Diatis World Lore
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Sect of the Living Land and Agassa
Agassa
One of the old gods, Agassa, believed people could become peaceful and content if they lived with the land rather than against it. In her view, resisting the temptations of progress and capitalism was essential to preserving that way of life. The land she chose for her people offered broad plains, forests, and mountain ranges, giving them access to what they needed without requiring them to depend on outside nations or outside systems. She sheltered her people within that land and taught them to remain isolated from the followers of other gods. That isolation included defending the coastline against those outsiders when necessary. Agassa was not interested in winning the games the gods had created. Her purpose was to prove that her belief about people, land, and contentment could be true.
Agassa studied agriculture as well as the history of the place she came from, and those studies shaped how she understood civilization. She believed that farming, hunting, and gathering kept people connected to the land and to the natural limits of what the land could provide. In her view, the movement away from those practices and toward mass production changed the relationship between people and the world around them. The pursuit of money became, to her, a sign that people were no longer living with the land but trying to control and exploit it. She saw that shift as the point where innocence was lost.
When Agassa chose the people who would live on her land, she deliberately avoided choosing those who had been modified to use magic. She did not select people because they were unusually strong, unusually intelligent, or otherwise exceptional. Instead, she chose what she considered ordinary beings. To her, ordinary people were the best test of her belief. If they could live with the land, accept what it gave them, and use those gifts carefully, then they could build the kind of society she hoped to prove was possible: one that was thankful, productive, and happy.
The Sect of the Living Land
The sect of the living land is the group of priests Aggassa taught the concepts she believed would be the basis of the society she was trying to build. She brought a few priests to the island of the Unseen to learn the history of the Gods and the games the other gods played. She sent them back, hoping their information would help the other Shamans keep the people in the state she believed would lead to their happiness. Over time, she taught the Shamans simple farming and hunting methods, along with which naturally occurring foods were safe to eat or would help with illness and injuries.
They based themselves in the western mountains, which originally allowed the god herself to visit the temple and teach her shaman directly. The great monastery in the mountains is situated in a valley deep in the mountains to keep it isolated. The trail to the monastery is difficult to find, and many people have gotten lost, only to be rescued and escorted back out of the mountains by the shamans. The shamans are chosen from the various tribes, usually because of something unusual the people can do or see. They are very well respected, and it is an honor to be chosen to join the Shamans.
Aggassa gave them several artifacts to help the shaman heal beings and animals, as well as help crops and trees when the weather didn’t cooperate.
The artifacts are:
- The Flute of the Song Bird: A carved white-tailed deer bone flute that will help to bring on the natural spring growth of the trees as well as minor healing of disease in living creatures
- Talisman of the River Serpent: A carved serpentine stone that draws subterranean water closer to the surface, creating natural springs in dry agricultural zones.
- Drum of the Heartbeat: A hand drum stretched with raw hide whose rhythmic pulse stimulates weak or ailing livestock and people, steadying their pulse during recovery.
- Staff of the Earth Mother: An ash-wood walking stick that accelerates the growth of edible roots, berries, and medicinal herbs within a hundred paces when struck into rich soil.
- Turtle-Shell Water Basin: A sacred vessel carved from a giant river turtle shell that purifies any liquid poured into it into crystal-clear water, doubling the yield of crops it hydrates.
- Pipe of the Healing Cloud: A sacred stone pipe that exhales a fragrant, sweet-smelling smoke, soothing fever, pain, and respiratory ailments for anyone nearby.
- Comb of the Sweet-Grass: A carved bone comb that, when drawn through hair or animal fur, removes parasites and infuses the target with immunity to blood-borne diseases.
- Amulet of the Forest Guard: A talisman made of cedar and copper that wards farmland against wild herbivores, redirecting them peacefully without causing harm.
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