The Niisai:

Though often called the “old gods” of the Moochava, the Niisite pantheon actually postdates the Lomai by several eons. It represents an older, more primal, and more intuitive way of knowing, largely considered superseded by recent, post-Pof developments in the Moochava psyche. The pantheon nonetheless remains influential among Zumzabites, the remaining Amanu natives, and some houses loyal to Zwuble.

In their first introduction to the pantheons, students are often instructed that the Lomai are the gods of civilization and Niisai, the gods of the wilderness. This is a simplification: Niisai represent a philosophical position of acceptance toward hardship (the Amna word “eglu”), in contrast with the Lomai concept of striving to overcome (Amna “teshm”). Niisai, like Lomai, are each a composite of a social or mental construct and a physical one, such that Kmocta, Niisai of hard stone, is also the god of steadfastness.

The Niisai remained an impoverished minority pantheon for many centuries, becoming prominent only on occasion, until the Moochava left their homeworld and discovered the natural phenomena on a thousand worlds. This “birthed” dozens of new deities in the Moochava consciousness, each god with its associated mental concept. However, the Niisite path of eglu led to chaos as these new gods waxed strong in the Moochava psyche and encouraged a philosophy of indulgence that led quickly to decadence. The so-called Haunting of Dawn during the previous eon was the direct result of Niisite interaction with the nascent Semanos Confederacy. The reaction—to banish many of the Niisai—led to the détente that exists today, in which Niisite priests and followers are associated strongly with the excesses of both the early Zumzabite-led Confederacy and the Zrentili.

The political situation with the Niisai pantheon remains unstable, with increasingly severe censure from Lomai priests and gods resulting in more and more Niisites joining up with extreme isolationist or traditionalist philosophies, or with the Zrentili, in an attempt to escape persecution.