Virlavir

Virlavir
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Name:	Virlavir
Other names:	the god of four shapes the four the flickle one
World:	Gyllenheim
parents :	The spirit king of the forest and the spirit queen of the wind.
siblings :	Falnmar
Consorts :	None
Children:	Nardvir

Virlavir is the god of the season and as each season passes is does he change shape, in the spring is he a young maiden, with wide bosoms and hips. Come summer is he a young man, strong and tall with wide shoulders and strong arms. Come autumn does he turn into a man in his middleage with greying templates, worn hands and a thick greying beard. Finally when winter comes does he turn into a old crone with skin stretched out over her bones and with a face looking sickly and close to death. When winter ends does the sickly crone finally die and the gods carry her to a pyre where she is burnt and once the flames have died as well so does the young maiden rise again.

The god as such represents nature and the seasons but due to the chronologically's hatred for the undead and the strict divine laws for creatures that have returned from the veil of death so have the god also by several cults in the history been seen as an abomination and been declared the demon of the undead as well. The official doctrine of the chronologically however states that the god is not unholy and instead reborn rather than awoken from death. Most of the cults that have opposed this verdict have historically been declared "Útblót" and heretical. The largest of these was Björkisterna that amongst other things opposed an organised chronological faith in the early 9th to late 10th centuries and was brutally repressed but still posed a serious threat.

Birth

Virlavir is the son/daughter of two spirit kings and the sister/brother of Falnmar it was said that in the dawn of the world when elderväsendena had been put to sleep and the world was saved so did the spirits do battle with one another over the new creation. In the end did the high spirits win and assumed control before they descended to the world and became the first humans.

The most ferociously of foes however was the king of the forests and the queen of the sky and they continued their feud for ages. In the end however did Rasmer broker a peace between the two and they sealed the pact by sharing a bed once every year and from this union was twins born, Falmnar and Virlavir. Rasmer took the two children under his care and they grew up to the gods now worshipped in the chronological faith.

Virlavir in the sagas

Virlavir is a god that while not minor is not one of the greatest gods in the holy chronicles and often said to be the god in charge of making the seasons shift which he does by riding over the land in a chariot dragged by nine cats when in the shape of a woman or riding a boar when in the shape of a man. It is not often the god interacted with either heroes nor gods when doing so but he was mentioned as fighting in the battle of the light and shadow. There is however a tale about a vile and greedy Dwarf king that decreed himself the mightiest of all kings and that even the seasons obeyed him so he captured Virlavir and held him for ransom. Bel tried to fight his way in, Rasmer tried to demand and reason his way in, and Arkar tried to trick his way in but in the end was it a combined effort of the three that won the day when Arkar on the order of Rasmer tried to offer the dwarf king Mirviva's hand in marriage if he let Virlavir go. The dwarf king accepted and they gave him Bel dressed as the goddess instead, Bel quickly slew the king and freed Virlavir so that the seasons would continue as before.

While it is not stated why so is Virlavir the only of the gods that does not eat the golden apples and stays forever young.

Children

The only child of Virlavir is said to be Nardvir, the god of the northern wind that during winter rides on a nine legged wolf to help his elderly and dying mother over the sky. Nardvir was fathered when Virlavir in his aspect of a young maiden takes Asarl as her lover and was birthed by Virlavir in his shape of an middle aged man.

Worship of Virlavir

There are not many prayers or blot directed to Virlavir as he is seen as a minor god but in all sects of the faith so are there four days of the year, the official days when the season ends, when large bonefires are lit and boars or cats are sacrificed to the god in the hope of helping him across the sky. However in Jarntra so are simply fish or whales sacrificed instead and as is common to the faith so do they throw their sacrifices into the ocean instead of burning them.