Balfagor

Balfagor - Watercolour by King Fisher Arts

About

Balfagor is part of the larger Waejiran Pantheon. The god of night, shadows, and darkness, is also the god of dreams both benign and malignant. People believe dreams contain prophetic visions of the present and future, as well as revealing secrets form the past. Belief in Balfagor is found primarily within Waejir and amongst Waejiran cultural groups that exist outside of the empire's borders.

Priests and Priestesses of Balfagor are seen as seers, capable of interpreting dreams and guiding those faithful towards a deeper understanding of the soul and mind. Balfagor's followers often consume psychoactive substances to induce dream-like states and evoke higher consciousness.

First Appearance

Early dream cults associated the moons as the source of dreams. These merged with the personification of a master of the night directing the dreams to mortals.

People would beseech Balfagor for protection from the dangers that lurked in darkness, when they had to be active at night and beyond the safety of home and hearth.

Balfagor

Other Names

Balfagor / Master of Dreams

Waejiran god of night, shadows and darkness. He is believed to send out his stei, Rae and Nae, to deliver dreams to sleepers. Balfagor was fathered by Qeinor and born of Silat. Balfagor is depicted wearing a robe of shadow, his face obscured by a deep hood, in his hands sit two glass spheres containing dream-like images. Typically he is accompanied by his stei, Rae and Nae.

The Church

Key Dates

Double full moon

Balfagor's Night / Festival of the Moons - A celebration outside of the annual calendar which occurs whenever both moons are full together over a three night period. Celebrants beseech Balfagor for dreams and visions of their future during this time.

Church Hierarchy

Holy Seat

Asuradur, Waejir

The central authority for the temple of Balfagor is located in Asuradur, Waejir. The main temple is named the Well of Night.

Pontiff

Areiasteia Waejirus

Areiasteis Waejiras is the top cleric of the faith and daughter of the current high noble prince, Stahtaras Waejirus. She is seen as the most enlightened, and barely connected to the physical realm for more than a few moments at a time.

Begtukonar - Holy Elder

A close circle of senior clergy who tend to the Pontiff, and interpret her mused ramblings and half-spoken recollections of dreams.Clerics of this rank also determine temple doctrine across the empire.

Trumtukon / Iomiukon - Holy Father / Holy Mother

Clerics of this rank are the real administers of temple affairs. They take on roles dispensing resources amongst lesser temples, and seeing to the promotion and guidance of the lower ranked clergy. Each major city will have one cleric of this rank, who oversees the temples and shrines within their jurisdiction.

Bishops / High Priests

Typically the top member of a specific temple. The role of a bishop or high priest is more administrative then spiritual, however they also provide the same service to their faithful as lesser priests.

Eciahas / Eciaha - Priest / Priestess

Interpreters of dreams, and seers. A priest or priestess of Balfagor guides the faithful along their journey of enlightenment through individual teachings, or group rituals.

Olinukonar - Holy Learner / Acolyte

Those who show some talent for greater perception or psychic abilities such as augury, etherealism, lacuna, phantasm, psyche, or sensing will find themselves welcomed by the temple. Others whom simply show sufficient interest may join the temple to learn the deeper mysteries.

Laity

Lay worshippers of Balfagor tend to be outsiders to the general populous. Disconnected from the daily routines of everyday folk, they are people who seek to escape the drudgery of existence for glimpses of what might be.

Clerical Orders

Dancers of the Endless Dream

A faction of the faith who practice a ecstatic form of worship wherein they dance to the point of exhaustion under the influence of hallucinogens then collapse into a deep sleep in efforts to reach further mysteries of the universe.

Tenets of the Faith

Dreams

Dreams provide glimpses of what could have been, might come to be, or what was in another version of reality. The practice of lucid dreaming is encouraged amongst the faithful.

Faeries

Creatures of myth and superstition are manifestations of the Endless Dream. They exist because dreamers bring them into reality as lingering residual parts of dreams not remembered.

Night

The night is not to be feared, but embraced as a time when the bonds of the physical world are weakened. There is nothing in the night that cannot be understood. The unknown is not to be feared, but to be sought out and discovered.

Perceptions

Reality is only what one perceives. The physical world is a constructed prison of the mind, which one can escape with a proper understanding of the universe. Finding ways to alter ones perception provides doors and windows into the truth of the universe.

Heresies

Faerie Cults

Some faithful of Balfagor believe that instead of individually transcending to the endless dream, that they can bring the dream into reality. They do this by encouraging faeries and other cryptids to exist and interact with the physical world. The goal of such activity is to destroy the division between physical realm and the dream realm, merging the two forever. Some practice with the creation of chimera, either depicting them through art, taxidermy, or the literal merging of living creatures to create new and wondrous creatures.

Death Cults

There is a small sect of followers of Balfagor who believe that the true moment of transcendence can only happen at the moment of one's true death, prior to the return to Silat. Such individuals will engage in ritualistic near death experiences in attempts to discover just how one might achieve the dream. Such individuals associate ghosts and physical undead as examples of partially successful transcendence whether intentional or not. They seek answers in the study and interaction with such entities may lead to greater understanding.

The Endless Dream

Other Names

Many followers of Balfagor believe in a spirit realm separate from but connected to the physical world where time is meaningless and all creation is pure consciousness. It is believed that one can transcend to this realm leaving their physical form entirely and escape the cycle of death and rebirth.

Divine Servitors

Balfagor's Stei

Other Names

Balfagor's Cats

The god Balfagor is said to be served by a pair of stei, whom assist him with delivering dreams and visions to mortals. It is believed that these entities can travel through time and space, and are insubstantial unless they choose to take physical form.

Nae

Waejiran mythic figure believed to deliver benign dreams to sleeping people. Nae is associated with the silver moon, and appears as a grey and silver marbled tabby.

Rae

Waejiran mythic figure believed to deliver nightmares to sleeping people. Rae is associated with the red moon, and appears as a red/orange striped tabby.

Persons

Areiasteia Waejirus (pontiff)

Stories

Griffon (fifty word fantasy)

See Also

Festival of the Moons