Morset Tributa and the Church of Westrun

The pagan faith of the Free Provinces was called Morset Tributa or "Death and Taxes." 

During the heyday of the Grand Temple of Westrun, there were only two Patrons among the people of the Provinces. Kel and Ris were the Pretenders who settled there. Childless and unmarried, after the Era of Subjugation they came to be considered the goddess of chaos and the god of order -- the lady of darkness and the lord of light. This duality in spiritual matters fit well with the vestiges of political power that were built on the remains of the Vyrum Empire. 

Under the Vyrum rule, each city/state was a diarchy of princes. The White Prince was the military and executive power of the city/state, while the Black Prince was the economic and legislative power. This arrangement of black and white politics fit well with the spiritual imagery of the dark and light. So as human governance grew and developed, the sects of Kel and Ris became deeply ingrained in Provincial society. That faith was known as Morset Tributa or “Death and Taxes”

At the conquest of the Provinces, the “Taming of the Serpent,” by the Eight Kingdoms, its political and religious structures were subsumed by those of the rest of Westrun. Officially, the cults of Kel and Ris were brought into the temple system and officially recognized as sects of the Grand Temple. Unofficially however, the Provinces maintained their own reverence for “Death and Taxes” and had their own priesthood dedicated to them. 

After the God War of 5108, the priesthood of the Provinces lost potency, but the trial of Gamasiel had occurred across the Dagger Sea and none of the new priests of the Church would be seen in the Provinces for many years. When they did come, they maintained many vestiges of the old way out of deference to local custom. 

Kel and Ris were worshipped no longer, but the churches made from their temples were still decorated in the old black and white motifs. Over the next centuries, the Church of Westrun would gradually gain power in even the furthest corner of the Provinces, but many of the old superstitions and reverences remained. 

Until High King Aleranus the Less and Patriarch Anastorin worked together in 5230 to build the Cardinal Prefectory at Ald Dovaris, the faith of Morset Tributa was not fully supplanted. To this day, “Death and Taxes” are sometimes taken to be avenging angels of the Ere All.

When Westrun conquered the Principalities of Vyruma Serpentis and brought them under the High King's control, the Church was nominally accepted, but the new provinces were excluded from the Edict of Supremacy in 5129. Therefore the Church in the Provinces became a syncretic mix of both faiths. Death and Taxes were taken as Worthies by some. An attempt to bring the Provinces fully into the faith did not begin until 5230 under Aleranus the Less and the Patriarch Anastorin with the construction of the Cardinal Prefectory at Ald Dovaris.

This struggle continues to this day.

Holy Symbols of Morset Tributa

Morset Tributa: the Pagan Faith of the Free Provinces

Only two gods are certain: Ris and Kels.

The ancient gods of the Principalities are Ris and Kels.

Ris is personified as a white man, lame and often depicted with a crutch or leaning upon a staff. In some places he is depicted as a dog on point. His symbol is a crude arrow pointing upward, and alternately, a tower of stone. He is the personification of Law, Order, Organization, Government, Taxes. He is the immovable object. Though it must be pointed out that there is no connotation of goodness for Ris. He might be, and often is, considered evil.

Kels is personified as a black, often faceless woman. She is almost always depicted scantily clad, or nude. Her sexual organs are always hidden from view by sheer clothing, the position of the objects around her, or even just the convenient pose of her arms and legs. That said, her pose is never intentionally modest, merely accidentally so. In some places she is shown as a cat. Her symbol is a crude depiction of a snake eating its own tail, which is often taken for a circle with an arrow point in one arc, or the crest of a wave. She is the personificaiton of Chaos, Entropy, Wildness, Liberty and Death. She is the unstoppable force. Again, no moral sense of evil should attach to her, necessarily. In some situations she is seen to portend a good and favorable result.

The two deities are continually striving against one another, but not at war. They are considered inextricably linked to one another and often portrayed as lovers who are doomed to be apart. Both deities are believed to exist from time immemorial and both are immortal and undying.

Neither Ris nor Kels promise any sort of afterlife. All mortals are believed to be consigned to some shadowy existence after death. Trapped forever in some ethereal state they know neither pleasure nor specific suffering, but are consumed by loneliness and boredom in perpetuity.