Corphantis

Corphantis (pronounced /kɒ˞ˈfæn.tɪ̵s/) is a goddess widely worshipped on the world of Gala, especially by adventurers who travel the world looking for wrongs to right and treasures to tain. While there are few large temples dedicated to Corphantis, smallish fanes exist in most trading hubs and other towns that see a lot of adventuring traffic, and roadside shrines are common across much of the world. Her worshippers seldom refer to her by her full name, preferring decurtate hypocorisms like "Cor", "Cory", "Tissie", or "'Phantis"—she doesn't seem to mind, and answers to all of these.

There are many tales told about Corphantis wandering the world in disguise and engaging in adventurous emprises. These stories often involve one or more of her worshippers meeting up with Corphantis without knowing who she is, and of their journeying together with her for some time until at some crisis point she reveals herself when she uses her divine powers to save the day. While no doubt many of these accounts are apocryphal, there are at least one or two reports backed up by some good evidence, so it seems that this actually has occurred, albeit not nearly as often as people have claimed it did. Most famously, under the name Mtara, she went on several adventures with Princess Ngorowi of Zin, and only revealed her identity when her erstwhile companion ascended to the throne.

Depictions and symbols

Corphantis is usually depicted as a young woman in her mid-twenties. Her complexion and facial features vary, but she is always shown with long hair unbound and unkempt. She wears an outfit made of discordant squares of fabric of various colors and patterns, clamped together by vellicles shaped like bird heads. (Many of her worshippers, and especially her priests, fashion similar outfits to wear to emulate and honor their goddess.)

There are a few other forms Corphantis takes on rare occasion. She occasionally appears as an old woman in a hooded cloak or a young girl in a gray blouse, and has also been known to take the form of a horse or an osprey. In particular, the nomads of the Lost Plains worship her in the last two forms, as well as occasionally in other animal shapes such as butterflies and buffalo.

Common symbols of Corphantis include feathers (especially the feathers of ospreys or other raptors), leather shoes, and dandelions. Her most frequently used insignium comprises two oblong shapes representing stylized footprints.

History

Though Corphantis is a grandeval god, with references to her having been found in millennia-old documents, it is only recently that she rose to her current prominence. Originally, she was an obscure goddess of travel, worshipped, or at least propitiated, by traveling merchants, far-ranging explorers, mendicant gaberlunzies, and other itinerarians. While she had scattered adherents all over the world, nowhere was her worship common, and her faithful were far-flung but few.

This changed within the past few hundred years as the lifestyle of the adventurer became more accepted and more common. There had been no god with dominion specifically over adventurers, but Corphantis's domain of travel was similar enough that many of the increasingly numerous adventurers flocked to her church. Over the centuries, she grew in influence and power, passing from a little-known minor god to one of the best known gods of Gala. It's not clear to this day which is the cause and which is the effect, whether she was fortuitiously advantaged by the increasing popularity of adventuring, or whether she somehow engineered that popularity as part of a subdolous centuries-spanning scheme.

Worshippers

Not all adventurers worship Corphantis, but enough do to make her a force to be reckoned with. Though there have been few demographic studies of adventurers, the best estimates have it that about 17% of adventurers worship Corphantis exclusively; some 35% worship her along with other gods; and another 30% do not actively worship her but frequently propitiate or petition her. In addition, she still retains some devotees among other sorts of travelers, though these no longer make up her main base of worshippers.

There are also some sedentary sacricolists who worship Corphantis despite doing little or no travel. This may be because they harbor a secret wish to be adventurers but are unable for whatever reason to do so—or even because they do aspire to embark on adventuring lives in the future, whether or not there is any realistic chance they ever will. It may also be because they harbor some romantic attachment to the idea of adventuring, even if they have no plans themselves to follow the lifestyle. In any case, because such adherents of Corphantis are seldom open about their devotion, their number is unknown, and estimates vary widely.

Worshippers of Corphantis utter brief but frequent prayers, impetrating her aid against perils and inconveniences of travel. They often use her name in oaths and ecphoneses. Some of these, indeed, have become so well known that they have entered use even among people who do not worship Corphantis, have no interest in her, and may not even think about the origin of the interjections. Exclamations like "by Tissie's tread" and "Cor confound you" are commonly heard in many parts of Gala.

A worshipper of Corphantis is sometimes called a "Corphantine" (pronounced /ˈkɒ˞fæn.taɪn/ or /ˈkɒ˞fæn.tiːn/).

Priesthood

Corphantis is served by many peregrine priests who wander across large areas. A few of them follow consistent courses on regular schedules, so their perambulations are predictable and those who wish their services can arrange to meet them. These, however, are in the minority; most of Corphantis's peripatetic priests obambulate at random, making meeting up with them mostly a matter of chance. For this reason, adventurers who do happen across one of Corphantis's itinerant priests try to take full advantage of the encounter, asking for anything they think they might need, and dealing generously with the sacerdote in hopes of currying Corphantis's favor.

There are priests associated with individual temples of Corphantis, but they do not spend all their time there. While this may not have been true in the past, modern temple priests of Corphantis are almost without exception adventurers themselves, and take turns to tend to their templar duties. At any given time, perhaps one third of the sacerdotes stationed at a particular temple will actually be present there, the remainder out on their own exploits, perhaps with some of their fellow priests or perhaps in company with unclerical adventurers (probably, though not necessarily, themselves lay worshippers of Corphantis).

Places of worship

Temples devoted to Corphantis are relatively rare, and are found primarily in settlements that are common haunts of adventurers. This includes cities that lie on major crossroads, but also include those that contain or vicinate major adventuring destinations. Even where they do exist, temples of Corphantis are seldom very large, but they are frequenty lavishly, if eclectically, decorated, with garnitures and gallantries gathered from all parts of the world by her wandering worshippers. The wealthiest of the temples maintain within them permanent portals to matching portals in other temples of Corphantis elsewhere in Gala, perhaps in distant vales. Typically the goddess's devout can pass through these portals gratis, but nonworshippers may also be allowed to use them for a suitable janage—this in some cases providing the temple with a significant source of income.

While full temples of Corphatis may be uncommon, small extra-urban shrines are considerably more numerous. Erected on the sides of roads and byways, these shrines are usually made of stone and centered around receptacles for the deposit of donations. Although no priests are stationed at these shrines, they may be defended by summoned or constructed creatures or by protective rhegi. Followers of Corphantis frequently leave at these shrines objects they happen upon in their travels that look interesting or unusual but which they cannot easily sell for much profit. (Donations can also, of course, be made at the temples, but the much more common shrines provide a convenient way to make the donation when there is no temple nearby.) Itinerant priests of Corphantis, when they pass the shrines, empty the receptacles. If they know of a good buyer for the items within, they might sell them; if they know of some worthy organization that might benefit from them, they might donate them to a good cause; otherwise they bring the remainder of the contents to the next temple of their goddess that they pass, for the presiding priests there to do with as they will. Many of the items Corphantis's adventuring faithful leave at the shrines have archæological significance, and archæologists and anthropologists are thus frequent beneficiaries of the priests' largesse, and many of them have forged regular relationships with Corphantis's clergy—though of course many of the more adventurous among them are worshippers of Corphantis themselves.

Many of Corphantis's settled worshippers build their own personal shrines to Corphantis in their homes. In some communities, such worshippers find each other and form small congregations, gathering regularly at a shrine in the home of one of their members to worship Corphantis and observe her rites. Such congregations call themselves "Adventurers Clubs", even though it's rare that any of their members have done any adventuring—still, they love to talk with each other about adventuring and what they think is the life of the adventurer. Of course, if they should find out about real accomplished adventurers passing through their towns, most Adventurers Clubs will be eager to invite them as guest speakers, and even offer them honorary membership.

Unique among major Galan gods, Corphantis also has many mobile temples, called wainkirks. These wainkirks are designed so that they can be collapsed to fit on one or two wagons, so carried to another town or locale, set up there for a few days, then collapsed again and brought back to the next town. Wainkirks provide most of the same services as stationary temples, although wainkirks that contain permanent portals are rare (though not nonexistent).

Trappings and ceremonies

There are relatively few specific rituals associated with Corphantis, but there are some practices that have been developed, or that have been retained (or revived) from her earlier days. One of the most common involves an object called a trailbox. Trailboxes are relatively small, averaging perhaps 1500 cubic centimeters in volume, and are generally made of wood. When they reach an area they have not visited before, or at least one they have not visited recently, a worshipper of Corphantis will take some of the earth from this location and mix it with that already in the trailbox—discarding a portion of the earth previously in the box to make room if necessary. In this way, a trailbox in principle contains a mixture of earth from everywhere the Corphantine has traveled.

Another well known ritual associated with Corphantis is the retiral of the footpiece. When a worshipper of Corphantis wears out a shoe or boot, they dispose of the deteriorated item in a special ceremony, commending it as an offering to their goddess representing their long travels. During the retiral of the footwear, a celebrant may also ask Corphantine for favors. Of course, it may not often happen that an adventurer or traveler's need of a favor from Corphantine will fortuitously coincide with their shoe's dilapidation, so there have been devised a few exploits to get around this. Some worshippers of Corphantine intentionally wear low-quality, flimsy chaussure that will wear out quickly, the better to be able to make frequent retirals. A more common recourse for worshippers wanting to honor Corphantis by the retiral ritual but not having any footwear about to wear out is the use of shadow shoes, shoes made of paper or similarly spere materials that will be destroyed after only a few steps. It's also a common practice to set aside footwear that is about to fall apart but is not quite ready for retiral yet, to be worn—and worn out—when its retiral is needed.

Boons

In keeping with her original field, Corphantis usually grants boons related to travel. Common boons include increased endurance, increased speed, flight, and translocation. She may also grant the ability of metagenosis into one of her associated animals—a horse, osprey, buffalo, or butterfly.

Recently, Corphantis has branched out and begun granting boons related more generally to adventuring and not necessarily to travel: enhancing weapons and armor, granting temporary powers such as regeneration or augabole, and the granting of knowledge relevant to the worshipper's current endeavors.

Relationships

In Corphantis's time as an obscure goddess of travel, she had little to do with any other gods. There were stories of her having dealings with Khuz, god of the waste; with Ahao, goddess of the sky; and with P'áaai Lǒh, patron god of the city of K'wā Tì; but in all the cases they were only brief encounters; she had no close relationships with them or with any other deities.

As Corphantis gained popularity as a goddess of adventurers, however, her power surpassed that of many gods who had previously overshadowed her, and several of them were abjectated to become her subdivine servants. The best known of these include Za, Hnaci, Siselis, and Shchakh, formerly gods respectively of fortune, warriors, secrets, and wealth.

Holidays

The only popular holiday that seems to have originated with Corphantis is the Day of Offset, commemorated on the Fet of Vevvam. Today this is considered even by those who don't worship Corphantis as a propitious time to begin a journey, but the faithful time not only travel to start on that day, but all sorts of endeavors; a Corphantine may begin multiple projects on the Day of Offset, even if they don't intend to continue some of those projects till a considerable time later.

In addition to the Day of Offset, Corphantis has other holidays that she "inherited" from gods she supplanted or subjugated. Ywyntide, the Brist of Gezzem, is a day of mock battle; past combats are commemorated and reenacted in stylized form, and current conflicts are deraigned by ritualized agonisms. Hapnight, the Mold of Jhuvam, is devoted to games of all sorts, though especially games of chance, and on this day some even gamble with demons, beastlords, and gods. Witchhop, the Scann of Chassam, is despite its odd and somewhat sinister name a day concerned with reflecting on the stars, and given over primarily to contemplative uranoscopy.