Before mortals named the seasons, five primordial hungers stirred in the dark: Nerys, The Lady of the Night, gave the dark a memory; Karnan, The Horned King, gave the earth teeth; Nuadha, The Winter Dragon, gave the sky its laws; Lysia, The River Maiden, gave creation motion; and Aynia, The Queen of Summer, gave it fire. The first mortal sacrifice awakened them into distinct persons, and every later offering has made them more powerful, more alien, and less capable of understanding mortal desire.

The world began when Nuadha, The Winter Dragon, exhaled the first cold wind into a darkness ruled by Nerys, The Lady of the Night. Karnan, The Horned King, raised forests and beasts from the frozen earth; Lysia, The River Maiden, melted paths through the land and filled them with living water; and Aynia, The Queen of Summer, ignited the sun and taught creation to hunger. Their cycles sustain reality, but their quarrels cause famine, war, plague, storms, and unnatural seasons.

The religion has no central church. It consists of five interlocking cults, each led by omen-readers, sacrifice-keepers, hereditary priesthoods, and wandering devotees. The Nightbound serve Nerys, The Lady of the Night, through funerals and secrets; the Antlered Houses serve Karnan, The Horned King, through bloodline and hunt; the Frostbound Collegia serve Nuadha, The Winter Dragon, through calendars and creation; the River Mothers serve Lysia, The River Maiden, through births and flood rites; and the Ashen Thrones serve Aynia, The Queen of Summer, through war, rulership, and ecstatic transformation. Their alliances shift according to season and omen, while all five cults agree that refusing sacrifice invites wrath.

Mortal societies worship The Old Gods through bargains, taboos, seasonal rites, royal sacrifices, and desperate appeals. No priest can assume divine favor is permanent: every blessing creates an obligation, and every neglected offering may become a curse. Temples are usually ancient groves, river shrines, hilltop cairns, burial chambers, or fortified halls rather than peaceful sanctuaries. Clerics and champions often interpret divine signs through omens, weather, animal behavior, dreams, and sudden disasters.

The dead pass beneath Nerys, The Lady of the Night, into the Hollow Beyond, where memory is stripped away like bark. Karnan, The Horned King, claims those who died defending kin or land; Nuadha, The Winter Dragon, preserves the names of the greatest dead in frozen stars; Lysia, The River Maiden, carries unburied spirits toward judgment; and Aynia, The Queen of Summer, may burn the worthy into immortal legend or madness. No soul is promised peace—only transformation, service, or erasure.