Table of Contents
<fc #ff0000>WARNING</fc>: This faith has not yet had a chance to become canonical.
Tkanala'ned is a kavkem mythology both best referred to and translated literally as Hellhere (from the kavkem words tkanala (hell) and ned (here)). As a faith, it is fairly far removed from Taaravahr, considering its teachings mostly allegorical.
It can be encountered in Upper Cetaros, where its various forms dominate absolutely.
There are several flavours of Tkanala'ned, three of which tend to be significantly widespread:
Tkanala'ned proper / pure is also the most widespread. It has such a wide dominant distribution that it's sometimes easy to miss the other flavours altogether even if one samples all of Upper Cetaros. Only in the 'southern' reaches of Upper Cetaros does it lose its hold and disappear entirely.
Tkanaladaryr (“hell [is a] nightmare”), also known as the starkly portmanteaued Tkadaryr, is dominant along the equatorial coast of Upper Cetaros, although it only very narrowly outclasses pure Tkanala'ned even on its proverbial home turf. As such, there is a lot of cross-pollination between the relatively straight-forward cosmology of Tkanala'ned and the lateral thinking of Tkadaryr along the coastal region, and individual kavkema are frequently known to switch between the faiths during their lives, depending on how deep down the desperate cosmology rabbit hole they want to go.
Tkanalakys Nuna (“hell is the same”), also known as the starkly portmanteaued Tkanuna, lays territorial claim to the more polar regions of Upper Cetaros, holding absolute sway at the 'southern' tips. While it has spread to the islands bridging Upper and Lower Cetaros, it competes with Kiivenara there.
Cosmology
Believers in Tkanala'ned assume that they are caught in a kind of purgatory or hell. They are one of the few kavkema that oppose qasai (mercy killing) and suicide - they believe that death does not at all help them escape this world, but simply forces them to reincarnate. Some sub-flavours of Tkanala'ned believe that each reincarnation makes the world worse for them and thus are actively terrified of death.
To a believer of Tkanala'ned, the only way to escape the purgatory is to remember the misdeeds that brought them here in the first place. They are thus extremely prone to the trappings of believing even Nayabaru that accuse them of misdeeds and will gladly to admit to anything, hoping that maybe they might get lucky and actually uncover the misdeed.
Uncovering their misdeeds would not immediately extract them - they would still have to die before they were released. As such, Tkanala'ned believers who have become convinced of their past misdeeds (a rare event, but in sum frequent enough) do embrace suicide, assuming it a possibility.
Flavours of Tkanala'ned that are darker still presuppose various twists to the entire scenario:
In Tkanalakys Nuna, all kavkema are actually reincarnated Nayabaru, and Tkanala shares its physical manifestation with the real world. Believers of this flavour of Tkanala'ned will usually be subservient toward Nayabaru and try their utter best to make the Nayabaru be gentle and/or forgiving as not to damn them to the same fate. Of course, the Damned don't actually need to care, so not all kavkema of this fate do this, especially not after trying it once and failing, and coming out the other end hating both the Nayabaru and themselves.
In Tkanaladaryr, hell looks nothing like the real world and ecology and social structures are nothing at all like they are in hell, i.e. creatures that are kavkema in hell might have been something else entirely - from a different planet, a different plane of existence, or not even sapient. A frequent assumption is that they might have once looked like the Howlers, and that if they can find their personal Howler, it would be like looking in the mirror, and they could determine what they'd done wrong.
Metaphysical entities
The deities of the pantheon are fragments of the previous reality - personified manifestations of some kind of concept:
| Deity | Concept |
|---|---|
| Tamas̈elu | Love and forgiveness |
| Tkanetar | Pain and hate |
| Garukaron | Reason and knowledge |
| Maenona | Guidance and protection |
They still serve their functions of the main pantheon, such as Tkanetar's ability to manipulate light and fire, but these are considered secondary.
In addition, qis̈eleka are central to Tkanala'ned - although it is possible to adopt a notion of punishing reincarnation without this mythological device, it's rare in Tkanala'ned.
Rituals and spirituality
Tkanala'ned ryrhakenema are expected to be therapists. They’re likely the only ryrhakenema that are willing to submit another kavkem to hypnosis - and do this regularly, obviously with the intention of unveiling memories of the past.
Competing faiths
Tkanala'ned is dominant in Upper Cetaros and practically uncontested there. At the 'southern' fringes of its territorial spread, however, the territories of Tkanuna begin to come into contact with Kiivenara (Dance of Suns).