"That may all be true, but no man or woman, not even Lady Verena, can judge until the other side has told their story. Then, once both parties have made their case, a judgement will be made."
- —Judge Wilhelm Manfred[2c]
Verena, the goddess of knowledge, science, law and justice
Verena is the goddess of knowledge, science, learning, wisdom, law and justice in the Old World Pantheon,[1a] and one of the most commonly cited of the Classical Gods who were introduced to the early Empire by the nations of the south.[2a] She is in several myths said to be the husband of Morr, god of death,[5a] and as unlikely a pairing as it would seem at first, the two are united by the common themes of judgement and simply oversee different aspects of the concept, Morr judging the dead and it falling to Verena to judge the living. She and Morr are the parents of the goddesses Myrmidia and Shallya, deities of warfare and mercy, respectively.[2c]
Verena is known by many titles, including "Lady Verena,"[2c] "Wise Verena," and the "Goddess of Learning and Justice."[5a] The majority of the Cult of Verena's priests revere her as "Verena the Wise," and practice a balanced approach that both uncovers injustice and shows she is a goddess of wisdom and intelligence. Most temples favor "Verena the Judge" and prefer to follow Imperial law, while some controversially espouse that all that matters is what is right and not necessarily what is legal, calling on the aspect of "Verena the Just."[2h]
Some minor, regional deities are aspects of an official Imperial deity, and thus tolerated by the official cults.[6a] Several minor sects of Verena worship her in these various other aspects.[2c] As Clio she is a goddess of history popular with explorers and historians. As Scripsisti she is the goddess of scribes who, with the invention of the printing press, has taken on a more antagonistic role. Verena also has a male aspect in the form of Renbaeth the Shrewd, a god of lawyers who ceaselessly pursues the truth.[2c][2d]
As scholars rightly believe, Verena was once a member of the pantheon known as the Gods of Law in her ancient aspect of Daora, the representation of pure, total knowledge and patron of ultimate wisdom and enlightenment.[3a][4a] It is also believed by some scholars that Verena could be a Human aspect of the Elven god of wisdom Hoeth,[2b] their worship potentially instituted among Men by the High Elves through the ancient scrolls left in their Old World colonies, which were then translated in the southern realm that is now Tilea.[2a]
As Clio Verena is known as the "Delver Into the Past."[2c] As Scripsisti she is known as the "Goddess of Calligraphers and Writing"[2c] and the "Patron of Scribes."[2a] As Renbaeth she is "the Shrewd," the "Perfect Lawyer," and the "Patron of Lawyers."[2c][2d]
Verena is worshipped throughout the Old World, especially in the south. Her devout followers include scholars, lawyers, and magistrates, as well as some wizards of the Colleges of Magic, particularly of the Grey Order and Light Order.[5a] Some of her followers focus on her aspect as the judge and arbiter, believing justice is more important than learning and acting as mediators, while others focus on her apect as the guardian of knowledge, believing learning is more important than justice and usually acting as librarians and scholars.[2c]
Verena is especially popular among the learned and studious.[1a] She is regarded as a wise teacher, for it is said that she lifted Mankind from its barbarous roots with the giving of writing. It is for this act that she is also held as the mother of learning, reason, and discourse.[2c] The illiterate masses of the Old World have little interest in Verena despite her cult sometimes organising missions to educate them.[7a]
At the same time, Verena is the patron of just decisions and impartial balance.[2c] She is in all her aspects concerned with absolute fairness and balanced judgement and so is popular amongst peoples of all social classes.[9] Her cult is responsible for the Imperial magistrates who travel on a circuit through villages and towns seeing cases and passing judgement on minor crimes. It is a matter of Verenean dogma that magistrates are always as even-handed and as fair as they can possibly be,[7c] and though Verena is revered as a guardian of the laws that maintain privilege by the nobility,[7a] her creed holds even if it means making enemies of the powerful and influential. For this reason, the judgement of Verena is held in higher regard among the common folk than judgements made by the more enthusiastic followers of Sigmar.[7c]
The Old World faces calamity with disturbing regularity, and it is the rule of law and ordered society that enables the mortal nations to not only survive, but thrive.[2c] Yet as the patron of justice, Verena is concerned with fairness rather than the letter of the law, and she opposes oppression as much as crime.[5a] Those who venerate Sigmar are to some extent concerned with violence and war, and while Verena (as a deity of justice and in spite of her benevolence and civility) has a definite martial streak of her own, it is the philosophical doctrines of justice espoused by her priests that prevents the Empire from sliding into complete tyranny.[2c]
History[]
A bust of Verena, set amidst the tools of learning.
The ancient texts of the Tileans suggest that the written word was gifted to them by Verena. This written language is now called Classical, and its modern equivalent is still used across the Old World. Almost all communities in the lands that would become the Empire of Man worshipped the five Elder Gods: Taal, Rhya, Ulric, Manann and Morr.[2a]
The influence of Shallya, the goddess of mercy, quickly spread from Tilean trading settlements established in these territories, and after Shallya came her holy mother, Verena. Verena's rare cultists had an immeasurable impact, for they brought the "Blessed Art of Words," and for the first time, the myths, legends and fables of the of what would become the Empire were recorded.[2a]
Most Verenean priests speak a cult-specific, ritualised dialect of Magick, which they use to grant blessings. These ancient dialects share much vocabulary and often have identical grammatical structures, making them, albeit with a little work, mutually intelligible. Many Cult of Verena scholars claim this is because all cult languages are descended from the "Language of the Gods," taught to Humanity by Verena.[2g]
Tileans believe that Myrmidia, the goddess of war and strategy, was taught by her mother, Verena, how to mark time by observing the heavens, which was why she installed a lunar calendar as her nation's dating system when she united all of Tilea and Estalia in the Reman Empire.[2f]
Some Imperial scholars think the Halflings are a race of Men experimented on by Verena to find a way to resist the corruption of Chaos, while a few others argue Ranald created them as a bizarre joke upon the mortal world.[6b]
Mythology[]
"And then the Cataclysm came.
King Taal rose from His Forest, and with Dark Morr muttering dire portents in His ear, He banished all immortals from the world.
But the Cataclysm's architects refused His order.
The Crow, the Hound, the Serpent, and the Vulture were jealous of King Taal, and had tried to use the Great Gates to take what was His.
They had failed.
As the other immortals fled, the Four attacked, bitter and angry with their frustrations.
Many died.
After countless battles, King Taal was eventually surrounded. There were few still by his side. Ulric the Wolf. Noble Margileo. Just Verena. Sotek the Snake. Manann of the Sea. And Gentle Shallya, tear-stained and afraid.
Even Smiling Ranald had fled, and now hid in the Places Between, fearful for the future.
Then, just as the Four and their allies arrived for the Final Battle, Flaming Phoenix, whom all had thought dead, returned from atop His Gleaming Pyramid, and He smote about Him.
Thus the rebels were pushed behind the Great Gates, and were sealed there forever.
But they were restless in their cage, and soon worked to escape."
Wisdom and Action[]
Verena (holding scales) fighting the Chaos Gods alongside Rhya, Taal, Morr, and Ulric.
Some theologians claim that Verena did not always have her martial aspect, but when Chaos was unleashed upon the Known World and Ulric, the god of winter, war and wolves, tried to rally the other gods against the threat, Verena was the only one who took his warning seriously. She took up Morr's sword and rode to battle behind Ulric, shaming her fellow gods into action in the process.[2c] A tome titled Lord Ulric and the Making of the World, kept in the Temple of Ulric in the city of Middenheim as a religious relic but of which neither the author nor collator is known, contains the following myth which partially pertains to the nature of Verena.[8a]
There was a time, when the mortal world was young and Men had just come forth onto the earth, that there was no taint of Chaos upon the land. Father Taal and Mother Rhya tended the things of the land, and their son Manann was master of the things of the sea. Morr was king of the darkness, and Verena the queen of the light, and so all was in balance.[8a]
In the high summers, Lord Ulric, brother of Taal and prince of the snow and ice, had no realm to tend to, so he had taken to walking the earth and the sky and the stars to seek adventure. He travelled far beyond the ken of man or god, fought and slew the greater monsters and Dragons and gave names to all the wonders that he found. With him in many of these journeys came his cousin, Prince Ranald the Trickster, and many are the tales told of these two friends and their brave deeds. But all journeys must end, and this is the tale of their last journey together.[8a]
Ulric and Ranald had journeyed far to the north, farther than any god or man had ever gone before, into the frozen wastes, where the air is so cold it freezes like the water and the earth shatters under one's feet like the first film of ice on the lake, and no man nor Dwarf can survive. And here, at the very top of the world, Ulric and Ranald came upon a crack in the sky. Looking through it, they saw a great horror: it led to the Realm of Chaos. There stood all the beasts and Daemons and Gods of Chaos, a great and terrible horde, straining to widen the crack and hungry for conquest of this new world.[8a]
Ulric knew that should this Daemonic army breach the gate, all of this world would be forever destroyed. He called to his brother Ranald to immediately run to tell Father Taal and King Morr of what they had seen, so they might make ready their armies to drive back this horde. Ulric said he would stand at the crack and hold it closed as long as he could. Ranald nodded to his cousin, and ran.[8a]
But the Trickster was a coward, and when he had seen the Chaos hordes he had known only fear. Instead of running to tell his lords and family what had happened, he instead ran and hid. He ran far, far away, to the burning deserts in the south, and buried himself deep under the sand there.[8a]
Ulric waited at the crack, holding it closed with all his might, though on the other side a million Daemons clawed and grabbed at it, desperate to tear it further and gain their entry. Ulric stood and held the gate for a thousand years and one, his muscles ever-straining with the effort, waiting for his cousin to return. But Ranald never came. Enraged at his cousin's cowardice, Ulric swore never to speak to Ranald again, nor ever to suffer a trickster to travel with him, for all that trusted in tricks were nought but cowards, weaklings and deceivers.[8a]
Finally, Ulric's strength began to wane, and he knew his weakling cousin had not delivered the message. He knew too, that he could not hold the gate closed much longer. So despite his fears, he was forced to let go and bear the terrible news to his family himself. But when he arrived to do so, he found himself ignored and discounted.[8a]
His brother Taal did not believe that there could be another world beyond his, and Manann had no care for things of the land. Great King Morr believed Ulric's story, but did not see a great danger -- certainly it was nothing Ulric himself could not handle. Ulric despaired, knowing that even now the Chaos hordes must be pouring into their world, led by their own great and hideous gods, ready to destroy all they had made.[8a]
Finally, he appealed to Queen Verena, and in her wisdom, she saw that the danger was indeed very real and very great, and that these fiends would destroy all of the Beauty and Reason she had created. She swore that even if her husband would not act, she would, and she took up her husband's sword and rode out to battle with brave Lord Ulric. And to this day, Verena still carries that sword, as a reminder to Morr and to all her subjects that wisdom must be joined with action, lest all wisdom be lost.[8a]
Shamed into action by his queen, Morr rallied all the gods behind him, and all their loyal followers, and rode out to meet the Chaos Gods and their Daemonic armies. Morr was no great warrior, and Ulric had proven his wisdom in seeing the danger, so Morr gave over to Ulric command of all the gods' forces, and Ulric thence became the god of battle. Wearing his great helm and swinging his massive warhammer, Ulric led the gods forth to meet their enemy.[8a]
And where the hoof beats of their horses fell, they cut a trail of mud far deep into the earth, and the sea rushed in to fill it up, and became the great River Reik. All the while, the Chaos Daemons ran on their claws of fire and blood, so sharp that they bit into the very land itself, which is why the coast of Norsca is now so ragged and torn.[8a]
The two forces met with uncontained fury. The Chaos force was uncountable in number, unending in hunger, unimaginable in savagery. Yet Ulric's courage never faltered. His fury would not abate, and his strength never wavered. He smashed the Chaos ranks with his great warhammer, breaking every charge that came. Behind him rode King Morr, bringing the darkness of death, and Queen Verena with her sword of light, and Father Taal with the fury of the lion, and Mother Rhya with the strength of the mother bear, and Manaan brought the sea forth into the field, dragging thousands of Daemons down into his realm where he could choke the life out of them.[8a]
Still the Daemons and Chaos beasts came on, still the Gods of Light fought back. The battle raged for a thousand years, until at last all the armies of Chaos were routed, and the Chaos Gods themselves were smashed to pieces beneath Ulric's great hammer. But the victory was not without cost. Thousands of the gods' servants lay dead. Lesser gods and heralds had been lost forever from the world. The Dragons that had fought with the gods had seen most of their number fall.[8a]
And worst of all, King Morr himself was gravely wounded. He lived, but was forced to find succour in the Morr's Realm and was never more seen on this earth. Seeing all this suffering and loss, Queen Verena fell to her knees and cried. And her tears flowed over the battlefield, and from them came the newborn goddess Shallya, patron of compassion, bringing her mercy and healing to the injured and despairing.[8a]
Sword of Judgement[]
The following myth comes from the Asur by way of Markus Fischer, a Magister of the Grey Order.[2b]
When the Old Ones' Polar Gates collapsed at the north and south poles, and the mutating energies of the Aethyr were released, mourning Verena was approached by Taal, the god of nature and animals, to join the defence against the Dark Gods. He had become king after his father, Asuryan, had been struck down by the Blood God Khorne, and was rallying those who still lived. After much persuasion, Verena eventually agreed to join the survivors at the Great Pyramid.[2b]
When she arrived, she was shocked to see how few remained. Knowing they desperately needed an advantage, Verena studied the great tablets of the Old Ones, and uncovered the existence of Tlanxla's Sword of Judgement, a weapon of incredible power. So, without informing Taal, she travelled to the Southern Polar Gate disguised as a servant of the Dark Gods. After hardships unnumbered, she eventually found the artefact in the hands of a Daemon God.[2b]
Like many other artefacts of the Old Ones, the Sword of Judgement was being used to further the schemes of the Dark Gods. The Daemon God in question was called Ulgu, who had been commanded by the Tzeentch to join with seven other Chaos Gods to flood the mortal realm with the magical energies of the Aethyr. Verena, using her intelligence and wit, tricked Ulgu into giving her the Sword of Judgement, then fled back to the Great Pyramid, to join the last stand against the Dark Gods.[2b]
When she arrived, the forces of Chaos were already making their attack. She swooped down and joined the defence. Step-by-step the defenders were driven up the pyramid, until there were only a handful of gods about the Diamond Throne at its top. Just as it seemed all was lost, a great, white fire erupted from the Diamond Throne, and Asuryan the Phoenix, wearing a bifurcated mask of white and black, strode forth. With a strength borne of fury, the resurrected King of the Gods drove back the confused forces of Chaos.[2b]
To this day, High Elven servants of Verena, whom they call Hoeth, all bear swords, much like their god. In turn the wise Magisters of the Grey Order also favour the weapon, all in memory of a myth that probably isn't even true.[2b]
Tenets[]
A stoic and serious goddess,[2c] Verena cannot be considered an emotive or particularly caring deity.[9] She is, however, a benevolent force to whom many appeal to for freedom from despotism and injustice, one who espouses wisdom over bureaucracy and justice over tyranny.[2c]
She is said to promote the absolute rule of law, and demands that all her followers capitulate to the laws of the land, but this is tempered with the fact that she is concerned chiefly with justice and logic, and so she will not tolerate unjust or poorly considered laws that lead to societal disharmony. She sees such laws as anathema to the purpose of law in the first place, and as such, although Verena encourages her faithful to be obedient to hierarchial structures, she abhors what she sees as the irrationality of tyranny and oppression for its own sake.[9]
Verena's priests claim she understands more than any other deity the importance of wisdom and learning, and the need to defend them from ignorance and destruction, with force of arms if necessary.[2c] Penances set by Verena normally involve the recovery or preservation of knowledge, the righting of an injustice, or the resolution of a dispute.[5a]
Relationships[]
The Cult of Verena is friendly with most other major religions in the Old World, to the point that even the Cult of Ranald in his Protector aspect is generally tolerated, although his other aspects are not approved of.[1a] Ranald and Verena themselves have basic disagreements. Ranald believes in freedom, larceny, risk-taking, and conning the gullible, and Verena feels these actions are unjust.[2e]
As Daora, Verena was once a member of the Gods of Law, who are now a spent force in the mortal world. These deities are too otherworldly and absolute for the present-day world, each representing an aspect of purity largely incompatible with Human psychology. Only Verena and the god of vengeance Solkan managed to adapt their roles to Human perspectives, but in diamterically opposed ways.[4a]
In Solkan's case the restoration of order and purity translates readily into the need for revenge,[4a] and his worship is associated with absolutism and bigotry.[1b] Verena's followers meanwhile pray to be blessed with her enlightenment and reason, and her cult is opposed to extremes and bigotry of any kind.[1a]
Appearance and Symbology[]
Verena, goddess of knowledge and justice
Verena is generally portrayed as a tall and classically beautiful woman, dignified and serious of manner.[1a] Usually she carries a sword and a set of scales; depictions of her in temples normally have her seated with a book in her lap, the pair of scales in her left hand, her right hand resting on the hilt of the sword[5a] or carrying a quill, and a great owl on her shoulder.[9] She will also sometimes appear as a venerable Human sage of either gender.[1a]
The scales are used to symbolise Verena in her aspect as goddess of justice,[1a] her desire for justice based upon facts and impartiality. The quill symbolises the primacy of the written law.[9] The sword, with the point downwards, is also a symbol, representing the weapon she is said to use to redress injustice in her more martial aspect.[1a]
It is said that Verena can take the form of an owl;[1a] she is sometimes depicted in the form of a glorious owl of uncertain breed, and it is said that it is in this form that she has most commonly appeared to her devotees.[9] The owl is a traditional symbol of wisdom in the Old World[1a] and Verena's primary holy symbol.[2c] The scales she holds are sometimes combined with the owl design,[1a] and her followers often wear medallions bearing the design of an owl or an owl's head. This design is also applied to the clothing of her cult's initiates and clerics.[1a]
Verena's cultists usually wear plain white robes. These are meant to be symbolic of pure truth and impartiality,[5a] the lack of colour indicating the neutrality and lack of bias which is the keynote of her faith.[1a]
Among Verena's divine servants -- supernatural minions of the gods in the mortal world as Daemons are to the Dark Gods -- are cultists of special importance, such as Caccino the Wise, a follower whose corpse lies in the very subterranean temple to Verena he founded. According to the temple records his corpse has lain there for almost 900 years, unchanging and unspoilt by the ravages of time. Once a year, the temple's high priest conducts a three-day ceremony that culminates in the "Sacred Scraping" during which the corpse is scraped from head to toe with a blessed blade. After several hours, the high priest will have gathered about a jars worth of Grease of Caccino, a yellowish substance with the texture of jelly and tremendous preservative properties, that only seems to work on books, parchments, and similar repositories of knowledge.[2i]
As a member of the Gods of Law in her guise of Daora, Verena can be symbolised by using that pantheon's sundial symbol, which represents a fixed point around which the light of the sun proceeds in an orderly revolution.[4a]
Omens of Verena[]
It is said that Verena alone heads her cult and needs no mortal intermediary because truth is self-evident and requires no interpretation.[5a]
Signs from Verena often include the notion of balance. When the times are right then things will be balanced. A thing moving to a state of imbalance can forewarn of danger and struggle. Things already imbalanced, or toppled over, may indicate that the ill deed is done, and the priest must deal with the aftermath. Even something as simple as a cart overturning and spilling its wares into the street could foreshadow a plot to undermine the power of the cult in the area.[7b]
Verena is concerned to let her followers know when justice is not truly done, especially when this is by the Cult of Verena itself. The vision of a broken sword indicates that an injustice has been done, or the dream of a hanged child might show that an innocent person faces accusation. A dull or jagged blade is also an indicator that injustice is at work, and the cult should be wary.[7b]
More widely, the owl is a sign of the cult. An owl seen at night is usually a good omen. An owl, seen or heard during the day, means that something is wrong.[7b]
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition: Core Rulebook (RPG)
- 2: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Tome of Salvation (RPG)
- 3: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition: Dying Light (RPG)
- 3a: pg. 118
- 4: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Archives of the Empire Vol. III (RPG)
- 4a: pg. 55
- 5: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Core Rulebook (RPG)
- 5a: pg. 214
- 6: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Sigmar's Heirs - A Guide to the Empire (RPG)
- 7:Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition: Signs of Faith (RPG)
- 8: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Children of the Horned Rat - A Guide to Skaven (RPG)
- 8a: pp. 24-25
- 9: Liber Chaotica (Background Book)