Bokoren the Sonorous
As his name implies, the egotistical Bokroen the Sonorous is a commanding and exuberant presence in the Kolaluthaenut Pantheon. By claiming dominion over tempestuous skies and stormy seas, he is well associated with the travellers, and particularly the sailors who go about business as his mercy. While he bears lighting in his right hand and hail in his left, it is his thunderous voice that terrifies and enraptures his followers. It is said to stir the sea and shake the sky with such a force as to cause the very Kolaluth to tremble.
Even so, he is not a malevolent God, and generally loves his subjects. It is for that reason that his Temple on Sikristerm Island was a bastion of calm seas and open skies. From this great temple shines a brilliant light, as a beacon of safety through tumultuous storms as far as sailors may need. It was once known as the Pokonelat Lighthouse, but none can be sure of its modern use since falling into Belsumese possession. Today, the island is surrounded in a perpetual storm, as if Bokoren were upset by very presence of the southern invaders.
Although his Temple has become lost, he maintains a strong cult following among sailors and coastal-folk in Maletsok. Chief among these are the Wallenbrack (see Luthaenoism. However, the rising radical cult of the Stormfolgers around the Tim's Bay area has emerged as a formidable counter to the Warrenbrack strength.
Bokoren is always depicted as a human man, clad in pale-blue gambeson under scaled brass armour decorated with amethyst. His pale skin is finely wrinkled beneath a curly brown beard. His wavy brown and gold hair elegantly curtains his fierce blue eyes that glow with shocks of lighting.
Role in the Sacred History of Maletsok
Bokoren was among the most active in the creation myth. Together with Fornien of the Seven Eyes, Bokoren created the Dobrid Humans of the Islands with the hope of seeing them explore and learn about the world. However, when the peoples began to explore outside of the Islands, Bokoren brought down a great storm that imprisoned the peoples to their home. The guilt of his actions made Bokoren one of the first to side with Kiren the Red after her great accusation.
Cults
Wallenbrack
Bokoren's chief religion in Maletsok are the Wallenbrack, also Windtamers or Chupetadons.The unstructured cult can be found in all port towns, most coastal communities, and some farming communities, especially near the Uremseach Desert. Typically, sea-water fountain shrines accompany their presence, wherein their ceremonies take place.
Sailors and travellers, farmers and hermits, Wallenbrack are members of communities that rely heavily on favourable weather. They believe that placating the temperamental Bokoren can tame the equally temperamental weather, and bring about or prevent storms as necessary. Placating, in this sense, means making offerings at fountain-shrines in supplication or gratitude. Typical offerings include food sacrifices of fresh fruits and cured meats, libations of wine and honey-wine, lengthy epithets and praises, and even live animal sacrifices (which have thankfully been banned in the Empire).
Key to understanding Wallenbrack thought is the relationship between mortal and Bokoren. The God of Tempest and Storm is a just and punishing God, whose mighty storms act as punishment for mortal sin and greed (see Sacred History of Maletsok). The relationship, then, is akin to a lord-subject interaction, wherein the subject must please the lord or feel his wrath. That being said, there is still a great admiration on the part of Wallenbrack for their God, and many will make offerings to Bokoren merely out of love, rather than simply to satisfy his ego.
The Stormfolgers
Unlike the Wallenbrack, the Divine-Couple-worshipping Stormfolgers are a highly organized cult of fanatics based in and around the city of Claghall. They are a cult that bears a strong stereotype, and lives up to it in every way. They are expert sailors and navigators with the strongest meteorological understanding in the Empire. Their ships are among the sturdiest and well-equipped for tumultuous seas that can be found. They are adventurers through and through, but not for glory or gold; Stormfolgers have only one goal; to revel in and understand the beauty of the storms of the sea.
Originating from the philosophical and arcane works of James Franklin, Stormfolgers believed that storms and gales are not punishments sent by Bokoren that need to be prevented with platitudes or sacrifices to him. Instead, they are wonderful and awe-inspiring displays of the divine realms here in Nedia, and ought to be studied and worshipped. Some radical Stormfolgers even believe that storms can be gateways into the Haavaiatus Sea; understandably, these radicals tend not to last long.
These mariners of Bokoren and students of Fornien wait idly by shore, studying and discussing the shape and interactions of wind patterns and how they go on to form storms, glorifying the Mother Goddess Fornien . When a storm is imminent, predicted either by their own skill or the Tim's Bay tides (see localized phenomena Maletsok Islands), they race to their ships to ride towering waves and boisterous winds, hoping either to discover something new and glorify Fornien in learning, or die trying to glorify Bokoren in relinquishing oneself to his power. Stormfolger knowledge has been instrumental in the development of the Imperial Navy and merchant routes.
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