Þriaðrui Vucraq

The Þriaðrui Religion

Core belief:
The central belief of Þriaðrui is that, following a person's death, they will be judged by each of the 6 gods for their suitability for that god's heaven. Each god values a particular set of skills, and will only accept those who have shown a devotion to one of their skills. Only those who are chosen by no god (those who fail to specialise and attempt to have skill in multiple fields) enter no heaven.

Those suited to no heaven are relegated to roam the primordial wastelands between the heavens, spending eternity waiting to slowly fade into non-existance.

The six heavens are depicted as five grand walled cities (for two of the heavens are joined into one greater city). The residents of the heavens live out eternity in paradise, sustained by plentiful food. Hence, the eternity enjoyed by them is a longer one than the eternity suffered by those without a heaven.

Core teaching:
The primary teaching, therefore, of Þriaðrui is that a person must specialise in order to enter a heaven. The phrasing often used is that a follower of Þriaðrui must have a Vocation. Their life must be devoted in equal part to the study of the Þriaðrui faith, and the study and practice of their vocation.

Followers of Þriaðrui are taught that the attempt to be a "jack of all trades" both will lead to an eternity of suffering, and is morally evil.

Þriaðrui encourages interdisciplinary collaboration, but stresses that it must be between multiple people, each bringing their own vocational skills, and not be done by one person studying each discipline.

The six gods:

Eleanor:
Eleanor is the twin sister of Galen. She is the partner of Barthor. She is a patron god of artists and creatives.
In art, and myths, she is almost always depicted with her brother. They are as two sides of one coin, and hence, their heavens are combined into one. She is also depicted as the world-mother. Her sole myth in which Galen plays no part is the creation of the world. She prizes artistic creative works, and creators of art above all others, but also is the patron of those whose vocations are to preserve the natural world, and assorted things thereabouts.

Eleanor is a clear descendent of Karbour, the god of art in the Vucraq pantheon, and the twin sister of Ourobaen, and also shares characteristics (and much of her name) with the Vucraq god Ethaenor, who layed the egg that is the world. While the birdlike characteristics of the Vucraq gods were stripped, she retains that influence in her capacity as world-mother.

Galen:
Galen is the twin brother of Eleanor. He is a patron of philosophers, scholars and creatives. In art, and myths, he is almost always depicted with his sister. Since both take patronage over creatives, Galen in a more academic way, and Eleanor in an artistic one, this makes creative vocations the only ones that may appeal to multiple gods, although they often are accepted by only one. Galen is considered the god responsible for giving people capacity for language, intuition and reasoning skills, although the word for this, can also be interpreted as "soul". In addition to creatives, he holds mathematics in high regard, in addition to other philosophical and scholastic pursuits.

Galen draws primary inspiration from Ourobaen, the twin sister of Karbour in the Vucraq pantheon. This likely relates to how, despite being distinctly male,Galen is often portrayed in ways that, by Þriaðrui culture, are traditionally effeminate. On numerous occasions, in art, he is depicted wearing clothes usually reserved for women.

Barthor:
Barthor is the partner of Eleanor. He is the patron god of artisans and tradesfolk. He is often referred to as the world-father. Since Eleanor and Galen are regularly a pair, in myths, Barthor can be overlooked, but his role as Eleanor's partner is important. When Eleanor created the world, it was Barthor who created it's people. Rhetoric pertaining to this process is often what is used by followers of Þriaðrui to justify the oppression of other cultures and species, citing that Barthor forged some species to be naturally more potent than others. Barthor is the patron of all tradesfolk equally. He looks over builders, and carpenters and smiths and cobblers and all others of their kind. In this way, he is the most fair of all the gods (which is why some disbelieve the notion that he created some groups of people greater than others).

Barthor is likely to be an expansion upon the minor Vucraq god Barthos, the blacksmith. In the Vucraq pantheon, he was the brother of Ethaenor, rather than her partner.

Orovien:
Orovien is considered the founder god of Þriaðrui. This is partially because they are the only god said to have shown themself to mortals other than the prophets, and partially because they are the patron god of theologians and clergymen. Orovien is sometimes considered a lonesome and insular god, since they often don't appear in myths about the interpersonal relationships between the gods. However, they also commonly take charge in myths containing all the gods. It is a contentious topic among Þriaðrui scholars, whether the gods have hierarchy, but it is entirely agreed that, if they do, Orovien is at the top. Orovien is always of ambiguous gender. The prophets if Þriaðrui, who were notably in agreement on most of the religion, could not reach a consensus in their lifetimes on whether Orovien was male, female, neither, or even if the question was worth asking. Orovien is the patron for theologians and clergymen, and due to the theocratic nature of early Þriaðrui states, they are also the patron of leaders and theocrats.

Orovien has no notable link to the early Vucraq pantheon. They seem to be an invention (or discovery) of Þriaðrui, or an evolution of a monotheistic god from an unrelated culture. A lot of their symbolism points to them being a monotheistic god, out of place in a polytheistic faith.


Friese:
Friese is an unusually uncharismatically represented god. He is often strong, but stupid, or hard working but meek, or kind but ugly. Friese is frequently presented by the church of Þriaðrui, as an easy god to appease. Friese' heaven is the most heavily populated. It is taught that those with little skill, can still have a complete vocation in the eyes of Friese as long as they focus on following the teachings of the church, and don't attempt to do more skill intensive vocations above their station. Friese is the working class and labourer's god. Specifically, they are the patron of all those who harvest. This ranges from hunters, farmer, gatherers, herders to miners, quarriers, lumberjacks to fishermen and whalers.

Friese is also somewhat of an outsider in his history. They appear to be a corruption of a tribal god from the fringes of Vucraq territory, whose assortment of names include Friese the bountiful harvest, Ermuin, Fierdes, Elþuen and Merdos. It is unknown if Friese entered the Vucraq pantheon before conversion to Þriaðrui, or if he is an addition of Þriaðrui.

Harlga:
Harlga is perhaps the only god readily seen as a friend to Friese. She is the mean tempered, and angry patron of bringers of death (primarily of military persons), who has an apparent soft spot for Friese. Harlga is rarely pictured in anything other than battle armour, and is always the first god to judge the dead, because she is always closest to someone in death. She is the patron of soldiers and generals alike, as well as of executioners, and in many cases of law enforcers. She is also a patron of criminals, whose crimes are not religious (no god allows those who commit crimes of religious nature into their heavens). Those in her heavens also man the walls surrounding the other four heavens.

Harlga was perhaps the most important god to the Vucraq pantheon, explaining why the main part of her character, including her name is unchanged from her prior incarnation.