C O S M O L O G Y

CONTENTS

these bitches crazyyyy. five HUNDRED genders

THE COSMOLOGICAL WHEEL

According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. According to all known laws of According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible. According to all known laws of According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.

SPIRIT-GOD	GENDER	SEASON	LIFE STAGE	LIMINALITY
Otsuk, the seal	changed woman	breakup	gestation	most liminal
Naluk, the bear	masculine woman	spring	labor, birth, childhood	transition
Igyotska, the bee	feminine woman	high summer	adulthood	stagnation
Staghenj, the reindeer	changed man	fall	elderhood	most liminal
Tunukak, the owl	feminine man	early winter	decline, death, journey	transition
Lyudvak, the wolf	masculine man	high winter	afterlife	stagnation

SPIRIT-GODS

oral; writing is fairly new and was only invented out of necessity; distaste for writing comes from being an outsider idea/material; writing based on wheel to lessen fears of it being material; most vodjmir are still nonliterate, but Vonyova takes care of that i think

WORLD LAYERS

The Sovskovan world consists of three tiers: the celestial canopy, the surface, and the hollows.

CELESTIAL CANOPY

Suspended far above the aurora and star ladder rests a “canopy” of stars and other celestial bodies. This realm acts as the home to the spirit-gods and other strong-willed spirits, such as those who have climbed the star ladder or previous vodjmir.

Star Ladder — The pathway leading up to the celestial canopy. Some spirits manage to complete the climb, while others slip and fall, either landing back on the surface or the hollows.

Aurora — A visual representation of the bridge between the material surface and the immaterial realm of deities. Only appears when there is a living vodjmir.

SURFACE

Home to a variety of living things—folk, creatures, monsters, and spirits. Populated by a variety of peoples, such as citydwellers, villagers, and nomadic herders.

HOLLOWS

The desolate and dreary underworld of Sovskovan cosmology resembling a forest whose permafrost has melted. Home to spirits who have lost their souls and now wander aimlessly searching for something they cannot remember.

TYPES OF SPIRITS

In Sovskova, spirits are immaterial extensions of one’s soul. Every folk, creature, or monster relies on their spirit to pilot their body. Most beings don’t have control over the movement of their spirit, although certain beings do have more agency in their immaterial existence. These beings don’t need a physical body and are able to move around and influence the physical world using only their immaterial essence (although some do choose a vessel of their liking). These sorts of beings include local guardian spirits, strong-willed spirits who have chosen to stay on the surface for whatever reason (such as to help, protect, haunt, cause general mischief, and so on), shamanic guiding spirits, and the spirit-gods. A special type of spirits referred to as “hollowed” are spirits created by the strong emotions, will, or desire of another being and that manifest into their own spiritual form. These spirits do not have souls, making them “hollow,” and act according to whatever desire they were formed from.

Although spirits are found all across Sovskova, most are worshipped, venerated, or feared at the local level. Only the spirit-gods are seen to be worshipped across the region. There are eight spirit-gods total, each symbolized by an animal with their own domain of influence. The six deities that make up the natural order of the world (seasons, life cycle, gender categories, and so on) are represented by the six sections on a snowflake. The last two deities exist outside of the snowflake. Above, the Great White Hawk Spirit ensures the well-being and order of the region; below, his demigod daughter acts as the bridge between the spiritual and material.

Most Sovskovans never come to know the spirit-gods personally—except for vodjmir who often find themselves to be the first being the deities go to when they’re bored and want someone to complain to.

SHAMANS

Sovskovan shamans are religious specialists who have accepted the calling of a guiding spirit and work in between the material and spiritual. Most shamans work as healers for local communities, helping to diagnose, treat, and combat illnesses, especially those that affect the soul and spirit directly. With their spirit guide they may also work to quell mischievous spiritual nuisances or fight off hostile spirits looking to deal harm to others. Shamans typically carry out their work in a spiritual form, where the shaman uses their own spirit to traverse both the material and immaterial, seeking to balance the two by acting as the bridge between them—this can include traveling to the homes of other spirits, journeying to different realms, walking in others’ dreams, and so on.

In the present day, the respect for shamans has begun to dwindle as more side with separatist views. Taking this as an opportunity to stoke growing instability and highlight the safety of the tsardom, loyalists continue to feed into the negative views, perpetuating the ideas that shamans play with forces too dangerous to be trusted. If your child shows signs of the calling, it’s best to suppress it as much as possible, unless you wish to willingly invite danger, fear, and the unknown into your home.

HOLLOWED

When a hollowed spirit is created, it typically attaches itself to whomever manifested its existence, guiding its new shaman in the best interest of whatever desire or emotion it came from. Hollowed shamans are typically outcast and feared due to the “unnatural” existence of their guiding spirit, and many see them as inherently evil, immoral, and against the natural order of the world.

VODJMIR

Pronounced VODJ-mihr (IPA: /ˈvodʲˌmɪr/). The term itself is related to the words for "warrior" or "solider" and "peace," and (naturally) translates along the lines of "warrior/solider of peace." Following that meaning, there is a somewhat poetic understanding of its inherent oxymoronic makeup based on the idea that a soldier can only exist during times of conflict—therefore, a warrior of peace cannot exist. This understanding is typically grouped with the idea that vodjmir

Vodjmir are a special class of shamans appointed by the Great White Hawk Spirit himself. With the hawk spirit’s daughter, Vonyova, as their guiding spirit, vodjmir act as the ultimate religious authority of Sovskova and bridge between the people and spirit-gods, working to ensure peace both across and within the material and immaterial realms. Vodjmir take on the typical job of a shaman but on a wider scale—not only do they serve the entire region of Sovskova, but they also wield a stronger connection to the spiritual realm and have a particular talent in traversing it that many shamans do not, enabling them to take on any job from minor colds to world-ending catastrophes that involve the deities.

There is only one acting vodjmir at a time, although previous vodjmir often offer guidance to the current one, even if they have to give instructions from the spirit world. Without Ksunya to help him pick up where she left off, Yuka feels especially lost trying to handle a civil war that he knows next to nothing about other than that everyone is counting on him to stop it.