I'm still trying to work out the finer details of what mortal veneration offered them besides something that "tasted good", an ego boost and something to one-up each other with, and pliant playthings, um, I mean servants.
The Seals... the Anzillu could not be destroyed, even the collective Kataru lacked that sort of reality-altering power. So, they imprisoned each of them away in a separate artifact of stone and metal, locked with ten Seals, and hid the artifacts (I know there's a name for such a thing but it's escaping me the way that "apotheosis" did) far away from each other, to avoid any possibility of proximity weakening the Seals. Each of the artifacts has a variety of obstacles and semi-unwitting guardians blocking access.
After the Kataru's victory, their zealots and priests engaged in a bloody purge of those who would not renouce their allegiance to the Anzillu, but in some ways it wasn't necessary. The Kataru had attracted many converts, and the "religion" of the Anzillu was largely dying on its own. After just a few generations, those who would have sought the Anzillu's return were few and far between. A few cults remained in the far hidden corners of the world, and even there, beyond the organized faith of the Kataru, the veneration of local gods, grear spirits, and ancestor-heroes took center stage.
There are ways to break the Seals, and open the artifacts, if someone was able to get their hands on one. In fact, one of the possible plot-arcs deals in part with that fact.
Adding more detailed write-ups one at a time... keep in mind that there is always a degree of affectation in these forms and personas, and that the Anzillu were almost always "wearing masks" when interacting with mortals. In pinning them down like this a risk of losing that strange and evocative nature of the names.
Zarruzassa,
the Vermilion King
Seen as the deity of rulership, authority, government, and splendor. He was fascinated with structure and order as aspects of the new reality; after ruining several existing city-states through war, intrigue, and religious strife to "see how they worked", he founded the red stone city of Dara, where he ruled "in person" from the opulent Scarlet Court and Red Temple. All aspects of government, worship, and daily life were highly ritualized, complex, ornate, and exacting. Law, as decreed by Zarruzassa and his
Lakur, was strict and punishments harsh, with no exceptions and no mercy. The city was a constant tug of war between the maddening obsessive aura that seeped from his presence, and the dictates of propriety, order, and ritual; those who couldn't withstand the dissonance seemed fine and proper... and then suddenly snapped, often violently.
* Royal officers who were at once consorts, priestesses/priests, and high judges.
The presence of the less-ordered cults of the other Anzillu in his city was always a source of contention, and indeed his city was one of the last places the "hero cult" of the Kataru gained a foothold.
Ravishu,
the Fallen Star
Worshipped as the lord of the stars, endless wanderer, and breaker of preconceived notions, the Starlurker had long since abandoned his search for the secrets of space and time , and was in truth debauchery incarnate, that "friend" who cheerfully drags you -- or an entire city -- out for a night everyone knows they'll regret tomorrow. Intoxicants and carnal acts of all variety, experienced through his followers and anyone else caught up in the bacchanal, often past the breaking point, were his distraction from the fruitlessness of his efforts to turn back reality to before it all fell apart and he lost his beloved sibling.
Was said to be always watching, always waiting, "just behind the stars", for the opportunity to "open the doors of the flesh and of the mind" for mortals (and through them for himself). In truth, he was always trying in vain to recover the sort of total unfettered contact that was possible only with the others of his kind in the "untime".
( If Ravishu were released into our modern world, his avatar or high priest would be (the on-screen persona of)
Dave Wyndorf --
no, really,
it's true. (NSFW) )
Kalesh Sarrat Irkalli,
Margrave of Ashes
Old Goddess of the Demon Marches... Dalkhu Queen... Ashen Lady... taker of souls, ruler of the underworld, and master of the black blood... Kalesh Sarrat Irkalli was seen as the overseer of dark pacts and bitter omens, a patron of warlocks and ill sorcery. She was the prime ruler of the Dalkhu and their "home", a twilight realm of drifting ashes, leaden skies, distant lightning, and dark troubled waters. The "black blood" was (and is) the leftover substance of creation, the rejected primal material, inimical to light and life. The Dalkhu were born of this, and Kalesh was the undisputed master of this vile essence, above all other Anzillu.
What mortals never understood was that her dictates created a check on the Dalkhu. It was by her design that the dark spirits were beholden to pacts and subject to bindings, limited in their ability to interact with the mortal world and slowed in their urges to corrode creation. It was her eternal and unbreakable law that any soul taken by the Dalkhu must be given willingly by its rightful possessor. Do not mistake this for anything like mercy, love, or moral qualms. Rather, there was a promise made in The Before... and a free-for-all seemed rather unsporting, or perhaps less interesting.
Narzalak,
Haunter of the Outer Depths
Deity of borders, crossroads, reflections, transitions, and places between. Lord of the Dawn and Lady of Twilight. Horizon-god, found where the stars are mirrored on the ocean and where distant clouds look like mountains. Ever changing, of many forms and none. Utterly alien, and yet utterly familiar via the constant of change. Invoked at birth, coming of age, marriage, divorce, death, coronation, etc, and supplicated by those desperate for change.
Change always comes with a price, however -- something left behind, something lost, something transformed irrevocably. Narzalak always demanded a price.
Evettazi,
the Waking Dreamer
Deity of dreams and transcendence, patron of theurgy. Those initiated into her White Order learned the ways of molding reality through "waking dream", bringing the power of the mind to shape the world from the realm of lucid dreams into the physical realm. The price of this magic was the risk that one would prove too weak-minded and utterly lose oneself to The Dream, unable to tell the real from imagined. Initiates with the will and strength to maintain their sanity went on to become the greatest wonder-workers of the age.
Behind the mask -- Evettazi never gave up hope of unmaking reality, returning the universe to the dreamlike primal state of The Before, and restoring the Anzillu's lost sibling. She sought to make all things once more into a reflection of her thoughts, unfettered and effortless. To this end, she was building an ever-growing network of theurges whose minds and souls were secretly connected to her own, using their efforts to expand her own understanding, ever searching, ever learning. Despite the rather benign front persented to mortals, she was perhaps the most dangerous and deceptive of the Anzillu. Most of the initiates who "went insane" had actually had an epiphany or revelation... and when Evettazi pulled that spark of knowledge to her, their insufficient mental strength resulted in her tearing it out instead of duplicating it.
When Evettazi fell, her last desperate attempt to escape ripped at the minds of her White Order. Most were left empty husks, some were lucky enough to just lose the secrets of power and understanding, and a scant few were able to retain their mastery.
The other three are proving harder to pin down...