Ihm, of Phoenecia

Path Skills: Culture, Persuasion

Pantheon Motif

Through food, song, and community, the Gods may be invited to work miracles.

Signature Ilhm Purview: Marzeh

The Ilhm are ancient; their memory is long, and their tables are burdened with offerings for their lineage. Through the marzeh — ritual feasts — the Ilhm and their worshippers preserved and celebrated the memory of their countless generations. By these rites, they build and strengthened a sense of community and continuity which continues into the modern day. Their Scions can draw strength from similar rituals through the Marzeh Purview, which allows them to both sense the ties of legacy and sanctify them with communal feasts.

Marzeh Innate Power
Innate Power: Once per scene, when you share food, drink, or some other moment of quiet or respite with a character, you may ask one of the following:
• What can I do to understand you better?
• What here do you care about, and why?
• How are you connected to [a particular community], and what does it mean to you?
This connection adds two dice to a Bond pool with that character. If no Bond currently exists, they instead gain one for the remainder of the session — usually camaraderie or friendship, but the characters’ players have final say. This Power can be used on other player characters only with that player’s consent.

VIRTUES

Kinship vs. Inclusiveness

While it might seem at first like Kinship and Inclusiveness simply restate the same idea, these twin pillars of Phoenician society form quite different ideas which complement each other. The Ilhm rise from the Levant, where many other cultures began; one can see mythological similarities, and linguistic overlaps between the Ilhm and other religions born in the ancient land of Canaan, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In some cases, the Ilhm show up in the mythology of other cultures, as when Asherah assisted Isis after the death of Osiris. Kinship recognizes these ur-mythological roots, and more broadly, the similarities shared by all humanity since the first cave drawings and bodies buried with care and flowers. Sometimes that falls into believing that all cultures are the same, rather than acknowledging each society’s distinctiveness. By contrast, Inclusiveness recognizes the humanity in others from the ways in which they differ from the Phoenicians and understands that one does not need to understand another person to respect their culture and identity, at least insomuch as their identity does not derive from causing harm, deprivation or isolation to others.