Religion
- Y'shendra, Before Her Corruption
Contents
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, determined to be a misleading and malevolent force, and so on. 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 it did not truly matter. All of those mortals were engineered to surrender their souls to Muid in their death regardless, so 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 less primitive in the Age of Elves. wip ip
The Cults of Bel
WIP.
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 Eldhan Weald, or 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 Rathari into the faith, symbolic representatives of the Living Gods have been added to the religion's canon in recent centuries.
