Borba Wise-Eyes

Borba Wise-Eyes is an ascended Orc diety, revered in the Orcish Pantheon as a patron to farmers, soothsayers, leaders, and mothers. Orcs, especially her direct followers, hold that she has mastery of the domain of fortune-telling and knowledge of all that is yet to come to pass. She is known as the One Who Has Walked The Infinite Roads for her tendency to give contradictory prophesy and her explanation of fate as a series of forking trails. Her followers who enjoy her blessing gain access to the Good, Knowledge, Law, and Weather domains. Because of their association with longevity, tortoises are seen as sacred to her and her followers. Her symbol is that of a tree with its many branches and roots laid out flat, and her divine weapon is said to be the longbow.

History

Borba Wise-Eyes was born a mortal orc in the early history of the Orcish Nation during a time of conflict with the Dwarves. She is said to have been a talented archer and hunter in life, and was gifted at the laying of traps and the selection of sites for ambush. This lead to her serving as warlord for her horde, where she was the architect of the Battle of Grahn Urgot, an ambush that broke the back of a Dwarven attempt to push the Nation out of the foothills of the Atlas Mountains. For this, she was revered both in life and after her death, and eventually began to exert influence as a diety.

Relationships

Borba retains the utmost respect and worshipful deference to the Fire-keeper, who she also worshipped in life. Though rising to prominence in a time of war, she has no stomach for warfare, and therefore eschews it, which taxes her relationship with Lum Spear-breaker, though the two are often called upon to act together. She has no patience for either Buggug Angel-Slayer or those he serves, Kodo the Devourer and Ogharod the Conqueror, the latter two of whom she fears.

Of the Orcish Pantheon she is best aligned with Xuthakug Three-Eyes, who shares her teaching that careful consideration and mindful living is best. By contrast, though she is associated with wisdom, she usually avoids Gul Spell-Speaker, whose teachings and actions she sees as inherently dangerous.

Being as she has a realm in Heaven she is often in contact with gods from the Bastonian Pantheon, though they give each other extraordinarily wide births.

Appearance

Due to her remembering and the orcish process of divine ascention, Borba is seen as she is best remembered during the Battle of Grahn Urgot - a straight-backed, middled-aged woman with a thick head of black hair, often braded. Her eyes are said to contain the stars themselves among them.

Realm

Since ascension, her divine realm is in Heaven, known as The Point of Great Vision, imposed upon her by the nature of the universe and by her alignment, though she spends more time in the Fire-keeper's realm of Bardo than her own realm, a fact that disappoints rare pilgrims who make their way to her realm. The Point of Great Vision is said to be a peak rivalled only by that of the Bastion of Heaven, from which an astute seer can see all possible pasts and futures that lead to or from their present.

Providence

Borba Wise-Eyes frequently appears to her followers in visions or dreams, and is known for elevating oracles in addition to the usual retinue of clerics and other shamen. Her worshippers associate her with the sudden appearance of unlooked-for news, the nature of which depends on if she is pleased or displeased.

Servants

Some angels and archons willingly serve Borba Wise-Eyes, and tend her realm of heaven during her frequent absences. Unlike most other orc dieties, she rarely makes use of spirits of any kind in her dieties.

Unique Servants

The Third Eye of Borba

A powerful artifact, the third eye of Borba is said to be an enormous, flawless lump of colorless sapphire. As an intelligent object, it occasionally appears on the same occasions other dieities might send a herald, known to bestow visions upon users it considers worthy and drive mad those it opposes.

Church

Borba's church is effectively an offshoot of that of the Firekeeper, placing a greater emphasis on matters of community resoluteness and practical effect. Worshippers revere Wisdom of the Wise-Eyes, an alternate orcish philosophy and system of belief and practice that promotes soothsaying and foresight. Where other religions might put a focus on preparing adherents for some form of afterlife, Borba demands practical adherence to the living future from her followers - as their ancestors strove for them, so must the living provide for their eventual descendants.

Worshippers

Especially among her original tribe, Borba finds worshippers among farmers, community leaders, mothers (especially of large families), and dedicated seers and fortune-tellers. Followers of Borba mark themselves out from mainstream Orcish belief by incorporating her sigil, the tree of fate, into their fashion and body-paint, even going so far as to have it tattooed, even among non-clergy. Such worshippers are also known for recounting Borba's various sayings and parables.

Clergy

Borba's clergy are almost always seers in their own right, and frequently live in communities where even other deities are the primary focus of worship. They are known in familiar for being familiar with the orcish practice of Throwing Bones, a custom of divination which is idiosyncratic to the followers of Borba and said to have been given to the Nation by her, personally. Such clergy almost always have a set of throwing bones on their person and frequently ornament themselves with jewelry made to resemble actual throwing bones, which are made from the hexagonal 'tiles' of tortoise shells.

Temples & Shrines

Borba's followers have the same semi-nomadic lifestyle as other mainstream orcs, and so her places of worship tend to be mobile. Seer's Rock, a promontory northwest of Grahn Urgot, is said to be both the place she received the gift of vision and the location from which she lead the Battle for which she is most famous. Seer's Rock is under the protection of a monastic order of her followers, and is a site of pilgrimage for her followers and aspiring clergy, while a permanent temple in her honour exists in the city of Grahn Urgot, known as the War-Lodge of Borba.

Holy Texts

Like many Orcish deities, Borba's teachings have never been formally codified in a cannonical way, but instead are taught as a part of Orcish oral-historical tradition.

Church History

While borba's followers have never been a large or dominating faction, their gift of foresight is seen as so universally useful that they have always enjoyed a somewhat privileged position in Orcish life.

Holidays

Borba's holidays are usually seen as celebrations of the success of the tribe, especially after great hunts or harvests. Like many orcish dieties she demands a degree of sacrifice, usually in the form of sweet incenses rather than animals. A common observance at her festivals is for her followers to consume Xytol or other intoxicants in hopes of opening themselves up to visions from her or from the spirits - it is traditionally held that this was a practice of hers in life.

Favoured Animals

Tortoises, who must make provision for their young in spite of outliving most mortals, are seen as sacred to Borba. Their shells are the material from which Throwing Bones are made.