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I am going to be GM'ing a game set in Irrisen and one of my players asked if I had any more details on religion in Irrisen, besides what little is written in Inner Sea Campaign Setting book, which only list Lamashtu and Zon-Kuthon as the primary deities.
I couldn't really find much, so I wrote up this small primer, but I am interrested if anyone else have some suggestions.
Folk Religion in Irrisen
The rural people of Irrisen, the Ulfen and Kellid underclass of serfs who populate the villages and hamlets scattered throughout the Land of Eternal Winter, largely worship according to ancient and bloody traditions, related to the rites of the Shadow-Druids of Uskwood.
They worship at ancient rough-hewn stone alters, within circles of standing stones, deep in forests or at the top of forsaken hills. Here they offer bloody sacrifices to the two primary deities od Irrisen: Lamashtu the Dark Mother and Zon-Kuthon the Lord of Scars.
In most cases, the altar is a plain stone block, worked as little as possible by human hands and stained with the frozen blood of previous sacrifices. The standing stones surrounding the altar is however frequently richly decorated. Some villages carve them into the likeness of the gods, ancient heroes or terrible monsters, while other drape them with garlands of colored rope, from which the hang gifts and offerings. In some areas the villagers tie condemned criminals to the stones, with rope or chains, and leave them out to die of exposure, while in other villages carve small alcoves into the stone, which are used to store the skulls or ashes of honored ancestors.
Irriseni folk religion assumes that gods are fickle, hungry and dangerous and must be appeased with bloody sacrifices. The small-folk of Irrisen almost never pray to their gods for good fortune or guidance, instead prayers and sacrifices are intended to appease their dark gods and bribe them to stay their wrath and leave the worshipper to his own devices.
Most villages gather at least once per season to offer sacrifice. In most cases this will take the form of an animal sacrifice. Tradition dictates that black animals are the most effective for appeasing the gods. Lamashtu is said to prefer the blood of roosters, crows and goats, while Zon-Kuthon favors the blood of wolves. In times of great need, the community may instead opt for a human sacrifice. Such a sacrifice will usually be acquired by kidnapping a traveler or a person of a neighboring village, but in truly dire situations the village may instead gang up on their own priest and sacrifice her or him to the gods, under the assumption that the priest has failed in his duties and is the cause of the god’s wrath.
Grand Offerings
Almost all rural people in Irrisen practice a variant of the two rituals known as “The Grand Offerings”.
On the shortest day of the year the people of the village gather at their alter to sacrifice at least a dozen animal to the Dark Mother. By tradition the first and last sacrifice must be one of her favored animals (or a human), but the rest of the offerings are usually domestic animals. Once all the blood has been spilled, the meat of the animals is brought back to the village and cooked and the villager then feast and drink until dawn. Children conceived on this night are said to carry the Dark Mother’s favor – especially girls, who are believed to born with the gift witchcraft.
At dusk of the summer solstice the men of the villages gather to honor the Lord of Scars and prove their bravery and endurance. This is usually done by engaging in ritual combat. The men are stripped naked to the wrist and then fight each other, armed with knives and whips, until one party is disabled from pain and blood loss or dies, the latter actually being a fairly rare occurrence. Once the duels have concluded and all the participants wounds have been dressed, the local priest gather all the bloodies bandages and burn them on a ritual pyre lit within the stone circle, offering up the blood and pain of the men to Zon-Kuthon.
Irrisen also has a significant population of Fey, Trolls, and Giant, so I imagine here might be a small population worshipping the Eldest or giant deities like Thremyr.
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I vaguely recall that Sivanah is worshipped a bit in Irrisen, and seems like an appropriate patron for the witches.
Erastil, Desna, Gorum and Torag are popular gods among the Ulfen in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, so it's possible that some of the oppressed Ulfen people still living within Irrisen might maintain some hidden shrine to their 'old gods,' but it's also possible that their rulers have squashed that over the last thousand years or whatever.
Your details on the religions of Zon-Kuthon and Lamashtu, particularly the 'grand offerings' are pretty awesome. Great detail.
Zon-Kuthon's an interesting patron for the culture. They've 'lost' the summer, and been thrust into a cruel eternal winter that requires vast endurance and painful sacrifices (since there's not been a crop to harvest for a thousand years, and everyone must be constantly hungry, with families making harsh decisions about which child gets to eat and which bellies are going empty, as well as really missing the comforts of beer, mead and wine, which the average person won't see in their lifetime, since there's no wheat or barley or hops or honeybees or grapes within the nation's boundaries, save perhaps a tiny amount in gardens kept by the witch-rulers themselves for their own personal use). Zon-Kuthon would serve as a god of survival and endurance, not 'pain for pain's sake,' or even cruelty for cruelty's sake, but a fitting patron for people trapped in a land where enduring pain and loss are constant companions, and making cruel heartless choices is seemingly the only way to survive.
Lamashtu seems like she might be a more popular choice with the trolls and winter wolves, in particular, but also the witches themselves.
Given that the nation is Neutral Evil, it's interesting that the two main faiths are Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil. Auril, from the Forgotten Realms, a NE goddess of ice and cold, would be perfect for Irrisen, but it's almost more interesting and appropriate that the nation not have a 'perfect' god to represent it, since it's an unnatural thing, artificially imposed upon Golarion by the will of Baba Yaga.
It's also interesting that the only NE fey Eldest, the Green Mother, is utterly inappropriate for a country in which green things cannot grow, making choices as to whom the 'winter fey' follow up for grabs, since there's no obvious choice (suggesting perhaps that the fey themselves who serve Baba Yaga are somehow unnatural, or twisted from whatever original roles they served?).
Irrisen also has a significant population of Fey, Trolls, and Giant, so I imagine here might be a small population worshipping the Eldest or giant deities like Thremyr.
Don't forget demon lords, like Urxehl (demon lord of trolls as well as storms and disasters).
It's also interesting that the only NE fey Eldest, the Green Mother, is utterly inappropriate for a country in which green things cannot grow, making choices as to whom the 'winter fey' follow up for grabs, since there's no obvious choice (suggesting perhaps that the fey themselves who serve Baba Yaga are somehow unnatural, or twisted from whatever original roles they served?).
Well yeah, aren't most of them Winter-Touched?
http://karzoug.info/srd/monsters/W/WinterTouchedFey.htm