Asarebas

> "*Our gods live here, in the glades and the rivers, in the stones and the farms, in the flowers and the beasts. They live in the laughs of children, the smiles of maidens and the swords of men. No Dragon can ever take them away from us.*"
> ― King Royard III of Loquienne
>
>

Asarebas is the traditional polytheistic religion amongst the Roulonnaise, with the exception of the far south which seemingly adhered to Anadorism since time immemorial. In modern times, Asarebas is no longer the outright majority and is just one religion amongst a highly diverse country which also practices the Draconic religion, Christianity, Elveta, Geranism and Anadorism, but it remains a prominent religion amongst the Roulonnaise. Asarebas is based upon the Common Inecurian Mythology, sharing the same foundational traits and archetypes of deities as other CIM religions, and it is the most widely practiced CIM in the modern day by a significant margin.

Asarebas is a corrupted Roulonnais term which roughly translates as "deity-submission", with the *asa(r)* component being a corruption of Roulonnais *asarie*, meaning "deity" or "god", and *rebas* approximately translating to submission or subjugation, specifically the act of kneeling before someone to recognise their supreme authority, which is a pose often taken in worship. The accurate demonym of Asarebas (that is, a person who adheres to Asarebas) is Asarebaine (plural Asarebaines), but the English term is more commonly Asarebian.

## Deities

The deities in Asarebas are believed to have originated from the Uncreated Light which preceded time and space and which exists outside of the universe, though it is unclear whether or not the Uncreated Light is a conscious entity.

Much like with the other CIM religions, Asarebas has an extremely large and potentially infinite number of minor deities, but it focusses upon ten major deities - one of which is deceased, and one of which is reviled and hated.

* **Louemand**, called the Everking, is the king of the pantheon, husband of Eralise, and older brother of Souliard. Louemand is the god of the sky and the sun and is the patron of rulers, particularly monarchs. Louemand is also associated with horses, particularly horses of war. He impregnated Eralise with his seed so that she gave birth to all mortals, and so he is the father of all. Louemand adheres to the Sky Father CIM archetype.
* **Eralise** is the wife of Louemand (and by extension queen of the pantheon) and sister of Quireman. Eralise is the goddess of water, the oceans, fertility and marriage. She gave birth to all mortals with Louemand's seed, and so she is the mother of all. Eralise adheres to the Water Mother CIM archetype.
* **Souliard** is the younger brother of Louemand and close friend of Quireman. Souliard is the god of war and warriors, and of storms, wind and rain. He is typically characterised as impulsive, but seemingly always having a clever and often unorthodox solution to the problems he thrusts himself into. In the mythical tales, Souliard is also known for having had many mortal lovers by taking the form of a man. Souliard adheres to the Storm Warrior CIM archetype.
* **Quireman** is the brother of Eralise and close friend of Souliard. Quireman is the god of mining, smithing and craftsmanship, responsible for creating all the armour, weapons and tools of the gods and their immediate servants, and also taught the first mortal smiths. Quireman adheres to the Metalworker CIM archetype.
* **Paraviel** is the father of Elourie, widower of Ellienne and king of the forests. Paraviel is the god of nature, particularly of forests, and of wild animals and untamed lands. He is characterised as slow to anger, but brutally wrathful when provoked, and stubbornly protective of his domain. He is also described as physically resembling a humanoid tree, and is said to be among the oldest of the gods. Paraviel adheres to the Ancient Tree CIM archetype.
* **Elourie** is the daughter of Paraviel and Ellienne, queen of the flowers, and good friend of both Cheriselle and Coravin. Elourie is also a goddess of nature, particularly of meadows, flowers and gardens, and she is also the goddess of farming and agriculture. She is additionally strongly associated with music and art. All of these associations were inherited from her mother Ellienne after she was slain. Elourie is never seen unaccompanied by her closest friend, Ferou, the last *larien* (typically translated as "fairy"), who some Asarebians believe to be her lover. Elourie does not adhere to any CIM archetype, but she has traits of both the Ancient Tree and Water Mother.
* **Ellienne** was the mother of Elourie, wife of Paraviel and queen of the flowers. She used to fulfil all the roles which Elourie now occupies before she was slain by Mocavierre. As she is dead, she is not worshipped, but she is ritually mourned.
* **Cheriselle** is the queen regnant of the dead, wife of Coravin and good friend of Elourie. Cheriselle is the goddess of death, responsible for caring for deceased souls in the underworld and ruling over the Undying Realm, and she is also the queen of winter and ice. She is personally characterised as introverted and shy, but extremely loyal and loving to those she cares for, particularly her husband Coravin. Cheriselle adheres to the Underking CIM archetype.
* **Coravin** is the husband of Cheriselle and good friend of Elourie. Coravin is the god of knowledge, literature and fire, said to be responsible for teaching the first authors how to read and write. Coravin is also associated with bees, honey and mead, an association likely inspired by the Ettimenkian deity Kuovas. He is often characterised as a warrior, but his main characterisation is as an obsessively curious scholar who is greatly excited by learning new things. He is typically referred to as a prince due to his marriage to Cheriselle, a queen. Coravin adheres to the Knowledge Bearer CIM archetype.
* **Mocavierre** is an outcast, making himself an enemy of the gods and of all good mortal folk. He is often referred to not by name, but as either the Ever-Hungry or the Abominable Traitor. Mocavierre is the arch-enemy of Cheriselle and Coravin, eternally at war with them for control of the souls of the mortals, which he desires to devour. He is also the arch-enemy of Paraviel, who will never forgive Mocavierre for killing his beloved wife. Mocavierre is associated with greed, disease and decay. Mocavierre adheres to the Evil Devourer CIM archetype.

## Underworld

The Asarebian cosmology is the same as the other CIM religions, with the three distinct realms of the world (alternatively called Earth or universe), the celestial heavens and the underworld, which are all the same as the traditional CIM archetypes except the underworld. The Asarebian underworld is the same as other CIM religions in its fundamentals - that there exists a place of safety and sanctity ruled and guarded by the gods, and outside of it is an orderless wasteland which is the domain of the Devourer - but differs greatly in the details.

Unlike other CIM religions, Asarebians believe that the underworld to begin with was purely the realm of Queen Cheriselle and was a safe place entirely under her domain, which was then invaded by Mocavierre, who wrested control of most of the land but has consistently been unable to break the defence of what is called the Undying Realm, the land that Cheriselle continues to rule. This differs from most CIM traditions, which believe that the Devourer always ruled over the underworld, but the Underking/Underqueen conquered a portion of it.

Although not accepted as a belief represented in proper canon by the priesthood, it is widely believed amongst Asarebians that there are other deities who defend the Undying Realm in addition to Queen Cheriselle and Coravin - specifically, it is commonly held that the Ettimenkian deities Kuovas and Herali (known in Roulonnais as *Kouvas* and *Heralie*, less commonly *Hélie*) preside over the Eternal Halls in the underworld, generally believed to be a location within the Undying Realm. Popular tradition holds that Kuovas and Herali attempted to defend the souls of the dead much like Queen Cheriselle, but they recognised that it was best to combine their efforts, and so submitted themselves to their rightful Queen.

To the Asarebians, Kuovas is obviously not seen as the king of the dead as he is in the Ettimenkian tradition. They instead strongly emphasise his assocation with bees, honey and mead, and his association with cooking and feasting. Likewise, Herali is not the goddess of learning and knowledge, as that role is already filled by Coravin; she also has her secondary characteristics emphasised as her primary ones, those being her association with craftiness and comedy.

The Asarebian perspective of Kuovas and Herali tends to produce mixed reactions amongst Ettimenkians, who on the one hand are pleased that their deities are being properly worshipped and revered, but at the same time find it greatly objectionable that they are reduced to mere servants of a higher authority, when they should be honoured as king and queen of the dead.

## Canon of Legends

The Canon of Legends is the collection of mythical stories concerning the gods (primarily, of course, the ten major gods) which are accepted by the community of Asarebian priests. Other stories do exist outside of the Canon of Legends, but the Canon comprises important tales whose truthfulness is not doubted in any capacity by the priesthood, whereas the priesthood warns that stories outside of the Canon may have been embellished or changed throughout the ages. The Canon of Legends is mostly comprised of a mixture of prose, poems, songs and stage plays as well as adaptations of these to different mediums (e.g. a poem turned into a stage play).

The Canon of Legends is far too vast to be listed here in its entirety, but several are summarised below. One tale which is recounted on this wiki, but is large and complex enough to warrant its own page, is the saga known as The Monster Below which essentially serves as the origin story of Cheriselle and Coravin and describes the beginning of the eternal war.

### The Defiling of the Forests

The Defiling of the Forest is a lengthy piece of prose describing Mocavierre's attack upon the Sacred Forest, the domain of Paraviel and Ellienne. Mocavierre assembled an innumerable host of abominations to assault the Forest, which through sheer weight of numbers eventually overcame the heroic valour and stalwart defence of Paraviel's warriors - the *lariens*, often translated as "fairies". Once the defence had crumbled, Mocavierre himself strode into the Sacred Forest - causing all the plants to shrivel and perish in his wake - and confronted the gods.

Paraviel stood to defend his wife and their newborn daughter Elourie, but Mocavierre was devoid of honour and did not face Paraviel alone, instead overwhelming him with his abominations whilst Mocavierre struck blow after blow. Ellienne came to his defence, striking Mocavierre and distracting him, but Mocavierre cut her down and sliced open her belly, spilling her guts onto the forest floor. With her dying breaths, she begged Paraviel to flee and take Elourie to safety rather than stay and fight, which he did so; he raised thorny bushes to block the path of Mocavierre and fled with all his swiftness to the safety of another forest. He left young Elourie in the care of the last *larien*, named Ferou, and under the protection of white foxes, before returning to the Sacred Forest. He found it desecrated and destroyed, with all its inhabitants slaughtered, the abominations of Mocavierre taking delight in tearing down the trees that Paraviel had lovingly grown from acorns with his wife. Enraged, Paraviel slaughtered a "countless number" of them before he found the corpse of Ellienne. Though her body was undefiled and intact, her soul had been consumed by the ravenous hunger of Mocavierre, meaning that she truly was dead. Paraviel bellowed a scream of rage and grief which resounded across the entire world before taking his beloved wife's corpse to the forest where Elourie was kept, burying her with his own hands. Above her grave grew the first *elliemara* flowers, with a beautiful scent and appearance but forever stained deep red by her blood.

The Defiling of the Forests describes Paraviel as undergoing a fundamental character change. Before the attack, he is characterised as kind, warm and trusting, taking joy in the pleasantries of the world and having indescribably deep love and adoration for his wife and newborn daughter. However, after the annihilation of his home and the murder of his wife, he transformed into the character he would be known as ever since; stubborn, cold, uncompromising, viciously brutal when provoked to anger and struggling to be a good father to Elourie, who herself built a closer relationship with her guardian Ferou than her actual father. Paraviel had contempt for Mocavierre before, but after he took away the innocent Ellienne whom he loved more than anything, Paraviel's attitude to Mocavierre can best be described as fanatical hatred. All that stops Paraviel going to confront Mocavierre to take savage revenge for the murder of his wife is that it would deprive his beloved Elourie of her father, which he cannot bear to do.

The white foxes mentioned in the tale which look after young Elourie in the brief period in which Paraviel leaves her are widely thought to be creatures or servants of Shilasha, who is worshipped by most Asarebians as the goddess of kindness and is known in Roulonnais as Chelise.

The Defiling of the Forests is the one Legend in the entire Canon which the priests prohibit the corruption of in any way; there are no poems, songs or plays derived from the original prose. The tale is considered to be too dark and tragic and too emotionally painful for noble Paraviel to be put to a "lighter-hearted" format.

### The Saga of Roul

The Saga of Roul tells the tale of King Roul, the founder and namesake of Roulonne and the only demigod in the Asarebian pantheon. It chronologically takes place after the Defiling of the Forests. The bulk of it is written in prose, but it has many poetic qualities and at numerous points shifts into poetic verse. The Saga of Roul additionally has also been adapted into a stage play and into several songs.

The Saga of Roul begins with Roul's conception, briefly narrating a love affair between Souliard and a mortal woman named Felise. Souliard did not intend to make her pregnant, but he did so anyway, and she gave birth to a boy that she named Roul. Roul was raised by Felise with the help of her own parents, Guerand and Sabette, who disapproved of Felise having a child out of wedlock but refused to make her raise Roul on her own. Due to his divine blood, Roul grew quickly, achieving the physique and mind of a grown man by the age of fourteen, and since the age of twelve he received visits from Souliard every summer, who taught Roul how to fight and hunt.

Roul and his adoptive grandparents were well aware that Roul was not an ordinary child, and the strange man who visited every summer was certainly not ordinary either, but neither was aware that Roul was half-divine until Souliard came on Roul's sixteenth birthday in his undisguised form, accompanied by his brother Louemand the Everking. They revealed Roul's true heritage before Louemand explained that there was a land populated by cruel abominations and savage men, which had once belonged to the gods but had been lost to accursed Mocavierre. Louemand proclaimed Roul to be his champion, and that as an intermediary between gods and mortals he was destined to lead a grand army to cleanse the land and restore it to purity.

#### The Two Tasks

In order to lead this grand army, Roul first had to become the leader of his fellow mortals. The men of Roul's country already had their own king, whose name was Sebiard, but after he received a visit from Louemand he agreed to relinquish the position on the condition that Roul prove his worthiness by completing two near-impossible tasks; slay the Grand Beast of Acheronne, and tame the Wild Horse of Periou.

Roul went to Acheronne to kill the Great Beast first, a monstrous creature which was said to have the face of a lion, the body of a bear, the claws and wings of an eagle and the breath of a Dragon. After a fight which lasted an entire day, and having receiving many wounds, Roul finally tore out the spine of the Great Beast and left it dead, before slicing off its hide and making a cloak of it which he wore as proof of his deed. Roul found that as soon as he killed the beast, his wounds closed and healed, though they left large scars.

Roul then went to Periou to tame the Wild Horse, a large and mighty horse which no man had been able to calm. Roul was told by a hermit who lived nearby that many men had tried to force the horse into submission, but all had failed, so Roul opted for a different strategy. He approached the Wild Horse without weapons, and told the horse of his divine heritage, of his destiny and of the great glory which awaited the horse if he joined this mighty quest. The horse pondered his words for a long while before approaching, lowering his head and allowing Roul to mount him. Roul named the horse Vaulen, and rode him back to King Sebiard. Upon seeing Roul wearing the hide of the Great Beast and riding the Wild Horse, Sebiard did not even speak, but simply handed his crown to Roul and knelt before him. Eralise then appeared before the two - and the growing crowd assembling around them - and placed the crown upon Roul's head, before telling Roul to "go forth and conquer".

Some scholars - both secular and Asarebian - have identified Vaulen as being a Ragehoof, as he is described as much larger and stronger than a normal horse, with a shining black hide, and later on is revealed to be extremely savage and competent in battle. However, Asarebian iconography has consistently depicted Vaulen as simply being a very big and angry black horse.

#### The Conquest of Roulonne

After becoming king, Roul led all the men of his country - along with their wives and children - to the wild lands which Mocavierre had stolen, though before he is able to go far he is interrupted by Quireman, who gifts him a masterfully crafted set of armour and a sword which never lost its sharpness. The saga does not go into details about the military actions, but describes a great battle upon a hill at which Roul and his army annihilate a tribe of savage mortals who worshipped Mocavierre, before descending upon their village to burn it to the ground. The saga states that Roul killed ten men by his own sword, with each kill healing a wound he had taken during the fighting, and his mount Vaulen also killed a man by biting down upon his head and crushing the skull between his mighty jaws.

Soon after, Roul went scouting by himself (though not strictly alone, as he is riding Vaulen) and saw a beautiful maiden being stripped naked and taken in chains to a black twisted tree. He came closer and overheard the men keeping her captive saying that they were going to sacrifice her to Mocavierre so that the devourer's hunger may be satiated and the god will not instead turn upon their village. Refusing to let this happen, Roul spurred Vaulen forward and together they slew all the men, with Roul decapitating their leader in one strike. Roul freed the maiden from her chains and gave her his cloak to cover herself with, and she thanked him and revealed her name as Arette. Roul took Arette to the safety of his camp, placing her under the care of his mother Felise, who gave Arette food and clothes and immediately took a liking to her.

After his planned sacrifice was not made, Mocavierre obliterated and devoured the village that was supposed to make the sacrifice to him, and then his attention was drawn to Roul. He commanded not only his mortal worshippers but also his abominable creations to attack Roul, and many men fell - though Roul fought courageously and was healed with each kill he made, and Vaulen was so ferocious that he terrified even Mocavierre's mutant slaves. Seeing the destruction being wrought upon the mortals, Souliard came to their aid, striking down the abominations in huge swathes with mighty bolts of lightning. The army of Mocavierre began to rout and headed to a nearby river to cross it, but Souliard summoned a great storm to swell the river, making all who tried to cross it drown. The saga shifts into a short poetic verse to describe the sheer carnage of the battle scene, with giant mounds of corpses, swarms of flies and an overpowering stench of death, saying that Roul and his men were covered head to toe in blood with not a single clean spot between them, and Vaulen had the guts and brains of men stuck between his teeth. After the sheer brutality of this battle, Roul became acutely aware of the fact that he could die at any moment, and so he married Arette without waiting any longer and very quickly made her pregnant.

Enraged by the failure, Mocavierre decided to face Roul himself. Knowing that fighting Mocavierre could not possibly be done, Roul fled and led Mocavierre on a chase around the wild lands, all the while Roul slaughtered everything in his path, so depriving Mocavierre of sacrifices and weakening him. The saga does not state how long this went on, but it was long enough for Arette to give birth to twin boys named Louen and Veliard, and another that another pair of twin boys named Royard and Mauriche. The period is traditionally considered to have been two to three years long. Mocavierre eventually became so weakened by the lack of sacrifices that he was forced to retreat to the underworld, as his presence in this world was only sustained by regular sacrifices, so leaving Roul to finish the task of purging the land. Shortly after Mocavierre retreated, Paraviel came to Roul and granted him a white banner depicting a bloodstained tree; the mythical Banner of Paraviel, which gave courage and strength to all righteous warriors near it and signified that the enemy was to be given no quarter.

#### Founding of the Kingdoms

It took many more years to purge the wild lands, during which time Arette bore Roul another child, a daughter named Caselle. Although the divine blood was more diluted in them than it was in Roul, all of his children grew rapidly in body and mind. He split his subjects into five groups, assigning one to himself and placing the other four under the rule of his four sons. They separated and travelled to all the corners of the wild lands, founding cities from which sprung forth great kingdoms. Louen founded the kingdom of Souleveau, Veliard founded Bourron, Royard founded Loquienne and Mauriche founded Auvonde. Roul himself went north, to the peculiar country that he named Ribalouse (the Strangelands) due to the unusual plants and creatures which lived there, and the near-total lack of Humans; its intelligent inhabitants were almost exclusively Orcs and Elfkin. One of Roul's greatest warriors, a man named Jerian, asked for Caselle's hand in marriage, as the two loved each other very much. Roul was happy to accept, and appointed Jerian to rule the western portion of Ribalouse whilst Roul himself would rule the east. Roul's subjects came together and decided to name the wild lands in his honour, calling it Roulonne.

All of the kingdoms grew steadily, and peace and prosperity reigned. Arette grew elderly and close to death, meanwhile Roul's divine blood rendered him immortal and youthful. Roul could not bear to live without his wife, so he resolved to transmit a part of his divinity to her and make her a demigoddess. Before telling Arette how it was done, Roul made her swear that she would do whatever he asked of her, and she did so. Roul then stuck a blade into his breast and carved a bloody hole into it, and through the agony he managed to tell her that she would have to cook and eat his heart, before his mortal body died and his divine soul separated from it. Arette followed his instructions, weeping as she did so, and once she had finished his heart, her mortal body dissolved away and left behind a deified soul. Now that Arette was separated from the material world, she could see the spirit of her husband, and the two kissed and embraced. Roul's father Souliard came down to guide the two up to the celestial heavens, where they lived in happiness for the rest of time. So ends the Saga of Roul.

### The Smith's Apprentice

The Smith's Apprentice is noteworthy as it is the only one of the Legends which is recorded as a stage play in its original and earliest known form. It is a comedy which tells of a brief rivalry between Quireman and Loraviette, a minor goddess associated with beauty and lust, which began because Loraviette was constantly distracting Quireman's apprentice, a mortal named Guiyon. As a result of Loraviette's distractions, Guiyon shirked his duties and lost interest in his lifelong ambition of becoming a master smith. Quireman confronted Loraviette, and he proved immune to Loraviette's attempt to seduce him, so she relented and told him that she would leave Guiyon alone as long as she was gifted jewellery of unparalleled quality within one month.

With Loraviette gone, Guiyon could focus, and Quireman taught him on a rigorous and intense schedule. A month passed, and when Loraviette returned to collect her payment, Guiyon presented her with a beautiful bronze bracelet which he had made with Quireman's help, finishing the work the day before Loraviette arrived. Loraviette was impressed that a mortal could perform such fine work, and as a reward - and compensation for her meddling, which she now felt guilty over as she saw Guiyon's potential - she presented Guiyon with a devotee of hers, a maiden named Juelle who was just as beautiful as the bracelet. The two married and lived happily, bearing many children, and Guiyon became the most famous and skilled smith in all of Roulonne.

The moral message of The Smith's Apprentice is generally recognised to be a warning to young men not to let their dreams and ambitions be halted or corrupted by beautiful deceptive women who do not have their interests at heart. Some priests have also stated that it advises young men to work on their own lives first, gaining skills and their sense of themselves, before seeking a woman to marry.