The village was too small to have much of a temple. Some of the cities down in the lowlands, they had big halls - one for the Most Eminent, one each for the members of Her Court - and shrines for all Her Children. Some of the very old ones, or the very wealthy ones, had temples of stone or brick. But for a half a dozen families huddled together for warmth, on a lakeshore among the endless hills, there was merely a single large hut - made of wood, roofed with bark. It was like all the other buildings, just bigger.

Adhruss' family did most of the village's logging, and supplied wood both for fires and for building, but in such spare time as she had, she did carvings. For the most part she sold them to people in other villages, but for the temple she'd fashioned the idols of the Siathar, each on a crude log pedestal along the walls, overlooking the space inside. Along one wall, there were seven, the central one higher than the others. That one was a simple plaque which bore the simple geometric symbol of the Most Eminent; the other six were likenesses of Her consorts. Before them, set into the floor, was a pit lined with stone, where the sacrifices could be burned. The rest of the floor was bare earth.

There was a small storeroom attached to the hut, behind the idols, and Ybess dragged out cushions from it, arranging them in loose piles around the floor for people to sit or lie on. Ybess was the hereditary priestess, and a young one - her mother had passed away only nineteen turns before - but took her duties seriously. She had always thought, in fact, that having to fish for a living, like half the village did, made her more serious about it than the full-time priests in places that could afford them - devotion to the gods, she felt, was something that one should do because it had to be done, rather than because one got paid for it.

She'd already gotten the fire going before the others started hurrying in, breath steaming from the cold. There was that to be said about the climate; it encouraged attendance at a temple with other warm bodies and a good stout firepit.

Ybess kept a close eye on the door as the villagers gathered. She had to suppress her antennae from curling upward in a smile when, as she had hoped, several additional congregants slipped in and sat down near the back. There were always bands of unattached males roaming the landscape, and some of them were nuisances, but the one that had set up camp a little ways outside the village for the past few turns was decent enough - hunters, trappers, and tanners, mostly, and they had traded a number of thick furs for food and firewood.

No doubt most of them would soon be moving on. But it was, after all, a rough and tiring life, especially at this time of turn, and even a good band tended to lose a few members to the comforts of settled life over time. Certainly the village could use a good resident trapper, and Gurass - who was among those sitting quietly in the back - seemed to be open to the idea.

Ybess knew this because she'd taken the time to mention it to him a few vigils before, and he'd replied mildly that staying put and having ready access to warmth might be nice for a change. He hadn't specified what kind of warmth, but his expression had raised her hopes. So had his later present of a luxuriously soft fur, white as snow and big enough to be a blanket. “Call it a donation,” he'd said, but Ybess, who suspected the Siathar had no need of blankets, thought that They wouldn't object if Their priestess got to furnish her bed with it. Holding it in trust, really.

As she began to solemnly invoke Their favor, she spared a few unspoken prayers of her own that Gurass could be persuaded to stay after the service. The Great Temptress was an aspect of the Most Eminent that didn't really get enough theological attention, but she suspected that he would not mind a private sermon on the topic.

The gods? Don't talk to me about gods.

The gods are candy. They're a drug. They make you feel good for a while so you can pretend everything's okay and life makes sense and wrongs'll be righted. They're an excuse not to do anything.

And what no one tells you - because they don't wanna believe, or because they've never had it that rough - is that that's all They're there for. They don't do anything except soak up our adoration. When you fall in the water, They watch you drown. Scream in the night, and They just listen. And then people say: well, They don't like you. You must've angered Them. It's your fault.

I got starved and beaten up and worse, but it's my fault.

Fuck 'em.

Ferleth

The Siathar (plural; never used in the singular in this sense) are one of the two groups making up the Imperial pantheon, the other being the lamnar. While both are worshiped, the Siathar are by far the more beloved of the two; they consist of those deities that might be considered the patrons of society - even everyday life, certainly so among the noble lines and in settlements of any size. They represent the roles and forces of the social order: the home, family, occupations, arts and crafts, hierarchy, and government.

For their followers, the Siathar are relatable, familiar beings with familiar roles; they are, in a sense, the ultimate takmar, the species' founders, ancestors, and paragons. Indeed, they are - appropriately enough - presented as a family unit much like those formed by the takmar themselves: a female as the mother and family head; a court of husbands to attend to her and father her children; and the children themselves.

Although their influence may be seen anywhere that takmar are, their physical home is held to be Kastun, which hangs eternally in the sky to watch over the world.

The head of the Siathar is the Sixfold Eminence, whose name is not spoken by any but Her priestesses. She is the mother of all life, and the world of Avishraa is ultimately Her dominion, but in particular She is seen as the central pillar of an ordered society.

The “sixfold” appellation derives from having six aspects - facets of Herself that deal with different spheres of society. These are the Great Smith, the Great Warrior, the Great Temptress, the Great Mother, the Great Matriarch, and the Great Elder.

As any powerful takma matriarch would be attended by a number of husbands and lovers, the Sixfold Eminence has six husbands of Her own, one to complement each aspect of Herself. They were Her greatest aides and helpers in bringing life to the world, and the fathers of Her children.

Unlike the aspects of the Most Eminent, however, the members of the Court are truly separate entities, and accordingly are generally worshiped separately. Combined with the tendency of the temples of the Most Eminent to be large but few in number (and often attached to palaces and other sites of authority), temples to the members of the Court generally greatly outnumber them and are an important part of public life - all the more so because they frequently have institutions appropriate to their patron god attached to them.

The priesthoods of the Court generally accept members of either sex, and are among the few institutions among the takmar in which males can take leadership roles. Nonetheless, females frequently take the lead, as elsewhere, though they generally treat their male compatriots with more than usual equality. Because celibacy is generally not considered a virtue, much less a requirement for priesthood - and because the priestly vocation tends to separate them from the masses - the priests and priestesses of the Court frequently marry each other, and may form mini-dynasties of hereditary priesthoods, particularly over smaller or rural temples.

• Laishar, the Singer
• Ekhtun, the Soldier
• Arthyd, the Lover
• To'an, the Father
• Pellith, the Servant
• Vorak, the Scribe

The most numerous of the Siathar are the Divine Children, the immortal offspring of the Sixfold Eminence and Her Court, and who serve as the gods and patrons of specific occupations. Where their parents have somewhat wide-ranging influences, the Children are beings of far narrower focus; each one guides and protects members of a particular vocation, calling, or occupation, and governs no sphere of life outside it. While the purview of each Child may overlap with part of the sphere of one of His or Her parents, the patron of a particular job is often seen as closer and more invested, a kindred spirit and an invisibly helping hand - even a friend - as much as an archetype.

On occasion, niches or shrines to locally important Children might exist within a temple to the Most Eminent or Her Court, but the worship of the Children is concentrated in the home or, where different, at the jobsite, and revolves around small, easily movable (or even temporary) altars and easily carried idols. Small burnt offerings of food or goods are made to them to express gratitude and keep Their favor. The worship is very personal and often lacking in ceremony; there are no priests, no sermons, nothing between the worshipper and his god.

To list the Children would be a daunting task, for the fertility of the Great Mother knows no bounds; there are many Children, as many of them as there are vocations for them to be patrons of. Their names and numbers are countless, and indeed may vary from place to place, such that any exhaustive list compiled in one place and time might little resemble one compiled elsewhere.

Some of those known are listed below; for a more complete list, see the list of Children:

• Hunor the Waterlifter

The Siathar are openly worshipped nearly everywhere the Imperial religion persists.

One way or another, there is a long tradition of centering the worship of the Siathar around idols or religious icons. This is more obviously true in the case of the Divine Children, for whom there are no great temples; though many of Them may have small altars dedicated to Them in homes and worksites, the hallmark of worship of the Children is the carrying of a small carved statuette or symbolic charm upon one's person, so that the Child being invoked has a presence with the worshipper. Yet even the Sixfold Eminence and Her Court, who more usually have temples, contain idols or icons within their sanctuaries, even if few but their priesthoods normally see them.

It must be understood that, in all these cases, the idols or icons are not perceived as being or containing the gods to which they are linked. They are, instead, perhaps better understood as conduits or magnets, intended to communicate with the gods and draw their presence and influence to them.

The Siathar are considered the progenitors of takmakind, and their protectors against the unpredictable and unfathomable Lamnar. Collectively, They are teachers and exemplars of the arts and organization of civilization; individually, each one provides skill, inspiration, or luck to a supplicant engaging in the craft or task They rule over.

The Siathar are wherever Their people, the takmar, are, and have ultimate sovereignty over all their works. Because of this, They have more power the more takmar there are in one place, the more permanently they are established, and the more tightly-knit they are; a lone takma, traveling in the wilderness, may call upon Them and hope for an answer, but if They must contend with one of the Lamnar to provide aid, there is no guarantee of victory.

The Imperial creation myth explains that after Seluurin and Khezri made Their first children, the other Lamnar, the latter warred and bickered within the Void, and made and unmade great and terrible things amid the endless expanse. The youngest of them, Siath, used her power of Life to make thinking beings, like Herself, but always they were consumed by fire or storm or drowned in oceans of water, for she could not make them as the Lamnar were - eternal and unyielding.

Going to the Diarchs, she begged Them for safety for her creations. Taking pity on her, They made Avishraa, the abode of life, and commanded that in this one place the works of the Lamnar must not overcome one another, but strive in balance for all eternity, even as the Diarchs themselves did. As Their last act, They made six companions for Siath, as allies and servants in keeping Her creations safe, and then They withdrew, leaving the other gods to govern themselves.

Siath made the many living things upon the face of Avishraa, and although some were taken by storm or flood or cold or heat, they still prospered. Seeing that the world was good She birthed the first takmar, and set them to spread and multiply. Though She taught them much, Her six companions were no less attentive, and becoming fond of Them, She married Them all. They, in turn, fathered Her Children, who Themselves worked tirelessly to guide the takmar and keep them safe.

Outside of the creation myth, there are generally few stories in which the Siathar play the primary parts, though they are frequently depicted as acting in support of, or against, mortal characters.