Godsrain Prophecies

This article is about the prophecies purportedly foretelling the deaths of deities. For the real-world flash fiction line, see The Godsrain Prophecies.

The Godsrain Prophecies are a series of 10 prophecies of unknown authorship that purportedly foretell the deaths of several major deities known on Golarion. In the year preceding the Godsrain, the Prophecies were collected and investigated by the nosoi psychopomp Yivali, an apprentice researcher of Pharasma, who then published them as a collected manuscript by the same name as her report on the subject to Pharasma.

Subjects

Each prophecy depicted the death of a deity and the ramifications of the event. In order of their discovery, the prophecies described the deaths of Pharasma, Asmodeus, Cayden Cailean, Urgathoa, Erastil, Nethys, Zon-Kuthon, Desna, Irori, and Rovagug.

Author

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An undated letter signed by Nivei, a healer and the believed author of the prophecies, was recovered from the wreckage of the pirate ship Steelskim in the Sodden Lands soon after the death of Gorum in 4724 AR. Yivali concluded that Nivei, who wrote about being tormented by their visions of gods' deaths, was the author of the prophecies but not necessarily their source. The letter's author also suggested they were Rahadoumi and fleeing the Pure Legion, and had addressed the letter to a person in Azir affectionately referred to only as "El".

A second undated letter from Nivei to El, which suggested Nivei attempted to return to Azir after authoring the last of the prophecies, was recovered in the pages of a Rahadoumi herbalist's book as Yivali was concluding work on the manuscript. These letters served as the preface and postscript of Yivali's manuscript of the Prophecies.

Collection

Each prophecy was recovered in disparate parts of the Inner Sea region; none were labeled as such, and it is unknown how those who discovered the prophecies knew what they were or how they might be related.

The prophecy regarding the purported death of Asmodeus was discovered in Egorian between two burned contracts, one of which bore writing from the same hand as the prophecies. The prophecy of Urgathoa's death was found on paper near a campsite in the Gravelands penned with an implement made of bone. The prophecy of Erastil's death was nailed to a tree in the hostile Fangwood.

After a significant gap in time, the prophecy of the death of Nethys was found as an unnumbered page in the middle of several books of magic theory, each printed in different places and at different times, and found in different locales ranging from the Magaambya in the Mwangi Expanse to the Cypher Lodge of Riddleport. The prophecy of Zon-Kuthon's death was found tattooed on the back of a Nidalese priest exiled to Kintargo, and the prophecy of Desna's death was found in Absalom after being traded across the region from its origins in the Verduran Forest.

Theories

Due to the failure of prophecy after the death of Aroden and the paradoxical nature of some of the prophecies, Yivali considered the prophecies to be incapable of coming true. Nonetheless, the accuracy of lesser details convinced her that the texts' author had genuine foreknowledge of the fact that a god was going to die, but she also believed it was evident from the texts' contradictions that the author did not know which god, nor the circumstances of their coming death. The death of Gorum occurred shortly after.

The gap in time between the discovery of the prophecies about Erastil and Nethys suggested the presence of an 11th prophecy. Yivali believed if any prophecy might be about Gorum, it would have been written at that time, but the nosoi also believed no such prophecy had existed.

Yivali also noted several references to dreams, nightmares, and sleep as being significant, though without confidence toward what end.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.