|
OLD WORLD RELIGIONS
Trugod
The predominant religion in the Seven Kingdoms of the Homelands and their Wildland Colonies is the Faith of Trugod. Trugod is a monotheistic faith which, in our world terms, combines the Sermon of the Mount type doctrine with Daoism, Hindu karma and yoga, charity to the poor, defense of the innocent, and a Unitarian approach to studying personal spiritual truths. It is popular in The Faith to believe in angels, and that dead ancestors look over their descendents. The Faith does not persecute other faiths, and even goes as far to recognize the druidic Earthmother faith as a precursor to the True Faith. The Trugod faith is filled with saints inspired from the Catholic Religion as well. Each country has a patron saint. The Kingdom of Aug, and its colonies (including Praxis and Roanoake) have Saint Kord as a patron deity. The Kingdom of Esan differs slightly, in following the Prophet instead of individual saints. And the races follow their own patron saints. There is a great variety in the Trugod Church, although it is united under one Grand Bishop. There are even unorthodox sects, such as St. Charity, which is a non-violence movement. Generally, the clerics cooperate, although there has been known to be competition in congregation recruiting. Other more popular orthodox saints include Saint Murphy (The Chaotic Like), Saint. Idarian (Keeper of Secrets), and the widely popular Saint Providence (Saint of Fate).
Saint Kord in particular stresses defense of the innocent, and is often the source of warrior and fighting training, as well as even stricter monasteries of monks.
The Path of the Prophet
The Esani Kingdom follows a little different path. They are the equivalent of today's Spain, if the Persians instead of Muslims invaded, and stayed. Their Prophet is inspired by Zoroaster's, and they follow angelic guides. The major theological difference on the Path to Truth and Light is a lack of absolutism, that the journey of self-improvement is not a diametrically opposed battle of good and evil, but a movement from bad to better. Ironically, the Esani colony is a theocracy, and religious dissention is not permitted. Heretics are the worst criminals in Esani society. .
Earthmother
The older druidic faith still has many adherents. It is not uncommon for Folke to follow Trugod and Earthmother beliefs, holidays, and rituals.
Asana
The traditional dwarven and Northlander faith is the Norse pantheon, although the dwarves and Northlanders argue to whether or not the pantheon is dwarven or human in appearance. Not only limited to dwarves, Asana followers include gnomes, humans, and Folke that live in or close to the Northlands. As far as dwarves and Northlanders in Praxis City, Odin, Thor, and Sif are the most commonly worshipped, although even Loki has its followers. Oddly enough, the Cult of Loki is more popular in civilized lands that the Northlands from which it originated, mostly by rogues.
Ornites
Worshippers of the serpent, also known as Supplicants to the Dragon, they worship either Tiamat, or her representatives (i.e. any dragon). Mostly evil.
Orphite Mystery Orders
The Southeast Kingdoms, also known as the Ancient Lands, was once flourishing provinces. For reasons that are still speculated, the once fertile lands were devastated, and are mostly a desert. The Ancient Lands are the source of opium, and a few bronze skinned members of the civilized races still exist in oasis and along rivers, making their survival.
Also, Folke gypsies from these lands have made it into Chicora, traveling the different colonies providing carnivals.
Monster religions
The religion of the Orcs is largely unknown, but assumed to be a vengeful, violent god or pantheon of gods. In Half-Orc populations, traces of hoodoo mystics and witch doctors have kept some of the Old Magic, although use of either is strictly outlawed among the half-orc communities.
Wild Land Religions
There are still much unknown about religion in the Wild Lands. For example, do the goblins have any religion? The following has been gathered with the help of Jelnik Firemane, centaur bard and Ambassador to Praxis City from the Centaur Territory:
Native Human religions
Most encountered native humans follow primitive druidic traditions, following their own spiritual totems. The Cacica, for example, mostly follow the totem of the wolf, which is marked by the large number of werewolves in their midst. Also, many places and things are taboo to the natives, and their practices of burying the dead tend to vary drastically from tribe to tribe. This is not true of all native tribes, as the Yamassee of the Glith Empire worship the Snake in a very different fashion...
Glith Empire
By official decree, the lizardfolk, kobolds, and trogdoltyes tribe are supposed to worship Glith, the ancient green dragon that rules the Empire. The kobolds have a nonreligious order of conduct they call the Kobold Way, which is mainly an instruction of how to fight only if the odds are in your favor. Several outlawed religious sects do exist, however, including several Trogdolyte shamans who follow the an interesting twist of the Ornite religion.
Centaur
The Centaur follow druidic traditions, worshiping elemental gods. The Emissary to the Elements is a high level druid, and also the ruler of the centaurs, their lands, and their subjects.
|
|
|
