Äiti ja Isä

## Overview

The primary religion of Kotimaa. Äiti ja Isä or "mother and father," is said to be a kind being believed to be both the mother and father of all human life. Their form is depicted as a pure, golden figure that wears finely embroidered clothes and perfect pelts.

When they are Äiti, they are a beautiful woman with a full stomach, her hair is long and reaches down to the floor, her eyes typically closed. Äiti is said to birth new souls that will have the chance to experience the gift of life and continue spreading her will throughout the world. The will of Äiti is not only having children but ensuring their way to a successful adulthood. She is seen wearing a long dress and wears a bear pelt over her head and shoulders. The embroidery on her dress shows patterns of flowers and snowflakes. When she appears in the realm of the living, it’s sadly never good news. Äiti takes the lives of mothers that die giving birth personally, taking them to the realm of the dead safely with a soft assuring voice.

Isä's form is a strong man, his hair long but braided back, his face partially covered from the thick beard he owns (sometimes its braided as well), and he is often seen carrying an axe. Isä, much unlike Äiti, wears heavy boots, a thick pair of gloves, a warm looking shirt, and sturdy pants. The pelt draped over his head and shoulders is a wolf. The embroidery on his clothes is of the ice dragons that hunt the mountains of Kotimaa. Isä appears before those who are dying from trying to protect their family or anyone's children. He is silent, but his eyes show strong approval and his face moved into a grin as he strongly takes the grip of the hero's hand and guides them into his realm.

Souls escorted by the god Äiti ja Isä have the chance of returning to the realm of the living to become a guider of other souls.

### Priesthood

The faith of Äiti ja Isä includes the belief that light magic – along with elemental magics – are a gift given to mankind by the god. Priests of this faith are typically some sort of mage but the most common one is Light magic. Rather than believing the light is its own entity, they believe it is the magic closest to their god as it has the best (in their eyes) ways to protect and heal others. However priests of this faith can be a mage of any element or even not a mage at all. They are always leaders at some point and often the eldest member of a group and looked to for wisdom even when they do chose to step down from their leadership position.

### Practices

Those who follow this faith often, if not always, have a small shrine located either within or outside their home. These shrines include a carving or painting of the god’s forms surrounded by various trinkets. Trinkets include small wooden carvings made by Sons, bracelets made by Daughters, red candles that are relight once every new moon, mirrors, and dried flowers. Every day these shrines are left with a bowl of water or milk, and leftovers from a meal. It is believed that doing this will bring the god’s watch as well as please any wandering souls that may still be searching for a way to the barrier realm.

Red candles are believed to ward off or purify evil spirits.

“May they bless you” Is a way followers refer to both forms of their god.

Bright, lively colors are thought to encourage souls to find their way to the other side and possibly even act as gateways to the barrier realm for the dead.

### History

Upon first arriving and settling into the mountains, Kotimaans found it harsh and unforgiving. It was not until the first follower dreamed of the holy mother and father did they begin to thrive and spread throughout the cold wasteland.

It is believed that the first man to dream of Äiti ja Isä was named “Mieli.” As a result many of the original followers had taken up this name in hopes to better connect to the holy parent. Even today, Kotimaans who find themselves suddenly into the faith change their last names to reflect the change in their heart and mind.

In the first dream, the holy parent gave the man the gift of magic, teaching him in every dream he had more and more how to use it to ensure his family’s survival. The man then taught his children of the gift, who then taught their children and so on – spreading the practice out far and wide. This gift was not just any magic, but the one others of Aevenhold would call “the light.”

The holy parent also visited a man named “Vahva”, who warned him of the dragons that rested in the mountains. He taught his family and others how to navigate the mountains, combat the dragons, and to build homes that hid within the mountains and the snow. Much like Mieli, many others adopted the name Vahva if they took up any of that family’s interests.

Discovering that not all could use the purest gift to cast prayers and perform small miracles, the holy parent went to a woman named “Salainen.” She was informed that she was also capable of the gift like the Mieli Family, and was taught how to make use earth magic to defend herself and her children. Through her, many others went after elemental magics, worshiping the holy parent in hopes of receiving similar dreams of knowledge and wisdom.

Finally, the holy parent visited a woman named “Kaivaa,” they shared with her the secrets of the mountains and how to safely dig out stone to discover the treasures within the frozen land. Her sudden wealth brought many more men and women to the mountains known as Kotimaa in search of gold and jewels.

### Sects

#### **The Daughters of Äiti**

The people who follow this branch of the faith are all women. They typically can be counted on for helping mothers through pregnancy and the eventual birth of a new child; they’re very popular mid-wives of the snowy mountains and landscape. Their churches are usually a mix of an orphanage and a school. Boys and girls in these schools have separate classes and rarely meet during teaching hours. While they’re willing to teach all children reading, writing, and arithmetic – they’ll only go into specific details of their church with little girls. In place of this class, the boys will often be sent off to gather more firewood to keep the school warm or to a room to catch up on their studies.

Women of this branch usually wear a long, white hooded dress with golden flowers embroidered onto it.

They encourage skills like knitting, sewing, cooking, gardening, and complex medicine. They also teach the usefulness of having livestock by showing the children the proper ways to milk animals and later turn that milk into butter or cream.

Sons of Isä often bring the churches what they’ve managed to hunt and forage in return for warm, delicious meals that they’ve never bothered learning to cook.

Little girls in their schools are also taught of their floral designs and various charms they believe bring the holy mother’s favor. These often include paintings, carpets, blankets, and the very same pattern on their dresses. With an item that would gain the holy mother’s favor, it is believed the ill and wounded recover faster and broken hearts find themselves soothed when around such objects.

It is not uncommon for one of this faith to pursue the priest focus of light magic if they are found to have the gift – earth and air magic are also favorites of the Daughters.

They might say the phrase “May the loving mother guide you,” when they leave.

#### **The Sons of Isä**

Followers under this branch of the faith are always men. They are usually the ones called upon for training young men to fight, forage, hunt, explore, and create things like buildings, tools, weapons, and a livelihood to pursue in order to support not only their future family, but possibly their village as well.

While it is unlikely, there are times they’ll allow women to train with them but they’ll never be allowed to learn some of the more secret practices. Members of this group wear black outfits with silver details – usually made by the few females that are “Daughters of Isä.”

Rather than having a school or church of their own, they simply gather in the town’s hall or in the church the Daughters of Äiti have set up. This allows them to also recruit the boys of these schools that have free time into their group.

They do also teach some basic medicine in case of injuries that can happen in fights, hunts, and daily life. Their cooking tends to be limited to what can be found in the forest or hunted.

When it comes to fighting, they make an effort to teach young men that just about anything can be used as a weapon: from shovels used to clear out the doorways to the pitchforks for hefting around hay bales. The training isn’t really military worthy; rather the focus is on being prepared to defend the family should anything or anyone come to threaten them.

Just like the Daughters, the Sons have their own secret symbols that they make sure their students learn to include in their works in hopes to gain the holy Father’s attention.

When Isä is presented with these certain symbols, it strengthens the tool, weapon, or home it is placed on, allowing it to last for several more years – or such is the belief.

These symbols are very specific carvings or paintings of a bear.

Men of this faith with the gift go after the paladin focus of light magic with enthusiasm and pride or alternatively elemental magic like fire or water.

They might say the phrase “May the strong father protect you,” as parting words.

#### **List of Spirits**

The spirits have various ways to attract or repel them. The most well known practices are through the use of candles, red candles repel 'negative' spirits, yellow attract 'positive' spirits, blue would soothe a 'negative' spirit and perhaps allow it to become a 'positive' spirit, and plain white candles do nothing. Many spirits will visit shrines that are dedicated to the holy mother and father if food or drinks leftover from meals are placed around.

##### **Keijut**

These spirits are believed to be the lost souls of children, as they are easier to confuse back into the realm of the living from the barrier world. Thankfully they tend to be helpful creatures. They've been described as rabbit-like people with feathery wings and outfits made out of flowers and leaves. Their voices are sweet and playful and they rarely have perfect speech. The Keijut are incredibly tiny, about five inches tall from the tip of their ears to their fluffy tails. Normally they're helpful and encourage healthy crops. By leaving a bowl of sugared water or cool milk at night, the helpful keijut may speed up the growth of crops and keep all sorts of smaller critters from eating them up. Keijut cannot be captured or seen easily, but evidence in them is found at their small footprints and the empty bowls in the mornings. Some believe that children can see them and that the keijut will speak to and play with children that need cheering up… However if an adult comes to the child’s aid they swiftly leave with only little seed as a promise to the little one that they were indeed there. Keijut are very caring toward children, as many children chatter to their parents or care takers about the creatures from the fairy tales. The little creatures supposedly teach children how to make flower crowns, braid hair, and sing nearly forgotten traditional songs. However some stories depict the Keijut as cruel. Wicked Keijut instead inflict nightmares on children, cause them to get lost, or trip them into breaking items of value in a house. The goal of a wicked Keijut is to get children around them in as much trouble as possible. In more daring cases they will bite a child directly and cause those to get very ill and unfortunately, in most cases, die.

##### **Yasiarvi**

These spirits can be best described as unicorns, with their equestrian forms and singular horns at the center of their heads. They are sacred creatures, rumored that their blue hooves and horns are made of arcane essence, allowing them to do incredible magical spells and quick teleportation. The white and blue wonders are rumored to turn all they step on into rich soil, the ability to defeat many predators, and even to have taught the first mages of Kotimaa magic in the first place. They have only been seen in quick glances or within dreams of warnings. Yasiarvi are said to be creatures of the light, that help "good" people survive darkest moments that come. Some believe they even have the capability to remove curses. Those that have seen the wonderful creatures are filled with a sudden sense of safety, and hope, as well as the need to better prepare themselves for dangers the unicorns prophesize.

##### **Valosin**

Valosin are quite strange spirits, often seen in the mountains. They are described to look like snowy owls and in their talons they carry lanterns. Valosin's often use the light of the lantern to guide lost climbers back to the base of the mountain or to shelter. Sadly there are cases where they instead lead them to fall off ledges or into pits. Though some believe it is unintentional. Spotting a valosin means a fierce snow storm will be arriving soon and it may want to guide those that see it to shelter beforehand. One can encourage a valosin's help by keeping a jar of lamp oil in their bags to offer to it for its lantern, they also enjoy dried pieces of meat as a treat. If someone tries to steal the lantern of a valosin, the spirit tends to blind them and leave them with an unique mark on the back of the hand that they used to touch their treasured item. The mark is simply a part of their skin getting darkened to create the image of an eye.

##### **Matkaopas**

Souls deemed worthy enough are believed to be able to become a guiding spirit that can cross freely over the barrier realm to the world of the living and dead as they need. Matkaopas are thought to usually be those that died giving birth or died protecting a child. They take the form of a graceful blue deer. Matkaopas are silent unless they dare to touch someone who is still strong and living. This causes them quite a bit of pain but they are able to communicate to this person for a short period of time. Their messages are typically words of encouragement or a reminder of what can happen if one makes the soul of a loved one feel they cannot leave into the realm of the dead yet. They are a spirit that does what it can to offer comfort to those in mourning. While they are able to cross the realms freely, Matkaopas can only remain in a relm for so long before they risk becoming a wicked spirit. In the case of a Matkaopas becoming a wicked spirit, they tend to take on a new form.

##### **Tuskainen**

Tuskainen are often mistaken to be lycanthropes. They prowl around during the freezing nights, hunting for victims. Tuskainen stand at an alarming seven feet tall, with the face of a wolf in a permanent snarl, standing on their hind legs. Some precious survivors have seen the lanky fur covered figure twitch and struggle, parts of their body shifting between more human features to more wolfish ones. Tuskainen's have a miserable howl and often climb or move about in a way similar to spiders. They are truly a horrible sight to behold. In order to repel them best, it is wise to have a carving of a Yasiarvi above one's doorways or a mirror within each room - both will cause a tuskainen to let out its pathetic howl and hopefully leave the home in peace. Witnessing their own reflection is very startling to a Tuskainen as they may not be aware of the fact that their form is constant shifting back and forth. Those with the light have the capability of driving them away as well, but only Yasiarvi can fully calm and remove what remains of these tortured souls from the mortal plane. Otherwise, they'll likely only return and seek revenge. Victims of a Tuskainen are often found as little more than hallowed out husks of human remains, innards sucked away by the hungry beast of a spirit. At times, children will be kidnapped by them in order to lure out their parents to be devoured. The child will then be left in front of a new home, fairly unharmed with just a memory of their beloved family defending them from a pack of wolves.

##### **Lumitale**

These are a curious spirit that seem to be made entirely out of snow. They can disperse into snowflakes and flutter off into the wind but they tend to make the shape of a small, incredibly friendly sort fox. Lumitale adore playing with children and often defend them from those that mean harm. Sadly this can result in misunderstandings when the parents of a child needs to scold them for making a mistake. Thankfully they can be calmed easily with pieces of sweets. When they decide they're fond of a family, they'll hang around their home often and assist in minor tasks - but they stay far away from fire. Favored families of a lumitale can also expect gifts of little sculptures made out of ice or small pieces of precious gemstones. Mothers of the household tend to be the quick favorite the moment they bake it a treat. Whatever she bakes for it, she will find a basket in the kitchen every week filled with the ingredients needed for the treat. If someone makes the mistake angering a lumitale or causing any sort of harm to the family they live with, they will find themselves anywhere from covered in a sudden pile of snow to being unable to light fires in their home to getting lost in a dangerous blizzard.