Nul
| |
| Nul, the Renewer | |
|---|---|
| Domains | Death, cycle of life and death, winter, gatekeeper, boundary between life and death |
| Subsidiaries: |
|
| Additional Symbols | Doorway, snowflake, moth |
| Colors or Aesthetics | Black and gold |
Basic Overview
Nul is the counterpart to Gwynna, goddess of life. While it is straightforward to describe him as the god of death, his role is a very nuanced and complex one and while it may seem at a glance to be slightly sinister, he is instead a very positive and life-affirming figure in his own right.
Life and death exist in balance as part of a cycle. The existence of life necessitates the existence of death, and death brings forth new life. Nul governs the universal constant of this mundane and very material process, while also having a large role in the metaphysical and spiritual aspects of death that go with the transformation of the soul from life to death and what comes after.
Nul is a monolithic god, not unlike Gwynna, and thus has a sense of being a remote and absolute presence rather than as an active and dynamic player in the more intricate intrigues of other parts of the pantheon. With Gwynna, Nul is progenitor to the entire pantheon and is closely connection to the creation of the world itself. Unlike Gwynna, however, Nul does not receive such widespread love and admiration. His task of ruling over the underworld and attending to death makes him a less warm and comforting figure than the mother creator goddess, and a fear of death is all but universal.
Worshippers and priests of Nul seek to overcome the fear of death not insomuch as being careless of it but in viewing death complexly and with enlightenment and solemnity. They do not seek their own death or the death of others but celebrate death for being half of all that is and necessary to life. Making peace with the nature of death is central to the worship of the god, and as this is not an easy of comfortable task, Nul is most often seen in combination with other gods and goddesses as a subsidiary shrine in their temples, particularly those to Gwynna.
Nul is the god known to be the most vehemently and aggressively opposed to undeath. Nul represents the right cycle of life and death taking place and undeath represents all manner of perversions of that cycle. While worshippers of other gods may take a less radical stance on necromancy and the undead more broadly, those who follow Nul tend to be as resolutely opposed to necromancy and necromancers as it is possible to be. Whether or not it is acceptable to use magics associated with necromancy as a means to oppose necromancy and destroy the undead is an eternally live issue which varies from sect to sect. There is no one absolute answer to this question and it represents a low-level schism between temples devoted to Nul. There is tradition going back to the founding of Thracia which helps to keep this schism from becoming violent or acrimonious, however, and it represents more of a stern ongoing theological debate between schools of thought which drifts and changes as do the trends and uses of magic in the mortal world.
Mythology
Death is a great unknown country, and Nul is the guardian of the secrecy that clouds true understanding of the truth of what lies beyond. In Thracian myth it is broadly understood that those who die experience a time of waiting or presence in the sundered lands and thereafter are believed to proceed to the demesnes of the gods for reward or punishment and possible rebirth. While true knowing of what comes after death is a gift reserved only for the deceased themselves, there are common understandings of these lands over which Nul is the ruler.
The afterlife of the Thracians is usually called the Kingdom of the Underworld, the world below, or simply the underworld. It is a methodically laid out kingdom, but with geographical peculiarities that may not represent and entirely linear understanding of space. It exists connected physically to the mortal world but in an impossibly far away sense. Beyond the edge of the great oceans of the east lies a boundary that is the edge of the world (Thracians aware of the concept of the globe are unperturbed by this and consider the physical connection to be a metaphor.) At that boundary lies a great and total darkness, the primordial darkness that came soon after the first instant of time itself. This darkness, Erebos, separates existence from nonexistence and represents the boundary not only between the mortal world and the afterlife but also a boundary between both of those and Void itself, the emptiness of eternity.
Despite the physical placement of this connection to the Kingdom of the Underworld, it is also accessible in multiple ways and places through the actions of mortals, particularly the action of death. The entrance or entrances to the Underworld are described in detail in legends and have many consistent features.
Popular Myth As lord of the underworld, Nul is also lord of things very literally under the world, or at least enough so that he is hailed by miners and people who travel in caves.
In an ancient land, a group of mine prospectors were determined to dig a mine to find rubies but spoke ill and contemptuously of the gods before beginning their project. No matter how deep they dug their mine, they could find nothing. Over and over they would douse for a location and begin to dig, and after months of effort they would achieve nothing. To do the dousing, they would hire a young woman named Telluma who was an expert in the craft, and this young woman deeply respected the gods and worshipped Nul in particular as patron of what she sought to find with her arts. Each time she would guide the miners to a place that she knew would yield treasures, and each time they would find nothing and return to her with increasing anger, believing themselves to have been deceived.
On the fourth such journey, they threatened the young douser with severe consequences if they did not find rubies at the site this time. After leading them to a hill, Telluma reached down with a hand, letting her fingers sink into the soft soil at her feet. There she grasped a glittering ruby and held it up for the prospectors to examine. The gem was snatched away, verified to be genuine, and hailed as success. The newly reinvigorated prospectors held her there and dug furiously, but found no other gems. Irate and cursing the gods even further, they confronted their prisoner to demand an explanation for what they saw as a deception.
Telluma explained that she honored the gods and they did not, and that the cause of their lack of fortune arose from this fact. Thinking this through, they then made her dig. She obliged, turning up handfuls of rich gems which they took from her. All this time she prayed to Nul and spoke well of the gods, and her captors continued to scorn them.
"How can your god be so powerful and yet so stupid?" they asked her, because they saw their solution as a childishly simple exploit that a being worthy of worship would be able to work around, and yet it worked brilliantly. She, the faithful, wasn't gaining any benefit at all and they, the heretical, were profiting wildly.
"These rubies are not a reward for my faith." she explained. She prayed for her soul, not for wealth. They were the ones seeking wealth, after all. And if they got it by abusing a faithful servant of the gods, well, that was their own lookout. Meanwhile she was assured of great rewards in the underworld, all the more so by retaining her devotion even in the face of the unreasoning hardship of reality. The rubies she was finding were never a gift of wealth, but instead a test of the virtue of the miners. One which they assuredly failed.
"Nul may not punish you today for dishonoring the gods, but he has the last word."
Worship
Simple Devotions
Nul is not a god who is often invoked casually in day to day life, but there are those who follow simple death-related practices that provide honor to the god of death. The placement of a coin under the tongue or coins on the eyes of the deceased is an example of a Nul-related funerary practice, as these signify the toll to be paid to Charon the ferryman who will convey the soul to the gates of the underworld.
A more minor example is the sprinkling of a handful of dirt over the remains of a deceased animal, often accompanied by a prayer. This is, in essence, a miniature funeral being conducted for the passage of the animal into death. Prayers tend to ask for renewal to follow hardship.
Major Religious Centers
While treasured and regarded as equal to Gwynna in importance, Nul doesn't have near as many temples and they tend to be more isolated. He is almost always venerated in Gwynnan temples, but his own temples are more like retreats, usually. There is a substantial one deep in the mountains of eastern Malay, and another in the mountains of Cymru. The one in Alexandria is a kind of combination with some traditional Damascan stuff, and is quite impressive as a hybrid, because they take death very seriously there, and Thracian religion didn't entirely stick.
Formal Orders
Order of Solace
The order of Solace is a semi-militant group of priests of Nul who combine a mission to tend to the funeral needs of rural places and battlefields with an ongoing crusade against the undead broadly. The ordination for this organization is fairly informal with distributed leadership and entry by apprenticeship and public service. It appears in association with various particular temples as a chapter, but lacking an overarching hierarchy. Instead, what collaboration is required is undertaken as correspondence between affiliate temples and their chapters, if present, of the Order of Solace. Members commit to spend some of their time in itinerant service to the causes of the order, usually defining a region around the temple as being within their purview. A given temple will attempt to provide consistent accessibility over as large a region as it is able to facilitate with the clerics they have rather than attempt intermittent services over a larger area, as intermittent opportunities for funeral services are about as helpful as no funeral services. Members of the Order are well versed in how to protect themselves and study the undead as a general practice. Because of this, they can be sent as small groups to conflicts that are particularly dealing with undead adversaries where they will not only seek to help slay the undead but to put the souls to rest and restore dignity to the dead who were desecrated by being used in that way.
Kindred of the Sepulchre
A monastic order located in a handful of remote locations (One in Estermont, one in Etrusca, one in Cymru), the Kindred of the Sepulchre are reclusive scholars who gather and study records relating to deaths and tombs. They are singular experts on the subjects of where things (articularly people) have been buried, in what fashion they are buried, what sorts of architecture or cultural practices were invoked at the time of the entombment or burial, what measures were employed to prevent reanimation, and so on. They know the sites of old battlefields and the location of ruined catacombs. Keepers of many secrets and experts on the practices and origins of many kinds of undead, the Kindred of the Sepulchre always maintain elaborate catacombs at their own retreats which are fiercely guarded against intrusion or abuse. This makes their small monasteries into sought-after hideaways for the powerful and paranoid to inter their remains. Additionally, the kindred are desirable experts called upon or corresponded with in matters within their area of study. Admittance to the Kindred requires a certain amount of existing association with a priesthood of Nul of some kind and recommendation by a priest. Vows are undertaken at multiple increasing stages of learning, and joining the order is not a casual commitment. It is a lifetime calling.
Sisters of Grief
Affiliate to temples of Nul in the same manner as the order of Solace, the Sisters of Grief are loosely connected groups devoted to providing home and comfort to members of grieving families (often well-to-do families) after an impactful death. They tend to intermittently retain small homes or secluded little towers, staffed by a handful of experts on grief and consolation. Operated by donations, they help provide a refuge for those who cannot bear life without their loved one, a luxury not often available to those who work for their living. The Sisters of Grief are a predominantly but not exclusively female organization, and chapters arise out of shared interest, local need, and particular necessity. Once initiated, however, a chapter of the sisters of grief hardly ever runs out of willing visitors and guests.
Presence in Alba
Stuff
