Golden Bow is the Lord of Archery, who taught all of humanity how to use the bow. He wields the fire of the funeral pyre as well, for he is the bringer of the Good Death, whose purifying flame guides the dead to the Underworld and their proper afterlife. He is a terrifying figure, but also a comforting one, for he ensures the dead do not linger and are granted swift rebirth.
He is the light brother of the divine shamans, the Daylight Shaman who guards the border of dusk and intercedes with the spirits of the day. His counterpart is Basko, the Midnight Shaman, a figure of terror and darkness whom all of Pent fears. And yet, they are not enemies, but close allies and friends. Golden Bow is the Right Hand of Death and Basko the Left Hand, and together they are the truest allies and advisors to the North War Wind, who is master of the Sword Called Death.
Golden Bow is a son of Yu-Kargzant and Galana, one of the oldest ones. His star guards the border of night and day, appearing at dusk along the horizon after the sun has set. Among all the gods, no one can match his archery skill - at least, when facing enemies. Golden Bow does not compete in games, and other gods have been better at precision and trick shots.
Golden Bow is the archer whose arrows kill. He brings the Good Death, the death that ends the terrible and sends peace to the good. He is the friend at the right hand of North War Wind, for his burning arrows not only end life but show the way to the Underworld, so that good people can know the path to rebirth.
Golden Bow taught archery to the world in the ancient days. He taught all who came to him, which is why archery is not a secret of the true people - it was given to all, to help them survive. He fought many monsters which threatened people across the world, burning them with fiery arrows. His arrows lit the first funeral pyres, when Death entered the world, and their light shows the way, guarding against the final dark.
Because of this, Golden Bow is the Daylight Shaman of the gods, the bright intercessor with spirits and guide of the dead. This secret he kept for the true people of Pent, for only they could understand the Good Death and the Bad Death. His main followers are the Gold Shamans, who deal with the spirits of the daylight hours and the honored ancestors of the people. They understand the greatest truth of Golden Bow.
That truth is this: Golden Bow’s Good Death is a gift, and the enemies blessed with it are not to be hated, just as the Pentans delivered to it are not. Those monsters which were slain in the fires of the Golden Bow were given a chance to be reborn as allies to the First Herd, or as beasts of the land. Golden Bow’s death is the death that purifies. And his dark twin, Basko, bears the Bad Death, which is impure - and which also is not reserved only for enemies.
Few outside the cults of Basko and Golden Bow can say they truly understand the relationship of these brothers, one respected, the other terrifying. They are not friends, quite, but they understand each other deeply, and know that the right hand of Death and the left hand of Death must both exist.
There are two parts to the Cult of Golden Bow. His worship as Golden Bow the Archer, overseen by traditional priests, is a small warrior cult for archery specialists, and it has few members. Most archers follow a broader war god or hunting god for their archery magic, though some become initiates of Golden Bow for his fiery power.
The main membership are the Golden Shamans. They also are not numerous, but most tribes have at least one or two. The Golden Shamans intercede with daytime spirits on behalf of the people and, while they are feared for their power, are given great respect as well - and are usually far more welcome than their terror-causing cousins, the Black Shamans of Basko. There is no real hierarchy within the Golden Shamans, save that of teacher and student.
Golden Bow’s rider aspect is always depicted as a red man clad in golden mirrors on a cloak and tunic the colors of sunset. He wears a tall golden hat in the shape of a horse’s head, and he bears a golden bow as tall as he is. His eyes are black, and his hair is gold. In his horse aspect, he is red, with mane and tail of golden fire and black eyes. He always bears a quiver of golden arrows strapped to him, even when shown without a saddle.
Golden Bow is associated with runes of Fire, Death and Spirit. His fire is associated with the funeral pyre and sometimes the sacrificial flame, though generally only for sacrifices to spirits, who fall within his domain as the shaman. He is a bringer of death, both as the Lord of Archery who taught men how to fight with the bow and as the Good Death, the purifier of dead souls and guide to rebirth. He is never approached directly through the Spirit rune, but instead is associated with it because he provides one of the shamanic paths of Pent.
FIRE: Golden Bow wields the Fire Rune as a weapon, striking enemies down with the fire of the sun. His fire purifies, but it is not the fire of kindness beyond this. An incomplete list of powers that Golden Bow’s Fire Rune allows includes riding horses, fighting with a bow, shooting burning arrows, burning creatures of Darkness, cremating the dead, purifying things with fire, starting fires, inspiring bravery, or revealing enemies. Initiates strong in the Fire Rune are bold, hot-tempered, and direct.
DEATH: Golden Bow brings the Good Death to friends and enemies alike, striking them down and sending them on to the proper afterlife. Initiates have very broad access to the Death Rune, allowing them to perform many feats, including fighting with bow or sword, purifying and destroying undead, mercifully ending the life of the willing, purifying dead bodies, sensing Unlife, severing spirits from the body, sending dead things to the Underworld, bringing victory in battle, and terrifying enemies. Initiates strong in the Death Rune are stoic, merciless, and patient.
SPIRIT:Golden Bow does not provide magic through the Spirit Rune. Instead, cultists with a Spirit Rune of at least 1W belong to the Golden Bow Spirit Society and may call on charms, which often take the form of practical but well-made goods that reflect the charm’s nature.
Golden Bow is the Daylight Shaman. He knows the ways of spirits, and he guards the border of life and death to guide the souls of the dead home. He taught the people of Pent the ways of the Gold Shaman. Even those members of his cult who do not pursue the shaman’s path are able to join his personal cadre of spirits, however, if they have talent with the Spirit Rune. They become part of the Pentan Daylight Tradition of Spirit Magic, allowing them to use charms directly rather than as augments, allowing them to make charms for others, and even allowing them to take free spirit members of the society as allies. They are able to join other spirit societies as well, but must meet any other prerequisites to do so.
All spirits within the Golden Bow Spirit Society are the personal aides and followers of Golden Bow. They are grim but relatively friendly spirits, always associated with the Fire or Death Runes. While Gold Shamans and Black Shamans share access to many Pentan spirit societies that straddle both night and day, the Golden Bow Society is forbidden to Black Shamans and anyone associated with the Basko cult. It is distinctly a Daylight society, after all.
Members of the Golden Bow Spirit Society must participate in the rituals of their tribe and devote time to assisting the tribe on matters related to spirits, and are required to take part in all funerals of the tribe. They may also never forget a debt they owe, whether to human or spirit.
Burnt Cardinal (FIRE) is a bird spirit messenger and guard of Golden Bow, tasked to watch for danger and sound alarm. He grants the power of Sense Enemies. His taboo is Stand Guard For Three Hours Each Night.
Mourner’s Spark (FIRE) is a tender of the dead, a daughter of Golden Bow who helps with cremation, and she offers the gift of purity to the dead. She hates nothing so much as the impure animation of dead bodies. She gives the power of Burn Dead Bodies. Her taboo is Fight Undead Wherever You Find Them.
Daytime Star (FIRE) is a star spirit, one of the bright-shining stars that appears in the sky before night has truly fallen. They are an enemy of Darkness, protecting the souls of the dead as they make the journey to the Underworld so they are not eaten by night demons. They provides the power of Blinding Flash. Their taboo is Do Not Extinguish Fires At Night.
Vengeful Arrow (DEATH) is a bow spirit, one of the warriors at the call of Golden Bow. He remembers the names of all who have ever fought him, as well as the wounds they dealt him and what he dealt in return. He gives the power Return Blows Threefold. His taboo is Always Honor Enemies Slain In Vengeance As Your Kin.
White Sickle (DEATH) is a kestrel spirit and warrior of Golden Bow. She specializes in rendering impure foes pure in death, killing them in the ways of glory. She gives the power Purify Soul, fighting curses and taints left on the dead and preventing their rising as Undead. Her taboo is Kill Only When In A State of Purity.
Gate Warden (DEATH) is one of the watchers, Golden Bow’s chosen spirits that ensure the path to the Underworld is safe. He offers the power Control Underworld Gates. His taboo is Do Not Leave the Underworld Until You Have Aided Two Souls in Passing On to Daka Fal’s Court.
To join the Pentan Daylight Tradition you must have a Spirit Rune. Most such people are descended from specific bloodlines associated with the spirits or shamanic practice, but occasionally it appears in other groups, and is particularly associated with descent from the Horse Masters of the east. Initiation into the tradition is only through the cult of Golden Bow, performed by a Gold Shaman. Generally, they are willing to do this in exchange for a term of service as an assistant and student. This grants the Pentan Daylight Tradition tied to your Spirit Rune.
Members of the Pentan Daylight Tradition can sense spirits. Spirits reveal themselves to members regularly, and when they do, members can speak to them. They can see other spirits in the world around them but lack any power to force them to listen. If you do not belong to a spirit society, you can only use your charms as augments, but essentially all members of the tradition belong to the Golden Bow Spirit Society.
Golden Bow opposes the runes of Darkness and Life. Of the two, his relationship with gods of the Life Rune is often the rockier one.
Golden Bow is a loyal son of Yu-Kargzant and Galana and serves as a warrior when called on by Kargzant or West King Wind, but he offers no favoritism. He has few friends among the Pentan gods, for he is a grim and distant god. His closest friends are North War Wind, whom he has sworn to as right hand and oath-brother, and Basko, his dark counterpart, The trio are unstoppable when together, able to destroy anything - and that is why they so rarely come together, for there is no force so terrible as Death in all its glory.
Golden Bow’s greatest enemy is Zorak Zoran, who disrespects the nature of Death despite wielding it and raises undead to serve him through the powers of Darkness. His second greatest enemy is Malia, whose illnesses render their victims impure and so deny them the Good Death even when they deserve it.
Golden Bow’s cult has barely any hierarchy whatsoever. It is held together by the collective of priests and shamans throughout Pent, but none have any real authority over any other save that afforded by age and experience. It is considered to be wrong to contradict or oppose one’s teacher within the cult, but this does not extend to one’s teacher’s teacher. If a tribe has multiple priests, the most senior will be considered the high priest of Golden Bow, but this is a rare situation. Golden Bow priests sometimes join monasteries dedicated to other gods, but do not found their own.
The priests of Golden Bow are referred to as Bright Arrows. They are rarer than shamans within the cult and primarily oversee rituals of archery and warfare. They are required to be expert archers and to serve as warriors for their tribe, as well as to train others in archery. Lastly, they are required to take part in funerary rites, often serving as the lighters of the funereal pyre. The requirements to become a Bright Arrow are that they forswear any weapon but the bow or sword, that they must not get any additional children from the moment they are invested, and that they never take part in archery competitions, reserving their bow only as a sacred weapon of death.
There is no leader to Golden Bow’s cult, though when multiple priests or shamans gather in a single tribe, the most senior of their number will be considered the high priest and have a measure authority over the others. Beyond this, though, an initiate is expected to respect and obey their teacher within the cult. Each tribe maintains their own specific traditions with regards to the treatment of shamans generally, and control of places holy to the spirits can lead to conflict between tribes.
The most spiritually sacred part of Pent is the range of the Sky King Mountains, where the Starlight Ancestors were created. Mountains in general are considered to be sacred to the shamans as places where the earth meets the sky, but the Sky King Mountains are doubly sacred as markers of the line between past and present through the Starlight Ancestors. The Black Butte is similarly sacred to the shamans as the birthplace of the Wind Riders.
Boundary places are generally sacred, for the shamans guard boundaries, particularly the boundary of life and death. Mountains, caves and similar places are sacred. The Hell Crack is also sacred in this way, but it is particularly holy to the Black Shamans rather than the Gold Shamans.
An initiate of Golden Bow must have one of the Fire, Death or Spirit Rune at 1W or higher and must not have the Darkness Rune. Would-be initiates with the Darkness Rune are directed to the cult of Basko instead. Initiates of Golden Bow do not become impure by contact with blood, but do still become impure through contact with dead bodies, including by performing funeral rites.
To become a Gold Shaman, an initiate must have the Spirit Rune at 11W or higher. Their teacher in the cult brings them to the mouth of a cave at sunset, where they are taken into the spirit world and abandoned, to see what emerges in the first hours of Darkness. If they survive (overcoming a major plot obstacle), they return with their awakened fetch, which has revealed the secret truth to them: in the Light is the birth of the Dark. They must now guard that transition, which is the passage of life into death.
The fetch of a Gold Shaman is their Ash Man. According to the cult, the Ash Man is a spirit-being that every person has, assigned to them at birth. The Ash Man absorbs the impurities of the person they attend, and are the cause of normal illnesses and death as a result of this action. The Ash Man uses fever to burn away impurity in the body and helps tear the soul free of the impurity of flesh in death, though it lacks the power to render a Bad Death into a Good Death for most people. It contends against disease spirits sent by Malia, which are wholly impure, but most Ash Men are not strong enough to stop them.
The Ash Man of a Gold Shaman is much more powerful, and becomes the shaman’s bodyguard in a quite literal sense. When the Shaman’s soul wanders other worlds, the Ash Man enters their body and lights the fever-fire, creating a barrier of purity and heat that keeps the body safe from spirits. With its aid, the Gold Shaman can immediately escape from the Spirit World with a simple contest against a resistance never greater than Moderate. When fighting spirits or other discorporate entities in the physical world, the Ash Man steps in to help its master, rendering them immune to multiple opponent penalties.
Uniquely, a Gold Shaman may call on their Ash Man to absorb impurity. This grants each fetch a unique shamanic ability. Some are able to take on diseases, some are able to trade purity states, some are able to burn a person’s impurity away by turning it into fire, or similar. The Ash Man cannot leave the Gold Shaman’s body, however, so the Gold Shaman must be able to touch whoever is to be affected by the power, and a given Ash Man only has one power, which must somehow be related to its nature of absorbing and burning away impurity. If an Ash Man is somehow killed, so is its Gold Shaman.
The shamans teach that the mythic Ash Man who was part of West King Wind’s band of Lightbringers was himself a shaman, albeit one who suffered terribly by all he witnessed, and who merged wholly with his own Ash Man. They say this was necessary to allow passage into the Underworld at all, but was very bad for him.
Gold Shamans are considered members of every spirit society associated with the Daylight/Golden Bow Tradition which they qualify for and gain all other abilities unique to shamans. However, they also have the communal expectations of shamans placed upon them: they must lead the spirit rituals of the community and intercede with spirits on their behalf, and they cannot use sorcerous magic or any divine or spirit magic that is not of the Pentan gods while remaining a shaman.
Golden Bow’s most important holy day is the last Freezeday of Fire Season, marking the beginning of the rise of Cold and Darkness. It is at this time that evil spirits are most dangerous, for it is the changing of the guard, and the Gold Shamans perform warding rituals. Traditionally, the Bright Arrows host archery exhibitions, though they remain forbidden to take part themselves and instead serve as judges.
The last Fireday of Dark Season is also holy to the Gold Shamans, marking the shifting of darkness to light once more. The ritual wards are maintained by the Black Shamans on this day, however, and the Gold Shamans instead use it to look for children marked by the power of Spirit.
The cult has no other universal holy days, instead performing various rituals on a schedule based on the power of the local spirits so as to maintain the balance of light and darkness, with the Gold Shamans overseeing the rituals of the Daylight Spirits of their tribe’s land.
Golden Bow himself favors the sacrifice of wooden goods, ghee and goods made from the bodies of horses. He also loves the sacrifice of birds, for they are pure animals which generally can only be taken by traps or bows. He also honors the gift of traditional funereal goods, transforming these miniature models into things which will protect the dead on their journey.
It is rare to see a devotee of Golden Bow. They must possess the Fire or Death rune at 11W, and must forswear the magic of any other god entirely, giving up initiation in any other cults, as well as any sorcery. They may retain their shamanic powers if they are a Gold Shaman, however.
Bringer of Good Death (DEATH): The Bringer of Good Death stands apart from all others. He watches for enemies from afar, choosing from among them those who are worthy and honorable. These he blesses with his unerring arrows, which always strike true. Those who are struck by them while his in a state of purity die mercifully, unmarred by impurity. The Bringer of Good Death is terrifying even to his allies, however, for her cannot spare any whose time has come. His arrows grant his mercy to those whose wounds would be infected or who would suffer illness, allowing their souls release before impurity can touch them. All those he slays are burned by the fire of his arrows, preventing them from ever rising as Undead. While he is in a state of purity, he cannot kill the unworthy or treacherous, but instead marks them with the sign of the Bad Death, so that all know their shame and may bring punishment upon them. Those so marked attract evil spirits that torment them. Only those who are in a state of purity can look upon the Bringer of Good Death without fear, for even the Good Death is terrifying. The Bringer of Good Death may give up his state of purity to purify an Undead foe, destroying them utterly by granting them the Good Death.