Proto-Terran Religion

The **Proto-Terran Religion** was the religion of the Terran Mingle stem culture. It is the source of the majority of religious beliefs on the continent of Pangea Proxima 1.

## Origin

Proto-Terran mythology borrows most of its figures from nature, natural phenomena, animals, and especially celestial objects. Though beliefs would eventually diversify into different forms, early Terran mythology was a cooperative enterprise joined together by storytellers of multiple species. Stories spread quickly across the continent and a more or less cohesive set of religious beliefs was conceived. A cemented version of the mythology was finally created in the form of the Document.

Proto-Terran beliefs are distinct from the beliefs of the Mopsus Coastal Culture, who developed their own religion independently of the Mingle before eventually joining it and blending the two belief systems together.

## Description

With some eventual variations due to the low speed of prehistoric communication and the slow drift apart and formation of distinct cultural subsets in the Mingle, Proto-Terrans believed that before the world, there was a single spider who laid eggs in strings of cloud and fled the world after some revelation about the nature of existence, embodying fear of the unknown and the unknowable. From her eggs hatched the gods Sky/Sun, Moon, and Ground, all of whom lived in the Highest World. Sky embodied the primary gender, Vital, while Moon embodied the secondary gender, Pliant. Ground was Virile, the tertiary gender which provided the sperm needed for the others to create offspring. Ground was presented as the reproductive mate of Sky, while Moon was her Pliant consort and occasional rival. Many stories existed which demonstrated the virtues, failings, and roles of each of the characters.

Ground's presence below Sky and Moon set the precedent for Viriles to be restricted to the lower levels of the forest, which was itself seen as an extension of Ground, representing his setae. This set the persistent value of Viriles in Terran society as lowly-but-necessary beings. Sky and Ground mated to produce the earliest salticids, who in the first days were all of one kind and lived in a utopian world without suffering.

Perhaps the most exemplary stories of Terran myth come from the saga of Moon and her many failings, meant to set an example for Pliant salticids to have low expectations and be subservient to Vitals. Jealous that Sky was mating with Ground, Moon came up with a plan to woo him and ventured into the Highest World to retrieve a flower as a gift. She didn't understand that the flower would likely die on the trip back to Ground, which led to the Four Tragedies of Moon:

* The flower lost its colors due to thirst, and they fled into the forest and became fruit;
* The flower's strength fled into the leaves, providing them with the strength to hold together structures;
* Close to death, the flower lost its moisture, which created the lakes and the streams;
	+ In their grief for the flower, all the spiders of the world lost their moisture too; the echo of that loss persists to today, causing the predatory behavior of spiders as they are always searching for moisture;
	+ Animals did not have this reaction, which condemned them to forever be hunted by spiders and have their moisture stolen from them;
* Finally dying, the flower lost its petals, which became parasites destined to torment spiders forever.

Having lost her gift, Moon was unable to court Ground, and ended up courting his and Sky's children instead. Since her children only had one directly divine parent, they were weaker, and became the first Pliants. Based on this myth, all spiders designated Pliant are considered children of Moon and do not keep the name of their mother once they reach adulthood.

Moon attempted to drown herself in the ocean, which poisoned it with her grief, explaining spiders' negative reaction to salt water. Instead of dying, she contracted a parasite, which led to her fighting with Sky. Although Sky was stronger, Moon managed to destroy all of her eyes but one, which became the Sun. Eventually, Moon was exiled to stay in the Highest World forever, where she returned the Great Flower to its place and made a sleeping sac for herself. This explained the form of the Moon itself which spiders saw in the night sky.