Uku is a figure of folklore as a mortal who ascended to being a god. His excerpted tale from a tribe's wisewoman can be read at Uku the Many Animal Faces Gods. Most scholars now believe that he didn't reach a godly level, but instead became a spirit representing a bond between tribes united, though eventually the bonds brought together by Uku would culminate in ongoing war, assumed to have drained Uku of any aether received, making him a dead spirit-god. His memory, however, lives on in the tribes of a certain forested river basin, who still use the symbols of his spiritship as totems of their people, those differences hoisting continued reason for battles and war. These animal deities, also no longer active in the Auldensphere, were known as The Hodgepodge Spirits.
The Hodgepodge Spirits[]
- Lalalaika-- The Foxlord, a grey serpentile fox with an elongated snout and slit eyes. Said to eat humans and spit out baby fox-snakes. Most heated enemy of the Balalaika.
- Baroondy-- A hyrbid creation of a beaver's body with a deers legs, keeping both the key features of buck teeth and antlers. This spirit's teeth and horns are said to grow continuously and at an alarming rate, so that everday it must gnaw down on the antlers to control the growth of both bones.
- Balalaika-- The Lalalaika's greatest rival, a pelican/condor with large fangs. Said to eat other animals and spit out human babies.
- Mur-- A snail with arms. Slow yet strong, somewhat simple and otherwise unremarkable. Most tame of the spirits.
- Tututuri-- A bird with scales that can fly as well as it can swim, but will burst into flames upon touching soil.
- Goko-- The most mysterious yet plain, with many still undecided if it is an animal or not, as its original image was quite simply a brown circle. Some opinions say it is the most important, as it perhaps represents the planet the story takes place on, with holders of that opinion claiming the planet itself is a living animal. Dissenters of that frame of perspective claim it is dirt, and anyone born under its symbol possesses similar value, and are best to be treated as slaves. For this reason, Goko followers are often the most secluded, and rely heavily on pedigree inbreeding. One villager claimed it may be a dung beetle pushing a dung ball forward, meaning the animal is simply not pictured and it behind the brown circle, which got the villager a quick death by stoning assisted by both sides.