Colors in the Worship of Gods

Color is of massive importance to those who worship the pantheon, and often has distinct meanings in the worship of them. Many gods often have overlapping color associations, though the specific meanings to each god can vary.  

The Major Gods

 

Mora, The God of Life

Mora is most associated with the colors black, brown, and green. Black is often said within Mora's cult, the Cult of Life, to represent wet fertile soil and farming. Browns are generally attributed to the color of Mora's own pelt, though sometimes said to be associated with the god's connection to forests, representing trees and their bark, a known favored food by the life god. Greens, most obviously, are due to a close association with plant life.  

Shia, the God of Death

Shia has a much wider array of colors attributed to shi's worship than Mora, likely due to a much longer reign as a god than Mora's own. Shi is most associated with white, representing the bones and sinew within most creatures, gray for funeral ashes, and lavender, a common flower used in Shia's worship by Shia's Cult. Paler purples are most often used during times of mourning and grief, however darker and much more strikingly vibrant purples are used during the Festival of Death and for many offerings.   Vibrant greens, yellows, and reds are also not unheard of in Shia's worship either, with a wide array of meanings associated with the colors. Greens and yellows are often thought of as a color to mock the Cult of Life, symbolically offering up a representation of them to death. Within Shia's followers, the color red has some controversy, with many claiming that red represents blood, a color used to symbolize life and death as one, while many others claim the color is a representation of apples, one of Shia's symbols.  

Fire God Vega

The god of fire's colors are orange, white, and black. The colors are the same as those for the nation, the Republic of Shanai, historically ruled by Vega since it's creation. It is unknown which came first, the colors being associated with Vega, or the island nation. Orange is said to represent the very flames under the god's control as well as the nation's volcanoes and vibrant sunsets, and white ashes created by the god and the poisonous Black Wormeye berries he uses as his divine paint. Black has long been associated with fire gods, often as the charr, but in Vega's worship in particular, is a representation of basalt and obsidian, precious stones often used in his worship, as well as Shanai's cooled volcanic flows.  

Maka, God of Fire

Replacing her father after his death only recently, Fire God Maka has not yet had time to change many of the color associations in her worship yet, still using all of the same traditional colors as Vega. An addition to colors associated with the god has been added to recent worship, with yellow being a highly dominant color, representing the moon on the night of Vega's death. This is thought to be a ploy by Maka into further angering the Lunar Dragonflight and Neia Lun De Draco in particular, and as further claim to the moon as one of Maka's symbols.  

Nagi, God of Water

As the god of water, Nagi is highly associated with colors of the oceans, such as varying hues of blues and teals. Unlike many other aquatic gods, Nagi is primarily associated with the deeper parts of the ocean, leading to a much darker color pallet for his worship, oftentimes heavily making use of black and grays. Yellow is also a prominent color in his worship as well, most often use to represent the sun or Nagi's own bio-luminescence.  

Ryou, the God of Wind

Green, pale blue, black  

Lapi, The God of Earth

Lapi has a similar color pallet associated with her and her worship, of red, orange, and tan. Unlike many gods, red does not represent blood in the Cult of Lapi, instead representing the sun baked rocks of Arizona, where the Temple of Lapi resides, as well as the sands of many deserts in the evenings, a favored time of worship for her. Orange represents soft silted soils as well as freshly formed lava, often associated with her in opposition to the Cult of Fire. Tans, as well as many browns, are often used as representations of soil, precious mineral ores such as copper, iron, and silver when freshly pulled from the earth, as well as a symbol of Lapi herself.   Due to the color associations, stones such as limestone, sandstone, and red granite have become extremely common in making statues or temples to the earth god, making up the bulk of their structure. The stones are also highly precious for carved representations of Lapi herself for use in shrines, altars, and temples.  

The Minor Gods

 

Ferventi, God of Wolves

Black, white, red, teal, gray, brown  

Yung Pagoni, God of Peacocks

Green, white, blue  

Olrath

Blue, gray, white, red  

Soliairs Taeyang

Orange, blue, white, black  

Novi, The Goddess of Orcas

Black, white, blue  

Sekhmet, Goddess of Lions

Orange, pink, yellow  

Ryoma, God of Tuna

Blue, white, gold  

Ludovic

Brown, black, white, red  

Hikaru Vulapin, God of Foxes

Red, orange, brown  

Sobki, God of Crocodiles

Blue, black, gold

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