The nature of Opposition:
When it comes to the Gods in the “Slavic pantheon" the next two entities we'll discuss, as part of this blog series, are ancient and deeply rooted in our culture. The olden peoples anthropomorphized these Beings in order to try and explain to themselves the very nature of the beginning and end of existence (as olden peoples do).
I'm going to write about the essence and “duality” of two most prominent forces in Slavic myth (when I write 'duality' or 'dualism' I don't mean it in the Cartesian mind-body way, I want that to be clear, rather in the separation of a world in two - like heaven and hell or good and bad, say), namely Chernobog and Belobog. The tale and myth of the two beings still continues to feature in popular culture, hundreds of years after their origin; in the book and TV series 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman, in the online MOBA 'SMITE: The battleground of the gods', Disney have used Chernobog as their villain in the film 'Fantasia' from 1940. We’ve chosen to utilise the two 'gods' (though I shouldn't really call them that, and you'll read why further down) as a trope in our own D&D 5e adventure - The Devil's Bridge.
To start with, let’s define what Chernobog and Belobog are, what they stand for and represent, and what makes them so special in their influence of peoples, and philosophical questions their very existence posed onto the nature of the world.
Belobog
Or Belun derives its meaning from the words "Bial" or "Byal", literally translating to “white” or “light”. And “bog” is translated to mean “god” or “lord”. Supposedly Belobog represents light, fortune, goodness, and life. He is in direct juxtaposition with Chernobog (lord of darkness).
The god of light travelled the day in the guise of an old man with long white hair and beard, adorned with the most plain of clothes. Belobog represented all that was good, rewarding those who treated them (plural for inter-dimensional beings) with kindness, and a wise lesson for those who failed to tread Belobog with the purest of intentions. If Belobog was an influencer, goodness was the main currency.
It is arguable whether such a deity was actually worshipped by our Slavic ancestors as no concrete records exist to support such a notion, stemming from a purely factual and historical standpoint that is. No surprise there as we are aware that our Slavs didn’t really bother WRITING ANYTHING DOWN... I mean come the hell along... Or maybe they were like “lets just make it extremely difficult for anyone to uncover the building blocks of our culture and psyche”. In their defence, Slavic peoples had bigger fish to fry, like invading armies and colonisers from the east, west, south, and north for instance...and from within! So, like, everywhere? This qualifies as a viable excuse...I think...
Anyway, let’s move on.
Chernobog
“Cheren”, “ceren” or “tseren” literally translates to “dark” or “black”.
The Lord of Darkness roamed the night, bringing doom, despair, and disease. Chernobog is in direct opposition of Belobog, obvs... The god represents darkness, corruption, bad luck, the forces of evil, and the cause of all misfortune. An excessively bad resume. No one with a CV such as Chernobog is even worthy of consideration for any position, right? Wrong.
Even though, much like in Belobog's case, there aren’t many concrete leads to the open worship of Chernobog, it is still believed people worshipped him. Not because they were intrinsically evil or simply out of boredom, but simply out of the need for balance in this world. The essence of equilibrium somehow protrudes as a notion from the qualities of these beings, and perhaps was acknowledged by the Slavic peoples to some degree.
I mean it would be too easy if the baddies congregated and simply identified with the "bad" god, right? Seize the ones worshipping the evil gods, easy-peasy, kill them breezy.
Dualism revisited
The Lord of Light and Lord of Darkness are two sides of the same coin. Necessary forces woven within reality itself, bringing about the harmony of life. Perun and Veles are two other prominent Slavic deities which resemble in their dynamic the gods Belobog and Chernobog, whether purposefully or not.
Now, the disputes are endless as to the origin and existence of the so called “Slavic Dualism” and its worship. Difficult to know anything with certainty when nothing was ever written down, or rather it was written down by Christians much later on, during the assimilation of most pagan cultures. After all, interpreting what the poor Slavs probably meant wasn’t a priority, loving Jesus was. Swings and roundabouts I suppose!
Comparisons may be drawn between Yin and Yang perhaps in a very loose way, or the constant conflict between light and darkness. However it was meant, the very mention of the concept of such deities, whether worshipped en mass or not, brings about the matter of duality inevitably. Scholars largely disagree on this, as scholars largely do most of the time, but one thing that is certain is it's a topic of discussion still raging on from times past, mostly raging on the internet though...
What we’re taking and applying to our own 5e D&D campaign setting
Courtesy of deviantart.com
We love the idea of intrinsic duality between primeval entities, whether factually true or not. I seriously doubt Tolkien (creator of everything) or Wizards Of The Coast (creators of D&D and everything else) really went off to factually represent the gods (if factual representation of such beings is even possible) in their beautiful, fantasy worlds. What matters, I’d like to think, are the uniquely human stories in search of the self, and anthropomorphic gods that link us all with our past and present, and shine a light onto our futures.
The world, as we know it today, has always been in the midst of a whirlpool of duality in morals, history, politics, fantasy, storytelling, music and well, I could’ve saved some words and just said “everything” really. However, having such forces within our (and any) fantasy world creates tension and drama immediately, and we love that!