An excerpt from a Venerationist's work discussing the similarities and differences in Titan worship rituals across different regions of Amphoreus.
On Regional Characteristics of Rituals (Excerpt)
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Next, I shall provide examples illustrating how different city-states' cultural customs influence local Titan mythology.
A well-known mythological tale in Amphoreus tells of a coastal tribe in the Era Chrysea who suffered from tsunamis. Led by their chief, they built dams and dug channels to block the waves. This caught Phagousa the Titan's playful attention, who destroyed their work with giant waves. When the chief angrily questioned this, the Titan transformed into a great whale and proposed a wager: If they could cross the sea to a distant island within seven days, the Titan would cease troubling them and grant them their treasure. But should they fail, their coast would forever remain submerged.
In common versions, humans triumph because Aquila taught their chief to build rafts in dreams, with help from Georios on their journey. But in versions told in some coastal cities (like Aristia), Phagousa is the only Titan who appears: They teach shipbuilding to the chief as they are intrigued by a challenge from humanity and try to ensure fair play. Finally, they gave up being an obstacle for humanity due to being moved by human courage.
Compared to popular versions, this portrayal of Phagousa shows more complexity and vitality. The divine-human connection strengthens, with more similarities in their personalities and behaviors. Given the various coastal city-states' reverence for Phagousa, I boldly hypothesize that, under the influence of different regional cultures, people unconsciously "project" their needs and desires, or the needs and desires of their group, onto Titans.
I will now prove this point from a different perspective. It's well known that, among Zagreus's pranks done on the gods, the most famous is stealing Mnestia's offerings by hiding in the shadow of Mnestia's statue. In popular versions, there is a seemingly unimportant detail at the end of the story: Unable to catch Zagreus, Mnestia punishes their own priest instead, cursing him to never see beauty again.
Such a small detail sparked major debates many times among scholars and artists in the history of city-states like Aurelia and Milios — due to their different backgrounds, positions, and beliefs, people have different levels of acceptance toward this "whimsical divine punishment." Some extreme Mnestia disciples reject it persistently entirely, violently declaring it "shameful blasphemy against the perfect divine" and consider the topic an unmentionable taboo on all ceremonial occasions.
The above is the foundation of the content that this book will now discuss in detail, which is the variations in Titan worship rituals in different regions — In other words, how people from different cultural environments conduct appropriate ceremonies to please the corresponding Titans based on their understanding of divine preferences and tendencies.