God of Ferrets and Polecats Maol-Domhnuich (a.k.a. Ludovic, Ludo)
Ferrets, polecats, tricksters, underdogs, thieves, survival, cooks and chefs, feasts
Polecat coins are a currency used by Ludovic and his cult, not tied to other values. As a gift from a god, usually given by Ludovic for extraordinary or impressive feats, extreme dedication, or important contributions and information, they are valued to allow the user to buy or request anything once, at the god's expense, be it material or not.
Rimewraith is another artifact of his, being his personal shortsword and often used to direct and channel his magic.
Pelts, furs, braids, iron rings, runes, knives, ice, and serving dishes
He is one of many gods associated with the
Dance of Blood, both the
Festival of Death and the
Festival of Life, and often heavily associated with wintertime celebrations and feasts.
Many feasts, although not directly connected to him, often see an uptick in his worship as a god of the house. Ludovic is also becoming quite a popular god through his exploits and become much more known in the world, with many chefs and cooks shifting to worship him.
Physical Description
Ludovic takes the form of a tall, slender, young man, appearing to be in his early twenties. He has thin, wispy brown hair that is shaved at the sides and kept in a long braid he rarely lets down, but reaches his lower back. At all times he displays his
Divine Paint and sharp teeth unbefitting a mortal. Ludovic is also fond of his runic tattoos, which often take the form of a dark blue Celtic band around his left bicep, but he can change at will to anything he wishes.
Since he was injured in the
War of the Moon, Ludovic has changed his appearance slighty- His back is now covered in a large tattoo in
Divine Runic, directly meaning "The souls of the horse and the deer empower the water ferret's sight". The rune more accurately means to empower his aim through Shia and Mora's power as the gods of life and death. Ludovic's hair also is now white at the ends, likely stemming from mortal depictions of him that heavily feature the images from when he was pulled from the northern sea and resuscitated, his hair frozen over with ice.
Most often, Ludovic has on his divine paint as white dots under his eyes and heavy black or brown eyeshadow, showing his aggressive and territorial nature.
Ludovic is a skilled user of runic wards and ice magic, using both in tandem with one another frequently. His skill in ice magic is often used both defensively and offensively, to conjure snow and ice to trip up opponents or to outright make weapons for himself, usually in the form of large icicles he will whip, throw at, and spear enemies with.
He is known for almost always wearing thick fur clothing made for the most brutal of winters, and also to hide his body. This is not to say that he has any kind of dysphoria or shame about his body, but rather the young god simply likes to appear larger than he actually is. It also has a practical use, as he often will hide equipment and weapons on his person by having it hidden in his robes or under a kilt. No one is actually sure how many knives he has on him at any given time.
Contrary to his nature of not interacting with mortals often, he is quite fond of mortal clothing, known to have a particular love of bulky jackets, chunky leather boots, and kilts of various styles.
The god can safely be assumed to have quite a lot of contraband on him at any given time, along with knives and specially warded jewelry to keep others at bay, even temporarily.
His necklace is one that has been passed down through many generations of polecat gods, obtained from his father. It is a thick leather band with a dark blue braid dyed into it, with a large iron coin at the front. The necklace is divided up by the baculum bones of his ancestors.
Ludovic also frequently carries an iron dagger, the hilt of which is made from one of
Mora, The God of Life's shed antlers.
Mental characteristics
Ludovic is a younger god, no older than 200 years. He recently became the god of polecats and ferrets both, taking over the duties for the fallen ferret god and consolidating a much larger following than he had previously. He comes from a long line of polecat gods, inheriting the position from his ancestors, a great mark of pride for him and a tradition he intends to continue, one day passing the position onto his son and current heir.
He was quick to join the
War of the Moon on the side of the gods, claiming that Neia's conquest over the Land of Gods was not justified and that her treatment of mortals as her belongings is unjust, making him popular among mortal troops. He also frequently joined the front lines and was instrumental in the Battle of the Moon's Rage, using magic from on board Soliairs' temples to keep lunar dragons out of the sky and from ambushing the gods' forces. During the battle, he was thrown overboard after spearing a lunar dragon through the neck, and in a suicidal attack, tried to kill them both. Luckily, he survived due to being pulled back onto the ship by Soliairs' crew, though was grievously wounded, and for many, was the closest many had come to seeing a god be killed until Vega's death.
When Soliairs retreated from the battle to assist the
Shanin Islands, he remained on board in critical condition for many weeks, and has spent many months recovering from his wounds.
Until recently, Ludovic was only the god of polecats, and not the god of ferrets. As decided in a meeting of the gods, his duties merged with that of the ferret god, and the ferret retired. Now overseeing multiple species, he is kept quite busy with their care and well being. He is incredibly work oriented, as most young and inexperienced gods are, spending much of his day personally overseeing his temples and shrines, with little time in the day left for other activities.
Personality Characteristics
Ludovic has a natural talent at sleight of hand, although it has it's downsides as it's manifested in a bit of a kleptomania streak.
Contrary to many younger gods in the pantheon, Ludovic doesn't appear to have any strong love of mortals or dealing with them personally outside of taking on the occasional lover for a season or those outside his duties as a god. Often he appears to be quite annoyed with them, and distances himself heavily, although his brash and loud personality often makes it appear as though he outright dislikes them. This is not the case, but rather, he most often feels he is too busy to spend his time with those who live quickly and so die quickly as well.
He is extremely fond of tricks, pranks, and general mischief, favoring those who do so to his rivals, such as
Ferventi, God of Wolves. He doesn't outright dislike Ferventi, so much as he sees irritating him, who is far above his own rank, as a game, and the more of a rise he can get out of the fellow god, the better. He does however disagree heavily with many of Ferventi's ideals and tactics, and makes this well known.
He is quite a fan of those who use tricks and underhanded methods, such as fighting dirty, and those who do not back away from a challenge. Perhaps his strongest dislike is to those who assume they are guarenteed a victory over others.
For better or worse, Ludovic is not one to back down from a challenge, especially those from other gods. He rarely will retreat from a fight of any kind even when it is clear he is losing, usually only doing so when his life is on the line. This stubbornness leaks into other parts of his personality heavily.
Ludo is often rather filthy, covered in dirt from constructing burrows and tunnels or with the aftermath of a fight or battle on his person. Although he will wash and change at the first opportunity, due to the glacial tundra he lives on the opportunity to bathe without freezing to death is often rare. He takes quite good care of himself, especially injuries, making sure all are properly washed and dressed. He has rather little ornamentation as far as gods go, aside from his divine paint, or the occasional talisman or ring denoting his power.
Social
Confidence is a key part of his personality, and his confidence in himself is struck from a particular balance of knowing his own strength quite well. Ludovic is well aware that he is not a particularly powerful god and such, not worth attacking from many of the stronger ones, but strong enough to defend himself from many weaker ones. This fuels his confrontations with others of the pantheon, as he's well aware that most, if they retaliated against him with an attack, it would in fact favor him immensely from the disgrace it would bring them.
He's indifferent to most mortals, his sour personality coming off as perhaps more rude than he is aware, but Ludovic is known to favor those who show him proper respect, such as using his true name, Maol-Domhnuich. He can be a particularly strong yet unexpected ally, favoring those who use cunning and underhanded tactics and strengthening those aspects of themselves. Much of his personality has changed since the
War of the Moon has begun, as Ludovic has become a prominent advocate for the
Omnia.
At odds to his personality, he doesn't typically make an effort to take up anymore space than is strictly necessary outside of his own lands and is rather opposed to physical contact with anyone he doesn't know particularly well.
Ludovic has a rather strong Scottish accent, which like many gods is actually a choice in how they sound to mortals. This is much to the annoyance of many, although he doesn't care for the opinion of others and freely lets them know this, being brash, argumentative, and incredibly blunt when speaking to others. He is prone to speaking over and interrupting those he doesn't respect and egging them on to intentionally start an argument, regardless of the time, place, or situation.
He is also known quite well for having a silver tongue, but also at the same time, being extremely blunt with his insults. Regardless of who he is talking to he will not censor himself, saying whatever comes to mind, curses and swears included.
Ally, Lover (Vital)
Towards Mą’ii, the Coyote God
History
Although much younger than the coyote, Ludovic is a regular companion to Ma'ii and often a frequent lover of theirs. Both have borne a handful of children between them to serve as their respective heirs.
Nicknames & Petnames
Ludovic is known to call the coyote god a peculiar nickname, "Ladssie", along with Ma'ii in turn using "Ludo" as a nickname for him.
Relationship Reasoning
Due to both gods having a lack of living heirs, they made a pact to fulfill this glaring issue and have children together, with each claiming one of them as an heir, and any others to replace them should their chosen heir die. They also have many shared associations and personalities that allow them to get along quite well, along with their almost hobby of pestering more powerful gods such as Ferventi.
Shared Acquaintances
Ferventi, God of Wolves
pest (Important)
Towards Ferventi, God of Wolves
History
It may seem odd for such a relatively unknown god as Ludovic to claim a rivalry with one of the most powerful in the pantheon, but the two's dislike for one another is rather clear from the start. Ludovic holds little respect for Ferventi, claiming his long reign has made him soft and to 'work for nothing', while Ferventi considers the polecat god to be nothing but a young upstart testing his limits, who will eventually grow bored.
Nicknames & Petnames
Ferventi often calls Ludovic a godling, child, and a 'long rat'. Ludovic's common name is also a result of Ferventi having great difficulty, or at least, pretending to, in properly pronouncing his true name, Maol-Domhnuich.
Ludovic in turn often refers to Ferventi as an old man, a hound, gramps, and other assorted jabs about his age or jokes about dogs.
Commonalities & Shared Interests
Perhaps their immense dislike of one another is a result of the two being so similar. Both share aspects of being gods of carnivores and are particularly powerful in the north, with both also having religious ties to Shia and Mora. Both gods also have very strong bonds with rabbit gods- Ferventi's most loved mate, Cryce, having been one, and rabbits being an important prey species to polecats.
They also both have steady relationships with Mą’ii, The Coyote God, both being their lovers and having children with them, although the coyote seems to favor Ludovic in a more romantic aspect.
Ally (Important)
Towards John de Luminarie, Goddess of Fireflies
History
JL and his cult tend to participate in, support, and host many types of competitions that are not only a way to gain popularity but prove your worth or skill. JL tends to be fond of champions, and winning many competitions is considered an effective way to gain JL’s favor. Plus, the competitions and arguments between Sekhmet and Novi as well as their cults entertain John greatly. JL is also greatly inspired by the way Novi completely changed the way her cult worships her and opened up the cult to not just to those with access to valuable offerings, and allowed for just about anyone to worship her and is known to take inspiration from Novi and Soliairs’ system.
Acquaintance (Trivial)
Towards Robeulalie, Goddess of Cicadas
Relationship Reasoning
Robeulalie, Goddess of Cicadas finds Ludovic to be extremely metal due to his association with blood, his fighting style, and the stones he has to stand up to the likes of Ferventi. They haven’t interacted much though.h.
History
During the War of the Moon. Ludovic suffered grevious injuries when he was thrown from the Temple of the Crane in an attack by a lunar dragon. He broke through the ice and into the freezing ocean, breaking multiple bones and nearly drowned. He was rescued and resuscitated by Soliairs' crew on duty, and spent many months recovering on the ship.
Since, he has forged a close alliance with Soliairs, mainly due to him owing his life to their subordinates, one he intends to pay in full as it is "only fair". Their similar fiery personalities, volatile attitudes, and aligned goals suggest the two gods may continue their alliance for many centuries to come.
Comments