The Fire-Keeper

The Fire-Keeper is the chief deity of the Orcish Pantheon, closest to universally revered among all Orcs, and a primordial deity responsible for the creation of the Orcs, and, by many, believed to be the source of the mandate of the Orcish Nation. The Orcs know the Fire-Keeper by a number of epithets as the Fire-Keeper's true name is impossible to pronounce or record. Owing to the breadth of her worship by orc-kind, the dictates of her church have bled into the custom of the nation of a whole to a greater degree than is seen with other dieties in her pantheon.

She is a Neutral-Good diety, whose symbol is a burning campfire. Her clerics gain access to the Community, Healing, Nobility, and Protection domains. Her favoured weapon is the hand axe, notable for its peacetime uses. Of all animals, swine are considered the most sacred to her.

History

The teachings of the Fire-Keeper do not concern themselves with her origin. She is said to have "kindled" the first fire and gifted the use of that fire to the Orcs, a species she herself created from boar-kind and, with the gift of fire, elevated to the status of the other mortal races of Ahren/

Relationships

The Fire-Keeper is held in esteem by all the other members of the Orcish Pantheon except for Ogharod the Conqueror and Kodo the Devourer, who oppose her in various ways. Apart from these three, all other gods within the Orcish Pantheon are ascended Orcs, who recognize the Fire-Keeper as their creator and Ultimate Mother.

Appearance

The Fire-Keeper has no fixed appearance, being a primordial divinity. When and where she appears, it is usually as an orcish crone with fire in her eyes, wearing a particular cloak and bearing a lantern-staff.

Realm

The Almighty's divine realm is The Oldest House, a realm of the Bardo where she supposedly first created fire, or at least transferred the knowledge of fire to spirits of primordial orcs. The territory within the Bardo occupied by this realm is very close to the Unending Wilds of San Lauren, with whom she occasionally feasts.

Providence

Sudden inspiration in the face of adversity or a sudden positive reversal of fortune is often seen as the work of the Fire-Keeper. She is prolific in the dreams of her followers, many of whom cultivate relationships with their diety and make frequent use of communion with her to help inform their decisions.

Servants

In addition to those Orcs who follow her, the Fire-keeper is said to have created the Ur-Orcs, refining further her divine inspiration of orc-kind into a semi-immortal race who serve her in her realm.

Unique Servants

Juuyaay Flame-Speaker

The herald of the firekeeper is an enormous white Dire Rook, of considerable size even for that unusually large species of bird. In addition to the usual roles of a herald, the Fire-Keeper is known to send the Flame-Speaker to appear before her people in place of herself to deliver messages of great importance, good or ill.

Church

The Fire-Keeper's church is considered by most to be the original religion of the Orcish Nation, though practices now vary. It remains the largest form of religion within the Nation, and when necessary is referred to as the Law of the Fire-Keeper. The church has a very flattened heirarchy, consisting only of local clerical officials, reporting to nobody other than the heads of their tribes and, where one exists, the Warlord. On occasion, the clerical caste of the church congregates together in a so-called Congress of Shamans.

Worshippers

Many orcs worship the Fire-Keeper, perhaps more so than any one other diety, and even where they do not worship her exclusively she is commonly held in reverence.

Clergy

Priests of the firekeeper often wear woven cloaks in addition to their other attire that are superficial imitations of the Cloak of the Fire-Keeper. Her symbol being a lit campfire is often blazoned on them in some form, often tattooed. These clergymen are usually clerics or druids, and as a matter of religious stricture keep the means to create fire on their person.

Temples & Shrines

Though the Orcish Nation is semi-nomadic, they do maintain permanent shrines and temples to their gods, and as in all other ways the Fire-Keeper is perhaps over-represented. Chief among these places is the Temple of the First Hearth, which is said to directly overlap with her realm in the Bardo as well as serving as the physical location for the Congress of Shamans, when it is called. This temple is kept occupied and tended to year-round, with an important fire maintained there that is said to have been burning since the creation of Orc kind.

Similar structures - longhouses built for the purpose of maintaining perpetual flame - are commonplace in settlements where she is the primary focus of worship. When such a settlement migrates, it is the practice for the shaman serving her in that community to keep a flame from that fire alive for the duration of the journey and to relight the fire of the reconstructed longhouse using that flame. In this way, it is said that all such fires originated with the fire at the Temple of the Firekeeper.

Holy Texts

While some collections of the stories, morals, and histories inherent to the church have been written down in either common or the Orcish language, no one such record or transcription is considered authoritative. Transmission of knowledge within the church is an oral tradition.

Church History

The power of the church in realpolitical terms ebbs and wanes, even from town to town. One settlement might have a chief who is practically subservient to the local shaman, while another keeps the shaman around only because his or her followers essentially demand it. Similarly, the church itself has been both a token observation across the Nation as well as, in times past, having supplied hordes or even the nation with Warlords from among the ranks of the Shaman.

Holidays

Festivals and sacred occasions to the Fire-Keeper are usually marked with the preparation of burnt offerings which are then consumed by the congregants. This practice is said to be the origin of another famous Orcish practice - barbecue.

Favoured Animals

Swine, especially tusked swine like river boars, are sacred to the Fire-Keeper and are said to be the stock from which she kindled sentient mortality into orc-kind.