Umbra

Pronouns: They/Them

While the commonly held belief is that Umbra is a female, this god is genderless, appearing as either male or female or sometimes both to its followers. Umbra is the Duodecim god of Shadow, a horse with a coat so black that it seems to absorb the very light around it. No one is sure of Umbra's origins, though different sects of Umbra worshipers all have their own beliefs. Some say that Umbra was born as Ignis was, in the heart of the sun, but while Ignis reflected all of the sun's light and heat and shone brilliantly, Umbra became a gaping void for the light to fall into and not escape. Some say that as the first horses took their first steps in the world, Umbra was their collective shadows who soon gained sentience of its own. Most followers, however, prefer not to know, stating that the origins of Umbra are meant to be known to the god itself and no one else.

Umbra is commonly known as the Observer, the one that watches all and does not comment nor participate. This god chooses to almost never show itself to its followers, and there is no known documentation of it ever speaking, nor would any of it followers claim that is has done so. It is said that wherever there is shadow, Umbra can see and observe all that is going on. Some say that when Umbra realized that it could learn everything it could possibly wish to know about any horse, seeing as that all horse cast shadows, it took a vow of silence to avoid sharing anyone's secrets. Because of this, many horses pray to Umbra to hide bits of themselves or their past, and secrets are sworn to be kept 'in the name of Umbra', to avoid their being shared. It is said that spreading a secret that was sworn in Umbra's name will cause the offender to go mute, so they never repeat this error again.

Blind horses are considered priests of Umbra, as they are always seeing the shadowy darkness that is the god itself. Bats are also known to be Umbra's favorite creature, and messengers of the god. Pure black horses are also looked on as having a mark of Umbra's favor.