Faiths

The world of Godherja has many different faiths and denominations of them inside of it. The religions in-game function in the same ways that they do in the base game albeit with more tenets in the base game. For more information on the groupings of faiths visit Religions, for more information on the tenets of the faiths visit Tenets.

Aversarinas Aagiokratia
Aversarinas Aagiokratia is the catch-all term for the state religion of the Aversarian Aautokrata and its assorted denominations, offshoots, and heresies. Though their tenets may vary wildly, they all revolve around belief in the primordial "First Men," a divine race of magic-wielding humans led by a mage named the Purest. the Aversarians, who had the most magical ability, unsurprisingly considered themselves to be the greatest descendants of the First Men and the closest followers of the Purest's teachings. And if they are the closest to true humans, then foreigners and heathens are a bit less than human.

Agionism
Agionism is a religion based around the lives and martyrdoms of various aversarian reformists, saints, and rebels. While initially against aversarian religious practices, the end of their rebellions saw their cults "rehabilitated" and reincorporated into the aversarian fold; the Agionists and aversarians now share many tenets. They have since established themselves as Crusading Orders in sarradon, seeking to spread the knowledge of their Saints in what has become known as the saints war.

Allemani
The Allemani faith sees the world as being the trunk that supports a great Tree, which they call Stoðrusigga. Further up the trunk and one passes into the trees, which are the homes of the gods, and down the trunk are the roots where the dead lie. They believe that their duty is to act as stewards of the tree, maintining it the same way that birds and squirrels peacefully live in the trees they call home. Honoring the gods brings them bounties from the earth, and mistreatment will eventually lead to blight and decay until the world is naught but a gnarled stump.

Anaanide
The Anaanide faith centers on a single point in life, or rather after life: the moment of judgement, where souls are brought before the Great Judge and deemed worthy to enter the paradise of Anaan or perish in the void. However, the number of souls fit to enter Anaan is very slim in number, and not all who seek the path may reach it. The only truly good people who die are the very young, who do not yet know evil, or the old, who have cleansed their souls of impure desires.

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Ancient
The world is full of faiths and religions, not all of which have been able to maintain worshippers through the present day. Some have spawned successors that incorporate tenets of their faith, but many were not as lucky. They only live on in the tomes of libraries, paintings in decaying temples, or in the bones of the dead.

Apti
According to the Apti, the god Roydammna fell into a deep slumber; the moment he closed his eyes was the first moment of the known universe. All of reality is a dream within the mind of the godhead, from the smallest of insects to the greatest so-called deity worshipped by others in the world. All the pain, strife, warfare, and suffering that occurs is the result of a stressful and uneasy sleep on Roydammna's part. In order to ascend beyond the "false form" and reunite with the Dreamer, the Apti believe that all of the universe must be understood first, so that the knowledge of one's mind equals that of Roydammna's

Cult of the Black Hand
The Cult of the Black Hand was an Aversarian cult centered around an enigmatic figure known as "the Mindseeker." The Cult held the Mindseeker as an all-powerful being and prophet, capable of predicting the future, seeing the past, and of bestowing great powers upon their followers. The Seeker themself preached the idea that all gods are to be rejected and killed, as it is the gods of man which once destroyed the world and would again. Followers of the Mindseeker destroyed all religious iconography and scripture they could, and attempted to learn the "true names" of gods, driven by the blief that speaking a deity's true name would kill them.

Dgudi
Dgudi, or "vessel-prayer," is the Abadyssian world for reverence toward the beautiful gilded sculptures that inhabit a place simply called the City of Golden Statues. When their forefathers first came to the city, they saw the wonderful, gleaming works towering far over their head, and asked themselves: how could these be anything but vessels of gods? These were not the traditional nature spirits they worshiped, but Great Spirits, those more worthy of respect than any other. It was the Great Spirits who created the world, and it was the Great Spirits who charged the Abadyssians with controlling it.

Fogeater
While nobody has ever managed to communicate with the Fogeaters, one of the only things verifiably known is that they name themselves the 'Listeners'.The result of tribal humans being trapped in the Foglands, unlike all other beings who had been destroyed by the Foglands millions of dangers, the Fogeaters instead adapted. Or, as one would think when looking upon their malnourished, nearly alien forms, corrupted.The Fogeaters worship the Fog now, and devour or corrupt any they capture in disturbing esoteric rituals meant to assist them in speaking with their esoteric masters.

Galliene
The Gallieni Faiths, less a single faith and more a loose collection of local religions that are united by culture more than any particular religious belief. The one tenet they all have in common is the belief that mankind is not the master of its own destiny, but rather buffeted about by capricious or callous supernatural forces.

Gethian
Gethian cosmology says that in the earliest of days, the first humans greatly dishonored the Great Judge Aldordemah. This sin, they claim, was so offensive and heinous that its specifics have been lost to time, for none dare to utter its vileness. Aldordemah was wise but stern, and told humanity that they shall not be judged by that one act alone. He would quit this world for a long time, and when he returned, he would judge mankind and see whether they have done enough good to outweigh their unspeakable sin.

Hubarist
The Hubarists are part of an ancient faith in Sarradon, one practiced by Living Mages as far back as recorded history goes. At the center of the faith is the Sun, the origin of all things and whose blessings come down upon mages as rays of light shine upon the crops. As the Sun travels across the sky, it ferries the souls of the dead to its realm, where it holds court during the night. The Sun's antagonist is Ölüm, who sends his avatar the Moon to hunt the Sun during the night.

Hulawite
While other religions encourage mysticism and belief in worlds other than one's own, the Hulawites wholly reject such claims and call them humbug. They are what foreign scholars would call empiricists, people who doubt anything that cannot be verified with the senses. They deny the existence of an afterlife, for it has never been witnessed, as well as the existence of a soul, for it cannot be found within the body. However, they do not encourage blind rejection of all unknowns, and instead encourage followers to investigate these mysteries.

Iyrossi
Emphasizing the relationship with the natural world and refusal to submit to cruelty inflicted on its practitioners, the highest focus of the Iyrossi faith is in the belief that no slight should ever be forgiven without a settling of scores first. Any insult or offense must be paid for, with the price ranging from a few coins to the offender's life. Any other path would be an insult Deiphartoros, God of Justice.

Kai-iiao
Kai-jiao, or simply "god-worship," is the term used to describe the faiths derived from the indigenous folk religion of Kathun-Kai. All of these faiths center around the worship of a pantheon of gods, whose head and creator is Shenwang the Grand King of Heaven. Virtuous souls are believed to serve the gods in the divine realm of Guodi, while the wicked suffer in Guiyu for eternity.

Kakarataki
To the Kakarakati, originally an agrarian people, the Sun is the bringer of all things good. They consider it to be the avatar of the god Koru, creator of mankind. However, they consider the Moon, creator of all creatures of the night, to be the Sun's sworn enemy. The two are locked into a dualistic battle for control over the cosmos, and beneath, their creations fight for control of the world.

Kardawai
According to Kardawai legend, the great Titan Mawloc, ruled over the world with an iron fist. His sons starved as he forced them to make great statues of himself. His servants, the Lothbroki, cackled as they whipped Mawloc’s sons into submission. Until one day, the eldest son Kardwen rose up against his cruel masters, and devoured the Lothbroki. Kardwen gained the strength of the Lothbroki, and so he led his people to victory against the cruel Titan. Kardwen divided the dead Titan's corpse between his many sons, and those who partook in it became the gods of the world.

Khemet
For centuries, the Khmeti worldview centered around two primordial sibling-deities. The first was Iah, the Moon, bringer of light at night and vanquisher of darkness when the Sun needed to rest. The second was Iteru, the great River, giver of food and transporter of men all throughout the land. If the people were moral and kept these spirits placated, then they would continue to prosper for eternity. But without explanation, Iteru dried up and Iah shattered into a multitute of pieces. The Khmeti people panicked and wondered if they had done something wrong. But questions of morality fell to the wayside, as their lives became consumed with the struggle for survival.

Lifepath
Unlike other religions, adherents of the Life Path care more about the jouney through life than they do about the destination in the afterlife. They believe in a "clockmaker's universe," where all of existence is a perfect machine, but it may only function if certain roles are properly fulfilled by mankind. As the first and greatest of Wayfathers Sir Ranos laid out for the Marcher people, there are a multitude of different ways in life that people may follow, but within certain guidelines. All harmony comes from people following these ways as intended, and all chaos is caused by the refusal to do so.

Manat
A thousand thousand generations prior, the Manats claim, the gods once walked among humanity. They taught mankind how to build cities, how to hunt, how to fight, and how to structure society. When they departed, they left behind a list of sacred texts for humanity to follow their teachings. They have been transcribed again and again over the centuries, repeated in a long-dead language whose translations have been passed down by oral tradition. Although only a fraction of the original texts are said to survive, what remains is treasured by Manats as more precious than gold.

Mrógiłprano
The Mrógiłprano, often translated as the Graveright, is the ancient faith of the Ojyczaynz of the northern lands. Once the dominant faith of what is once the Lichdoms, the Graveright focuses on the belief that the soul stays with its body into the afterlife. When a soul moves on, it looks over those around it and protects them as long as the body too is protected and treated with respect. In better times, the worshippers of the Graveright would hold the bodies of the dead in massive necropolis complexes across the cities of the north, ensuring that all those of a city who passed could forever serve as wardens for their descendents, as the living would do for them.\n\nThis, of course, proved to be a powder keg, and now the Graveright is a nearly dead religion. Even where it survives, its tenets are rarely practiced, the concept of storing the dead instead of burning them considered insanity.

Öltenic
Öltenis believe that the world is divided into two spheres: the sky, realm of the benevolent father Ölgon-ten, and the earth, realm of the malevolent mother Yeru-mai. Yeru-mai once tried to slay her husband in a fit of jealousy, but was stopped by their eldest son Ölik at the cost of his life. Their second son Kaigan, covering his face at the sight, fled and swore to never build a home of earth or harvest its fruits. And from Kaigan's loins came all the peoples of the steppe.

Partic
The Partic faith is less a traditional folk religion and more a system of belief permeated at every level with the study of Magic. It believes in a mysterious being called "Serfli" in a forgotten tongue, usually translated into other languages as "the Great." All things, tangible and intangible, emanate from the Great, and to the Great all things shall return. There is also a pantheon of more traditional gods, believed to be absorbed from an older indigenous faith, but they are treated as mere emanations of the Great and lesser deities.

Existence can be divided into two spheres: the known world of the body, and the felt world of the soul. The felt world coexists within and without the known world, and through careful meditation, one may peer through the body into the soul and draw on power from the felt world. This is what the Particians consider Magic.

Quwazawi
One would be forgiven for seeing the Quwazawi and assume they are an ofshoot of the Abadyssians, revering great statues of men and beasts. However, the similarities end there. They believe that these divine megaliths are not merely representations of the gods crafted in their image, but the stone remnants of their gods' slumbering physical avatars. They protect these statues with all their might, waiting for the day that their patrons may need to reawaken. The gods are the true rulers of the world, and the Quwazawi are merely its interim caretakers.

Rejection
Rejection is the catch-all term for the various 'beliefs' of the Liches of the Lichdoms. Unsurprisingly, they tend to eschew all prior organized faiths, though what they replace it with may vary. Some declare themselves to be walking gods, creators of life and death who have come to reshape the world in thier image. Others denounce all religions, saying that there is (in-game description stops here).

Ritualist
Less of a defined faith and more a label for a collection of local beliefs, Ritualism is a polytheistic group of faiths native to Sarradon that tend to have esoteric beliefs and secretive ceremonies. Common among these sects is their reverence for the Thousand-and-One Steps of Sophocos, a Tower where one can achieve enlightenment if they climb every man-sized step and face a plethora of trials from the gods. The few who achieved this task had their accounts compiled in the Story of the Steps, an esoteric tome which is consulted for guidance and whose meanings are hotly debated among its followers. To walk the Thousand-and-One steps is not only a literal pilgrimage for Ritualists, but also a figurative quest for self-improvement.

Salacad
Like many other ancient faiths, the Salacad claim that there were two primordial creator-deities: Mother Sky and Father Earth. But unlike others, they claim that the two gods were constantly at war, with Father Earth being the violent instigator. Mother Sky led a valiant defense, and ultimately triumphed against her cruel enemy. She then swore to look after her daughters and sons, especially humanity.

Samojitan
The Samojitan faiths originated from endless thousands of northern slaves who were rounded up by the Aversarians and forced to work in the halls of their esteemed [mayikprolollan|E]. The various beliefs they brought with them and turned to in their time of suffering began to run together. Over time, the hellish working conditions forged new religions, shaped by their multitude of origins and shared pain.

(The mechanical between the two Samojitan faiths is that the Oirigan faith accepts magic, which is criminalized in the Dejorig faith)

Shehhardic
The Sheharddi faith's origins are shrouded in mystery, with scholars debating whether it is a syncretism of various Sarradonian faiths, a single god's cult that broke away from a larger polytheistic faith, or the surviving remnants of a more primordial religion. They believe that the high god Eloi, creator of the heavens, created a race called the Malikiyah, or Messengers. The greatest of these, Eir'Shaytan, created an even lesser race of beings—the humans—to be his servants and worship him and his six lieutenants is if they was greater than their father. Eloi was irate when he learned of this treachery and slew these seven betrayers, casting them beneath the earth so that their bodies may never find peace.

Shub-Yuaguag
The Shub-Yuaguag say that all living creatures in the world originate from one being, Yuaguag. Mother and Father to all, conceiver and deliverer, bringer of untold bounties of milk and meat, it is depicted in their artwork as a great mound of flesh, covered in multitudinous orifices and organs. Though members of other faiths dismiss it as perverted and sacreligious, the Shub-Yuaguag see their god as a thing of beauty. For what is more beautiful than that whose sole purpose is to give life to all?

Sjalvoki
According to Sjalvolki teachings, when the world was made and humanity was born from the soil, the gods created gifts for them. Varpalis created the fish of the sea, Ureha created the plants of the soil, Zamistra created the wily beasts of the land, and Pekielo created the birds of the sky. But Pekwon, in his cruelty, gave the "gift" of hunger and misery to humanity. The final one to give a gift was Velos, so he taught them how to hunt and kill the animals around them.

Wardenite
To the Wardenites, there were two gods, or two aspects of the same god. They refer to the god(s) as He Who Was, and the Dead God. The Wardenites believe that the evil of the world originates with this Dead God, who He Who Was imprisoned and charged humanity with keeping sealed away at all costs. This prison is said to be made of a series of 'pillars', which many Wardenite sects interpret as spiritual virtues. Fail to uphold these virtues, they believe, and the Dead God shall roam free once more.

Zaoranian
Although worship of the god Zaoran had been practiced in some form for millennia, it was not until the arrival of the Prophet Anaphernes that it was codified into its modern form. He claimed that Zaoran was betrayed by His son Maiya, and that the two were locked in war for dominion over His followers. But more ominous was the Zenda, his book of prophecies for centuries to come, ranging from the weather on holy days to the outcome of massive wars. His final prophecy claimed that when twenty generations after him lived and died, Maiya would defeat Zaoran and lay waste to the world unless all men alive accepted Him as their protector.

Twenty generations came and went, and people grew skeptical of the Prophet's warning... then the Frodbrokna happened.