In order to establish a solid canon for the Otherfaith myths, I’ve begun a series of polls to allow the community to decide what will be considered canonical going forth. It’s important to note that the options that do not become enshrined as canon will not be considered ‘bad’, ‘wrong’, or ‘off-limits’. The main goal of establish a clearer canon is so that we can include the stories in printed materials and begin delineating between canon and headcanon.

These are the results from the follow-up poll to the first poll, largely focused on clarification questions like names to use and deification order. I did vote in this poll, but I will not be voting in any of the main storyline polls.

Follow-Up Questions

I’m glad that the result for this question was so solidly in the ‘vague’ direction, as assigning a specific town that none of the Other People have been to – essentially picking a place out of a hat – would feel a bit icky, in my opinion.

Pallis has never been correlated with a specific star in any previous Otherfaith stories, and his nature as a fallen star meant that assigning an actual star or constellation would prove interesting.

We don’t have any origin story for the Ophelia; she just shows up in the Clarene’s path and becomes a god shortly after. I did have an origin story back in 2011-2012 for the Ophelia, but I don’t believe I posted it anywhere publicly. An origin story for the Ophelia is going to likely take a while to come together and be canonized, but I look forward to it.

As much as I do like the name Misia, meaning ‘hate’, for the main antagonist for the First Season myths, Mircea is the name that has been associated longest with the rival star that falls along with Pallis. Mircea itself has meanings of ‘peace’ and ‘world’, adding an irony that I enjoy. (Two of Mircea’s attendant spirits are Charity and Chastity, names chosen for their irony as well.)

For the fairy princess the Clarene originally falls in love with a variety of names were provided. The majority of the names were connected to ‘peace’ with a few being tied to ‘rainbow’, both associations the princess has. We ended up with a tie between Eirene and Irene, with two other votes going toward Irida and Iria. We’ll be following up this question in the next poll.

I’m bundling these two together as they are essentially tied to the same overarching question: should a Laetha and Dierne exist before Arabella and Pallis take up the mantle? As the yes votes won out, we find new questions coming up. Are the roles of Laetha and Dierne somehow inherent to the Westernlands? Does the Laethic Firebird exist from the beginning of the West? What does it mean, exactly, to be the Dierne?

The next poll, moving into the ‘Stars in the Westernlands’ section of the myths, will start up on Saturday.