Namaka¶
"Truth in Death. All will serve us, in either this life or the next." — the mottoes of Great House Vesulias, which reveres Namaka
Namaka is the Mistress of the Deep, a goddess of the Dark Gods whose shard lies in the Domain of Matter. To the Sancturi she is Kha'maka, Lady of the Earth, one of the five gods of their pantheon, and the goddess under whose name they took the dwarves' rune magic for themselves: "Namaka has made considerable gains against Khardas and has developed her own forms of Rune Magic." Her priests bind spirits, raise the dead to labour, trap the souls of burned witches, and carve the runes that keep the Sancturi Vigils from hollowing. The dwarves of the Fifth Age are split between her and Khardas.
Also called¶
Kha'maka, Lady of the Earth, in the Sancturi Pantheon. The nation of the same name is Geography's.
Nature¶
The 2026 revision names her Mistress of the Deep and places her in the Domain of Matter beside Vengrul, Lord of the Underdark, among the moon-marked lesser gods of the Dark Gods. Her domain is the deep earth: the Deep form of Namakan rune magic "interacts with the deep earth, the core domain of Namaka", with runes called Bones of the Earth and Magma Geyser. Her true image is not a woman's. A repaired "deep-form statue of Namaka - true one" beneath the Kilmarn temple complex shows "her 4 tentacle legs, female torso with 2 sets of breasts, 4 split tentacle arms and her bulbous head with long flowing hair and the great singular eye rimmed by a vortex and a small flat mouth. It has an eerie feel about it (it is consecrated). Defiling it will leave the defilers with a curse." The dwarven histories kept in the vault below, The Eternal War of the Deep and The Great Fissure Wars, are said to show what she is. Her statues carry "an aura of dark rituals", and bracers consecrated to her are "of dwarf slaying".
Her rivalry is with Khardas, Lord of Stone and god of the dwarves. The Kilmarn temple of Khardas was built over a ruined Namakan temple, and Namakan priests tunnelled back into it. In the Sancturi Age the dwarves suffered a "Fracture in society. Khardas loyalists, New Pantheon+Namaka (underground)", and dwarven clan runeguilds "can be based on either Namakan or Khardic rune disciplines depending on the loyalties of the clan". A Sancturi slayer's parentage, "Bastard love child of Khardas/Riven loyalist + mother Sancturi/Namaka worshipper", was a story to tell.
In the Sancturi Pantheon¶
"Kha'maka : Lady of the Earth (Namaka)" is one of the five Sancturi gods beneath the Sun God Amu'Solk (see Sancturi Pantheon). The Sancturi destroy their Mithis by fusing it into five-sided Vigils "in honor of the Five Gods of the Sancturi", with five altars for blood sacrifice around each (see Vigils). Great House Vesulias, "an old house, well known for their runebinders and extensive use of undead minions as laborers and warriors", reveres Namaka as its patron; its symbol is three intertwined black arcs on silver "representing the 3 estates of Spirit, Body and Mind". House Restault, founded by runecasters, runs seminaries and runecasting schools across the Imperium. A rune-sealed message of Vesulias can be opened only by one of its own runecasters.
Her priests are reckoned among the Dark Gods' instruments in the Sancturi's wars of conversion: in conquered Brusau "the Sancturi (Arbitori Bannerguard and Covenant Agents, Dark Gods via Namakan and ?? priests) are hunting worshippers of Arcantus", and Sancturi Sages tore Namakan rune tomes from the Great Library of Altandon before torching its mystical section.
Namakan clergy¶
Namaka's clergy are the runecasters of the Sancturi. "Many Sancturi Runecasters are an extension of the Sancturi Clergy. As such they enjoy considerable support, respect and political influence across the empire." The Projura Magisters, the Imperium's judiciary, are many of them Namakan Runekeepers. The disciplines are four: Runemages, who carve Fae runes; Runepriests, whose Sanctification runes work "Divine magic, focused on alteration"; Runekeepers, whose Dominion runes work "Divine magic, focused on psychic magic"; and Runebinders, whose Spirit runes work "necromancy and spirit magic". The craft itself is Magic's: Namakan Runecasting.
The clergy's duties follow their goddess. Witches "are burned at the stake by the Sancturi, but under the supervision of Namakan Runecasters, which entrap their souls to ensure that they are never reincarnated (these are added to Vigils)" (see Death and the Afterlife). Namakan Runebinding was developed during the Danar campaign against "the Wights and their armies of corporeal and incorporeal undead". A Namakan Necrolord can grant his skills to the dead he animates "to create undead clerics and runecasters". High Priestess Hana Puscavit, "Principate & Grand Seer of the Arbitori", wrote to a subordinate for "some additional sacrifices for our experiments. A dozen or so should be sufficient", and another Namakan priest's orders read: "Any who are unwilling should be transformed as practice for perfecting your art with the runes that I have shown you. Those that are more willing to sacrifice themselves for the glory of the goddess should be infused with a small fragment of the soul from the soulcrux I entrusted to you." The results of those experiments, Eldritch horrors made from Namakan acolytes and the Five Sisters "formed from the souls of deceased priestesses merged with eldritch spirits", guard the goddess's temples. Namakan priests likewise used a buried Aquitanian temple of Seth'Arax "as a site for Dread (Umber) experiments until they lost control". The Namakan High Priest Cullin presided over its defiled temple.
Namaka's holy symbol in onyx and diamond, and her priestesses' "black and gold namakan priest garments, with a golden cincture", mark the High Priestess. A disgraced Namakan Runeblade enslaved at a Sancturi sawmill bore "deep hatred of Sancturi and Namaka".
Earlier accounts¶
The 2015 Compendium and its 2019 conversion do not list Namaka among the gods.
Gap
No source records Namaka's origin, her relation to the other Dark Gods, her Ascendants, or her worship before the Sancturi Age. The Eternal War of the Deep and the Great Fissure Wars are named only as book titles.