Lands of Tyranny
Day 5 of The Philosopher, Year 414
Aspidis
The Father of Snakes, The Great Protector, The Creator of the World, Poisoner of Minds
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Symbol: A coiled snake
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For Tlatlacah: God of pride, safety, shelter, the stars and the night sphere, duality
For others: God of lies, deception, ambushes, poison, and insanity
Aspidis is the god father of the serpentmen, the most ancient race known to inhabit the Continent.
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According to the ancient legends and the beliefs of the Serpentmen, Aspidis is a God made to look like a snake so large that its body would run between the earth, the moon, the sun, and the stars. A God who created the entire universe with its breath, the stars being but tiny, shiny acid particles of his saliva that remained spilled and floating in the void that it inhabits and fills, keeping the black demons that lurk it from reaching earth, and the stars and moon from collapsing and colliding into each other, or falling down on the ground in a torrent of flames.
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Connected to this myth is the belief that falling stars happen each time that Aspidis is forced to deal with a particularly dangerous attempt of the demons to destroy the universe.
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That is why Serpentmen are very dedicated to its cult and to helping the God with its task of preserving and protecting the world and society whole from other destructive forces that would instead like to see everything fall apart, and knowledge or society gone.
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The Serpentmen great architecture is a perfect example of this attempt at building things that are made to last and endure, often building them also as protective shells around something else they want to protect: culture, and civilization, often in the form of great texts and tomes, often considered holy, as they help to make knowledge, lives, and stories long lasting and immutable.
Aspidis is also at the same time a deity of the earth, and it is said to be wrapping its infinitely long tail around it to keep it from falling apart into the void, and to prevent the oceans from spilling over, devoiding the world from its precious, life bringing water.
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Aspidis is said to be particularly protective of its own kind, gifting them with the strength and cunning of a snake as well as the resilience of their giant stone buildings.
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As the deity of duality, Aspidis is worshipped in the symbol of the serpent biting its own tail, to signify that anything in nature can’t exist without its very opposite.
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Its worshippers often interpret this by giving things a ‘double sided’ inspiration, putting an object that may be an opposite symbol to what they want to represent, or representing also death in a ritual of life.
While also commonly considered part of the Old Gods, its worship was outlawed even before the coming of the New Gods, due to its unwashable association with the treacherous, alien race of the Serpentmen, who were thought to inhabit jungles and be a race of demons, delighting themselves in toying and torturing humans that would be so unwise to venture into the forests. Indeed close to reality in an ancient past where the Serpentmen were still a powerful race.
Secret sects of worshippers of Aspidis however remained all over the known world, especially in these regions where it was more common to stumble upon the majestic and in some cases awe inspiring ruins. These worshippers often called themselves Sibilans, a name inspiring both a feeling of fraternity (sibling) and of whispering in secret in the ancient tongue of the Serpentmen (Tlatlacahan), hinting at their strong and secret community.
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The Sibilans are humans who worship the Serpentmen as superior entities, messengers of their god, often dedicating themselves to keeping some ancient ruins from deteriorating further, or to studying their statues and symbols, reproducing them before time (and the Empire) could completely wipe them out. Madness is also often thought to be a blessing from Aspidis, a state of mind of people who are now closer to the gods, their spirit finding itself halfway already between the stars.
Rituals of the Sibilans often take place in ancient and abandoned Serpentmen ruins and involve painting themselves and crawling on the ground like serpents would, as well as being bitten by venomous serpents as forms of trial or punishment, and sacrificing animals or even other humanoids to snakes.
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One of the beliefs of these cultists is that through their dedication, their god would elevate them from their mortal form into one of a superior Serpentman. And indeed legends tell of some whose skin started to become greener, and started to develop scales on their bodies.
Author: Rashan