Cults of Atlantis

[Utgardloki]

I've done a lot of thinking of the divine landscape for my Atlantis setting. I think what I have looks good metaphysically, although it might cause some role-playing complications.

What I have is four major cults, dedicated to Kronos, Rhea, Ashera, and Yahweh, which are plotting against each other. The majority of Atlanteans worship Kronos and Rhea as King and Queen of Heaven. While Yahweh and Ashera are more commonly worshipped in the Middle East in 40,000 BC, they have cults in Atlantis and both cults are outlawed on pain of death.

One thought I have is that the prior king had a kind of reign of terror, where actual and suspected Asherists and Yahwehists were arrested, tortured, and killed, most of them innocent. The new king has more of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and the population at large is not as interested in prosecuting cultists as they used to be.

In the Metaphysical Realm, after slaying Tiamat and imprisoning Leviathan, Yahweh made an attempt to overthrow Kronos, but failed, and became imprisoned until the time of Genesis 4:26. With the threat to his rule gone, Kronos is not as concerned about the Yahwehist cult, and so doesn't mind if the restrictions against it are relaxed, especially since Yahweh is destined never to overthrow Kronos.

But I"m not sure how it will work to have the four major cults of my setting plotting against each other.

 

[Osentalka]

The pre-greek Kronos, god of fertility and harvest, is a good choice, but Rhea has no cult pre the greek gods cycle, and i won´t go with that.
IMHO a better idea to go with would be Ashere and El as main goddess and god.

I would use Kronos as invader god.


IMHO Yahweh was a VERY minor god of one special cultural group only. And by the time the (fictional) Atlantis would have been around it wasn´t their only god, but only one out of many. Yahweh was the good of the lower class, the god of donkeys (speak out the name Yahweh as the sound a donkey does, and you will agree).

 

[Utgardloki]

For my mythos, I am going way way back and mixing the various mythoses into a somewhat coherent whole, and adding a whole bunch of other assumptions and factors.

Rhea was originally the most important deity according to the Atlanteans, thousands of years ago, but her cult was gradually eclipsed by the Kronos cult, so that by the time of the ancient greeks, the cult of Rhea was long forgotten.

I am also equating Hera and Ashera, and at the same time warping Greek myth a little. The Greeks may have thought that Hera wasn't doing anything until Zeus rescued her and her other brothers and sisters from Kronos's belly, but the truth is that Hera has been active for thousands of years while Zeus was still wailing about on the island of Crete.

As for Yahweh, I guess losing a war against Kronos might cause people to think he was nothing more than a minor deity of an obscure people, but in truth that's Yahweh's comeback strategy.

 

[Osentalka]

>As for Yahweh, I guess losing a war against Kronos might cause people
>to think he was nothing more than a minor deity of an obscure people,
>but in truth that's Yahweh's comeback strategy.

And that is where reality and roleplaying setting differ.
Okay, it´s a FANTASY roleplaying game anyway.

By the way is your Yahweh the one from the old testament (vengeful) or of the new testament (forgiving)?

IMHO they are two completely different deities.


Cheers

Osentalka[/code]

 

[Utgardloki]

Actually, both and neither.

The Yahweh of Atlantis is the deity as he was before before the Old Testament and before before before he mellowed out in the New Testament. Although if he is currently being held prisoner on planet Saturn, the interpretation of is personality might be largely up to the cultist leaders.

Essentially, Yahweh's ethics is about service, while Kronos is about ruling.

According to Kronos the mighty have the right to rule because people who want to rule should have had the foresight to become mighty. Of course you don't want to be stupid, and mistreating people so that they don't cooperate with you is stupid. (Especially in the Runequest universe where there is not the insane power differntial between mighty and normal individuals) But the flow of duty flows upward, and the king is answerable to Kronos and to his own self-interest. (Thus a king wants to treat his subjects well so that they will be able to fight off invasions from other kings.)

According to Yahweh, the purpose of man is to serve others. The king should be looking out for the interests of his subjects rather than his own interests. The poor should be treated well because that is your duty to treat them well, not just if it is a calculation that your interests will be served by a particular instance of generosity.

Thus, worship of Yahweh tends to appeal more to the poor than to the rich.

 

[Utgardloki]

Nothing seems to bring on my writer's block like trying to write a block explaining a deity in a campaign setting. I don't want to make it seem like it is all Kronos vs Yahweh, because Yahweh is meant to be a minor cult in my "Fourth Age of Kings" setting.

I've come up with some ideas for 40,000 BC cults of Hades and Pluto. My metaphysics says that before Kronos can swallow one of his children, there first must be a cult for that child. (Thus, Zeus is safe -- Rhea established a cult of Arok for Kronos to swallow.)

I ended up separating the Greek and Roman mythos. After tens of thousands of years, Greeks and Romans will assume that they are worshipping the same gods and combine the myths. But in 40,000 BC the cults of Hades and Pluto are different.

Hades

Hades is worshipped as the god of caves, exploration and curiosity. He is popular with spelunchers and those who brave the labyrinthine depths of the earth in search of treasure, both miners and adventurers who fight monsters for their treasure hoards.

Hades has not yet become God of the Dead, but a lot of his worshippers die at a young age.

Pluto

Pluto is worshipped in western Europe as a god of inspiration. His worshippers travel to deep caves and make paintings of ritualistic significance. He is a god of secrets and can tell fortunes and grant boons of luck and fortune.

Arawn and Hafgan are two kings who rule in Pluto’s subterranean realm.

 

[Utgardloki]

And I wrote a few notes on Mnemosyne. One thing I've decided: Runes are associated with the Norse gods, being invented by Odin. The non-Asgardian gods do not have runes associated with them, although runes may be associated with them by their mortal worshippers.

On the other hand, I am this close to making Pluto an Asgardian, although one who drifted away from that pantheon to end up in the Roman one. The Norse myths are loaded with gods who are just brought in for one story, anyway, so throwing in a few extra gods won't hurt. Perhaps he can be a brother to Heimdal.

Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne is the goddess of memory, and therefore is very important in a setting where literacy is very limited. (Only the wizards of Atlantis are taught how to read and write -- even the battlemages don‘t learn this skill.) She is also important to astrologers and others who study the fate of mankind.

Her cult frowns on wizardry, regarding their practice of using runes and writing down spells to be antithetical to developing memory. Battlemages pray to her for help memorizing their spells, however, and her cult is not so opposed that they are unwilling to accept generous donations from wizards. There is rivalry between her cult and the cult of Odin.