Josolchir mythology

This is a list of characters, places, and things in the mythology of Josol.

Josol became a hotbed of myths, legends, and hauntings, as it was believed to be part of the accursed lands of the Eastern Enclaves.

## Characters

* Ape-wight of Mount Mandil - An enormous ape spirit who guards the sacred peak of Mandil until the destruction of the planet.
* Kilcharnoz - His character is sometimes used in birthday parties to invoke the *chellarcha*'s powers to bless the young guest with activeness and wealth. He was the ghost of a painter.
	+ A popular love story involves Kilcharnoz and Miasmari (Beanmouth) as lovers who died together as their city was firebombed.

* Princess Beanmouth - Although she would frighten anyone who approaches her, it is believed that her presence attracts insects and bats that pollinate crops. She was the ghost of a dance coach.
	+ Her other names include "Tuhkanzai Meimueza", or simply "Meimeza". It was close to her living name, "Miasmari".

* Akhakuri - An angry outlaw from the Gauvajut Empire who fled from being forcibly "cured" by eating the Rho-Pill, as he stubbornly held on to his conditions.
	+ The forces of Red Ardesch sought to hire him, but he answered their invitations with threats to carry out his vengeance to Ardesch. He refused to serve Red Ardesch after he read that the Ardeschi authorities wanted to impose a global dictatorship.
	+ He formed his own gang to launch bomb attacks against Rho-Pill facilities and temples as his revenge against the Gauvajut Empire, and occasional attempts to kill the Emperor and plunge the land into chaos. He also left Loi-Pills stolen from Ardeschi smugglers into the water supply to spread his condition to the people and force them to submit to him.
	+ His desire to transform the Gauvajut people to think like him angered the gods, that when he was killed in battle, his soul was cursed to be tormented by his own rage and hatred, appearing as a ghost wreathed in blue flames. Therefore he gathered an army of monsters to destroy the living world and repopulate it with beings like him.
	+ His bullies and those who harassed him were also struck with another curse. One by one, each of his adversaries were tormented on the moments before their deaths, and those who were already dead were barred from entering the afterlife. Their ghosts were doomed to wander the land: as they cried for help, they lost their humanity with each passing day, until they became beasts that devoured people. Some were even chained as Akhakuri's steeds, forced to bleed for the pain they inflicted on his life.
	+ Akhakuri and other powerful ghosts are served by legions of kregorosso and tellaroi, wraiths of the Gauvajut Empire's enemies. They number in the hundreds or thousands. Yet, in spite of their hatred of the Gauvajut Empire, they later became protectors of the land and its people, allies of the wights and fairies. He himself was horrified by the Ardeschi and Terran ghosts' cruelty, that he gathered his armies of spirits and fought in the side of the wights.
	+ It was the Dararauses, the purified spirits of outcasts who became the Little Gauvajut Empire, who convinced him to fight for good, not evil. Strangely, he also aided Sarmelon I in his extermination of the demons: some legends claim that his repentance caused him and his armies to become into angels.
* Irvanoz/Iriwanuas - Another angry outlaw who bombed detention centres to bring people away from being "cured" by the Rho-Pill and into the Eastern Enclaves. He was once a scientist who refused to remove some conditions from people.
	+ According to folklore, his desire to preserve certain conditions (rather than instantly "upgrading" people) opened his soul to Chaos, driving him to insanity. After he died, Iriwanuas' soul wandered as a gust of red knives.
	+ Whenever he and Akhakuri met, they often fought and scarred each other. Akhakuri wanted to spread his condition to every inhabitant on the planet, while Iriwanuas wanted people to accept their conditions instead of instantly removing them. When they lived, they used to cooperate and make plans together, but they put it aside after their deaths.
* Akudako - A young Zonunja hunter who fought monsters and was killed. His deeds were comemmorated in songs for adolescent boys and men, and his ghost was believed to become a minor hunting god.
* Leidranō-nōr - the lord of leidranosso, and the leader of the Ardeschi ghosts. He or she might be the president or supreme leader of Red Ardesch, one of such rulers, or simply a high-ranking official.
	+ Leidrano-nors and leidranos are depicted as arrogant, greedy, destructive, and ill-tempered.
	+ Even though he or she was supposed to be the ruler of all Ardeschi ghosts, some leidrasso and their soldiers have defected to other ghost-lords, powerful wights, or minor gods. They do it out of fear of being banished or destroyed by exorcisms, to take advantage of their new rulers and steal their wealth, or to escape abuse from a previous ghost-lord.
	+ Some of the minor gods' lieutenants were even former leidrano-nors themselves. They beg to their new leaders to free them from their curse, or appeal to Zoval for a fairer sentence.
* Spinel Lady/Karkinja - a spinel wight who brings good luck and wealth to those near her. She rides on a white horse, and she is gentle.
* Ruby Lady/Radzhanoi - a ruby wight who stirs those nearby into a fight or to overcome their obstacles. She rides on a black horse, and she is playful.
* Zaltōpin - a purple ghost of a careless murderer. So careless, that if you dodge him, he will be technically harmless,
* Danadena - a blonde ghost of a Heronoi woman, and Zaltōpin's accomplice.

## Gods

* Tarhunz - the Gauvajut god of thunder, lightning, and the weather. Considered the king of the gods and the one who observes the character of every nation and their leaders and peoples.
* Hannahanna - the Gauvajut goddess of the earth and the harvest.
* Zomjonor - the Vozonid god of dreams, the people, and the moon.
* Sammakari - the Vozonid sea god. He and his wife Lauvarin rule the oceans. They have seven children, four sons and three daughters.
	+ He, his wife, and their children are commonly depicted as dark-skinned and black-haired, like the Rifandians who live across the Dunomin Ocean. Some Josolchir believe that the Rifandian peoples are the most favoured by the sea gods, almost being adopted children and heirs.
* Prince Raudares - a bearded sea god who is Sammakari and Lauvarin's fourth son. Although he is not mentioned in Azgovian canon, he is considered to be the lord of the Dunomin Ocean, and another protector of Vozolaz.
* Arul and Arulsai - two goddesses of the sea, and daughters of Sammakari and Lauvarin. Arul is the goddess of wealth, chariots, and good luck; and Arulsai is the goddess of hope and art.
* Zoval - the Vozonid god of death, and the judge of most deceased souls. With his Twelve Ministers he determines the final fate of the dead, either to a peaceful afterlife or torment in hell.
	+ He cannot be appeased with money or food, but only by any good intentions of the deceased.
	+ His chariot is pulled by four flaming hyenas.
* Mittira - one of Zoval's many messengers, she was a former queen who now brings the dead to Zoval's court. She is feared as a bringer of destruction and death.

* Lashvansh and Lurisha - The gods of a fictional island known as "Ruotan": Lashvansh is its king, and Lurisha its queen.
	+ At first, these two deities were invoked mostly as jokes, like Mithura. In spite of official edicts discouraging such customs, the locals venerated the two, seeking their protection from demons and angry ghosts. Another reason why they were venerated was due to their supposed intervention saving the first president of Siangwaan from being killed in battle.
	+ While they were originally just national gods in the original canon, the Josolchir version depicts Lashvansh as a rain and solar god, and Lurisha as a wind and lunar goddess.

* Kalshoroi - A third god of Ruotan, and its war deity. In life, he was Lashvansh's friend who was slain by an ogre.
	+ Kalshoroi was believed to have magic powers, being able to make objects suddenly appear, tear the ground or sky open, or cause things to fly around against their will with a snap of his fingers.

## Beings

### Ghosts

See also: Ghosts of Ardesch

"Tyroi" and "uirū" are terms for any kind of ghost in general, and "tyrso" is for smaller ghosts. "Uirū" is for any ghost that brings misfortune and disaster. Josol and the countries along the coast to the Dunomin Ocean are considered to be haunted by ghosts, ever since the defeat of the Ardeschi invasions and massacres.

* chellarcha - A race of fairies and wights who protect women and children and cause mischief. These ghosts were created from the souls of innocents from the Eastern Enclaves who were killed in various wars and purges. They are well-known for their bean-like smiles.
	+ Because they also attracted hostile spirits such as julluroi and tellaroi, or because of their association with the heresies of the Eastern Enclaves, the chellarcha are often avoided.
	+ The Ruotanese gods Lashvansh and Lurisha were believed to command their own armies of chellarcha to protect the living from demonic attacks.
* julluroi - Wraiths created from heretics who have committed great blasphemies against the Gauvajut gods.
* tellaroi - Skeletal ghost warriors created from the angered dead of the Eastern Enclaves. They attack the living, seeking vengeance against the Gauvajut Empire for condemning their existence and their identities as "heresies". They have also extended their hatred towards the living and all of civilisation, associating them with the Gauvajuts' actions against them, so they seek to displace and replace life on Earth until its only survivors are like them.
	+ In their desire to ensure that their conditions and "heresies" will continue to exist in this world, they also manipulate unborn children and young people to become like them.
	+ Sometimes, they also target people with disorders and outcasts, seeking to manipulate them into destroying themselves so they will join their ghostly army.
* raautor - ghostly knights in dark armour who form the leidranos' heavy infantry and cavalry and bodyguards. Sometimes they ride skeletal or monstrous steeds, dragons, or hellhounds.
* tjundzhanoi - The wraiths of fallen soldiers throughout history. Some of them were doomed to fight endlessly until the end of time.
* unshavi - Cake-like ghosts that remind people about their deaths.
* juvashor - Floating faces that kill unfortunate wanderers.
* berzatri - Heralds of Zoval who bring the dead to the underworld to be judged. Those who wear black are known as "vosal".
* raumasho - Ghosts of innocent people and Gauvajuts who "vanished" during the purges of the Eastern Enclaves.
	+ The diner ghosts belong to this category.
* vosjo - Celestials, people of heaven or the stars.
* julsa-zjo - Fallen stars, fallen Celestials who have become neutral. Other names for them include irzadol ("guest"), rjuva-zjo ("wandering star"), or hunje-zjo ("grey star").
	+ To some extent, Raunonto the Celestial and his friends belong to this category.
* jorju-zjo, julka-zjo - Corrupted stars, or Celestials who have turned towards Chaos.
* trojuse - year-ghosts, spirits of unsolved vendettas or future fears.
* vulloz, vullotoi, vulloi - ghosts of people who had strong desires, such as greed, romantic attraction, or lust.
* krego, kregoroz, krygloz - ghosts of Ardeschi soldiers that can be summoned by invoking their characteristics. Many of them had a strong hatred of the Gauvajut Empire and its culture, so the kregorosso seek to possess people to plunge the empire (any successor states) into chaos. Being undead, their hatred was twisted into an obsession to kill and destroy all life on Jerde.
	+ Even if said country practices a form of socialism to worship and appease them, the kregorosso will still attack it until they become its direct rulers.
	+ Most kregorosso are depicted as males of different races, skeletons, or fanged monsters, or even as Ontemazei and aliens. They wear uniforms or plate armour, and they burn with blue and green flames.
	+ Although they are commonly mocked in ceremonies, in later times they are pitied as products of their rulers' warmongering, being forced to slaughter people to please their hateful masters.
	+ Some artists even believe that many krego were stabbing themselves in hell with their own weapons, overwhelmed by their own anger and hatred. So they sometimes depict them as bleeding corpses with blades attached to their bodies: after eons of hatred against everything that is holy, the kregosso instead howl, crying out to Heaven to free them from their own torment.
* leidranoz, leidra, lydravo - leaders, captains, and generals of the armies of kregorosso ghosts, created from the souls of deceased Ardeschi military leaders. Like their subordinates, they also want to destroy the Gauvajuts and their successors, but in later myths they became more sympathetic, seeking release from tormenting themselves in the spirit realm.
	+ Some leidranos fight against and kill each other over losing a boyfriend to each other. This makes them more vulnerable to ghost-hunters, who kill them to stop them from attacking the living.
* nishai, rhyzoi - wights, spirits of natural features such as trees, rivers, mountains, and forests.
* gurti - major wights or minor patron deities.
* musukhaz, musukhoz, buskho - evil ghosts

### Monsters

ūroi - monster, ghoul, bogeyman, howler, beast

## See also

* Josolchir calendar
* Josolchir glossary