Veshen, the Turning Year

Athenaeum entry. Correspondent of record: Vel Asharen. Note: this is the only deity in the Yggdrasil pantheon whose form changes predictably according to a publicly observable calendar.

Form

Veshen is the only god of the Yggy pantheon whose appearance cycles predictably. The form follows the seasons of whichever region the worshipper inhabits, and is consistent across the year:

• Spring — a youthful figure, slender and barefoot, with hair the color of new grass and eyes that catch light strangely. Often laughing. Smells of rain on warm stone.
• Summer — a robust adult in their prime, broad-shouldered, sun-darkened, with hair gone gold and an easy posture. Carries a sickle that has not been used in any of the other recorded appearances.
• Autumn — a mature figure, weathered and competent, with hair the color of old copper and lines around the eyes that suggest considerable amusement. Smells of woodsmoke and apples.
• Winter — an elderly figure, slow and patient, with white hair and pale eyes that close more often than they open. Walks with a staff. Does not speak much in this phase.

The transition between forms is not instantaneous and not entirely synchronized across the world; in regions where seasons run on different schedules, the local Veshen runs on the local schedule. The clergy understand this as the same god distributed rather than as multiple gods.

Domain

Veshen holds the cycle of the year as the year is lived — sowing, growing, harvesting, fallow. The domain is agricultural in its concrete expression and far broader in its theological reach: any rhythm of work that follows the seasons falls within it.

By his own account — delivered once in the spring form, in seven words: "The year does what the year does" — he does not direct the seasons so much as accompany them. The frost arriving on schedule, the rains coming when they should, the harvest neither too early nor too late: these are matters Veshen attends to without obvious effort, as part of what he is.

In regions where the year goes badly — a too-cold spring, a drought summer, an early winter — Veshen is held to be either tired, distracted, or actively grieved, depending on the local theology. He has not, in any recorded audience, clarified which is correct.

Worship

Veshen's worship is deeply communal and largely cheerful. The major holy days are the four turning-points of the year — the two solstices and the two equinoxes — and observance varies by region:

• Spring equinox — sowing rites, weddings, the year's first beer festivals
• Summer solstice — bonfires, all-night markets, the height of the year's festivals
• Autumn equinox — harvest feasts, debt reconciliation, the giving of grain to those without
• Winter solstice — quiet observance, communal meals indoors, the lighting of single candles

His clergy are rural in concentration and pragmatic in temperament. Few of his temples are architecturally significant; many are simply older barns, granaries, or hearth-rooms that have accumulated ritual significance through long use. Veshen prefers this. He has, on the rare occasions he has been asked, indicated that a working granary is more devotional to him than a built cathedral.

Relationships

Aerith Soln — Cordial. They cooperate on the agricultural festivals where her sun-blessing and his year-blessing overlap.

Vaerith — A close working friendship. The winds and the seasons are inseparable in practice; the two gods coordinate constantly and are often depicted together in folk art, leaning against fenceposts and talking shop.

Lobelia — Veshen's winter form is one of the few presences that calms her reliably. They take long walks together through frozen fields. Neither says much. Both seem to find the arrangement restful.

Noil — Tense. Noil's children — pests, blights, crop rots — interfere with Veshen's work continuously, and Veshen's pragmatism about culling them is one of the few things that has produced lasting irritation in the otherwise mild Doting Father. They are, by uneasy consensus, not invited to the same gatherings.

Saessa — Quiet appreciation. Her work re-lights long marriages and seeds new ones, often in the spring; he sees this as part of the year's rhythm and respects it. They do not socialize, but they nod when their paths cross at festivals.

Thurim Ironwake — The year of metalwork follows the year of crops more closely than most outside the trade realize. The two coordinate the seasonal rhythms of mining, charcoal-burning, and the great firings, mostly through their respective clergies.

Brontis — Tense but workable. Brontis's storms before harvest cost Veshen real grain every year. They have an old arrangement about when the worst weather is permitted to arrive. Brontis abides by it, mostly.

Krorus — A long, low collegial affection. They take walks together at irregular intervals, mostly in silence, often along old field-roads where the year's whole history is somehow legible at once.

Meni — Their work overlaps at every autumn harvest. They share the last warm afternoons of the year companionably and neither speaks much.

See Also

• _Pantheon Index
• Vaerith
• Lobelia
• Aerith Soln
• Noil
• Saessa
• Thurim Ironwake
• The Four Weathers
• Krorus
• Meni
• Yggdrasil World System

— Vel Asharen, The Interplanar Athenaeum