Dreaming Lotus
Dreaming Lotus is a tribal god of the Eastern Threshold, whose portfolio has undergone a number of shifts over time.
Originally a minor deity overseeing a group of humans wandering the Eastern forests, Lotus rose to more authority when they settled during the First Age, creating a township known for fine woodcraft and logging. Dreaming Lotus enjoyed his place as a city god, for his temple was a fine one and worship steady, though the town never grew into a true city. The beautiful maidens tending his shrine were welcome company... perhaps too welcome on occasion, occasional godblooded births provoking risk of audit.
When the Great Contagion struck, Dreaming Lotus' town ceased to be... already descending in size and capability since the loss of infrastructure during the Shogunate, it could not survive losing 9/10ths of its people. Dreaming Lotus manifested himself amongst the people of his town, and attempted to save them the only way he could concieve: by reverting them to the nomadic tribe they had once been. Though devastated by the Contagion, Lotus' people had survived with a potent blessing: a handful of his own children yet lived, a fact for which he claimed complete credit. Under his guidance, the tribe evacuated westward in an attempt to escape the invading Fae, and the power of his godbloodes meant the absorption of other devastated tribes they happened upon.
However, Dreaming Lotus struggled with these new populations and new lands, each of whom brought hungry gods demanding a share of prayer... Lotus could not refuse them, for he was not a potent deity. At length, the tribe arrived at the Bloody River, where the god Rejak came amongst them and demanded their worship in exchange for his desperately-needed water. As the two gods argued and the tribespeople thirsted, the god Gradig came to them and offered them a deal: join him in a triumvirate and forge a nation where all of their purviews would be defended and grown, excluding all other deities. Dreaming Lotus accepted, and soon the nation of Bloody River took shape.
Recent events, however, have disturbed Dreaming Lotus. Of his fellows, he has been the least enamoured with his state's alliance with the Bull of the North, and has watched with worry as the tribal gods of the Icewalkers have been usurped by the Dawn caste general in favour of a tribeless pan-national army with its own traditions... Dreaming Lotus worries such a thing would strip him of his purview. More than ever before the god buries his disquiet thoughts with the company of beautiful priestesses, and keeps his godblooded offspring close at hand to aid him should matters deteriorate further.
Dreaming Lotus resembles a frail middle-aged man, wearing green-tinted spectacles and carrying a ledger-book of ornately-carved wood. His robes appear as civilized fashion from a distance, but closer inspection reveals them to be crude facsimiles formed of animal skins and berry-dyed hemp.
