Kymara

She walked among us as one of us. She healed what could not be healed. She died for those who would not believe her. And she will come again.

Common Solist profession of faith

Kymara is known by many titles - the Sol Anon, the Star of Ages, the Daughter of El Anon, the Healer, the Ever-Martyred. Of all the deities in the Nor'Ovan pantheon, she is the one whose existence is most difficult to dismiss. She did not merely speak through prophets or manifest in visions. She walked on Nor'Ova in mortal form, was known by name to people who wrote about her, healed those who could not be healed by other means, and was killed - publicly, by the authority of a government - in a manner that is historically documented even by sources hostile to her followers.1

This is what separates Kymara from the other deities. El Anon is origin. Zodo is felt. But Kymara was seen. And she is believed to have returned since, and to return again.

Characteristics

¹²Verily I say onto you, the Sol Anon would raise you up, even if no trace of faith can be found in ye. What then would she do for those who believe?

Parables of Faith 8:12, The Yurie Scropa

Kymara is gentle and deeply protective. Her chief concerns are the innocent and the souls of the living - specifically keeping those souls from the corruption and claim of Zodo. She is not passive in this. Her gentleness should not be mistaken for softness. Those who have encountered her, or whom she has intervened to protect, consistently describe something that functions much more like fierce, unconditional determination than simple kindness.2

¹⁴Upon entering the town, Kymara encountered a child no more than the age of 10, fighting off a man three times her age and size seized by the hunger of lust. ¹⁵Without a word, Kymara rushed forth and put herself between the two. ¹⁶Staring down the man with righteous anger she spake, "Retreat now from here, ole captive slave of lust, and renounce your evil ways and surely grace will find you." ¹⁷The man, his hunger far from satisfied, mistook Kymara as another, more appetizing prey and leapt to her. ¹⁸But it was his death that the man leapt to, for within the twinkle of an eye only his ashes remained.

Gospel of Anartis 4:14-18, The Yurie Scropa

She is, in a sense, the direct theological counterforce to Zodo - not his equal in raw power, but his opposite in every meaningful way. Where Zodo is patient scheming, she is immediate action. Where Zodo takes, she gives. Where Zodo's love for his followers is transactional and ultimately self-serving, hers asks nothing in return and extends even to those who reject her.

⁵Tossing seeds out to the wild birds, Kymara turned to the crowd, "Do not grow jealous of the birds for the crumbs that they receive. To all I shall give, both little and large, both poor and wealthy, both devout and depraved."

Gospel of Anartis 6:5, The Yurie Scropa

Personification

Kymara appears consistently across every documented encounter and account - youthful and innocent in appearance, with long white hair and pure blue eyes. This consistency across wildly different time periods and cultures is remarkable and is frequently cited by her followers as evidence of her divine nature.3

⁴Behold, nations of the world, the poor and the suffering, the rich and thriving. For one full of mercy is to be born amongst you, to walk along side you, and to bleed for all of you. ⁵One who comes not in the form of power and glory, but in frailty and innocence.

Visions 20:4-5, The Yurie Scropa

She reincarnates. This is perhaps her most theologically distinctive characteristic - she does not merely appear in visions or speak through prophets but takes on mortal form, lives a mortal life, and invariably dies a death that her followers describe as sacrificial. The pattern repeats: she is born, she heals, she teaches, she is killed, and she is eventually seen again4. Each reincarnation produces a split in which both Kymara and Yu'Mara are alive at the same time. Her followers believe this cycle will continue until the final Ablution, when Zodo's promise of a coming reckoning - and El Anon's response to it - resolve the age-long conflict between them.

¹⁷Listen well, those who have ears to listen, for the time of Ablution shall come, and with it the final reincarnation of the Sol Anon who this time comes not to heal and to teach, but to deliver terrible judgement to the great adversary Zodo. 

Visions 34:17, The Yurie Scropa

After her first death, Kymara splintered a part of her spirit to remain with the people of Nor'Ova. That fragment became Ky Yuri - a lesser goddess in her own right, whose purpose is to comfort the innocent and test the spirits of mortals. Ky Yuri is to Kymara what Yu Yuri (the Spirit of Zodo) is to Zodo - a permanent spiritual presence in the world that endures even when the main deity is elsewhere. The two - Ky Yuri and Yu Yuri - are mirror aspects of each other, twin spirits born of parallel processes, one of light and one of shadow.5 In the late First Era, the symmetry became literal: Yu Yuri was born as Yuri, twin sister of Kileen, the mortal incarnation of Kymara.

²²As she broke bread and passed it about, Kymara spake, "Much like this bread is broken, so soon will I. But weep not, for as I am now giving you a piece of me, my spirit, the Ky Yuri, to reside with thee."

Gospel of Anartis 14:22, The Yurie Scropa

Thus Zodo great and mighty broke himself into a portion of six. To the faithful and just he left his spirit, the Yu Yuri, to keep thee.

Incantations of Genesis, Incantation 5, The Divine Incantations

Powers

Kymara's power is that of life and spirit. She can call back those who've died6, retrieve souls from Xodod, create new life, heal any wound or illness, and reincarnate. While her powers are not as vast as Zodo's in scale, they are pure and entirely devoted to the service of Nor'Ovans rather than their dominion.

²²"You are too late," the woman sighed, "My sister, a month it has been since she last drew breath! Why, oh why did you not come then?" ²³Kymara sighed, a tear forming in her eye, "Dear cousin, yet you still doubt me?" ²⁴She turned to the graveyard and with a commanding voice she spake, "Release onto me, the name I call to thee. Ella, awaken, and come to me." ²⁵The ground rumbled and from the grave, rose Ella, alive and well with not a blemish to mark her.

Gospel of Anartis 8:22-25, The Yurie Scropa

The one thing Kymara can do that Yu'Mara - the Life of Zodo, her nearest counterpart - cannot, is free souls. Yu'Mara can recall the long dead7. Kymara can release those bound to Xodod, a process that she is able to do through a door to which only she has the key8. This distinction matters enormously in practice and is the reason why even those who doubt her divinity tend to acknowledge that she is something extraordinary.9

Followers

Kymara's followers are the most numerous of any deity on Nor'Ova, and the most divided. The largest group does not even use her name — they speak only of the Sol Anon, believing that to speak her name aloud risks the enemy using it to deceive them. The strongest believers are not part of any formal church at all. Between these two poles are multiple organized faiths that share a common origin and agree on almost nothing except her importance.

The Church of Sol Anon

The Church of Sol Anon was officially founded in the year 42 of the First Era by Zamma, who became its first Priest Errant and is believed to have been a direct disciple of Kymara during her first mortal life. The Church holds that Kymara is the Sol Anon - the Star of Ages - the daughter of El Anon who came to Nor'Ova to heal its people and whose teachings form the basis of a life well lived. Their scripture is The Yurie Scropa (xodian: "Spirit Scrolls"), a collection of books written by prophets and disciples across the eras.

Their core teachings draw from the Parables of the Sol Anon — love thy neighbor, judge not lest ye be judged, live as Kymara lived in all aspects of life. They believe that all who do not follow these teachings and repent of their sinful ways will, after death, spend eternity in the pits of Xodod. They typically do not speak her name aloud, using only her title, out of fear that Zodo or his agents might exploit the name to deceive the faithful.10

The Church spread underground for centuries under Askian persecution before emerging as a major force after the fall of the Askian Empire in year 600 of the First Era. After the Great Magic War and the Breaking of First Era society, the Solists worked to re-establish communities across Nor'Ova, a role that cemented their position as the dominant religious body on the continent.

The Temple of Ky

Founded in year 10 of the Second Era by Angerian refugees from the Church of Sol Anon, the Temple of Ky holds that the Church's relatively loose doctrines were partly responsible for the Great Magic War's devastation of their homeland. They incorporated rites from more extreme El Anon worship and developed stringent daily acts of prayer and public repentance, hoping to earn Kymara's forgiveness and the restoration of Angeria. They do not celebrate birthdays, but do celebrate funerals - viewing death, under Kymara's watch, as a transition rather than an ending. Their approach is considerably stricter than the main Church on questions of personal purity.

The Children of Ablution

Around year 112 of the Second Era, a splinter group within the Temple of Ky became convinced they were seeing signs of Zodo's imminent return. They were excommunicated. Fearing for their lives, they took their families on a pilgrimage through the Parallax Desert, eventually arriving at Cardinal Point, where they found an old sanctuary and felt what they described as divine energy. They settled there. The Children of Ablution have no celebrations and view each day and each possession as temporary. They prepare, pray heavily, and wait for the Ablution they believe is coming. Many outside observers consider them a cult rather than a faith, and note an unsettling doctrinal proximity to certain Zodoist beliefs — a similarity the Children strongly reject.11

Religious Holidays

• Sol's Day — 35th of Afteryule: Celebration of the light of the Sol Anon and the coming of spring.
• Resurrection — 3rd Solas of Narvanye: Commemorating Kymara's resurrection after her first death.
• St. Zamma's Day — 28th of Marpenoth: Honoring the first Priest Errant and founder of the Church.
• St. Kymara's Day — 29th of Marpenoth: The day of Kymara herself. Observed the day after St. Zamma's Day, as the Church teaches that the disciples come before the Sol Anon in service.12

Clerics of Kymara

Priests of Kymara can banish any possession or mind control with the command of their voice alone, provided the target is within four spaces or in the same room. They are themselves immune to possession and mind control. They can also call upon Ky Yuri to aid them - what form that aid takes is between the priest and Ky Yuri, and the GM determines the outcome. Priests of Kymara receive a bonus to Spiritual Balance checks when performing Exorcism, and their Reading the Scriptures skill doubles in duration and area of effect.13

Holy Relics

Two holy swords are bound to Kymara, and the Church of Sol Anon counts both among its most sacred treasures, though no credible witness in living memory has seen either one.

Haen Legeous, the Sword of Legend

Behold! Forged from the very spoken word of Kymara and given unto men to defend against the evils of Xodod!

Chapter 34, "The Finding of Legend", The Epic of Saint Tobias

Haen Legeous, the Sword of Legend, is the most sacred artifact of the Church of Sol Anon, and the most doubted. Some say it never existed. Others say it exists, but that its power has been grossly exaggerated. Even its origin is disputed. Its most devoted believers claim it was forged on Xenodelphia, the mythical world of origin14, and point to scattered ruins bearing descriptions of it. Most who accept it, however, believe it was made on Nor'Ova, since it is said to embody the Word of Kymara, who has only ever walked here.

According to the Yurie Scropa, Legend is the physical embodiment of Ky Yuri, the Spirit of Kymara. Set into its pommel is the Sacred Tear, a pearl-like jewel said to hold a part of Kymara's spirit, through which the sword becomes sentient and able to speak with its bearer. It cuts like any other blade, but it exists only to drive back darkness. Should it ever be used against an innocent, it shatters into seven pieces (the hilt, the Sacred Tear, and five blade fragments) and departs from its wielder. A true evil slain by Legend, the scriptures claim, is destroyed utterly and wiped from the memory of the world.15

Few credible records name anyone who held it. The most popular tale says Taal wielded Legend only once, to strike down Emperor Killian Xerxes, whom the tales call Xerxes Zodo. Another claims that Lector Clairstory, then High Priest of the Church of the Holy Body, gifted it to Killian as a false gesture of friendship. Fringe accounts, which the Church of Sol Anon condemns as blasphemous, insist that the sword shattered on that final blow, because the man it struck was innocent, and the one who swung it was the true embodiment of Zodo. Still others claim Legend was used to strike down Clairstory himself when he sought to return Zodo to the world. None of it can be proven. Who struck whom, with which blade, and who either of them truly was by then, may never be known.

¹⁸It shall come when the world has twisted all of the words of this tome that the Corrupter shall take to mortal life once again and shall rule the world in darkness and fear for ten great lifetimes of man. ¹⁹When the tenth cycle is but at its peak shall come a soul distraught, transformed, carrying the Sword of Light and Judgment, and shall strike down the Corrupter, scattering him to the four corners, bringing about a terrible ablution and eventual renewal.

Visions 34:18-19, The Yurie Scropa

Many read this prophecy as Taal's defeat of Xerxes Zodo and the end of the First Era. Others insist it has yet to come to pass.

Most who believe in Legend today believe it lies in seven scattered pieces. The Church of Sol Anon officially denies that the sword could ever have shattered, yet it promises sainthood and glory to anyone who returns its pieces, or the sword made whole. Legend's influence reaches beyond Kymara's own faith: Yu'Mara modeled her own blade, Haen Mara, upon it.16

Ithlamar the Redeemer

The blade that forgives cuts darkness deeper than any sword.

Holy Pontiff Nikolai de'Carte

Ithlamar the Redeemer is the strangest of the holy weapons, and the hardest to wield. It is a sword that cannot wound. Its only purpose is to cut away possession, even possession by the demon princes of Xodod.

¹⁰Lower thy sword, and forgive them, for they understand not the wounds they cause nor the evil they do.

Kymara the Sol Anon, Gospel of Anartis 15:10, The Yurie Scropa

According to scripture, Ithlamar was once an ordinary rapier carried by one of the soldiers who carried out Kymara's first execution. Ordered to confirm that she was dead, the soldier could not bring himself to strike. Ordered again, under threat of death, he obeyed, but only after asking her lifeless body for forgiveness. Her blood coated the blade, and it was never the same. From that day on, the rapier could not harm an innocent, yet the soldier, Cadius, refused to part with it.

When Cadius and his fellow soldiers later came upon a man possessed by a demon of Xodod, the others wanted to kill him on the spot. Cadius refused.

²⁴And so, with threats of death behind me and threats of damnation before me, I brought out the blood-coated rapier and laid its blade upon the possessed man's shoulder. ²⁵Speaking calmly, I smiled at the distressed man, "In the name of the sacred Kymara who I have helped slay, I forgive you, in hopes that I too one day might find forgiveness." ²⁶The sword then reacted in such a way as I've never seen before, glowing a brilliant white, and cut the demon free from the man. ²⁷The man bore not a scratch, but I was left with a reminder of the cost of mercy that day, a scar down my torso that ever shall I cherish.

Ithlamar 10:24-27, The Yurie Scropa

The sword came to be called Ithlamar the Redeemer, a name that repeats itself, since Ithlamar is elvish for "redeemer." It frees only through forgiveness that is truly felt, and every soul it frees leaves a new scar on the one who wields it. What became of Ithlamar after those early days is unknown. The Church of Sol Anon has long offered a substantial reward to anyone who finds it and surrenders it to the Church.

Theological Notes

The central dispute concerning Kymara - goddess or mortal prophet - is, as noted elsewhere, the most written-about theological question in Nor'Ovan history.17 The Ardathians hold that she was a great healer and teacher, a mortal woman of unusual gifts, whose followers elevated her to divine status after her death in the same way any admired figure might be. The Church of the Holy Body holds something more complicated - acknowledging that Kymara existed and possessed real power, but attributing that power to Zodo rather than El Anon, and viewing the Sol Anon churches as unwitting instruments of Zodo's designs.18

What is not disputed, even by those who deny her divinity, is that she was real, that she did things that should not have been possible, and that she died badly at the hands of people who feared her. Whether that makes her a goddess is the question. Whether it makes her remarkable is not.

• 1. The Askian Imperial records of the First Era include administrative documentation of her execution. The records note the charges as "sedition and disruption of public order", which is, as Solist scholars frequently observe, not the language one uses for someone considered a mere eccentric.
• 2. The Yurie Scropa contains at least three accounts of Kymara intervening violently in situations where innocents were threatened. Her followers are sometimes surprised by this. They probably should not be.
• 3. Skeptics note that consistent appearance across cultures could indicate a shared source document rather than multiple independent encounters. The debate continues.
• 4. One noted reincarnation is that of Kileen, which took place during the late First Era. During this reincarnation she was mercilessly killed by a cult of El Anon who tragically never knew just who they had killed. An account of this can be found in the records of Yu Yuri.
• 5. The theological relationship between Ky Yuri and Yu Yuri is a subject of considerable fascination and considerable unease among scholars who work across both faiths. They are almost identical in description, purpose, and behavior - one born of light, one of shadow, both present in the world simultaneously. Whether this symmetry is coincidence, design by El Anon, or a consequence of how Zodo was originally made is unknown.
• 6. It is stipulated through the passage that she can call back the dead who have been dead for a month, but no records show any longer amount of time, therefore while it is assumed that is the limit no scholar or theologian can truly be certain.
• 7. It is said that Yu'Mara can call back the dead, no matter how long ago they have died. However she cannot free souls from Xodod, so are the revived then soulless? This has been debated by the Marani and other theologians with no clear answer given.
• 8. The idea of Kymara holding the keys to the Pits of Xodod is one steeped in both tradition and belief. While there is no real record of this existing, no theologian has sought to counter it, not even those who study and worship Zodo. It is widely believed and accepted that Kymara opens the door and calls forth the souls which Spector receives on her behalf.
• 9. The ability to free souls from Xodod has significant practical implications in a world where Xodod is real and the Soul of Zodo actively claims them. Priests of Kymara with this power are, accordingly, not universally beloved by those who prefer Xodod well stocked.
• 10. Whether Zodo can actually exploit a spoken name this way is theologically contested. Zodoist scholars find the belief amusing. This has not caused the Solists to change their practice.
• 11. The Children of Ablution reject this characterization vigorously. Their rejection is noted.
• 12. This ordering is itself a subject of minor but persistent internal Church debate.
• 13. Priests of Kymara are among the most sought-after clerics for exorcism work. Priests of Zodo are sometimes also sought for this purpose, which Kymara's priests consider theologically offensive.
• 14. The term Xenodelphia may not even be the name of the legendary world of origin but it is one of the first words translated from ancient xodian, found inscribed at the Chalcedon impact craters during the mid First Era. Since then, the word has been used as the name of a fairytale world of origin for races thought not to be native to Nor'Ova. As can be expected, it is not accepted fact among true scholars and only hurts the idea of Haen Legeous being real.
• 15. Whether this claim can ever be verified is a matter of some philosophical difficulty.
• 16. Scholars have long noted that the Sacred Tear closely resembles the so-called Eye of Zodo, the pearl set into the pommel of Haen Ruithael. Solists find the comparison offensive. Zodoists find it inevitable.
• 17. The runner-up, by volume of text produced, is the debate over whether the Parallax Desert's compass-disruption effect is natural, divine, or Zodoist in origin. This is considered a more tractable question, yet remains unsolved.
• 18. This is the position that Solist scholars find most infuriating, as it cannot be straightforwardly refuted - Kymara's power being Zodo's power is an unfalsifiable claim given Zodo's pervasive influence on all magic. The best Solist counter-argument is that Kymara's power consistently opposes Zodo's goals, which seems an odd arrangement if she were his instrument.