Kragen

Lady of Steel Kragen Varshtoza

Kragen is the lady of steel and scepter, the mother of prisms, the Queen of the Earth and Stone. She is a major Uvaran goddess, second only to the Chief God Ustav in most traditions. She represents war, authority, passion, hard work, persistence, and taking what one wants from the world.
Kragen is frequently worshipped as a patron of warriors, monarchs, and laws - but also as a patron of the harvest, of miners, of work itself and the sacrifices made to survive. Her worshippers often believe that by giving to her (sacrifice, but more often hard work and devotion), their loss may be translated into the strength needed to gain (a bountiful harvest, business success). She is also prayed to for protection from physical danger, or for willpower for difficult tasks. Many prisms revere her as the ancestor primordial, that binds all prisms together in kinship.
As a note, Kragen is not a real entity in this world. She is a character in Uvaran imagination, refined by centuries of meditation, politics, and cultural exchange. This does not make her unimportant. Emesh often empowers paladins in her name and falsifies evidence of her existence, as part of his campaign of cultural plurality.

Kragen's Spiritual Role

Kragen is an imperfect counterpart to Ustav. Ustav creates, renews, becomes, and gives; Kragen takes, kills, orders, and possesses. Ustav is the positive force, Kragen is the negative force. In some ways, this is a balanced positive-negative, like a sacred reflection of the two primordial forces of destruction in Uvara - Excessive Creation and Chaos (Deversain) and Excessive Destruction and Order (Ubibi). But Ustav and Kragen are not made mirrors of each other morally. While Ustav is made perfect by Uvaran mythology, Kragen is more often kept fallible in stories about her.
The reason for this imbalance is their different roles in Uvaran storytelling. Ustav is Hope and future, while Kragen is acceptance and the present. Kragen is the material reflection to Ustav's unknowable spirit; she is grounded in necessity and the hard work required to survive, while Ustav's promise is of salvation from all suffering and a renewal that will liberate mortals from necessity. Kragen's mistakes are people's mistakes, and her persistent redemption and stubborn insistence to continue fighting anyways represent our need to move beyond our flaws and failures. Kragen, in her stories, alienates and loses her most precious son Rugon because of her flaws as a person, but she recovers him in a new form when he transforms into the world tree and reconciles with her. Ustav's arc of failure and redemption is physical death and physical rebirth, but Kragen's is emotional and social instead. Ustav's moral spirit never fails during his cycle, and he preserves our mortal spirits; Kragen's body is invulnerable to attack and never fails, and she preserves our own physical bodies. Her physicality and her connection to mundane life make her fallible, but also make our own mundane labors sacred by association.

Kragen the Character

Some religious traditions and local groups embrace the dualism of Ustav and Kragen. Sometimes, the two are portrayed as husband-and-wife, King and Queen of Heaven. Other traditions put Kragen apart from Ustav, as the Queen of a court underground with her own family and earth spirit companions. Sometimes, Kragen is given a draconic husband named Tethellin, a kind of inherited and repurposed portrayal of The Chimera from the Adira Mountains.
Kragen's marital status (Ustav? Tethellin? No one?) may be ambiguous, but she always has a treasured son: Rugon, God of plants, beauty, and fertility. As previously mentioned, her mother-son bond is typically portrayed as a complicated one with a disrupted past; her indecisive and wandering son enters a conflict with his mother, and she in some way overreacts (she attacks him or chains him up in many stories). He escapes, and she gives chase. She seeks redemption; sometimes additional stories are told of her efforts. Then, when he finds his calling and sacrifices his life of wandering to become the seed that grows into the world tree, Kragen defends the seed and sapling from the primordial forces of destruction. After he becomes a tree, the two reconcile as peers and family.
Kragen is also often the mother of Jade Atharzen, Hiku Matsune, Agamine the Lost, sometimes Emesh, sometimes Ishkibal, sometimes Lily of Red, and sometimes Theia the Liberator. Sometimes, these are seen as her apprentices and children of her children instead. Regardless, it is commonly believed that Kragen is one of the two gods to make the Lunar Pantheon, and that she made the first paladins as her sacred warriors. Some stories posit that Kragen is also responsible for the violence between the Lunar Gods, and this "Halcyon" they refer to is actually an alias of hers (though others assert that Halcyon simply represents fate itself).
Similarly, Kragen's fallibility sits on a sliding scale that depends on who and where you talk about her. Sometimes, her flaws are downplayed to build her up as the ultimate Legitimate Authority. Sometimes, her flaws are so exaggerated that she appears semi-villainous, a whirlwind of rage and self-defeating stubbornness that dooms mortals to an endless cycle of war and poverty. But the flaws are almost always the same: her warrior's anger often consumes her, her stubbornness often drives her to persist when she should adapt, and her pride often blinds her to the perspectives of others. Unsurprisingly, her flaws (even at her worst) are reflections of the qualities she is intended to inspire.
Kragen's cult locations include the Kingdom of Nidever and Kiazerov.
The Goddess is often portrayed as a tall, armored woman - a prism if among prisms, a Half Prism for anyone else.

Divine Domains

Kragen's domains are context-dependent.

• Her major domains are: War, Law, Passion, and Persistence
• Her minor domains are: Metals, Earth, Harvest, Mining, Architecture, Hierarchy, Labor
• Her occupational domains are: Masons, Smiths, Millers, Armorers, Warriors, Lawyers, Builders, Bricklayers

In subterranean/semi-subterranean Prism societies, Kragen's cthonic and earthy elements become prominent. Her domain over Earth, mining, and minerals take priority, and the "law" she represents becomes cultural and religious structure (such as parental authority) as well as formal legalism. As prisms eat minerals, Kragen is something of a God of abundance and daily struggle.
In agricultural areas, Kragen becomes a harvest, architecture, and authority God. While her aesthetics and associated activities change, her role is actually similar to the prism version of Kragen: she represents parental and communal authority, as well as the abundance and struggle of the harvest.
In urban spaces and formal religious spaces, Kragen's passion, law, and authority domains come to prominence. This version of Kragen embodies the power of the state and the civic body - she is formalized law, class hierarchy, metal-as-coinage, and righteous authority. It is important to note that this version is neither universally positive nor universally elite-oriented; this version of Kragen is also all about passion and drive, and can be a force for change or destruction who dethrones an authority or raises up another. 
Kragen's domains become even more specific when one gets into specific places or groups. One city may valorize Kragen as the ultimate ideal authority; another may see her as a capricious and dangerous kingmaker who turns the great wheels of civil life with her fury, so that no generation may know peace or stability. Some villages see Kragen as a cruel master whipping at their heels and sending down wheat rust and other blights when displeased; others see her as the Matriarch of Abundance, whose radiance is uplifting only. Within a city that sees Kragen in a semi-negative light, the Mason's Guild might see her in a positive one instead. 
Across these manifestations, Kragen's militarism is persistent. Since violence in Stildane is never truly escapable, her role as the patron of warriors and survival against monsters is basically universal. This militarism flavors her rituals and worship rather consistently, regardless of the domain - threshing becomes violence against the wheat, mining becomes a battle, parental authority becomes a household commander inspiring his troops.

Artifacts

It is said that Kragen wields a thousand weapons, but her greatest is Barlian, forged from the metal blood at the bottom of the underworld.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

The following are all symbols of Kragen:

A shining sickle

A golden sword

 Two crossed hammers (one warhammer, one smith's hammer)

A mountain (or triangle) with a crown over it

Holidays

Kragen has one devotional holiday and three holidays she is sometimes invoked in depending on the local traditions in the Stildanian Calendar.
Kragen's main holiday is:

• Kragintern, a major agricultural holiday celebrated Baeld (October) 28-30 centered on Kragen. Most commonly a harvest festival. Also about Ustav and autumn.

The holidays she appears frequently in are:

• Elkmob, another agricultural holiday celebrated the last three days of Garmoy (July) and the first day of Hostmoy (August). Is dedicated to Ustav or Rugon (God of Fertility and plants) typically, but is sometimes devoted to Kragen by some places.
• Olmieron, a military holiday celebrated in early Garmoy (July). Most of the focus is on the warriors who defeated the Kivish, but Kragen is frequently present.
• All Moon's Day, a day celebrating and brokering peace between the Lunar Gods, often includes Kragen as a figure who asserts order and unity upon the fragmented Lunar pantheon. This holiday is celebrated the 10th of Holnin (September)

Divine Classification

Goddess

Religions

• Uvara

Church/Cult

Uvara

Pronouns

She/her