the sanctity of the Spring Kingdom and ironically, due to its insistence on spreading the ideas of worshiping the main deity rather than an underworship

Try to tell them they’re an underworship and they will try to fight you

The Winter Deity

Most often portrayed as an elderly person of varying gender expressions, wearing a heavy cloak. The Winter Deity is associated with knowledge, solidarity, and strength in the face of an indifferent world. Regarded as a remote force that acts through their representatives on the mortal plane.

Krepost

Deity of struggle, strength, and the honor of self-sufficiency.

Symbols: a monolithic building or stone
Follower beliefs:

God helps those who help themselves :):)

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger :):):):):)

For real tho, sometimes all we have is our own strength and in our own strength there is a beauty and a freedom more sacred than anything else in this world

The Snow Mother

The warmest aspect of the Winter Deity, deity of light in the darkness, food in a belly that has gone empty, a warm home after an age in the cold. Also of family and community.

Symbols: a melting snowflake, a pair of empty gloves with palms open
Follower beliefs

The winter is hard but it makes the warmth all the more precious

You band together in the face of hardship in order to bring warmth to the cold

You destroy anything that would take that from you

The Star-Eyed One

Deity of history, knowledge, and storytelling.

Symbols: quill and a star
Follower beliefs:

People’s stories must be recorded so that they will be remembered

Remembrance = living on after death

Not necessarily a faith of learning or sharing info, more like hoarding it.

The Summer Goddess

Most often portrayed as a stout and mature woman, either in armor or plain clothing. Associated with strength and duality, fire and warmth, chaos and destruction, renewal and change.

The Radiance

Goddess of light, truth, endurance, and straightforwardness.

Symbols: A seven-pointed sun
Follower beliefs:

Light must be shined on every darkness

It is holy to live life in a straightforward manner and to endure the hardships of the world

The Woman of Woe

Goddess of misfortune, disaster, and trickery.

Symbols: A flame that transitions into a teardrop
Follower beliefs:

Suffering is universal and is therefore sacred

What doesn’t kill you makes you broken inside :)

But that makes you stronger in the long run

Chaos can be fun if you lean into it

Be gay, do crimes

Paxathi the Ever-Changing

Goddess of change, chaos, illusion.

Symbols: a mask, an octopus
Follower beliefs:

The only thing that is constant is change

Since there is no truth, there is no reason to refrain from manipulating others’ perception of reality

Paxathi was originally a mortal and achieved the ultimate change into a god

The Wavekeeper

Goddess of the ocean, cyclical or rhythmic change, storms, the moon.

Symbols: cresting wave within a circle
Follower beliefs:

The water is a sacred source of life and death

One of the most predictable aspects of life is the unpredictable

Learn to dance in the storm :):)

You may not be able to see the source of the tides, but it will pull nonetheless

The Autumn Deity

Just as mysterious and secretive as their kingdom. The bits and pieces that have floated to the rest of the kingdoms portray the Autumn Diety almost solely as a tall, androgynous figure. They have been known to be associated with wild plant growth, trees and leaves specifically, as well as protection. Not much is known about them. They are only ever heard referred to as the Autumn Diety in the wider world.