Work in Progress Vargen Somite Religion

[Merchant Man]

Vargen Som Smyger Inom Oss - The Wolf Who Stalks Within Us​

• Objective: To introduce Vargen Somite as a fierce, warlike pagan cult emerging among certain warrior circles within the Jarlmoot, centered on the Red Wolf as a heavily mistranslated and reinterpreted aspect of the southern deity Irae from the Potent Three..
• Category: Organized Religion ( Pagan )
• Image Credit: Reddit Only Source Available, Headers by Ingrid Hyrrokkin
• Development Thread: Not Applicable
• Permissions: Not Applicable

• Name: Vargen Somite ( The Way of the Stalking Wolf )
• Classification: Monolatrist Paganism ( Cult )
• Affiliation: Primarily found among certain warrior bands and raiding crews within the Jarlmoot.
• Description: Vargen Somite is a savage, expansionist faith centered on the Red Wolf Who Stalks Within Us. It teaches that true glory and immortality lie in eternal war and the deliberate erasure of legacy. By desecrating the monuments of the fallen and feeding their names to the Wolf, the faithful earn a place in the Eternal Hunt, an endless sky-battle where worthy warriors fight and feast forever.

• Influence:
  • A small but intense cult that has begun appearing among younger warriors, disaffected raiders, and a few ambitious jarls within the Jarlmoot. It remains very much a minority faith and has not gained widespread acceptance.
• Membership:
  • Prospective members must undergo the Blooding Rite: they publicly topple or deface an enemy or rival runestone while reciting the Red Wolf's howl. They then drink from a bowl of mixed blood and mead offered to Vargen Som. Members are expected to live as vessels of the Wolf constantly seeking war, expansion, and the destruction of lasting monuments that might bind the soul to Gaia.
• Hiearchy:
  • Grand Hedges — The highest ranks: twisted, massively haired often wolf-pelted berserkers and shamans
  • Blood Howlers — Priests and war-leaders who lead raids and desecration rituals.
  • Stalkers — Full initiates who bear the Wolf's mark.
  • Whelps — New converts still proving their worth through raids.
• Holdings:
  • Mobile war-camps and hidden groves containing toppled runestones within Jarlmoot territory. Some captured longhouses have been converted into makeshift Howling Halls. The faith has no fixed temples, as it travels with the pack.
• Resources:
  • Looted wealth from raids, vast collections of defaced enemy banners and runestones, and elite bands of wolf-skinned berserkers who serve the Grand Hedges.
• Doctrines:
  • The world is a hunting ground. Vargen Som, the Red Wolf, is the primal hunger for conquest that dwells in every worthy heart. Legacy and memory are chains that bind the soul to decaying earth. True immortality comes only through constant war and the erasure of the past. One must topple the stones of the dead so their names feed the Wolf. War is not a means it is the end. The faithful exist to feed the Eternal Hunt.
  • The world is a hunting ground. Vargen Som, the Red Wolf, is the primal hunger for conquest that dwells in every worthy heart. Legacy and memory are lies that chain the soul to decaying earth; true immortality comes only through constant expansion and the erasure of the past. One must topple the stones of the dead so their names feed the Wolf. War is not a means to an end, it is the end. The faithful exist to feed the Eternal Hunt.
• Practices:

Runestone Desecration: Captured or rival runestones are toppled, faces smashed, and names ritually gouged out or burned while howling prayers to Vargen Som.

The Blood Bowl: Warriors drink a mixture of enemy blood and sacred mead before battle to invite the Wolf inside.

Soul Offering: Grand Hedges and fervent followers scar or ritually mutilate themselves to weaken their soul's earthly anchors.

The Howling Circle: Nightly war-council rituals where deeds of the day are recited and judged by how well they feed the Wolf.

• Traditions:

Night of the First Howl: (midwinter): A massive raid is launched to capture new runestones, followed by a frenzied festival of desecration and feasting around great bonfires.

The Breaking of Kings: When a rival leader is slain, his monuments are destroyed and his name fed to the Wolf in a public ceremony, allowing his warriors the chance to join the new pack or be hunted.

Eternal Hunt Moot: Annual gathering where Grand Hedges declare new targets for expansion and judge the worthiness of the dead.

• Pantheon:

Vargen Som Smyger Inom Oss (The Red Wolf Who Stalks Within Us): The central deity, a colossal, blood-red wolf-headed giant wearing a crooked crown of flames, seated upon a throne of shattered runestones. Embodiment of war, fury, and endless expansion.

Lesser Wolf Spirits: Pack-brothers and shadow-hounds that serve Vargen Som, said to possess worthy warriors during battle frenzy.

• Mythology:

During the chaotic events surrounding the Zotenkoth conflicts in 772, the captured Hysperian noble Escarp de Cortina was brought before warriors of the Jarlmoot. In his delirium, he ranted about the Potent Three and the fiery wrath of Irae. Northern tongues and warrior-poets reshaped these foreign words into Vargen Som, the Red Wolf that dwells inside every true warrior.

According to the cult, Irae broke free from the southern god Theo and now walks the mortal world as an ever-hungry crimson wolf, calling the strong to abandon weak southern notions of legacy and permanence. Those who feed him the carved names of the dead grow strong and are promised a seat at the Eternal Hunt a never-ending celestial battlefield where the worthy fight, die, and rise again beneath the stars.

• Holy Sites:

The Shattered Grove (secret location deep within Jarlmoot territory): A hidden forest where hundreds of toppled and defaced runestones form a vast circle. It serves as the holiest site for major rites and the initiation of new Grand Hedges.

Vargen Somite is a very recent cult that emerged in the years following the fall of High King Skorr and the establishment of the Jarlmoot. It began as a distorted retelling of Potent Three theology brought north by Escarp de Cortina and was eagerly reshaped by some Nordurlond-descended warriors who already valued martial glory.

The cult stands in direct opposition to the long-established Muninsvegr faith, viewing the Sky Father and ancestral halls as attempts to deny the Wolf's supremacy. Because of this, Vargen Somite remains a small and controversial sect. While it has attracted a following among certain younger or more aggressive warriors, it has not achieved widespread acceptance and is viewed with suspicion by many traditional adherents of Muninsvegr.

Whether this new cult will remain a fringe movement or grow into something greater will be determined by the actions of the players in the Jarlmoot. To the faithful, however, such concerns are meaningless. The only truth is the howl, the hunt, and the eternal feast in the sky.

The only truth is the howl, the hunt, and the eternal feast in the sky​

 

[Nefadar]

Merchant Man

It is very cool, but there is a several issue in it, let me explain these. A Jarlmoot of Sloanugr always was/is a PC faction , It's not a staff or NPC faction, so I'll note it down whenever there are conflicts or attempts at retconning.

I apologise in advance for seeming too strict and nitpicky, but I'm also an admin of JoS and the entire faction is built by PCs and everything that has happened in the faction so far has been done by the players on the previous page. The religion (Muninsvegr) and everything else was written by Skald as a player/staff of JoS and not as site staff (and the other faction staff also helped write it with ideas etc.). That's why I want to clarify that things played and created by players are not retconned or rewritten. I hope you understand.

aggressive expansion in the power vacuum left by the High King Skorr's death.

There was no power vacuum left after Skorr's death, the Jarlmoot killed him, Haakon renounced his right to the throne, Haaki was known to be dead and everyone else who was of Skorr's bloodline was known to be dead, and everyone who was loyal to Skorr was put in their places with his own men. Jurgen killed Skorr in Albion and the Jarlmoot's men killed the loyalist back in Sloanugr while the king and his men were in Albion. The Jarlmoot was created immediately because it was part of a long-term plan, not a sudden assassination, planned coup. The Kingdom of Sloanugr collapsed after Skorr's death and even the Jarldom is not existed till 772 when ICly the PCs occupied Wulfhavn.

There hasn't been a High Kingdom of Sloanugr for 24 years and it's not known when the next one will be, please fix this too.

There are quite large time anomalies in it, in one place you write that the religion was created 24 years ago, and in another place you mention a historical event that happened about 2-3 years earlier to the current date. Which one is real? Zotenkoth was a short outbreak that operated secretly for a year, then they appeared in 772 by poisoning Lestat and assassinating him, then they disappeared again and disbanded in the same year. Zotenkoth was also a PC faction and group, not NPC, and before 772 they didn't do anything openly, they lived hidden in their area and they grew.

Vargen Somite emerged in the turbulent decades following the death of High King Skorr, as the Jarlmoot and the High Kingdom of Sloanugr fractured into competing warbands

The "fractured into competing warbands" also happened only in 771-772 when the first site started, before that there were no competing warbands and only the Jarlmoot and Spajord existed as nations in Nordurlond. As I mentioned earlier the Jarldom of Sloanugr only established in 772 when Skorr's sons (Haaki and Haakon (later Sigurd)) returned Nordurlond and occupied Wulfhavn from Hjorunn. This was the faction's first thread on the first site.

expansionist faith or rapidly spreading

I have some issues with this, this is a very new religion and as you write it is totally the opposite of the Muninsvgr which is Nordurlond's religion for centuries and many of their gods were a real person before their death. I want to highlight, there is no problem or issue with what they believe, I don't even comment on that, and there's no need to change anything about it. But there is a concern about it is a rapidly spreading thing which means it is or it will be a rival of the original religion is not really ok. I would recommend to mention it is a small cult or sect yet, and if this will change on the site by the players, you can edit the sub later anytime.

I would like to emphasise once again, please forgive me if I came across as too strict in this case, I was just trying to respect other players' work and not delete or rewrite it. Since there is quite a lot to change, I will move the thread to Pre-Writes, from where you can change the prefix and put it back in its proper place when you are ready.