Caius

A more dramatic render by an artist of the Shimmering Troupe, of Caius. It's veracity is questionable.

"Only the selfish and cruel find themselves talking in circles. Those who are kind and loving need only to watch and wait."

As the Primordial who inherited the Aspect of Ymir's love for the First Men, Caius stands as an oddity compared to the others of the Pantheon to which he belongs. Though he isn't the most mysterious - that title goes to Gala, given her enigmatic nature - he instead stands as the most unknown, owing to centuries of confusion both accidental and intentional on the parts of many of his mortal worshippers over the thousands of years since his creation.

There is one known factor, however, that has been meticulously tracked over the Ages in which the Pariah has been absent. Though many of his fellow Aspects gravitated naturally to followers they already deemed suitable, Caius himself did not show a habit of doing so. Instead, his philosophy was simple; even if it took decades, one would always be welcome upon his path. This, along with many other historical drifts to his character and habits, lead to a single conclusion: he is the member of the Pantheon most affected by humanity, if such a thing is possible for a Primordial.

Those unfamiliar with Caius question what possible link could exist between his domains. Indeed, even some of Caius' faithful tend to choose one aspect alone and venerate it, rather than following the god in all his portfolio. This isn’t a problem by and large, because much like Nemean faith, Caian faith is fragmented in its practices. This diversity of beliefs, rather than representing an issue, is actively valued by most Caians. "All loves are as singular as all deaths," as the saying goes.

Those who adhere to relatively mainstream Caian beliefs in Meranthe, though, say that love is the central thread that unites their god's disparate domains. After all, it is only love that makes of death an abandonment, and it is death that often teaches us the true depths of love. As such, the heart of Caian practice is to value love when one is living, but to understand death will come to us all, and to learn to accept it by abandoning our loved ones to the grave's care when the time comes.

Caius' faithful are often viewed with suspicion and concern by other adherents to the Pantheon, who view them as ghoulish voyeurs at best and freaks who put the 'romance' in 'necromancer' at worst. In reality, however, Caians tend to be thoughtful, disciplined people who celebrate the beauty of life by being aware of its fragility. (The majority also firmly reject necromancy as absolutely counter to Caius' core beliefs.)

Appearance

Caius is often pictured as a slender young man with shining dark skin, given the flushed cheeks and too-bright eyes common to sufferers of consumption. His lips, blood-stained from coughing, are red as the roses with which his white hair is traditionally crowned. For all that, he is always shown smiling, beatified by the pain he suffers.

It is traditional to depict him turning away, already in the process of moving on.

Mythos

What need does the Pantheon have for a god of death when Mortyl, one of the six Constants, represents Death already?

The answer lies in the nature of the Pantheon itself - the result of Amier's sacrifice to deify the highest virtues of human nature. Caius's original portfolio was love, in all its many forms. The moment he sprung from Amier's sundering, however, he comprehended the mortal nature of death - and as such, he discovered that to love as humans do was to sow the seed of your own destruction.

What came next, however, is highly debated.

Oh, the facts are simple enough: Caius abandoned his siblings and their work on sacred Mount Pavonis to chase after Mortyl, Lady Death herself. It is the motive and meaning of this act that divides the faithful.

The Wolken of Enobora believe in the most straightforward explanation - that Caius left his post for love of Mortyl, and pursues her still. It is a common belief in some parts of Meranthe as well, with some saying that the love is returned, and others denying that a Constant could ever share so human an emotion as love. Others still believe that Caius' love for Mortyl is a representation of the human fascination with death, and how our preoccupation with it often consumes our lives.

In most of Meranthe, however, they tell a different story. They say that Caius sought Mortyl out of a more selfless love: to beg intercession that death should not touch mankind, much as Azrael had tried to force the point long before. It was the foolish act of a foolish youth, born from his very human perspective of what death might mean, and very soon Lady Mortyl set him right.

Death, she told him, is the ultimate gift for the human soul. For mankind was born to love, and to love is to know pain, and to die is the only end of it.

Mankind was born to cling fiercely to the things that they love, and in doing so, to wound themselves time and time again by persevering in hopeless affections. Even without death, love would be lost - to time, to indifference, to many other flavors of parting. Death, then, is the final consolation for all that suffering - the transition to a realm where we might at last know peace. And life, in turn, is our training for death: a time to store up the wild joys mortality allows, so that they might be savored in gentle contentment over the aeons that follow.

A fundamentally immortal being, Caius could not comprehend this answer - but he was determined to do so. Instead of returning to his duties, he roamed the whole wide world, in search of understanding of mortal love and death. He witnessed great feats of both, and yet the truth of them eluded him so long as he inhabited his ageless, changeless godhood. In penance, he vowed at last to see the matter as mortals do, and set upon his own head the enchanted crown he bears. Its thorns, woven deep through his body, feed on his flesh and blood.

He moves through the world still, lingering among chosen mortals for fifty years at a time, learning to love them; then, when his time has passed, he perishes from his curse to experience the sweet relief of death. Born again to suffer anew, he continues the cycle, forever in quest of a deeper understanding.

As such, Caius is first and foremost the god of love - for even his thousand deaths spring from the depths of his tender heart.

Mortals and Caius’ Worship

Though the last of the Pantheon’s deities had been the first to depart, that did not stop worship of him in the slightest – in the sake of his departure, it instead became more reverent than before. Some followers of his nascent beliefs chose to become what they viewed as the dead he revered instead of trying to live in a world without their god close at hand. Others still became hermits and wanderers, adhering to more medicinal practices. As such, though knowledge of Caius is present in regions adjacent to Meranthe, there have been very few formal gatherings.

This would not stop a religious schism from occurring, however. Though necromancy had struggled to take hold in the hearts of many followers while the Pariah was present, their faith had been shaken by his departure, and their resolve to find answers rapidly descended into desperation. Foreign agents suggested that they look internally – but in the same fell swoop, the concept that Caius was in love with Mortyl herself was introduced into the very core of his worship. Having found their answer on why their god fled, previously harmless texts were read with a different sort of love in mind. It only took a few short centuries for the explanation of the quiet god’s actions to spread, and even non-necromantic worshippers grew to believe the tale like a holy text. This similarly turned into Caius’ domains drifting; instead of the dead, he now represented Death itself. Patience had similarly turned into graves and easy rest, the result of the journey instead of the journey itself.

The point of no return came, perhaps surprisingly, during the rise of Ozmandias Tal. Though it has been believed by scholars for centuries that the Litany of Undeath was based on Caian rites, his attempts to erase any contradictory documents to his own claims have been uncovered to be far larger and wide-spanning than previously thought. Ancient traditions were lost; instructional papers were destroyed; even the culture of older Meranthian practices found themselves under the label of destruction. By the time historians found the remnants, they were of no use – the records, at least on the surface, were lost to time.

Caius, instead, has developed a quirk most strange in his worship. Multiple factors – including his association with necromancy, his distance from any other god as the Pariah, intricate social factors, and the lack of an overarching system of belief – have led to sole worship of him being largely unpopular. He is oftentimes found as a secondary entity to a larger primary god instead, the most frequent of which is Mortyl. His worship is not individualistic to the level of one such as Nemea; instead, he takes a back seat, watching and waiting.

Necromantic Beliefs

The history of Caius and necromancy is long, intertwined and – above all – complex. The dilution of a god that doesn’t wish to be around to clarify his position has led to an entire field of academic debate around whether or not he approves of the act. However, this question is far more complex than it seems for a simple reason: the debate itself has multiple different facets, depending on which type of adherent you’re discussing with and which perspective they happen to view him in.

Most Meranthian perspectives will posit the question in the form of his connection to the aspect of death, questioning whether a subversion of mortality serves as a form of adherence to death itself as a concept. Departing from Meranthe, however, results in more varied answers to the question; some sects would say that it has to do with restoring life to the soil and giving back through their graves, while other sects would yet argue that it instead has to do with his association and reverence of the dead.

No matter the answer to this question, the ties between necromancy and Caius have gone too far to be reversed. Dividing worshippers into sects is most often done not by the intricacies of their worship, but instead based on whether or not they view the act of raising undead as unholy or holy in its own unsacred right. Though inquiring with an emissary of the god himself is a path that one might take, there is a very high chance that they will be as quiet on the subject as he is.

Customs

Despite the variability of Caian practice, certain customs are common throughout Meranthe among worshipers:

• The Watch: Caians are bidden by their faith to attend weddings and funerals whenever possible, even if uninvited. At weddings, they will pray the happy couple be parted only by death, and that not for many years; at funerals, they will pray that the dead sleep easily, and that their loved ones do not disturb their rest by clinging to their life too desperately. Some people consider this good luck; others disparagingly call Caians 'vultures' for such practices.

• Grave Service: Caians follow elaborate funereal rites designed to help the living sever their ties to the dead. As such, it is a Caian belief that once these rites are completed, no one should tend to the gravestone of their own beloved. Instead, Caians pledge to share in what is called 'grave service' - to maintain and beautify the resting places of people they never knew in life. This is one Caian custom that is actually admired by other religions, and one of the reasons Caians remain tolerated.

• Groves of Contemplation: In lieu of normal churches, Caians often seek out secluded spaces to beautify via ritual gardening. These gardens rely exclusively on flowers that perish after a single blooming season, requiring replanting every spring. These spaces are used both for solitary prayer and for the sharing of stories, which traditionally focus on love in the blooming summers and death in the withered winters.

• Attire and Symbols: Many Caians wear red, black, and white, and crowns of flowers (especially roses) are commonly worn. These crowns must be discarded when the flowers wither, however, as the dead must be released from mortal love.

Relationships

Caius’s domains overlap in interesting ways with much of the other Pantheon. Caians consider him close to Nemea, for a shared interest in grief and the flow of the seasons; close to Athelios, as well, as a god who must balance opposing domains from the darker side of life. Caians’ appreciation of life and emotion were thought to overlap with Mestran creativity as well, and the peripatetic nature of a god of abandonment can fit well with Chireus.

(The followers of these other gods do not always agree, sometimes preferring to shun the Pariah.)

Gods of honor and duty such as Enarr and Ualdir, on the other hand, deal poorly with their strangest sibling even in the eyes of Caians themselves.

And Caius’s precise relationship with Mortyl is a matter of great disagreement between sects.

Sects

Caians who do not follow the mainstream practices above may follow their own paths, or possibly be part of one of these example sects below:

The Heart of the Rose

Patrons: Caius.

Religious Head: Perianth (the strongest necromancer within an individual group, which is called an ‘inflorescence’.)

Description: Most Caians reject necromancy - but not all. The Heart of the Rose, a small and secretive sect, believe that to love death is to surround oneself with it, until the whole world is as scarlet as the view from the innermost petal of the rose. As such, they support wanton, ritualistic killings utilized to gain the power required to resurrect those they love.

Members of the Heart tirelessly seek true resurrection, in order to reclaim the actual souls and spirits of their loved ones. In the meantime, however, they strive to resurrect corpses in the most exquisitely beautiful ways as possible, clothing their undead in red brocade and withered rose-crowns to luxuriate in decay.

Initiates of the Heart are called Calyx (the sepals of the rose); priests are Corolla (the petals); and the strongest within the faith, the Perianth (the entirety of the flower). Of course, necromancers cannot truly wield the power of faith, so instead of markers such as Radiance they chart their progress by the number, strength, and beauty of their 'beloved'.

Rituals

• The Scarlet Sanctum: A particular method of ritualistic sacrifice utilized to maximize the energy of death. It typically involves dosing victims with a secret elixir intended to awaken the maximum strength of their magic, then dueling them honorably in close combat within a small, red-walled room. The most skillful practitioners kill as cleanly as possible, to fill a grail with their victim’s blood for the offering.
• The Last Awakening: When a member of the Heart loses a loved one, every member of the cult brings an adornment - jewelry, clothing, etc - to dress the corpse. These adornments serve as sacrifices to initial a complex ritual, in which the necromancers work together to render the corpse as beautifully preserved as possible in the resurrection. The actual outcome of this process depends primarily on the skill and resources of the head necromancer; to bring back a corpse looking nearly pristine can help one’s case for Perianth status tremendously.
• A Seal Upon Thy Heart: Wedding ceremonies in the Heart are gorgeous, decadent, elaborate affairs that can last for a week or more, culminating in rituals intended to bind the lovers for all eternity. Identical rune-roses are tattooed on both partners with ink made from their own blood, magically declaring the two as one - and prohibiting anyone but their partner from resurrecting them, should their partner still live at the time of their death.

Vows

• Do not permit those you love to be lost; keep them with you always.
• Do not strive to defeat death by true resurrection, but to perfect it - to hold each other and ourselves in that blessed state.
• Offer deaths of splendor and romance even to the unworthy, for all things deserve beauty in death.

Witnesses to the End

Patrons: Caius/Chireus

Religious Head: None; an explicitly egalitarian sect.

Description: The Witnesses wander the world as nomadic pilgrims to offer company and dignity to all the dying. This is an act of love, in their theology, but also an act of abandonment; they will stay only as long as is required to bear witness. Yet they take the memory of those they witness with them, ensuring that something of them shall always remain. Some sects of Caius consider this to tread dangerously close to violating the true notion of abandonment, but most honor the Witnesses for their sheer commitment to their beliefs.

Rituals

• Leave-taking: When the Witnesses have completed their duty in a place, any who have witnessed a death will leave behind a small sacrifice. A lock of hair is traditional, burned in a campfire, to indicate recognition that something profound has been lost in this moment. The nature of this sacrifice, however, is entirely up to the Witness.
• The Graveyard Walking: Most Witnesses preserve the stories of those they’ve encountered in the form of lists and ledgers of their stories. Others, however, consider this an insufficient testimony. Ritual scarification, leaving a neat slice upon the skin for each death witnessed, is another common method.

Vows

• Allow none to die alone if you can prevent it.
• Ensure that the dead do not go forgotten.
• Never remain in a place long enough that you might be tempted to stay forever.

The Shepherds of Caius

Patrons: Caius

Religious Head: Great Shepherd; all priests are Shepherds; faithful outside of the priests are called the Flock.

Description: In the land of Enobora, Caius is the patron god of the Wolken, who consider him their creator - believing he formed them from the clouds to serve as his messengers to Mortyl. The Wolken venerate Caius's love for Mortyl as a cornerstone of their faith, their members focusing either on Death - tending to funerals, graveyards, and crypts - or Love, in selfless devotion and service to the community. Shepherds wear mostly black whichever their focus, and carry crooks as a symbol of their will to guide the herd.

Rituals

• The Parting of the Way: At confirmation into the faith, every would-be Shepherd chooses if they will devote themselves to Love or Death. For one year, they wear a veil of either white or black while following the duties of their chosen path under a Shepherd’s guidance; at the end of this year, they must share before their fellows what they have learned and seen. If they are deemed to have the clear sight needed to lead others, the veil is removed and they are named a Shepherd themselves.
• To Rest in Earth: Enoboran graveyards are also and always gardens, and not pleasure gardens but practical ones. The dead are meant to return to the cycle both spiritually and physically, their bodies providing nourishment for future generations. As such, Shepherds of Death plant orchards among the dead, their fruits to be shared on the holiest of days.
• Wings of Love: The Shepherds of Love bear the entertaining duty of carrying messages in love’s stead. The Flock confide their thoughts and wishes in their Shepherds, who in turn bring them to their objects. This might be something so simple as a bit of matchmaking, or something so extraordinary as a great cross-country odyssey to give a mother’s final words to her children. All such tasks are sacred.

Vows

• Never permit anything to exist that might violate the sacred cycle of Death.
• Whether your path be Love or Death, walk it with all your heart and commitment.
• Do not allow the flock to go astray; to guide too strictly is better than to be too lax.