Temple of Arose of Porphyropolis

The Temple of Porphyropolitan Arose (Amarillian : Templo de Arosa Porfiropolitana) is a temple located in the city of Porphyropolis, in the Kingdom of Amarillo. Located in the southern part of the island, between the palace and the dockyard, it has become the main religious site and one of the main monuments of Porphyropolis.

History
The temple of Porphyropolitan Arosa was built between February and March 2024. As the Mount Morado was discovered to be a volcano by the Amarillians, it regularly had eruptions, which all had dramatic effects on nearby Porphyropolis because of the volcanic ashes.

Several months later, a Porphyropolitan woman named Amarilla Montaña got into a meeting of the Kingdom of Amarillo's leadership, and proclaimed she had had visions in her sleep, after having consumed Nidaros Special. Those visions were understood by Viceroy Soronaca de Porphyropolis, who was educated in Valrean religion, as visions of the deity Arose, here in a feminine aspect. Despite some reluctances, the Porphyropolitans did what seemed, according to Amarilla Montaña's visions, would stop the eruptions, and sacrificed a horse to Arose. The sacrifice seems to have worked, as the eruptions stopped, and so Soronaca de Porphyropolis erected a temple to the goddess, the Temple of Porphyropolitan Arose.

Before the construction was even over, the inhabitants, thinking she had a privileged link with the goddess thanks to her previous visions, made Amarilla Montaña priestess of Arose. She would often consume Nidaros special and answer the people's questions, supposedly carrying the word of the goddess.

On the 16th of march 2024, the temple, already usable for a long time, was extended and its construction fully finished.

The cult of Porphyropolitan Arose
Despite Arose being a deity originating from Soleannen beliefs, the cult of Arose practised in Porphyropolis cannot be assimilated to Soleannen religion or its derivatives, such as Soleviel or Soledom. The cult of Porphyropolitan Arose, contrary to those religions, is not an organised religion, with a well organised clergy and a defined set of beliefs, dogmas, and pious obligations or celebrations.

It is more of a pagan cult, in an Amarillian context where religion only has a very small importance for most people, to a goddess that is believed to protect Porphyropolis and the Porphyropolitans. Taking part in the cult of Arose doesn't necessarily imply believing in anything, not even in Arose's existance for some people only seeing it as something that links the community together. Similarly, it doesn't imply not to believe in anything, and someone taking part in Arose's cult can also take part in any other religious celebrations and hold any other religious belief, without it creating an awkward or contentious situation.

The role of the priestess of Arose, also called the Oracle of Porphyropolis, isn't to oversee the people's beliefs and religious practices, but only to lead and organise the cult's ceremonies and sacrifices that are public or require her presence (non public ceremonies requiring her presence are mainly linked to oracles).

Porphyropolitan Arose
The Porphyropolitan vision of Arose is very different from the Soleannen vision.

First, and that is probably the most obvious difference with most Soleannen related beliefs, in Porphyropolis, Arose is a goddess, like in Soledom, while most Soleannen related beliefs, Arose is either a masculine or an ungendered god.

In Porphyropolis, Arose is associated with fertility, both in agriculture and reproduction, and luck. Contrary to all other Soleannen related beliefs, she is also seen as a protective fighting goddess, associated with victory on the battlefield and with protecting the town. This could be because of fertility being seen as the main requirement for a successful military campaign and for the perpetuation of Porphyropolis' population. Without a good harvest, nor the army nor the city can survive, and without births, the city is doomed to disappear slowly. Similarly, her association with luck could be explained by its original fertility goddess role : one needs to be lucky to have a good harvest.

In the context of her Porphyropolitan cult, Arose is called Arosa Porfiropolitana. Her epiclesis, Porfiropolitana (Porphyropolitan) is related to her role of protector of the city, itself linked, as we saw earlier, to her being originally a fertility goddess. It is also simply a geographical reference, the temple being located in Porphyropolis.

Asking for an oracle
Despite sacrifices, most of the time taking place at the altar outside the temple, in the wheat field (due to Arose being a fertility goddess), the main rite of the cult of Porphyropolitan Arose is asking for oracles. To ask for an oracle, one must bring something to sacrifice to the inside of the temple, either a small animal or only incense to burn or a liquid to do a libation. The oracle, after having consumed Nidaros Special and recited ritual words, then calls the person wanting to ask a question to the goddess to join her in the adyton of the temple. Then, from a stone throne (before the temple was fully built, the throne was wooden), she guides the sacrificer to the altar, where they have to sacrifice their offering to the goddess and ask their question. The Oracle of Porphyropolis then sees things, and answers the sacrificer's question, supposedly carrying Arose's word. The answer is always very short, often only one sentence.

Layout
The temple of Arose is a peripteros (surrounded by columns). It has a rather complex layout, containing both an adyton and an opisthodomos. It has 7 colums on the east and west sides, and 15 on the north and south sides. The temple used to be shorter, as can still be seen in its current plan : the row of colums between the naos and the adyton used the correspond to the external columns of the temple's west side, before the temple was extended and finished on 16 march 2024.

The Green shrine
The shrine to Salazar Van Den Green was built at the same time as the temple, right next to it, to cover and protect the wooden pilar and the chest Green placed the last time he came. On the pilar, there is still the sign containing the last message he ever left to the Amarillians:"'It was great to see that Amarillo was not completely dead yet.'"

Associating Green's figure to Arose's temple can be interpreted as a way to link Amarillo as a whole, and the de Porphyropolis family (Soronaca was more or less adopted by Green), to the goddess and its protection, as for the pediments' decorations, even if it was not intended.

The statue of Arose
The statue of Arose is the main statue of the temple. Located in the back of the naos, it is seen as the incarnation of the goddess in Eldham. A mysterious light, called the "Ray of Arose", seems to go through it, or maybe come from it.

Artistically, the statue, while on a big pedestal, is very simple. The goddess is shown wearing white clothes. Interestingly enough, her head was inspired by the old publicly displayed statue in Porphyropolis, and so is just a feminised version of Salazar Van Den Green's head. The sculptor probably took this statue as a model.

Secondary statues
In the naos of the temple, six other statues are displayed, three on each side. Those statues are purely decorative and hold no religious signification. The two closest to Arose represent Soronaca de Porphyropolis and his granddaughter queen Josefina de Porphyropolis, political leaders of the Kingdom of Amarillo, and among the main contributors to the creation of the temple. Before them stand statues of Whose, a Porphyropolitan citizen who built a lot of things in the city, and Liliana de Kibris y Las Mareas, governor of the second province of the Kingdom, the province of Islas Especia, conquered by her in the Drakaen sea, for her help building the temple. Finally, near the entrance, generic statues, representing a man and a woman nicknamed "Steve" and "Alex", who don't actually exist, are here to symbolise the entire Porphyropolitan population the goddess is here to protect. This idea of the statues representing the whole porphyropolitan population is also shown by their tunics, all red or porphyropolitan purple, among the most common dyes produced in the city. Interestingly, all the statues representing men are on Arose's right, and women on her left, but this does not seem to have any particular meaning.

Pedimental decoration
On both sides of the temple, the pediments are decorated with complementary decors.

West side
The decoration of the western pediment of the temple represents the war of the rising tides. In the middle, the tympanum is separated in two by the figure of Soronaca, who was king at the time of the war, in his Drakaen Supreme Commander uniform but a crown instead of a hat, standing, the sky behind him. On both sides, next to the sky and the small patch of land Soronaca is standing on, water fills the tympanum's decoration. In this water, the green filaments represent the kelp (the war was fought in the wider context of the Kelp war), growing as high as the sea they're in, above the bodies of killed pasifan soldiers, resting in the bottom.

While this decoration does not represent Arose directly, it still illustrates her role of fighting goddess in a complex way encompassing several aspects. It is also, in several aspect, an illustration of the Kingdom of Amarillo's political situation when it was made, on 16 March 2024. Despite what it may seem at first glance, it is more a symbolic than a historical decoration.

First, obviously, the war the decoration represents, the war of the rising tides, between Amarillo and Pasifa, was an Amarillian victory, which is shown by the dead pasifans. This makes it a show of Arose's role as bringer of victory for the Porphyropolitans. The use of the character of Soronaca extends Arose's protection to the entirety of Amarillo, as even more than Porphyropolis' mayor, he was the king of the entire nation. It can also be interpreted as a way to show Arose as protecting not only Porphyropolis as a city, but the de Porphyropolis family too, and maybe even its royal status, as the walrus is represented crowned. The inclusion of Soronaca is also a way to pay homage to the main designer of the temple.

The kelp plants do not only serve as ornaments, but also once again as symbols of the Amarillian victory, Amarillo having removed kelp from the Drakaen sea and lowered the sea level back. The kelp, sometimes called in the Drakeslands "the true enemy", symbolises as well the evil Arose fights as a protective goddess. It makes the goddess and Amarillo appear in a very strong and powerful position : if they vanquished such an enemy, always growing, present everywhere, no obstacle can resist them.

If kelp is the true enemy and a symbol for evil, why not representing the Kelp war as a whole but focus on the war against Pasifa instead? The Pasifans, in contrary to kelp and despite their long lasting rivalry with Amarillo, are not here to symbolise evil or Arose bringing victory to the Amarillians in general, but the purpose of their inclusion is way more specific. The presence of the Pasifan can be explained by the intense tensions raging between Andliria (Pasifa's successor) on one side and Amarillo and Drakaes on the other when this tympanum was decorated. It can be seen as a warning and a reminder of how it ended the last time the Vlonsi fought other Drakaen peoples: by a pasifan defeat.

East side
The eastern pediment's decoration represents the goddess Arose bringing fertility to the Porphyropolitans. In the middle, the goddess, crowned, is represented riding the Pale Horse, a mythical horse, associated with her, that brings fertility where it goes. Surrounding the Pale Horse and Arose are Porphyropolitans, recognisable by their red tunics, looking at her amazed. The green dots around the goddess represent the plants she is growing around the city.

This representation of Arose illustrates well both her bringer of fertility and her protector of Porphyropolis roles. Here, it is because of the goddess that the Porphyropolitans can survive. It can be interpreted as a metaphorical illustration of the supposed divine intervention that stopped the eruptions of mount Morado, as those eruptions, due to the rain of volcanic ashes, destroyed Porphyropolis' cultures, and their end marked a return to fertility in Porphyropolitan agriculture. The fact the goddess is crowned can be interpreted as a way to link her to the Porphyropolitan royal family.