Wana is the first Ogre . She was created by Ratish together with the other Firstborn Ogres. She is the godess of hunting, disease and slaughter. She is considered the most beautiful Ogre by many Ogres, yet most other mortals consider her the ugliest godess. Wana's angels are the Ratmen, huge rats that can talk and walk on two legs and are often harbingers of diseases. Her daemons are Goblins, small humanoids that delight in hunting lone travellers and gruesome slaughter. She created the godess Tal'kinita and the troll race.
Hunting
The most often worshipped part of Wana's portfolio is that of hunting. Wana is considered to be the best hunter, capable of single-handedly taking down mammoths and other huge creatures. The hunting aspect of Wana is often called upon before or during a hunt, to help find good prey. Some worshippers pray to Wana to bless their spears to strike true or bless their snares to catch better prey. The aspect of hunting is often combined with slaughter after the hunt, when the result of the hunt is slaughtered. Sometimes one animal will be slaugtered and left out in the open to spread disease. Some Ogre tribed will do this before anyone eats, recognising Wana as the strongest Ogre who should be the first to eat.
Disease
Although Wana is primarily known for the spreading of diseases, many mortals still pray to Wana when they or their close companions fall ill. They believe Wana will help them overcome the disease. Others are more active worshippers of Wana and spread diseases on purpose - either by infecting themselves and surviving the infection, or by asking for creatures or settlements to be infected with disease as a preparation for slaughter. Many active worshippers of Wana see the spreading and survival of disease as a good thing, that makes their group stronger.
Slaughter
Slaughter is the aspect of Wana most commonly considered to be wholly evil. Yet as with most such things, this is primarily due to the worshippers and how they worship. The most prominent and easy way to worship slaughter is to simply slaughter everything you come across. Indeed, a large number of Ogre tribes devoted to Wana follow this principle. Yet others see it differently. Commanders dedicated to Wana will often try their best to make sure the battles they fight become massacres, dedicating all the slaughter involved to Wana. However, as mentioned above, there are also more subtle ways of slaughter. Ritual slaughter of game caught during a hunt is one of these methods. Ritual slaughter of crippled, injured or otherwise weak game is often seen as good even.
Good versus Evil
Wana is considered by many to be the most evil godess on Heimr. This is primarily due to the relative difficulty of good worship of two of her portfolio items, disease and slaughter. There are many Ogre tribes and other being dedicated to the evil forms of Slaughter worship, yet the good worship is more subtle and less wide spread. Many mortals consider the simple fact of disease and spreading thereof to be an evil thing, not believing the tales of good worshippers that spreading disease makes a group stronger.
Symbols:
Wana worshippers often wear or depict the colours red and green. The obvious animal symbolizing Wana is the rat. Guts, limbs, decapitated heads and other body parts and gore is often used to decorate Wana her altars. Blood is an easy to use product of slaughter often used in rituals. Clothing that has been bloodied in a fight is seen as an easy mark of Wana. Vomit, puss, bile, excrements and other bodily fluids are also often used in rituals associated with Wana. Large and primitive drums are instruments associated with Wana; sometimes several rocks banged together are enough tool for Wana worshippers to create all the music they would ever want.
Wana herself is usually depicted as a primitively drawn voluptuous ogre woman with large breasts and prominent genitalia. Many small clay figures exist depicting Wana in this manner. In more sophisticated depictions Wana is almost always wounded, oozing puss and blood, but proudly standing and ignoring the injury. Usually she is standing on or towering over a slaughtered and mutilated foe or large game, sometimes eating a limb from the fallen foe. When depicted clothed she wears raw furs on her body, sometimes even still bloody from the fresh hunt.
Wana has many nicknames; some more prominent examples are: "Fleshgobbler", "Butcher of the World" "The Black Death", "The Plague", "The Huntress".
A list of bodily "fluids" used in rituals of Wana (many priests have their "favourites"):
- Sweat
- Urine
- Blood
- Spit
- Tears
- Puke
- lymh fluid
- Milk
- Gall
- Diarria
- Puss
- Mucus
- Cerebrospinal fluid
- Sperm and Vaginal fluids
- Sleeping dust
- Various unknown fluids in various feyfolk forms.
- Tellurian skin flecks
- The fluids from shanata or feyfolk cocoons.
- Spark fluid (the fluid just under the skin of spark born fae that shows coloured lines across their faces), usually mixed with their blood because it's hard to get the one without the other... unsure whether it's actually just blood or not but Wana priests generally don't need an excuse to kill fae
Angels of Wana
Ratmen are the angels created by Wana, representing her good side. They are large rats, ranging in size from that of a halfling to twice the size of a human. They usually walk on two legs, though some will use four legs for added speed. Others have arms and hands that can hold and use weapons and other tools. Unlike their common brethren, Ratmen are meat eaters and have a meat-eater's teeth. Ratmen delight in hunting and spreading diseases, often hunting down those they consider evil and spreading diseases affecting only those same evil people.
Daemons of Wana
Goblins are the daemons of Wana. They are greeish-brown humanoids with generally pointed features. They delight in hunting and slaughtering those too weak to defend themselves - children, pregnant women, elderly people. Most goblins are fairly weak, but they are very numerous, hunting in packs of twenty or more. Sometimes whole armies of goblins roam around Heimr, sacking villages and towns and leaving a large trail of destruction and slaughter. It can be quite hard to get rid of these armies, as the goblins are cunning tacticians that prefer hit and run tactics to pitched battles. Thus, the army will sooner break apart into smaller hunting squads than face a well-trained foe in the open.
Mandate of Wana
Apart from the General mandate of the gods Wana has expressed the following wishes from her followers.
General Wana
- Hunt others
- When hunted: fight to the last breath, be a challenge, no matter your chances.
Good Wana
- Help others survive diseases
Evil Wana
- Slaughter others
- Spread diseases