Religion
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Religion in Atharen
The Faith of the Living Gods, or 'The Path', has long been the primary faith on Atharen due to the Adac's creation of the planes and the races within them. As the parent-creators of all of the mortal races, they have acquired fervor and zeal throughout time, though since the Bleeding of the Planes, that zeal has only continued to diminish. The truth is - the Bleeding largely drew the Gods away from mortal affairs, unwilling to intervene in them, perhaps even afraid. Speculation says that the Gods have turned their back on mortal-kind for what they believe to be their failure and betrayal.
With the Gods all but vanishing from the mortal plane, and abandoning the world, other religions have begun to prosper and grow. As such, Atharen has a diverse climate of faiths and beliefs, with the Living Gods becoming more and more resented as the years go on.
Religion and the Bleeding
With the Bleeding of the Planes, the pantheon of the Gods was split into two. Immediately, eight of the True Gods were locked within Bel, and the remaining eight were forced to deal with the backlash of the Bleeding. Raw Ether slipped through the cracks that the Bleeding created, saturating the Divinty-rich world with that of impure ether and poisoning whatever it touched. This effect was simply known as Corruption, or Raw Magic Corruption in some scholarly circles. It occurred in all planes simultaneously: Muid, Atharen, Kyrikain's dream realm and all of the other planes that had been forged - large and small - were all at risk of total devastation, with the Outlands' ethereal rot seeping in. The Gods did what they could to mend the world's cracks, though they only did so once it was safe. Mornoth suffered greatly during this time, as ethereal rot expanded outward from the old Unbroken capital and flooded the region. The regions beyond it followed, all while the Gods cautiously hid in Muid to ensure they did not suffer the same fate as their now Corrupted kin.
Once the initial breach had mostly been exhausted, it was Venadak who sealed it from within Bel, allowing the other Gods to seal the other gaps the Bleeding created. However, this action caused many of them to weaken for a prolonged period of time, while afflicting nearly all of them with minor Corruption, which they spent the following centuries purging. Some planes - like Reverie, which has only a thin veil separating it from the Outlands - could never be entirely repaired, with the Bleeding still causing for leaks and breaks within the realm to this day, plunging Kyrikain to what his siblings believe to be the verge of near-death, a fate he will one day succumb to.
With the Gods becoming so weakened, and with the Bleeding happening as a result of what they believed to be impossible... one of their own, their greatest in fact, being overpowered, they became reluctant to interact with mortals any further. Since then, the majority of the Living Gods have barricaded themselves within Muid, while the Corrupted of Bel remain locked in a planar cage.
The Divine Abolition
In the first century after the Bleeding, a large number of countries declared worship of the Living Gods and the Path to be illegal. While the purpose behind these proclamations was variable, they tended to follow a similar pattern: the Gods were blamed for the Bleeding, they were determined to be a misleading and malevolent force, and their history was reinterpreted as the oppression of vainglorious beings, toying with the lives of their followers for their own entertainment. The abandonment by the Gods deeply wounded those that remained after the Bleeding, and this wound eventually transformed into that of spite and resentment. For this reason, the once beloved pantheon fell to spiritual ruin, though from the perspective of many of the Gods themselves, it did not truly matter. As all mortals are engineered to surrender their souls to the Well of Souls regardless, the Gods did not need their compliance. This nonchalant attitude, even dismissal of mortal-kind, led to the development of more and more 'heretical' or alternative faiths.
The Path
The Path was, for nearly all of Atharen's history, the largest faith in the world. The Living Gods' relationship with the mortal races began early, and began strong. They personally fostered them, frequently interacted with them, and even occasionally formed loving and interconnected bonds with their subjects. Given the intimacy and familiarity of this relationship between Creator and Created, the leap to worship was early and natural. The people of Atharen were once very devout towards the Living Gods, and the term 'the Path' was coined for the faith to declare that believing in the Living Gods was the one, righteous Path; the Path towards truth, wholeness, prosperity.
Worship of the Living Gods began simply, with small, poorly crafted Elven altars often in places they believed would correlate to their Domains. An altar to Azunath might be in the forest, while an altar to Y'shendra might be in a midwife's home where she would deliver young. While this more primitive practice of altars has always persisted, even until this day, the faith grew considerably more structured in the Age of Elves. The birth of cathedrals, monasteries and other places of worship came into being, with theologians at the head of many of these institutions inscribing the words of the Gods' most trusted followers, or directly from the Gods themselves.
These theologians helped to put together many of the religious texts of the Path that exist today, most of them dating over three thousand years back. With the birth of large institutions of faith, and unified texts with laws, rules and prescriptions for followers, worship of the Path became more visible, more mainstream, and more a part of everyday life. It was also from the fountains of the Path that many other institutions adopted their monastic practices; the Omen of Ulendreaism, for instance, both in their church structure and how their theologians converged to draft the Oaths of Carine. The Path was once so dominant that it was entirely synonymous with 'religion' itself.
It remained like this for thousands of years. During the time of the Unbroken Empire, however, this began to be challenged internally, with many of the greatest Lords of that Empire being Draedan who were disconnected from their Divine fathers and mothers, and were often dissatisfied with their role as 'lessers'. Considering Draedan are Adac, the same species as the Living Gods of the Path, many believed they should be worthy of being included in the Pantheon. It was, in fact, a law passed by the Emperor's Council - entirely composed of powerful Draedan - that caused Venadak to confront the Council directly, descending from Muid to reprimand the errant Draedan of the Empire.
This decision was one that incorporated the Draedan into the pantheon of the Path, declaring all Draedan to be equal Gods to their parents.
The Bleeding is often called 'the Fall' by followers of the Path, or by religious scholars, as it is directly linked to the decline of the faith and the descent of the Living Gods into ruin, many becoming relics of history. The change after the Bleeding was immediate: half of the pantheon was submerged into Bel, imprisoned by their own leader so as to not leak Corruption into the world. The other half were all forced to scramble to maintain the integrity of their Domains, with some - such as Kyrikain - nearly dying as a result of the rupturing that occurred within the Planes.
Additionally, interacting with their creations on Atharen had been what had created the conditions for the Bleeding in the first place. Intervention was seen as a danger; mortals appeared to have found a way to harm them, and more dubiously, to harm the integrity of the Plane that separated them from the Outlands. Therefore, the Gods who were not imprisoned became utterly non-interventionist, while the Gods within Bel became imprisoned and therefore could not interact with those on the surface world directly.
There has not been a single public appearance of any Living God since the beginning of the Age of Ashes, nearly seven hundred years ago. Because of this, many people on Atharen wonder if the Gods are even real, and few outside of Vendigad, Radenor and Ganeron worship them.
The Cults of Bel
The Cults of Bel formed in the vacuum created by the decline of the Path, much like the growth of the Omen. What is unique about the Cults is that they - unlike the Omen - do not interact with a faith that is questionably real, but rather directly engage with the power and influence of true Gods, the Imprisoned Ones. These seven fallen Adac are not non-interventionist, as a rule. Instead, they vie for The Barrengates so that they may influence the mortal Plane as much as possible. They fight in the Endless War for dominance over these Gates, and once claiming them, wield their power to speak to mortals through altars, effigies and through the Gates directly. They receive followers and send them out, wield them as weapons in the Endless War, and sometimes even offer them rewards.
The Imprisoned are also more likely to create Draedan than their Living God counterparts, another deed they may perform if they currently hold ownership over one of the Barrengates. All of these actions have allowed them to accrue a number of followers, often prioritizing the corruption of a current follower of the Path, often one who questions the inaction and disappearance of the Gods, and seeks answers. The Imprisoned tend to present themselves as sympathetic beings, imprisoned for caring for the fate of Atharen; for fighting for Venadak's life, and the future of the mortal race. To most, their rhetoric appears undeniably true. Most understand that the Imprisoned were jailed for a selfless act of brotherhood, protecting their own, and hoping to prevent the total collapse of the Planes. This lends them incredible credence, and causes many to doubt the current Living Gods as cowards, traitors, or conniving schemers who enjoy the authority that comes with having so many rivals to Muid's supply of power trapped in the Infernal Plane.
Considering the Cults of Bel tend not to be accepted in any large part in any society, their worship is often much more underground. Altars and effigies, like in more primitive times, are common to their occult. Secret meetings within occult covens, leather-bound grimoires with the scattered thoughts of old apostles... nothing of their faith tends to be in the open or uniform, and given that the Imprisoned rarely form alliances and have no unified goal, these Cults typically conflict with one another, often violently.
Other Faiths
Aside from the worship of the Living Gods, which acts as the standard faith for much of the world, there are several large faiths that tend to dominate particular races and regions. They will be detailed here.
The Omen
Divided between two major sects, Ulendreaism in Daravin and (though it is rarely referred to as this) Blathe-Feiz in Lorien, the Omen is the largest religion in the world outside of the faith of the Living Gods. It is also the fastest growing in recent centuries, emerging as a small faith centered in the dilapidated city of Carine and quickly expanding to cover nearly the entire region of Mornoth.
The Omen is a monotheistic, apocalyptic religion, one that foretells of the cleansing of the world in an event known as The Return, where the Returning King - or Ulen as he is called in Daravin - will rid the surface of the planet of all maladies and imperfections, rebuke all evil and will create the conditions necessary for true Paradise. The Omen also features ten mythical figures known as the Achra, beings similar to saints but with divine origin, inspired after the imagery and themes of the Living Gods and Corrupted Ones.
Though Ulen's existence is far from confirmed, and is labeled myth by virtually all scholars outside of the religion's strongholds, the Omen continues to grow at a considerable pace and threatens to become the dominant religion of Atharen within the coming centuries. The faith strongly varies between Ulendreaism and Blathe-Feiz, with Ulendreaists being far more pious and following an enshrined doctrine well-defined by the Oaths of Carine.
Eldashan
Eldashan is the name of the faith of the Elven Gods. Originally one of the world's dominant faiths, Eldashan has since receded greatly in popularity and influence, though it remains the faith of nearly a fifth of Atharen's population. It is the dominant faith of the Kingdom of Vendigad and is popular in large parts of Tyrclaid. Eldashan is often followed by Elves throughout the world and - accounting for nearly half of its following - is the key faith practiced by most Druskai, though they tend to worship individual Elven Gods such as Veravend and Lotheric. Many practitioners of Summoning also follow the teachings of Eldashan, believing that it brings them closer to their Archetypes and respective Patrons.
The faith of the Elven Gods is one of nature-worship, a focus on personal freedom and self-fulfillment, understanding of the world and the Elven concept of enlightenment gained through experiences and hardships. It is a religion almost entirely focused on personal growth, but one through the lens of coming to terms with the world and becoming a key component of one's community, whatever that group may be. Unfortunately, there are many modern interpretations of Eldashan that are not so benign. Many see the wroth state of the current Elven Gods and believe that the focus of the religion has changed necessarily to one thing: the eradication of humanity, and the restoration of Elven hegemony first in Mornoth, and then the continent.
The Old Ones
The Old Ones is the dominant faith of Tyrclaid, and only Tyrclaid, but due to the Kingdom's large population it is one of the largest religions on Atharen, roughly matching Eldashan in the size of its following. The Old Ones focuses on the 'mortal spirit' or the 'mortal soul', and the Old Ones themselves are often ascended from great mortals; rulers, paragons of their trade, great warriors and other pioneers of their time. Permanently enshrined as sort of Ancestor-Gods to the Kingdom's people, these saintly beings act as the divine inspiration for the generations to come.
The monarch of Tyrclaid is symbolically wed to one of the Old Ones, and as the Kingdom's monarchs become one in death, they join their symbolic spouses as beloveds in death. Scholars say the mortal-focused religion may have formed due to human discontent with the Living Gods, though with the addition of Rathor into the faith, symbolic representatives of the Living Gods have been added to the religion's canon in recent centuries.
