Inuit Mythology

Basic Information

List of deities from Inuit Mythology

• Agloolik - sea god that lives under the ice
• Akna - mother goddess of fertility
• Anguta - gatherer of the dead (psychopomp); he carries them to Adlivun (the Underworld), where they must sleep for a year.
• Asiaq - weather goddess who controls when it snows
• Caribou Mother - Source of the caribou; the earth is her body, and we are lice upon her flesh
• Igaluk - the moon god and brother to the sun, Malina. He chases her across the sky.
• Issitoq - the god who punishes the breaking of taboos. He takes the form of a giant flying eyeball
• Malina - the sun goddess and sister to the moon, Igaluk.
• Nanook - the master of polar bears
• Nootaikok - patron god of iceberg and glacier
• Nujalik - goddess of hunting on land (not on ice or water)
• Pana - cared for souls in Adlivun (the Underworld) until they were reincarnated
• Pinga - the goddess of the hunt, fertility and medicine
• Qailertetang: weather spirit, guardian of animals, and matron of fishers and hunters. Qailertetang is the companion of Sedna.
• Sedna: the mistress of sea animals. Sedna is known under many names, including Sanna, Nerrivik, Arnapkapfaaluk, Arnakuagsak, and Nuliajuk.
• Sila: personification of the air
• Tekkeitsertok: the master of caribou
• 3 Storm Sisters - Kadlu creates thunder by jumping on hollow ice; Kweetoo creates lightning by rubbing stones together; Ignirtoq creates rain by urinating

List of creatures from Inuit Mythology

• Adlet - half human, half dog
• Ahkiyyini - skeleton spirit of those who spend too much time dancing or playing drum. They play drums on their own bodies after death
• Akhlut - orca/wolf hybrid (or possibly shapeshifter with just orca and wolf forms)
• Amaguq - giant wolves who devour those foolish enough to hunt alone at night
• Anirniit - the soul of a human or animal, lingers as a ghost when that animal or human dies
• Atshen - man-eater that hunts through the permafrost
• Qalupalik - kidnapper of bad children
• Quila - spirits that can be called upon for fortune-telling via a method called Qilaneq - you place your glove on the ice, and summon a quila to animate your glove and answer questions
• Tariaksuq - invisible shadow-people, half-human, half-caribou, who cannot be seen by looking at them, and only detected by their shadows
• Tizheruk - a giant snake monster with a flipper-tail
• Tornit - the local sasquatch variant
• Tupilak - a composite undead cum construct monstrosity.
• Tuurngait - spirits that have never had bodies; they are often killers

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia entry

Game and Story Use

• Qilaneq is a unique and colorful magical tradition. It could inspire:
  • A magic glove artifact, that can be worn by ghosts to let them touch and manipulate physical reality.
  • an interesting fortune-teller character, in outlook and philosophy perhaps something like a Druid but because they live so far north in the ice lands, their spell list is not what you think of as druidic. The spell list might be more like a necromancer perhaps, given the strong belief in souls and spirits.
    • If I were using D&D for this, it would be hard resist using the wizard spell list with all those hand-themed Bigby's spells and unseen servant or floating disk type spells.
  • A supporting NPC spirit that inhabits a single glove as it's only way to interact with the world. It might fufill a role like a familiar, or a mentor/teacher that has to be clever to share wordless lessons, or be your butler.
• The Arctic Circle is a dangerous part of the world. Inuit mythology teaches that all life is sacred, and that there are many dangers and disasters waiting to happen. Bad weather was especially disastrous, and hunting was very important for staying alive. As a result, this pantheon features numerous weather gods and hunting gods (or gods who control a particular animal species, usually prey/herd animals).
  • This could be the model for your own fantasy religion: pick the two issues that your fantasy culture fears the worst, or encounters the most often. Then you inundate the pantheon with is deities who either personify or control those issues.
  • Also, note the lack of agricultural deities - whilst agriculture is a really big deal for most cultures, for the Inuit it is virtually a non-issue and so they don't have any significant entities attached to it.
• A campaign set in the farthest North regions might have Inuit characters and myths play an important part. At the risk of stealing from The Terror, you could have a campaign set in the search for the Northwest Passage in the 19th Century, with a secret mythological underbelly waiting to be revealed as the game progresses.