Dominion: communication, messages, eloquence, commerce, travel, boundaries, luck, trickery
Title: Messenger of the Gods
Sacred Symbols: winged sandals, winged helmet, winged staff entwined with serpents, lyre
Sacred colours: yellow and green
Sacred Animals: tortoise, raven, rooster, ram, goat, deer, horse, dog, fish, serpent
Sacred Plants: crocus, mistletoe, myrtle, laurel, strawberry tree, palm tree
Sacred Jewel: magnetic lodestone
Day of Worship: Wednesday
High Feast Day: Yule (the Quarter Moon between the last New Moon and last Full Moon of the year)
Festival: 15th of May
Devotees: merchants, bankers, those working in finance, messengers, heralds, writers, translators, interpreters, public speakers, politicians, scientists, healers of the mind, those offering care at the end of life, those using oracles and divination, astrologers, alchemists, shamans, sailors, travellers, drivers, porters, gatekeepers, guides, guardians, night watchers, road workers, builders of fences and walls, shoemakers and menders, gymnasium trainers, wrestlers, boxers, shepherds, nomads, tricksters, thieves, residents of the city of Camden, residents of the kingdom of Lindensea
Invoked for: safe journeys (including the journey to the afterlife), success in business, protection, good news, luck in sports and games, friendship, male fertility
Initiation: Takes place at age 14, and involves some challenge requiring skill, wit, and daring. It is only necessary for those intending to join the priesthood, although open to everyone.
Merged with: Cam and Wodan, the Tirathic and Saxon gods of intelligence and communication
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Mercury is the most popular god in our kingdom, and has been been since before both the Saxons and Romans - indeed, before there was a kingdom at all. When the Romans arrived, they found that the foremost god of the indigenous Tirathic peoples was called Cam, viewed as the patron of all The Isles. A god of light, strength, skill, and cunning, the Romans immediately identified him a local version of Mercury.
Cam's name can be translated as 'bent, crooked', to denote his double-dealing nature. When the Romans founded a city on the bank of the River Tayo, they named it Camdinium, meaning 'Cam's city'. The Tirath called the area Cambo, but that may possibly have been a description of the river's winding progress. Today we know the city as Camden.
When the Saxons came here, they brought their own gods, which the Romanised peoples of this area sought to understand through parallels with theirs. They saw the god Wodan as synonymous with Mercury, because both are associated with intelligence, understanding, language, and writing. In time, worship of Mercury, Wodan and Cam became intertwined.
If Lindensea had a state religion, it would undoubtedly be worship of Mercury, and on his day of worship, the shops close early in his honour so that merchants may have a half-holiday. As patron of the city of Camden, and protector of the kingdom of Lindensea itself, Mercury is the god ruling over all of us. He is a part of our everyday lives as no other god can be.
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