Txabao religion and mythology

The Txabao practice a religion that features many gods and goddesses identified with the animal species they know from the desert or its oases and rivers, along with two human deities, the King of Gods, Dza'spar, and the Queen of Gods, Premreu. Legend holds that Premreu was born with four breasts. From one of her breasts sprang Dza'spar, and from then on Premreu had only three breasts. Premreu and Dza'spar then created all the other deities, who in turn created the animals, plants, minerals, and meteorological features and water. The King of Gods and Queen of Gods are credited with placing the stars, sun, and moon in the sky. The camel goddess Neidu was created by Premreu with four breasts, because that was what Premreu originally looked like, and as a result Neidu made all the camels in her image, and that is why camels have four teats.

Aside from Dza'spar and Premreu, the deities of Txabao mythology are therianthropic -- a mix of human and animal farm. Some Txabao sculptures and drawings portray the gods and goddesses (other than the two creator-gods) as humans with animals' heads.

The gods and goddesses all live in Damix, centered on the star to the north of Damta. They look down on Damta and created all its people, animals, plants, and features, but Damix can never be reached by mere mortals.

The deities of Txabao mythology include:

* **Dza'spar**, the King of Gods, a manly man with a black beard that goes down to his sternum and a spear he calls **Naq'oux**. He is hot-tempered, and is the husband of Premreu, but has had affairs with many goddesses who are less than 100% humanoid. He creates most of the non-mammalian gods and goddesses. Lightning comes out of his ring finger.
* **Premreu**, the Queen of Gods, a woman who had four breasts until one of her breasts produced Dza'spar. She is sweet and faithful to Dza'spar, who does not exactly return the favor, what with all his affairs. She creates many goddesses with breasts, just like her.
* **Neidu**, the camel goddess, who has four breasts, and in turn created non-divine four-teated camels. Neidu is stubborn and hot-tempered, and can deceive with her saliva. On one occasion, Neidu spat in the eyes of Premreu to blind her until she was done sleeping with Premreu's husband Dza'spar. The only deity who can break her is Paopoe.
* **'Arqabatx**, the coyote goddess, a wise drinker of aloe beverages who tells riddles to encourage people to look beyond the obvious.
* **Kai'zeuk**, the crow god, with a Stygian, corvine face and a cry that will break any other god's heart (or eardrums).
* **Sqagoe**, the hen goddess, a gossipy hen-woman who has affairs with many of the other deities. On one occasion, she has a lesbian relationship with Groibaq, thereby allowing all the hens she creates to lay eggs without the necessitation of a rooster.
* **Groibaq**, the parrot goddess. She speaks Txabao like the other deities in Damix, but also knows Prömkhongkhong, Bokisig, and many other languages, and sometimes communicates with any mortal who has the sense to listen, through the many parrot species of Damta.
* **Namzrin**, the jaguar goddess, who can kill an unworthy mortal by pouncing on his/her chest in his/her dreams. Namzrin is a seductress, and once a god gets to know her, a faithful lover, but if she is betrayed in a relationship, she will cast her man out of Damix.
* **Qxen'aon**, the mantis god, who always has plenty of leaves in hand and loves making deals with the other gods. He is associated with material fortune, and if you are blessed by Qxen'aon in this life, your possessions will still belong to you in the afterlife.
* **'Apsan**, the mantis goddess, a mantis-woman who acts as a psychopomp. 'Apsan can recite a spell that will free souls trapped in dead bodies, during the moments of cremation. She helps the deceased Txabao find their way out of their bodies and then find their way back to their people so they and the other spirits can stay with the living Txabao forever.
* **Zaok**, the warpion god. He talked to the other deities so much that he got to know them all inside and out, and for this he was moved to create an animal, the warpion, that could let a mortal human know the gods and goddesses better, if she or he would only drink its juice.
* **Zugri**, the spider god, who seduced many other gods and goddesses to sleep with him, and during intercourse, drank their blood (the Txabao believe their gods and goddesses have an ethereal bloodstuff called **zodzi** in their veins and arteries). This womanizer (and bisexual "man-izer") has a bit of the personality of each of the other gods and goddesses in him.
* **Paopoe**, the camelguide god. He can play Neidu like a fiddle, leading her everywhere. As a result, the camelguides he created lead camels to water. Paopoe prefers to have plenty of water to drink and delicious fruits, nuts, and resins to eat, and is portrayed with a fruit-and-nut hat on his avian head.
* **Metra'**, the goat goddess. This therianthropic nanny-goat wanted the Txabao to be clad in the starkness of the desert, so she created a creature, the goat, that would give the Txabao 'oshar. This motherly goddess knit robes for the other deities, and even the base of Paopoe's hat.
* **Taomao**, the zebu goddess. This was a later addition into the Txabao pantheon. She created not only the zebus of the world, but also the Prömkhongkhong, and gave mortal humans the ability to learn about other languages and cultures.
* **'Ixudz**, the cobra god. He loves fancy jewelry, treasures, and drinks, and is forever hoarding them. He will spit venom to try to stop other deities -- or animals or mortals -- from stealing what he claims is his.
* **Ba'biq**, the roadrunner god. A fool, or jester who can sprout three heads when he wants, each with a different facial expression -- then, to confuse people, revert back to one head. Makes very speedy teleportations from place to place, and can even bilocate (or trilocate!)
* **Zizimix**, the rattlesnake god. With the rhythmic shaking of his rattle, he created the first beats, and thereby gave the world music. Zizimix is promiscuous, having slept with many goddesses but having no wife.
* **Hhedki**, the turtle god. A wise, but slow and sleepy being, Hhedki holds the planet of Damta on the back of his carapace. He got there after spending 500 years plodding away from Damix, because he was saddened by the sexual infidelities and mind games of the otherworld.
* **Zhobraug**, the ibis god. A drinker of water, Zhobraug gave water to Damta and placed the rivers and oases of the world onto the planet. Unlike the ibides he created, Zhobraug would never harm an animal nor even touch a plant. He sits out at the feasts of Damix.
* **Psopoqa'**, the hippopotamus goddess. She mated with Zhobraug to produce the rivers. **Zhobraug Psopoqa'ksi**, or "Zhobraug and Psopoqa'", is a metaphor for physical disparity in a duo of people in the Txabao language, as Psopoqa' is obese and Zhobraug very thin. Every time Psopoqa' sleeps with Zhobraug, a party of Txabao travelers will reach an oasis somewhere in Sesotsu.
* **Pshu'bar**, the baboon goddess, who colored her rump blue and red and added colors to every creature and every object in the world.
* **Tsraenda**, the dragon god, who by breathing fire created the first fires in the universe, allowing deities and humans to cook food.
* **Qxeu'to**, the ladybug goddess, who ventured to Damta, survived a fire in Damta, and came back to Damix, never setting foot on the ground again -- but only after after sprinkling the world with ladybugs, which she created in her image, except smaller. Qxeu'to hoped that with ladybugs she would bring the Txabao the same good luck she had in escaping Damta.
* **'Undu**, the python god. 'Undu accidentally kissed Zizimix and ingested his venom, then went on to hug various other deities and spread the venom to them, creating the first STD's.

As the initiation ceremony for young Txabao, Txabao boys and girls who are about 14 ingest venom from a warpion and await a vision. They then see what their spirit animal is going to be. Typically, they see a god or goddess who can be identified by a vision-guide (**zaidpshakan**) as one of the rostered deities. Every now and then, however, an initiate will see a totally unexplained therianthropic creature, and the zaidpshakan will have it retconned into the Txabao's mythology.

Rather than burying the deceased, the Txabao practice cremation. They cannot afford to drag along the bodies of every Txabao who has ever died with them, and a buried body would be left behind, so the cremation process, the Txabao believe, will allow the spirit of someone who has passed on to travel with the rest of his/her party. A prayer is spoken by a priest to the mantis goddess 'Apsan so that the person may find his/her way out of his/her dead body, and then find his/her way back to his/her nomadic travelmates.