Damn. Nobody got the joke.

BioKraze wrote:

Religion

...

I can't believe I failed to add this stuff in.
Okay, so I'm just going to do a rough copy of the religion file into here. Now, for the most part, each country has an established religion that is followed by a majority of the populace. When we get into the countries that made up the old Amseth Empire, it gets a little blurry, but there's still a kind of fine line drawn.

Ayereth follows the teachings of the Silver Church, a religion with close ties to the royal family - in fact, the King of Ayereth is one of the two heads of the church. The basic concept of the Silver Church is the presence of two deities - the Silver God, patron of magic, invention and learning, and the Golden Goddess, patron of the home, the physical world and of creation. The two deities work with each other to make the human world, the Golden Goddess providing material and shape, the Silver God providing the energy to inspire change, like the raw metal and fire in a blacksmith's forge. The two intermediaries of the God and Goddess are the High Priestess of the Silver Church (always female), and the King of Ayereth.

In Theria, there is no real name for the general beliefs of the people. It is a pagan religion for the most part, with little in the way of priestly orders or spiritual hierarchies. Therian Paganism, as it is sometimes referred to, focuses around a small pantheon of divinities that dwell in The Garden, a spiritual realm in which the World is embedded into a great ash tree. The major gods are;
Theria, goddess of plants, fertility, spring and birth
Alammas, god of storms, rain, lightning and autumn
Hanan, god of mountains, physical strength, wind and winter
Inara, goddess of the Sun, fire, summer and light
Onor, god of trickery, mischief and the moon, protector of children
Nimet, god of death, bargains and learning

In both Theria and Ayereth, there was until recently a large belief in the teachings of the Erethic Church, a dualistic religion that described the universe as a battle between the White King, the creator-god, and the evil Black One. The religion is now mostly out of practice in public, though adherents are still believed to exist. It is likely that the slow weakening of the Church's influence in both nations (at roughly the same time, leading to resurgences of 'old' religion) helped to damage Ayereth-Therian relations and was one of the major causes for the war between the two nations that ended thirteen years ago.

In Valkas, the entire nation is involved in a tribal religious culture which binds all the people of the nation, despite the lack of real central government or unity between clans. Valkan Mythology posits the world as existing in the centre of an octahedral lattice of six other worlds connected by great bridges, at the top the home of the gods, and below the realm of their foes, the Kursat, giants of flame.
Valkan mythology recognises the following major gods:
Körom, God of War and Poetry, Magic and Druddim Lore
Surm, God of Making, Rage and Weapons, creator of the Grimböl
Kalei, Goddess of Love, Revenge and Fertility, the most tempestuous, wife of Körom
Sollatu, Goddess of the Trees and Clouds, Reader of the Future and sister to Surm
Nahar, Goddess of Ice and Snow, the Hearth and Children
Kolkon, God of Midnight and Wisdom, once the husband of Nahar
Anahara, God of the Sun and Moon
Molon, Father of Nahar, slain by Grekking – now the Moon (was God of Oceans and Battle)
Grekking, leader of the Kursat, slain by Molon – now the Sun
The heads of the Valkan religious practice are the Druddim, powerful Arcana users who gather in the great valley of the Grimböl to train and learn the old tales of the Gods. They have a loyalty to both their personal clans and the greater 'nationclan' of Valkas.

Tel Amseth is home to the religion that once was the shared belief of the entirety of Ullad from east of Valkas to the Grens Forest, the territory of the old Amseth Empire. The Imperial Religion focuses on the worship of the Emperor as a God descended to earth from the great Ams, the heavenly immortal who is all Emperors and yet none of them specifically. There is a pantheon of Old Gods, referred to only obliquely in mythology and described as 'imprisoned far from reach of the world, unable to harm it further'. The Imperial Seat is associated with the lily, a symbol of divine might for the people of Tel Amseth.

In Serolt, the religion of the Starkeepers is near-universal, and is in fact the major cause of the split of the empire to begin with. Starkeepers believe that all humans are celestial entities, Stars fallen to earth, who must seek to return to the sky. Selmi, the founder of the Starkeeper order and the main instigator of the break from Amseth Imperial doctrine, is regarded as the first human to return to his celestial form. A soul that has not acheived its old celestial glory will, after death, seek to rise back up to the heavens but fall, being reborn as another human. The more advanced the soul, the longer between lifetimes.
The rituals of the Starkeepers are very focused on a sense of community and shared aid; as such, towns and villages in Serolt have very strong ties between houses.

Oltoc is for the most part a nation devoid of any dominant religious ideology. the Imperial and Starkeeper religions are often found to have support in smaller towns, and the Erethic Church has some power in the cities. However, there is a distinct lack of 'spiritual life' to the Oltans.

The slave colony of Oltan Tiera has its own religious mythology, based around a Goddess and her four divine husbands, the Stag, the Owl, the Bear and the Wolf. They and the children of the unions created the world, and dwell drifting within it watching over humanity. Not much else is known, as the Tieran people are secretive about their beliefs.

Calwind, the last of the four nations to be born from the old Amseth Empire, has seen a proliferation of the pagan tradition which existed in all rural areas of the Amseth Empire. This tradition, known as Green Paganism to many, centres around the Green God, an ancient, tree-like entity which created the world, and the eight spirits of the forest known as the Swords. Calwind pagan practices are generally based around the home, and have a great deal of reverence for the cycle of the seasons and the blessings of bountiful crops.

Finally, we have Kelm, where the religion of Koltru is dominant. Koltru teaches that the world was born from three successive generations of divinity: Kolkai, the lone god who broke open the sea of silence and made the universe, Koltet, the twins who forged earth and sky and humanity, and the triumvirate Koltol, makes of beasts, plants and metals. Also featured in Koltru mythology is Emekol, the Disaster (or Distorter), an arrogant human who became a God only to birth monsters into the world, and the Kolsim, four beings who represent the cardinal directions and worked together to create the Arcana.

And that about sums it up!

Last edited by Almaser (04-23-2008 07:02:16 AM)

Two last questions before we get the testicles rolling on this RP...

First off, is it safe to assume that Ullad, for all intent and purpose, is an isolated continent? By that, I mean that all other lands on the planet are insignificant or simply don't have any relevance?

And second...where do our characters start out in Ullad? Do we make our own decisions and let you know, or have you predetermined everything? Do we start in our homelands, or what?

Well, that depends. Where is your character from, Bio?

Well, she is supposed to be in Serolt, so let's see... maybe something on the boarder between Serolt and Tel Amseth? That would probably do... and as my character is at a phase where she is required to travel (I really did mean "Journeyman"!) it works for Morgan, so...

Last edited by Anthiena (06-01-2008 01:53:42 PM)

I'm sorry for not posting, you guys. I am in the middle of a divorce and my internet access is very limited right now, as is my concentration. Life is biting my ass and I apologize.

http://www.nativetech.org/shinob/ojibwelanguage.html

...just thought it might be helpful for my newest post and perhaps future ones. My family is actually Ojibwe, so...

Said quite plainly, there's no way I'm sitting down anytime soon and designing calendars for all of these countries. I only wish I had the free time to dedicate to something like that.
So, I'll just do one, and have that the generally-used calendar in the same way that the Imperial Year is used. So, the Imperial Calendar:

Length: 320 days
Months: 9
Length of a Week: 8 Days
All months are 39 days long except for Lily.

Rose: Early to mid spring
Peach: Mid to late spring
Lily: A week of religious festivals in Amseth - 8 days (one week)
Fig: Early to mid summer
Petunia: Mid to late summer
Oak: Early to mid autumn
Maple: Mid to late autumn
Dahlia: Early to mid winter
Birch: Mid to late winter

Sound good?