Ertinar

Ertinar is the Riverlord, the storm druid, the dancing prince of rains, the lord of the oceans and the windmaster spirit. He is a signifcant Uvaran God, with a very notable but somewhat niche presence in worship and mythology. Ertinar is the primary child of Ustav and is often overshadowed by this relationship, and the 'trickster mage' elements of Ertinar are somewhat interchangeable with those of his father.
Ertinar is the God of quests, ordeals, trials, journeys, doorways, magic, and learning - a patron of the adventurer in the eyes of some. He is also a god of rain, rivers, and sea.
As a note, Ertinar the god is not a real entity in this world. He is a character in Uvaran imagination, refined by centuries of meditation, politics, and cultural exchange. This does not make him unimportant. Emesh often empowers paladins in her name and falsifies evidence of his existence, as part of his campaign of cultural plurality. There was an actual Ertinar who once existed as either a bastard child or a disciple of the real Ustav, but that person is not the character described here. Indeed, this Ertinar is in many ways closer to the original Ustav before he became a spirit - and a number of Ustav-the-man's deeds are tied to Ertinar now.

Ertinar's Spiritual Role

Ertinar is worshipped in many places, in very different ways. He is a protector of sailors and travelers, a god of magic, a keeper or creeks and wells, and a weather god all. But understanding this versatility means understanding his character role. Ertinar is at his core a God of adaptation and transformation - he is the accepted mutation, the loss that has been learned from, the need to improve to survive. He is every child born touched by Ederstone that their parents have learned to love, every unready son that has grown to fill the mantle of his waste-taken father. His master over running water, changing wind, redemption, and learning all connect with his fundamental role as acceptable mutability. And while his rebirth elements certainly echo those of Ustav, Ertinar's changes are permanent - what is lost will never return, but Ertinar guides us to find peace and prosperity in what we find instead.
Ertinar's connection with Ustav is only one part of the puzzle. Like Silsta, Ertinar is a God most commonly paired with other Gods or heroes. Ertinar and Rugon are often paired together in a kind of complementary contrast, for example; while Rugon is over-from-chaos, Ertinar is chaos-from-order. Together, they illustrate the Uvaran temperate path. Their arcs also mirror each other: Ertinar journeyed to find family at the cost of duty, while Rugon journeyed to escape family and embrace duty; both find satisfaction and resolution both through pursuing one. Another god often paired with Ertinar is Old Man Vanoke, the essence of water and air. Ertinar is a divine mediator, most notably between his worshippers and Vanoke, but also with other more distant gods such as Varsha. Indeed, this is the essence of Ertinar as God of Magic - he is the one who systematized the miracles of the Gods in mortal hands. His magical position is not a technical one by any means, but a deeply spiritual one; he is becoming mutable, making the world mutable, connecting the caster with the primordial gods by way of careful knowledge and right action.
Worship and connection with Ertinar is more likely to involve pilgrimmage.

Ertinar the Character

Ertinar is represented in one of either two ways: as the older Wandering Mage or the young Chalicebearer. The latter tends to connect with what may be Ertinar's defining myth: the story of his journey of grief. The story goes that Ertinar was born cursed by the Twin Evils (Order and Chaos), and was wispish and shy - unable to live, unable to die. Ustav and the other Gods used their power to help Ertinar exist the best he could, but the boy was never quite the same as the others. While his father lived, Ertinar clung to his side and defended their heavenly home. The Gods entrusted lonesome Ertinar with protecting their sanctum, a great and sacred place. But, when Ustav died, Ertinar took the sacred chalice of miracles from the sanctum, abandoned his post, and collected his father's lifeblood into the sacred chalice. When he returned, he found the sanctum aflame and corrupted. Ashamed and broken with grief, he took the chalice and fled.
Ertinar wandered the world, through death and life, searching for any way to return to what he once had. He found himself in the Cursed Rurateg Mountains, on the tallest peak looking into the deepest chasm - the maw of Ububi, of death itself. Ubibi commanded and bartered, hoping to lure Ertinar into its embrace. It offered great power if Ertinar were to jump down - so Ertinar delayed while he secretly crafted a puppet imbued with his likeness. He tied the puppet to an invisible string barted from a wasteland spider, and hid a hook inside of it. Ertinar threw it down, Ubibi bit - and on the hook, Ertinar caught the secrets Ubibi had offered out as bait. The secrets gave Ertinar power, but not the key to his father's resurrection. So, if Death could not return Ustav, Ertinar would use Life. He went to the heart of the Deverkel Wastes, the Boiling Sea, to steal secrets from Chaos Incarnate, known as Deverzain. Deverzain was craftier, trapping Ertinar in a shifting landscape - but through his blood, Ustav saved Ertinar and guided him to freedon. Even robbing Deverzain's sanctum, Ertinar found no secret to his father's resurrection - but he did find a path forward. He carried the chalice and the blood to the sea, to what is now Selvergen - then a starving village- and there he spoke to the sea and to its creatures. The fish agreed to bite upon hooks to feed the people (re-enacting Ertinar's ploy) and in exchange he gave them his father's blessed blood. It was what Ustav wanted. It was a return of his father's essence to the world, in an act of good. From the sea foam rose Ustav, reborn at last. Ustav guided Ertinar on one last journey, back to heaven - to restore the sanctum he once abandoned.
As a character, it makes sense that young Ertinar and old Ertinar represent totally different archetypes. The former is a foolish, lonely young initiate - the latter is a wisened and ascended elder. The elder Ertinar is a character who gives tests, teaches magic, and opens pathways. The old Ertinar is the master of the liminal, who appears in strange or transitional spaces; the young Ertinar is trapped within the liminal, learning the lessons rather than teaching.

Ertinar in South Stildane

Southern Stildane, in lands such as the Empire of Eketen and Kingdom of Arvarun treat Ertinar differently than the North. In the South, Ertinar is part of Ustav in a fundamental way. Ertinar is Ustav's heir and vessel, through which Ustav will one day become the Irunek. He is the Prince of Heaven, who has ascended to become the co-chief of the Gods with his father's seasonal passing. It is by Ertinar that the High Priests of the South challenge the Autumn Court's authority - which certainly rhymes well with the Southern clergy's greater emphasis on magic and sorcery. This intense zeal for Ertinar in the South has been historically reinforced by the South's association with the God in the North - the South has long been deemed Ertinar's land, and that mindset shaped Hainish priest's rhetoric and Uvaran evangelism.
As for his physical appearance, Ertinar is typically represented as a man with a mix of buglike, fishlike, and birdlike features - oftentimes a beak (sometimes alongside a traditional mouth). While the specifics vary, he always has inverted/distorted versions of his father's antler-branch horns, large all-blue eyes, and three arms. Younger interations often have him wrap his face in cloth out of shame.

Divine Domains

Ertinar's domains are context-dependent.

• His major domains are: Travel, Weather, Magic, Redemption
• His minor domains are: Water, Adaptation, the Sea, Aquatic Creatures, Coming of Age/Life Change
• His occupational domains are: Fishermen, sailors, merchants, shipwrights, explorers, bridgekeepers, teachers and students, scribes

Among Northern Stildane's feudal elites, Ertinar's symbolism and worship is deeply tied in with questing, magic, and trade. In that elite culture, Ertinar blesses Burghers and peddlers with protection on their journeys and wisdom in their trades; he does the same for knights attending quests. While Ertinar is not the central god of Questing Chapels, he is represented in the sacred chalice-altar beneath the typical statue of Ustav. Ertinar is not quite a comfortable god for knights, but he is a welcome and open patron for merchants and mages (particularly sorcerers). Ertinar does also have a presence in many courts as the God of Ordeals and Redemption; formal edicts of clemency bear his symbols; however, Northern courts tend to put Ustav, Hadash, and Kragen as legal gods more than Ertinar. Much more prominent are the statues and shrines to Ertinar in markets and ports, where merchants and travelers make their sacrifices for safe passage and abundance. In urban centers, shrines to Ertinar are commonly patronized by the merchant elite.
In the Northern countryside, Ertinar is far more agricultural - a god prayed for rain or for an end to rain, for protection over canals and wells. It is common custom in the countryside to whisper a prayer to Ertinar when crossing a bridge. Ertinar's symbols also are incorporated into Stildanian property boundary markers, and prayer to the god is given when new markers are erected. Villagers often pray or give sacrifice to Ertinar to ward off harm when some strangeness occurs.
On the frontier, Ertinar is more explicitly magical god, prayed to transform magical threats and guide the faithful to mediation with the strange. Many of the rural elements are present in frontier spaces, but intensified and mystified - Ertinar is much more visible and involved as a divine intermediary in the Uvaran communities of the chaos wasteland. There, travel is always dangerous even a small ways from one's home, and unusual mutations or anomalies are much more common, so Ertinar is an extremely important niche.
In Southern Stildane, Ertinar worship is split between Ertinar the Sage (Ertinaralg) and Ertinar the Heir (Ertinarav). The Sage is worshipped in ways similar to the North. The Heir is the symbol of state authority, magical power, and future salvation for the land. Ustav Audril/Rav Konet - Ustav is Reborn/the Heir will come - is a common bookend phrase for beginning and ending Southern Uvaran rituals.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Ertinar's symbols include:

• The Chalice, representing journeys, promises, and ordeals
• The Thunderbolt, representing magical power and weather
• The Hookstave, representing trickery, the sea, and new life phases

Holidays

Ertinar's main holiday is Ertenfelm, on Rizaiz (April) 12th. This is a holiday all about rain and water, with a ritualized puppet sacrifice imitating Ertinar's own. 
His symbols can be present in the Frelden Festival, but the primary focus there is Ustav and resurrection.

Divine Classification

God

Religions

• Slevenkine Order
• Uvara

Church/Cult

Uvara