The Distant Verdant Star
Although the exact depictions vary widely throughout history and across cultures, in its most common form, the Distant Verdant Star is depicted as a four-pointed star with four smaller rays emanating from the centre.
Among the oldest and most widespread religious symbols in Realmgard — attested as far back as at least the Realmgardic Period — the Distant Verdant Star generally represents Realmgardian religion as a whole, rather than signifying an one particular deity or belief. This is due to the Distant Verdant Star being held as the original homeland of the gods.
In fact, albeit surviving only in fragments, the oldest religious writing yet found is a hymn in honour of the Distant Verdant Star:
Hail, O Star of Glory.
Shine in the dark, our guide and light
And lead us homewards
To the land of the gods:
Where apples blossom
Through the long ages.
This ancient hymn has served as the basis for many later hymns and writings and is instantly recognisable to most of the inhabitants of Realmgard.
Most Realmgardian creation myths — and, indeed, most similar accounts across the whole world of Terrace — begin with the gods arriving from afar at the beginning of time and shaping the raw material of the world into its recognisable, habitable form, assigning domains among themselves, and then presiding over its mortal inhabitants. Such commonalities may be found even in cultures that have had no recorded contact in history until recently.
Use of the Distant Verdant Star as a religious icon is near-universal throughout Realmgard. Although unique cultural flourishes are often added to these diverse depictions, the fundamental interpretation of the image as representing Realmgardian religion is consistent.
Due to its association with divinity, it has been used over the centuries as part of royal regalia by the Elven Empire, the Theobaldian Empire and subsequent Dukes of Middlesbrooke, the Kings of Pelayo, Gallicantu, and Aurora, the Dukes of Tanith, and others throughout history as a declaration of the monarchs’ divine sanction and right to rule.
The Distant Verdant Star is particularly revered by the Auroreans and Tanithites, due to worshipping a sky goddess as their patron deity — Nainen for the Auroreans and Malketa for the Tanithies. In most other cultures in Realmgard, the Distant Verdant Star is considered auspicious and widely used as either a good luck charm or a talisman to ward off evil and misfortune. The cribs of newborns are commonly adorned with icons of the Distant Verdant Star.
Notably, there is a green star visible in the night skies of Terrace. In fact, that this green star is visible from any point of Terrace and does not seem to move across the sky like the other stars has led to the recognition that it is clearly of supernatural origin, inevitably leading to its association with divinity. Most beliefs in Realmgard hold that, just as the gods originally came from the Distant Verdant Star, mortal souls will return to the Distant Verdant Star to find paradise, though the exact nature of this holy, paradisiacal realm varies across cultures and religions.
And with that, we begin 30 Days of Mythology.
This has actually been an idea I’ve had at the back of my head for a while, but I hadn’t quite figured out how to incorporate into my Worldbuilding. I’d decided I wanted to have gods come from somewhere else, arrive at Terrace, and start Creation.
Which I suppose technically makes the gods of Terrace, well… you know.
If the whole “apples blossoming in the land of the gods” seems oddly specific, that’s because it’s kinda-sort a reference to the Tír na nÓg of Irish Mythology, which is associated with and/or named for apple trees.
Also, a reminder that I’ll be posted a new chapter tomorrow, along with Day 2 of my Mythology Worldbuilding. Stay tuned.
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