Three takes on divinity.
*deletes long depressing rant about the suckiness of life*
Let's start that one over. Hrm.
This image was made using the tablet my friend lent me when my own broke earlier this winter. It was a better tablet than my old one, and even though it took a little while to get used to it, I really liked working with it. I even have my own now.
So here are the three main gods of the tropical twin islands of Enti and Atla.
Elenti, the volcano god - a spirit of fire, ash and obsidian. Despite his rather cranky and cynical nature, he's not a bad god as such. Sure, the occasional virgin sacrifices were nice way back when people bothered with such things, and it's in the job description to hurl rocks, pumice and lava at the people of the inhabited island across the lagoon from time to time just to remind them who's boss...
But on the whole he's a rather decent guy who mostly looked after the people and the islands and who really could have caused a lot more damage than he ever did.
And then one day the damage-option was sort of lost to him. >.>
Paualua, sea goddess of the coral reefs. And don't she and Elenti get along like a hut on fire...
Where Elenti is the prime god of the men living on the islands, Paualua is the highest divinity of the women; goddess of the sea and the moon, of water, birth, death and rebirth. Compassionate. Cruel. Capricious. Like the sea, you never do know where you have her. Will she'll bless you? Or have you eaten by a monster shark? Either way, you're bound to be the first to know...
Little piquant disputes arise from time to time about certain people pouring boiling lava all over certain other people's sensitive coral reefs, but then there are incidents with high tides flooding lava-caverns and making them go boom as well...
And even some very rare times when collaborate efforts will steer aside tsunamis or floods from the islands altogether.
Ali'i Anak. Chief of the people and an all around rather nice guy. Not the most godlike of gods; he lived all his life as a perfectly normal if influential man, but due to an unexpected and quite dramatic little incident in the near past he suddenly found himself smacked down with a touch of godhood. He is now immortal and infused with powers beyond his imagination - and admittedly, control.
Which honestly makes life pretty darn boring. Even as chief, people would still treat him like a human being, one of them. But when you're a god, all your old buddies and even family members start treating you like, well, a god. All distanced and subservient. No-one'll share a drink or a dirty joke anymore. It frankly sucks.
And then the volcano goes haywire and the islands explode and sink into the sea in a huge cataclysmic disaster beyond all proportion, the people barely escaping with their lives, scattered to the winds.
And Anak finds himself suddenly free of all responsibilities and choking reverence, and also stuck with a very, very, very cranky ex-god sharing his canoe. From here on, life can only take a turn for the better!
Now bring on that horizon.
...
And yes, drawing the patterns on Anak's tapa-skirts was hell, thanks. DX
As for Paualua's necklace - go google Glaucus Atlanticus and then tell me this world isn't an utterly amazing place.
Let's start that one over. Hrm.
This image was made using the tablet my friend lent me when my own broke earlier this winter. It was a better tablet than my old one, and even though it took a little while to get used to it, I really liked working with it. I even have my own now.
So here are the three main gods of the tropical twin islands of Enti and Atla.
Elenti, the volcano god - a spirit of fire, ash and obsidian. Despite his rather cranky and cynical nature, he's not a bad god as such. Sure, the occasional virgin sacrifices were nice way back when people bothered with such things, and it's in the job description to hurl rocks, pumice and lava at the people of the inhabited island across the lagoon from time to time just to remind them who's boss...
But on the whole he's a rather decent guy who mostly looked after the people and the islands and who really could have caused a lot more damage than he ever did.
And then one day the damage-option was sort of lost to him. >.>
Paualua, sea goddess of the coral reefs. And don't she and Elenti get along like a hut on fire...
Where Elenti is the prime god of the men living on the islands, Paualua is the highest divinity of the women; goddess of the sea and the moon, of water, birth, death and rebirth. Compassionate. Cruel. Capricious. Like the sea, you never do know where you have her. Will she'll bless you? Or have you eaten by a monster shark? Either way, you're bound to be the first to know...
Little piquant disputes arise from time to time about certain people pouring boiling lava all over certain other people's sensitive coral reefs, but then there are incidents with high tides flooding lava-caverns and making them go boom as well...
And even some very rare times when collaborate efforts will steer aside tsunamis or floods from the islands altogether.
Ali'i Anak. Chief of the people and an all around rather nice guy. Not the most godlike of gods; he lived all his life as a perfectly normal if influential man, but due to an unexpected and quite dramatic little incident in the near past he suddenly found himself smacked down with a touch of godhood. He is now immortal and infused with powers beyond his imagination - and admittedly, control.
Which honestly makes life pretty darn boring. Even as chief, people would still treat him like a human being, one of them. But when you're a god, all your old buddies and even family members start treating you like, well, a god. All distanced and subservient. No-one'll share a drink or a dirty joke anymore. It frankly sucks.
And then the volcano goes haywire and the islands explode and sink into the sea in a huge cataclysmic disaster beyond all proportion, the people barely escaping with their lives, scattered to the winds.
And Anak finds himself suddenly free of all responsibilities and choking reverence, and also stuck with a very, very, very cranky ex-god sharing his canoe. From here on, life can only take a turn for the better!
Now bring on that horizon.
...
And yes, drawing the patterns on Anak's tapa-skirts was hell, thanks. DX
As for Paualua's necklace - go google Glaucus Atlanticus and then tell me this world isn't an utterly amazing place.