Darkovans believe in four deities: Avarra (goddess of birth and death), Evanda (goddess of life and warmth, and hence marriage), Aldones (lord of light), and Zandru (lord of the nine hells). Each of Zandru's hells is colder than the one above it, because Darkovans, living on a freezing planet, conceive of a cold hell. Hastur, the mythological progenitor of the Comyn, is supposedly the son of Aldones. In "Thendara House" and "City of Sorcery" Magdalen Lorne hears the "calling of crows," a sign that Avarra is present.