Ranook
Ranook is the god of wind, travel, sailing, navigation, mathematics, and counting. He created the elvish race (the first race created after Tolilla accidentally created the aescels) and the sylphs. He is renowned for his incredible good looks and his finesse with a bow. He is also known to be a clever and sometimes mischievous god. He is revered by the sylphs, elves, nox, and cyclops, and by all coastal cities. His festival is the Wind Festival, and the month of Randith is named after him.
His Temples
The temples of Ranook are known for their white and cream building materials. They are also known for their domed roofs and ornate finishes. All temples feature a ledge altar, which is an altar placed on an unrailed balcony, where the seating is on the floor beneath. This is in addition to a regular altar. The Clergy of Ranook will also have traveling shrines, that are set up as temporary worship sites. These shrines and the accompanying clergy will travel between communities to support the worship needs of communities that are too small or have too few devotees to support a temple. During the Wind Festival, additional shrines are put out along with clergy that normally would be stationed at temples to support the festival demands.
Most temples house two to twelve artists to stay there for two to three years to work on their artistry and craft something for the temple. Elvish temples solicit the best of artists to make their temples especially magnificent. They are filled with a multitude of statues, murals, etched columns and walls, paintings, and other forms of artistry.
Temple of Ranook
Temple of Ranook
Temple of Ranook
Temple of Ranook
This is an AI Generated Image.
Worship
Worshippers to Ranook will come to the light incense and chant hymns to Ranook. They also bring sacrifices of birds to ask for help, to thank him for his assistance, and to celebrate the major events of life. They also host musical competitions and sporting events to demonstrate their passion and fealty to the god and to commemorate the pursuit of excellence.
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At home, devotees will keep a statue or icon of the god, which they will greet each morning. They will also small pieces of food or sweet treats on a plate once a week.
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The worship of Ranook is the official state religion in Serracole. While other religions are allowed, all parents/guardians are required to take their children through the illustration ritual when they come of age, regardless of whichever god/goddess they are devoted to personally. They are also not allowed to blaspheme Ranook or deface his visage/temples, otherwise, they are put into prison for a time.
Most residents of Serracole are devotees of Ranook. Many devotees are in Rohuroku, Sotram, Tirtwyl, and the Southern Islands. It is prevalent among sylphs, elves, nox, and cyclops, and by all coastal cities. There are satyrs and centaurs who also worship him.
Sacred
Ranook holds certain objects and rituals as sacred to him, and devotees of Ranook, therefore, hold these things sacred as well.
1. Ingenuity: Ranook values ingenuity and using intelligence and prudence to come up with creative solutions and inventions. Followers of him honor the god by studying and making scientific, medical, architectural, and artistic progress.
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2. Excellence and Beauty: Ranook values beauty and perfection. Followers of Ranook strive for excellence in work, athletic endeavors, and in all things. They also strive for beauty and purity in all things as well.
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3. Order and Decorum: Ranook values propriety and order in society and in organizations. Those who revere Ranook will behave properly in society and not act contrarian to social norms or customs to make a public scene. They also will not cheat to get ahead in competitions by subverting direct rules. While they do not believe in subverting direct rules, it is not a crime to come up with creative solutions to get ahead, as that is using ingenuity. Harmless displays of frivolity are considered to be in good humor and are not considered to fall under the umbrella of lack of decorum, as long as they do not cause a public nuisance.
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4. The Elves: As the elves are the first purposeful sentient race created, and created by Ranook after his own visage, Ranook holds all elves as sacred. All elves are to worship him and care for their bodies and appearances in honor of their creator.
Blasphemy
Ranook holds certain practices as blasphemous to him, and devotees of Ranook, therefore, hold these things as blasphemous as well. Those who commit blasphemy against Ranook may be pelted by his arrows as they journey to the land of the dead. They may also have flurries of wind blowing them off course as they journey there. They may also have their language distorted for a time, so they cannot communicate with others once they get there.
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1. Destroying Art/Excellence: Ranook is offended when people deface works of art and beauty. The more unique and irreplaceable something is, the more offended he is by their defacement, and the more blasphemous it becomes. The same is true for athletic, musical, or artistic persons, especially ones of immense and unique talent. When someone kills or maims or imprisons such persons so they cannot perform their work, that is also blasphemous to Ranook. While self-defense or criminal prosecution absolves guilt in such situations, many government leaders in Serracole will still allow artists to practice their craft in prison, and even sometimes give athletes leave from prison to perform in competitions.
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2. Stifling Ingenuity: Ranook is offended by those who stifle ingenuity through oppressive rules/laws, bullying/harassment, etc. This is especially true for those who do so due to ego or to protect their position.
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3. Cheating: Those who cheat to get ahead in competitions, take credit for another person's accomplishments, or sabotage their opponents offend Ranook. However, it is to be noted that those who come up with creative solutions to get ahead are not regarded as cheating, but as being innovative, as long as they are not directly breaking the rules of competition or plagiarizing.
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4. The Profane: Vulgar language, hideous imagery, and vulgar acts and performances are all offensive to the god. This is dependent on their severity, degree of publicness, and to whom the offense was directed. Profanities against the gods/goddesses, especially Ranook warrant additional offense, and require penitent inquiries of forgiveness and self-denial at the direction of his priests and priestesses.
Rituals
Ranook has five sacred rituals that all devotees must perform: Lustration, Marriage, Launching, Torch Lighting, and the Final Launch
1. Lustration: Around the start of maturation (the time a menstrual cycle starts, and the male equivalent), children are brought to the temple of Ranook with their parents/guardians and stand at the lower base of the ledge altar. The priest/priestess will direct the parents/guardians to mark the child on their forehead with some dirt. The child will then be directed to step beyond their parents, to the area almost beneath the altar. The priest/priestess will invoke the sacred winds to take them up to the ledge altar. There on the balcony, another priest/priestess will await them. The awaiting priest/priestess will wipe the dirt off, and mark them instead with some red or purple wine/fruit juice. Then he/she will bless the child and announce their moral culpability before Ranook (since they are now of age where they and not their parents are responsible for their moral wrongs. It is to be noted that followers of Ranook do not consider this age the age of sexual consent or the age where children can get married or sign contracts, but rather the age where they are morally culpable for disobeying Ranook's laws, and legally culpable if they steal, attack, kill, or commit other crimes). The priest/priestess will then direct the child to step to the edge of the balcony. The sacred winds will lift the child into the air, and slowly set the child back down onto the ground floor.
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2. Marriage: In separate waiting rooms, two to four family members/attendants mark the bride and groom with red or purple wine/fruit juice on their foreheads. The family members/attendants direct the bride and groom separately up the stairs to the ledge altar where the priest/priestess awaits. Any other family or friends wait in the pews on the base floor. The priest/priestess has their prospective family members/attendants announce their names and their intentions. The priest/priestess will then read off the responsibilities and commitments of marriage. He/she will then ask the groom and bride individually if they are willing to make that commitment. When each answers in the affirmative, the priest/priestess will wet their fingertip and smear the wine/fruit stain in the direction of the other person. When they finish, the priest/priestess will repeat the responsibilities/commitment and tell them that if they accept their responsibilities to arise. The priest/priestess will have them take each other's hand and step to the ledge. The couple is then bidden to step off the ledge. The couple steps off and the sacred winds catch them halfway down, lowering them the rest of the way (it is important to note that the couple must firmly hold hands and step off the ledge together to fall at the same time. If they do not, their hands will be ripped apart, and they will fall separately. If that is the case, the ceremony must be repeated. If the couple fails to do it three times in a row, they must wait a month before they are able to try again.) The priest/priestess then raises the volume of his/her voice, filling the entire room as he/she declares the couple husband and wife.
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3. Launching: When a sea-faring ship is launched for the first time, a priest/priestess or Ranook will ask for the god's blessing while at sea. The owner will bring some sort of bird as a sacrifice, and the priest/priestess will sacrifice the bird. Then the priest/priestess will take two handfuls of the bird's feathers, and blow them and the ship forward into the ocean/sea with the sacred winds. This ceremony is specifically for sea-faring boats that are more than just canoes or paddle boats. Ranook requires that the launchers perform this ceremony, whether or not they worship him. Any ship that does not will not stay afloat for more than a month at the god's decree. Because of this, it is standard practice for boat/ship manufacturers to perform this ceremony before selling their boats/ships to people. If someone buys a boat/ship, assuming that this ceremony was already completed, and their boat/ship is destroyed/scuttled as a result, the manufacturer is considered liable for the full cost of the boat/ship and any cargo on board that was lost. Criminal suits may also be brought forward if any people died in addition to the ship and cargo being lost, and the manufacturer could be guilty of negligent homicide or murder depending on the case. Therefore most manufacturers will keep records of Launching Ceremony completions to protect themselves from lawsuits and criminal suits in case a ship/boat is destroyed/scuttled.
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4. Torch Lighting: To start public competitions or events, and sometimes to inaugurate leaders, a priest/priestess will light an arrow on fire, and then shoot that arrow through a distant hoop, causing the hoop to catch fire. This will garner Ranook's blessing and demonstrate that it is done in his honor. It is to be noted that this is not how all competitions start, as only a priest/priestess is allowed to do this. If there are no clergy present to do this, it is blasphemous to start an event this way, so event organizers will start the event in a different fashion.
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5. The Final Launch: When elves or other followers of Ranook die, their bodies or ashes are put on a boat or raft and sent out to sea or downstream. After the eulogy, the priest/priestess will apply the sacred wind to launch their remains far away. Alternatively, their ashes may also be placed on a stable platform, and the sacred wind is applied to scatter them away. This is often done when there is no moving source of water nearby, or when there are concerns with contaminating sources of water. With this, any large bones are buried or interned as any other set of remains.
Wind Festival (Fall Equinox Festival)
The Wind Festival is dedicated to the god Ranook. It starts Manday, the 9th of the month Randith, which occurs around our version of September 20 or 21. It lasts three days (like every festival). Traditionally the harvest season begins following the festival.
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The Wind Festival is meant to call for safe winds for the last sail of the season, before the ships are pulled to harbor. The final day of the festival usually ends, if weather permits, with the priests or priestesses of Ranook using wind magic to launch a ship as a form of ceremony (other boats will simply set sail the next day). This festival was originally more of a holiday for coastal regions and for devotees of the god Ranook, but has become more popular over the years, even in inland regions.
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During the festival, people will usually sail paper or leaf boats as a way of celebrating. Since Ranook is a trickster god, people will also play harmless pranks on friends and acquaintances.
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Clergy
Ranook has both priests and priestesses. Their roles and functions are not differentiated in any sense, although they may be separated by gender for gender-based counseling of devotees and for clerical housing. Priests and priestesses can be married and have children, but are not allowed to become high or archpriests/priestesses if they do so (even if they abandon their child, they are still disqualified). High priests/priestesses and archpriests/priestesses are not allowed to get married unless they get someone pregnant or become pregnant while serving in their position. In those circumstances, they may marry the mother/father of their child if both parties so desire. Either way, if they have a child, they may maintain their current position, but they cannot move up the ranks or transfer to a different high priest/priestess or archpriest/priestess position. If they wish to transfer, they must revert back to a regular priest/priestess (though their original magic level is maintained).
Priests and priestesses are not allowed to marry or have sexual relations with their fellow clergy or any worker, artist, or person residing at the temple. If they are caught doing so, they may be transferred, put on probation, or immediately dismissed from the clergy. They are not allowed to engage in any sexual relations or other practices that would bring shame, embarrassment, or derision to their temple or the clergy if discovered. If the priest/priestess does so, they may be put on probation or immediately dismissed from the clergy. If a priest/priestess chooses to marry/have children, they may live together with their family on the outskirts of the temple grounds. If the family chooses not to live there, they may do so, but the priest/priestess cannot live with their family, they must live within temple grounds. Priests/priestesses who have children, whether inside or outside of wedlock must give financial support. While allowing the family to live on temple grounds is considered sufficient to fulfill this obligation, if the family chooses not to live on the temple grounds, the priest/priestess is required to perform extra tasks or go on traveling shrine duties more often to receive funds to send to his/her children.
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Temple workers are not part of the clerical order. There are no monastic orders.
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Priests/priestesses start as pledges, for the period of one to three years. Pledges are usually fair young, between twelve to twenty-one years of age, or the elvish/race age equivalent. They must have been through the Lustration Ritual or they cannot become pledges. Anyone older than twenty-four (or the elf/race age equivalent), cannot become an apprentice unless given special permission by the regional archpriest/priestess. Pledges have until the end of their third year to be accepted as apprentices by the high priest/priestess of the temple, otherwise, they are kicked out of the order. They may try to become a pledge at another location, but they must start over at the beginning. Apprentices serve for a period of seven years before they become initiates. Initiates serve between one to three years until the high priest/priestess decides to bestow the rank of priest/priestess. If their high priest/priestess does not bestow the rank after three years, they may transfer to another temple to start their time over as an initiate. If they have not been granted the rank of priest/priestess by the end of their tenth year, their rank is stripped from them and they are dismissed from the clergy. However, their magical powers remain.
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All pledges and apprentices are instructed in archery. Pledges, apprentices, and initiates all perform cleaning and groundwork within the temple, though they also have laborers working within the walls of the temple as well.
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Third-year apprentices are given a quarter portion of wind magic (a portion being the amount of magic a magic person would naturally possess). Initiates are given a half portion of magic. Priests/priestesses are given a full portion of magic. High priests are given a double portion of magic, and archpriests/priestesses are given two and a half portions of magic. This is in addition to whatever magic they may already have.
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In addition to wind magic, novitiates (and all higher levels) receive the ability to land on their feet without harm. They also can project their voice, either to an audience or to a specific individual that is far away. Priests/priestesses (and all higher levels) can curse shots (arrows, knives, magic blasts, etc.) to not hit their target. They can also curse individuals with a whistling sound in their ears or give them difficulty in hearing for anywhere from a day to an entire year depending on what the curse is. However, people have been able to counter the curse by gouging out their ears and healing them. High priests and Arch priests can also curse people's language, so they can only speak gibberish. This can last for anywhere from a day to an entire year. The cursed's lips still make the same motions as if they were speaking normally, so lip-readers can understand them. The curse can be counteracted by slashing the vocal cords and healing them.
Sacred Winds
When performing rituals, priests/priestesses where a ceremonial necklace that allows them to summon the sacred winds. The sacred winds are powerful levitation spells that surround the worshipper/item in a sea of wind. The priest/priestess then directs the wind to wherever they wish them/it to go.
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Priests/priestesses can perform rituals without the ceremonial necklace. However, the sacred wind costs a high level of magical power, and it can be difficult to complete certain longer ceremonies without the aid of the ceremonial necklace. This is especially true when priests/priestesses are tasked with completing multiple ceremonies in a row. Ship Launching ceremonies are almost impossible to complete without the ceremonial necklace.​
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When not in use, ceremonial necklaces are kept inside a hidden vault inside the temple. Each temple's vault is in a different location. If the necklaces are stolen, an investigation is made to recover them. Serracole will put any individual to death who steals or is in possession of a stolen necklace (unless they are turning the necklace in). However, necklaces will still work, even when used by those outside the clergy. Because of this, some necklaces are hot commodities on the black market. Traveling shrines outside of Serracole will not use ceremonial necklaces but instead use regular necklaces/charms with vindstens. Vindsten necklaces/charms take four times the energy than the ceremonial necklace, making them less efficient. However, this is done to prevent traveling shrines and their priests/priestesses from being attacked by those who want ceremonial necklaces to have/sell.​