The Woven Path

Also called: The Old Faith, or simply “the Path”

The Woven Path is the oldest known faith in the lands of Aglein. It is a belief system not born from temples or scripture but from the breath of the world itself. This is a faith of earth and sky, of flame and blood, of spirits that do not watch from distant heavens but dwell in wind, stone, fire, and root. The gods of the Woven Path are not distant or abstract. They are near, alive in the storms, the forge, the harvest, and the silence of the dead.

The faith teaches that gods, mortals, beasts, and spirits are all threads in a vast living pattern called the Skyweave. To walk the Woven Path is to live in harmony with one’s place in this design. It is to honor the old oaths and to respect the powers that shape the world. Threadbinders, the faith’s seers and lorekeepers, interpret this great tapestry. They mend what frays and guide communities through omen, song, and sacred rite.

Worship is intimate and local. Shrines stand at crossroads, hearths, standing stones, and groves. There are no temples, only sacred spaces maintained by tradition. Offerings are simple: bread, ash, blood, and bone. Names are spoken with reverence. Not all gods are kind.

Shrines are rarely grand. Most are simple: a stone bowl at a crossroads, a carved post in a forest clearing, or a ring of blackthorn around a standing stone. Offerings include milk, bread, blood, and tokens bound with red thread. Travelers touch their forehead to the shrine before passing.

Funeral Practices

Cairn-Stones

Cairns are sacred constructions, but they are not tombs. Instead, they are anchors, physical places where the memory and essence of a loved one is bound to the land and kept close to the living.

Cairns are made from uncut, locally gathered stones, each one washed and laid in silence. The stones are chosen not for beauty, but for meaning. Many bear natural marks or patterns interpreted by Threadbinders as signs. Stones may be arranged in tall spires, nested mounds, or stacked rings depending on regional custom and family line.

Each cairn is built upon a hill, beside a river, or within a circle of trees, chosen by the Threadbinder or family elder after interpreting omens. The dead are never interred. The cairn is not a tomb, but a thread-anchor meant to tie the soul’s memory to the Skyweave.

Body Burning

The body of the deceased is cremated on a funerary pyre. The fire is kindled at dusk and allowed to burn through the night. The rising smoke and flame are believed to release the spirit into the Skyweave, freeing it to take its place among the threads of fate.

The ashes are not kept, but scattered into flowing water, especially streams that feed into rivers or the sea. This final act is called the Unspooling and symbolizes the soul’s return to the great weave of the world.

Burial

To bury a body rather than burn it is considered a final rejection, a way of sealing the soul away from the Skyweave. This is done only to those deemed truly evil, oathbreakers of the deepest kind, or those believed to be corrupted by foul powers.

Buried bodies are wrapped in silence, without rite or flame, and laid in shallow ground with heavy stones over the chest and mouth. It is believed that if such souls were allowed to rise into the weave, they would twist its threads and bring ruin to the living.

Such graves are not marked with cairns.

Afterlife in the Woven Path

To those who walk the Woven Path, death is not an ending but a returning. The soul unspools from the body and rises into the Skyweave, where it becomes part of the great pattern of fate. Ancestors do not vanish, they remain as threads in the weave, watching, whispering, and guiding their kin through signs, dreams, and omens. A well-lived life strengthens the weave. A life of betrayal or blood-oath broken may fray it, and such spirits find no peace.

Gods of the Woven Path

Dazhera

Goddess of the Sun, Fire, and Fortune: Dazhera brings warmth, light, and luck. She rises with each dawn and banishes fear with her fire. Her favor blesses crops, protects travelers, and kindles the hope of those in darkness.

Title: The Flame That Walks
Alignment: Neutral Good
Domains: Sun, Luck, Glory
Subdomain: Ash (from Fire)
Favored Weapon: Sling or light mace
Symbol: Swirling sun pattern
Sacred Animal: Rooster
Offerings: Bread, flowers, carved sun discs, candles lit at dawn

Kordven

Lord of Storms, Sky, and War: Kordven is the judge of oaths and the bringer of storms. He is the spear cast from the heavens and the roar before battle. Warriors pray to him beneath open sky, and his wrath falls upon oathbreakers and tyrants alike.

Title: The Stormfather
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Domains: Air, War, Nobility
Subdomains: Storms (from Weather)
Favored Weapon: Longspear
Symbol: Thunder-sun with central arrow and oath runes
Sacred Animal: Eagle
Offerings: Steel rings, oaths spoken aloud beneath the sky, blood spilled in combat

Maroshka

Goddess of Winter, Death, and Rebirth: Maroshka is the white frost and the still grave. Her touch ends all things, but her silence makes way for spring. Her effigies are cast into rivers each spring to send her back into slumber, but her gaze never truly leaves.

Title: The Pale Queen
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Domains: Cold, Darkness, Renewal
Subdomain: Decay (from Death)
Favored Weapon: Scythe
Symbol: Triangle and crescent under death’s gate
Sacred Animal: Owl or crow
Offerings: Ashes, black feathers, effigies burned or drowned at season’s end

Mokira

Goddess of the Land, Fertility, and the Hearth: Mokira is the soil and the seed, the mother who watches from beneath the earth. She is worshipped in times of birth, planting, and homecoming. To offend her is to curse one’s field, one’s child, or one’s name.

Title: The Mother Below
Alignment: Neutral Good
Domains: Earth, Community, Healing
Subdomain: Growth (from Plant)
Favored Weapon: Sickle
Symbol: Grain stalk over spiral fertility triad
Sacred Animal: Cow or honeybee
Offerings: Loaves of bread, woven grasses, milk poured into the soil

Neryth

Goddess of Tides, Madness, and Change: Neryth dances through storm and sea. She is worshipped by sailors, outcasts, and visionaries. Her voice is heard in waves, in madness, and in freedom. No oaths bind her, yet she knows every broken vow.

Title: The Drowned Flame
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Domains: Chaos, Water, Madness, Weather, Liberation
Subdomain: Oceans (from Water)
Favored Weapon: Trident
Symbol: Spiraling tide or broken flame wheel
Sacred Animal: Seal or heron
Offerings: Shells, woven kelp, whispered secrets, shattered pottery

Svarnen

God of Forge, Law, and Sacred Craft: Svarnen shapes both steel and society. He is the fire in the forge and the rule in the hall. Smiths, judges, and oathkeepers call on him to temper chaos into strength.

Title: The Emberwright
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Domains: Law, Artifice, Protection
Subdomain: Industry (from Fire)
Favored Weapon: Warhammer
Symbol: Interwoven knot surrounded by flame tips
Sacred Animal: Ox
Offerings: Forged nails, shaped stones, smoke from bellows or kilns

Velas

God of Spirits, the Dead, Trade, and Shadowed Places: Velas rules what lies beyond. He walks in the mist and speaks in dreams. He guides the dead to their rest, listens to the unspoken, and barters secrets with those who leave coins at the crossroads.

Title: The Watcher Beneath
Alignment: Neutral
Domains: Darkness, Death, Trickery, Travel
Subdomains: Souls (from Repose)
Favored Weapon: Dagger
Symbol: Coiled serpent within a circle
Sacred Animal: Wolf
Offerings: Copper coins buried in crossroads, spilled milk, bone charms

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