Dead Faiths
| Expanded Religions Lore | |
|---|---|
| Part of Religions lore. |
Dead Faiths fill the margins of Alorian history and thrived in many places. Many existed among the Ailor, one of the most populous people to ever fill the world, and in their vast spread, across hostile and strange geography, or idyllic, quiet spaces, religions and cults emerged to suit their needs or by the auspices of a power they quickly came to venerate. Many of these have died away in the face of Unionism, Fornoss, or simply the march of time. Other Dead Faiths come from even older or odder sources like the Extinct Races of Aloria or times so ancient for the Elves, that they can scarcely recall them with any accuracy. Many Dead Faiths can also be categorized as pagan since they date to before the rise of Unionism, but there are some differences. Unlike Pagan Faiths which still have their gods and a not-minor number of worshipers across the world, Dead Faiths are truly dead, their gods long vanished and their worship base whittled down to a mere fraction of what they once had at their height. Their worship is also often clouded and hard to understand, as a loss of context has resulted in later generations filling in the gaps left by silent ancestors. OOC NOTE: The Dead Faiths CAN be followed by RP characters, however players should know that said character will not gain any specific Point Buys or the like through adhering to their ideologies. The Gods of these faiths are either dead, or do not respond to the titles they possessed in these systems of belief, so interactions with them are next to impossible. Players are entirely within their right though to match their personal aesthetics, be they Magic or more, to those of a Dead Faith. This page is considered Expanded Lore, meaning it is not required reading for a roleplay experience on MassiveCraft but can be used to add additional depth and content to Roleplay.
Ailor Faiths
The Midnight
The Midnight is an extinct religion that nonetheless is a very well-recorded religion that originated with the Sarnt tribes, natives of Drixagh before the Proto-Velheim colonists exterminated these tribes and dominated the area. The Sarnt people were not too dissimilar from the Velheim in the modern era but were a series of tribes that long existed in the Drixagh region before the first waves of Proto-Velheim settlers arrived through the Vaarda Gates. The Sarnt waged a series of brutal wars with the Proto-Velheim whom they considered hostile invaders, and were essentially extinct through a combination of defensive wars and Velheim enslavement which reduced their population growth to a crawl, or outright integrated them into the Velheim population. The Sarnt are well studied because they were a semi-cave dwelling people who left behind a lot of archeological evidence of their existence, including wall murals of the Midnight.
The Midnight is both the name of the religion as well as the entity that they fear-worshiped: an incomprehensible cosmic being that represented the darkness, fear, and dangers of the night. The Midnight was believed to be a black inky and non-solid entity that gained power as the light faded from the world during nighttime, reaching the height of its power during midnight, at which point it would terrorize the people and seek to consume their souls. The Sarnt during the day lived in villages or towns hewn from rock, while at night, they would retreat into the caves at night to spend the night there behind a magically sealed door. Many of these magically sealed doors remain, many of them even unopened to this day because of the strength of Magic used by the Sarnt people. Why the Midnight hunted to consume souls, and whether it was even a real entity remains unclear, but many of the legends and folklore could be gleaned from the cave murals, as the Sarnt language was fairly easy to translate, and they were literate.
There has been some scholarly debate as of late whether the Midnight might actually have been Inthalis, a god of Evolism, because there are some visual similarities between the way the Sarnt depicted them on their murals, versus the way Inthalis's conduit appeared in Regalia in recent years. This also has raised the question of why Inthalis would show such particular interest in a pre-civilization Ailor tribe, in a time when the Allorn Empire presumably commanded far more knowledge than such a brutish people could. It can also be begged to wonder what the Sarnt know that made them such a target.
Etna's Fire
Etna's Fire was a monotheistic Ailor Pagan religion that started in the modern-day area of Montania & Vultaro, more specifically Terre di Fuoco, when the Vularos people lived there. The Vularos people were a pre-civilization decentralized collection of tribes who despite their lack of organized state structure, were capable of erecting impressive pumice hill forts and townships which frequently fought over the scarce resource of the rugged mountainous landscape in Montania & Vultaro. The Vularos people were either enslaved, expelled, or incorporated into the incoming Ithanian and Daendroque settlers who claimed the land as an expansion for the rapidly growing Regalian Empire. Etna's Fire is no longer worshiped, as the Vularos are essentially extinct, but Etna's symbolism is still important for Vultaro & Montania, and by extension the Dressolini people, because they still live at the feet of these imposing volcanoes.
Etna's Fire in particular described the fear-worship of Etna, the largest massive volcano in Terr di Fuoco, the king of all volcanoes. The Vularos believed that each volcano was a finger from the hand of Etna, a god-like being that lived underground and tried to reach the surface from which it had been expelled. Etna is traditionally depicted as a non-gendered individual with volcanic rock for skin, marred by cracks of lava, and three arms of the past, present, and future. Etna worship involved bringing sacrifices of animals and fruit to slumbering volcanoes, and sometimes even the sacrifice of maidens to the flame if a volcano erupted in the hopes it would soothe Etna's burning rage with a distraction of a kind. The Vularos knew that other regions in the Archipelago had no volcanoes, but chose not to move anyway, believing the folklore that their people were descended from the Vult – powerful wizards who had expelled Etna underground, and thus were responsible for ensuring Etna's docile passivity in all perpetuity.
Unionism and waves of Ithanian and Daen immigrants effectively eradicated Etna's Fire as a religion. The volcano that still bears Etna's name bears some artistic importance, but very little is left of the Vularos people as earthquakes and eruptions destroyed most of the centuries-old ruins in the remote areas of the Montania region.
Sarna
Sarna is the name of both the religion and the god of the Sarnan people, not to be confused with the Sarnt who were nonetheless hundreds of miles apart from one another, but vaguely related due to both being tribal groups who lived in the Regalian Archipelago. The Sarnan were an all-ginger-haired tribe of Ailor who lived in modern day Osteiermark and Tirgunn regions. The Sarnan people largely avoided the spotlight of the Regalian Empire, because the Regalian Empire at the time was focusing their efforts on the much larger Wirtem people living north of the Sarnan, and colonizing the mineral rich soil of the Vularos people. Eventually, Ithanian and Wirtem expansion encroached on the Sarnan people, who were segregated into slum villages, and eventually disappeared in the Leutz-Vixe gene-pool, thus explaining why many Leutz-Vixe are ginger. Sarna as a religion is effectively extinct, but some of it is still contextually relevant to the cursed blade Coraveau, and the various Raven-lord Cults that existed in Tirgunn and Osteiermark.
Sarna, otherwise also called the Tree Father or the Pinewald Father, was a benevolent tree-god who supposedly lived somewhere in the Tirgunn forests, a massive tree with the face of an old man that protected the Sarnan people from the beasts that lived in these forests. Many of these beasts are no longer around nowadays, as the Leutz-Vixe hunted them all to extinction with modern Regalian armor and weapons, though they posed a considerable threat to the Sarnan people who lived in mud brick and thatch housing and had not yet discovered metal working. The Sarnan suffered severely from Vampiric raids, which eventually meant that Sarna as a religion became very focused around fighting the ruinous powers of the Void, and the corruption of Void-Occult entities. In many ways, Sarna is a purist religion against the Occult, with many of the Sarnan wielding their albeit crude tools and weapons, to become very efficient Occult-hunters. The very act of slaying a Vampire and blood-letting their corrupted blood into a cleansing fire, was considered a very pious act.
Sarna as a religion was still somewhat held onto by the various Sarnan who merged into the Leutz-Vixe population, meaning there are still some shrines that were erected relatively recently in the last 100 years found across the provinces where they once lived, but no active shrine has been seen in the last 50 years at least, meaning the Regalian Scholar Society has concluded that the religion is most likely extinct. Despite this, rumors persist of Sarna worship at the fringes of deep forest villages.
The Gilded Order
The Gilded Order was a monotheistic Ailor Pagan religion that started on the Regalian Isle, and was predominantly worshiped by the citizens of the Regalian Kingdom, insofar they were not Fornoss or Draconists. The Gilded Order is still a very small minority Religion that survived centuries of Unionist conversion, so it may still be possible to encounter some Gilded Order faithful, but only on the Regalian Isle because the religion is dead everywhere else. The Gilded Order, unlike most other Dead Faiths, is not strictly tied to any particular Ailor tribe, rather it is a religion that came about from the general sense of superiority and divine exceptionalism of the inhabitants of the Regalian Isle, because they considered themselves divinely ordained to be the center of the world (at least seen from the Archipelago).
The Gilded Order has a single female Goddess called Shianna or Shianna's Grace. This religion has no strict virtues, priesthood, or vices, rather it is a general fertility and pleasure cult that ascribes divine fate and purpose to those living on the Regalian Isle, and proposes the exceptionalism of those born there, versus the "Outlanders" (people who were born off the Regalian Isle). The Gilded Order is not strictly bigoted against outsiders, but insist that only those born in the light of Shianna's Grace on the Regalian Isle can receive her blessings and benediction. She is a Goddess of motherhood, the divine and carnal pleasures of life, the fruits of good harvests, and the plentiful splendor and sparkle of the natural resources in the ground.
The Gilded Order was made illegal in the Empire sometime after the first century because the religion started behaving more like a syncretic pleasure cult among the Crypto-Unionists (Pagans who pretended to convert to Unionism but secretly worshiped their old religion at home). Shianna's masks became symbolic for the religion, showing a woman's face crying tears of gold, with a golden halo surrounding the mask so as to appear like a radiant sun. This religion hid underground, hosting a variety of opulent and decadent parties as if the Empire had never replaced the Regalian Kingdom, where the Gilded Order was a state religion. To this day, it is suspected less than 50,000 faithful remain on the Regalian Isle out of a population of 4 million, though it skews more favorably to the wealthy, who see dabbling into the Gilded Order as more of a hobby than a genuine spiritual interest.
Fothaznar
Fothaznar, sometimes called The Hunt of Fothaz, was the monotheistic Pagan Faith of the Ailor found in what is now the Rim Isles of Corontium. Called the Zaubez, where or when this group exactly emerged is unclear, but they date prior to the Cataclysm and persisted for many years after it. Tribal, but sophisticated in fishing and naval voyages for a relatively isolated people, they served as a trade hub in and out of Corontium during the early decades of the Regalian Empire.
Their faith, Fothaznar, followed the worship of Fothaz, a strange avian deity missing its head. Their dogma claimed that Fothaz came from across the sea and drank from the strange pools the Rim Isles are known for today. From this, he gained great knowledge, but this threatened to destroy the world should he make use of it. Thus, a brave boy cut off Fothaz’s head, and hid it away, to the deity’s amusement. It supposedly then wandered searching for its head, though never finding it, while the head taught the boy the secrets of Magic and prophecy. Fothaz was often depicted in a humanoid form of a local wading bird, though completed statues of him often had their heads knocked off, and then kept somewhere nearby. Fothaznar beliefs, aside from keeping Fothaz’s head away from him, believed the magical pools were only to be used by the scryers who served as the faith’s priesthood. Most scryers were Mages themselves, but their powers were often limited and fairly crude by any modern standard. Only they could drink the strange water or retrieve fish and plantlife from the pools, and anyone else caught doing so was subsequently sacrificed, their beheaded body thrown into the water, while the head was kept in a ritual site. The throwing of bird-bones in these places was said to help tell fate, and more broadly, the head was envisioned as a point of connection to the metaphysical, and the magical, while the body attached one to the earth, and restricted them in life.
The society’s cultural traditions and their faith ultimately went extinct in the face of Regalian expansion, though not through military conquest. Instead, trade brought Unionism to the region, and more and more young locals left the area, while those who came were often Daendroque, and helped convert the remaining populace to that culture. Regalia peacefully annexed the region in 178 AC, and the Isles were largely given over to Allar settlers following 305 AC. Little remains of the Zaubez today, but some statues and artifacts were recovered decades ago and now populate museums.
Hethsath’s Tithe
Hethsath’s Tithe was the monotheistic faith of the Hacar Ailor, a group who lived near the lands of the Kingdom of Regalia, and had links with other nations. They ruled the Hecarian Kingdom, a proto-empire in some ways, which sought to embrace a multicultural existence by drawing in surrounding people. Hethsath’s Tithe, however, was their own faith, and it ultimately helped in their downfall.
Hethsath’s Tithe was a faith uniquely tailored to suit the aspirations of the Hacar people and was focused on the worship of a warrior god known as Hethsath. It is said he grasped the sand of the Shoenn River Delta and saw a kingdom rising up to control its entire length, so he subjugated the First People, the Hacar, to his service to make that vision a reality. The Tithe as a faith grew out of this understanding of the world and demanded military conquest as a payment toward Hethsath’s ultimate vision. Formally, the Tithe called on its followers to be frugal and ascetic, to strip away their finery, and to focus on the art of raw, core combat and strength. Thus they could fulfill the Tithe, by taking other peoples and adding them to the society Hethsath sought to build. It also called for ritual combat on the beaches of the Shoenn River Delta’s many tributaries, so the blood spilled would all flow away, and the lands of the Hacar left clean of internal strife. The Tithe was also peculiar for its one prohibition: no blades of any kind were to be used to reap the Tithe (save for in the use of construction, and the working of crafts). This resulted in the faithful teaching a form of physical combat among their number that meant the Hacar rarely killed each other in their ritual duels, and that surrounding people were initially left bemused by these swordless, war axless, and even dagger-less people marching against them. However, Hethsath did not restrict archery or shields, and foes found themselves facing men and women able to go hours without moving in the trees only to release dozens of arrows when their targets finally arrived, or walls of shields moving forward as arrows rained from behind their protection.
However, the emergence of the Regalian Empire at last challenged the Hacar like never before. Trained for years in methods that could not withstand thousands of levied troops, the Hacar descended into chaos as younger faith members broke away, and rejected the Tithe’s restrictions on no-bladed weapons. The Tithe died in the face of Unionism, and the Hacar themselves were conquered by Regalia and became absorbed into many cultures, losing their identity. Both this culture and their faith are a faded memory.
Voltessis
Voltessis was the monotheistic faith of the Voltman, an Ailor group who lived peacefully in and around the eastern Shoenn River Delta with the Kingdom of Regalia and Ciird Tribelands to their north, the Wirtemcaller Kingdom to their east, and the Hacar to their west. This group were primarily foresters and foragers, but unlike the Sarnan far to their southeast, the forests of the Voltessis were free of dangerous and strange threats. This allowed the group to exist at a more comfortable level of society and development, but they remained divided into various tribal groups who met for a Moot every year. Their faith, however, was extremely strange.
The Voltman worshiped a goddess called Voltess, said to be a living embodiment of holy energy. She could bring fire and death, as much as she could bring life and rejuvenation. She is broadly categorized as a weather deity, as her association was often with thunder and lightning, and she was said to dwell in the sky. The Voltman were strange in that they sought to capture and maintain her power in the physical world, and so they built strange devices made of metals to both attract lightning bolts and briefly store the energy that was created. Whole communities would go to these places after a storm, and proceed to voluntarily shock themselves using these altars of collection. They believed that experiencing such energy in this way was a form of purification. Individuals struck by lightning were also said to be purified, but this was relatively rare in Voltmann territory due to the aforementioned collection devices. They did not see Magic as connected to Voltess, and in fact, seemed completely moot on its role in society. However, Voltman sorcerers were all lightning-based casters and were able to effectively fend off raiding bands sent against them.
The Voltman were ultimately expanded by an influx of external Ailor settlers sometime prior to the Cataclysm (which also increased the numbers of the nearby Ciird tribes), but this also sparked the end of their faith. Bringing in so many outsiders with their own beliefs gradually saw Voltessis worship diminish, and the expansion of the Regalian Empire after the Cataclysm ultimately brought an end to the faith altogether. The Voltman were also absorbed into other populations and lost any connection to this strange system of belief. However, the faith’s legacy lives on in many scholarly terms involving energy, and while ancient Voltman collection devices have been removed, their principles were used to help develop methods for Regalian ships to avoid lightning strikes at sea and other innovations, such as Teslatech.
The Ebullience
The Ebullience was a Pagan monotheistic faith that originated among the Iltar Ailor, who lived in what is now Basta. Well known as traders and for their stone carvings, their civilized society had deep roots in the region, and sought friendly terms with all. Their society was highly egalitarian, with their merchant wealth split evenly between the sexes, and little violent crime or poverty plagued the streets of their well-planned cities.
The Ebullience was a faith centered around a male god of the same name, also called Calan. Depicted with ginger hair (a rare trait in the area), decked in rich fabrics, and constantly cradling a coin or an object of trade, he called for all to seek betterment through mercantile efforts and the acquisition of wealth. He was also a god of the arts and carnal pleasures, somewhat similar to the nearby faith known as The Gilded Order, but his faith did have vices. Hoarding wealth and not using it was seen as a negative, as was death in the name of business, or breaking deals for any reason. For this reason, financial contracts were sealed in blood, using a type of wax containing a portion of a family’s blood within it. Additionally, marriage was life-binding, and it was expected that no one would rush into a relationship unless they were certain of their feelings. Of course, The Ebullience provided an out even here, in that wealth allowed the purchase of private partners, and there was no shame in profiting from the foolhardy choices of men or women who did not take their time in considering their lives with another. Ultimately, beneath the surface, The Ebullience created an undercurrent to society with affairs, and physical violence in the form of protection rackets or enforcers to maintain contracts that favored one party. Despite this, on the surface, it was as gleaming and upstanding as could be. Calan had a priesthood called the Sash-bearers: men and women with a sash around their waists and a bandana around their heads who served more as local alderpeople and civic leaders in support of the royal government than religious figures.
The Ebullience survived for many years but ultimately met its match at the hands of Iltar trading. Not desiring offense against any faith, Itlar merchant families often saw second sons, the betrothal of daughters, and more to those of external faiths, all to further their prospects in a particular industry. This created a microcosm of minority faiths across the kingdom, and the rise of the Regalian Empire exploited the seeds of Unionism to help a coup take over the government, which then surrendered to the fledgling superpower. The faith quickly died under Unionist pressure, and the locals rapidly converted to Ithanian culture, with the remnants of the Iltar and their faith now confined to museums, and the layout of the oldest cities in Basta.
Other Faiths
Moon-Well’s Light
The Moon-Well’s Light, also known as the Faith of the Moon and Faith of the Moon-Well Goddess, was an ancient monotheistic system of belief among the Elves, specifically the Teledden. It dates back to their earliest years, with evidence for its worship found in the ancient caverns of Altaleï which once sheltered their people.
The Moon-Well’s Light was led by the Moon-Well Goddess, a feminine being considered a personification of the moon itself. Always depicted as a great, white entity, with robes like wings, and hair long and floating, she was also depicted to tend to a vast pool of moonlight on the surface of the world. It is believed the Elves saw this pool as a place of creation, and from moonlight, everything sprang, since in the stars, everything could exist, from great light to great darkness. It is unclear if there ever was such a pool tended to by an ancient goddess, but some sites have been suggested in the modern day. Faith in the Goddess seemingly involved a lot of ritual bathing and purification, as well as veneration of the female form, with her priesthood all being female, and icons of families always featuring the females as taller and more defined than the males. It also appears that the faith had strong ties with respecting nature and a ritual of offerings regarding the hunt of animals or the catching of fish. Charred bones, carved bowls, and more show that they at least revered what the Goddess gave them in their lives. However, there are indications of a more savage side to the Moon-Well Goddess. For starters, piercings and body modification seem to have been significant among her priesthood as well as chosen warriors, who then fought each other, ostensibly to prove their “enhancements” were in the name of strength. The loser was then likely sacrificed, or perhaps even ritually drowned. There also seems to have been, bizarrely, a strong anti-Magic bend to the followers of Moon-Well’s Light. Certain ancient words painted and carved on the cavern walls suggest a shunning of those who embraced their magical gifts, but why or how a faith that rejected Magic could come from the Teledden, a people so naturally gifted in it, is a mystery.
The exact fate of the faith of the Moon-Well’s Light is unclear. Found in the crude ancient city-states of south and eastern Altaleï established by the Teledden, it may have at once been the most widespread of the different monotheisms and pantheons the Elves had at this time, bucking the trend of a single god to a certain region or city. A common scholarly belief among non-Elves, however, has been that Talea emerged from this religious context, and she evolved the worship of the Moon-Well Goddess into Estelley to serve her political aspirations. The Goddess fits very well with the conception of Estel, a creation goddess removed from the world, and it allowed for the easy absorption of other Gods as her creations, at least in the earliest days. Others believe that Talea was raised in the faith but then broke away, a heretic, and took to conquest to fulfill her desires. The Estelley faithful hardly care for these speculations, often by Ailor, and the Teledden of today barely recall this ancient faith or its deity. While elements of the faith might still exist, often found in the depths of some of the oldest Estelley temples or hinted at in ancient scrolls, alongside some archeology evidence, nothing is obvious or clearly connected.
The Duty
The Duty, also known as the Drovv’s Duty, was a pantheonic faith worshiped by the Drovv, a long-necked, many-armed people found in the northern reaches of Aloria. The Drovv themselves were considerably advanced, capable of building great fortresses and sustaining technology and knowledge on esoteric affairs that other groups in the early ages of Aloria barely knew of.
The Duty had four core Precepts, which helped to guide Drovv life and helped them resist temptations into evil, with each embodied by a different deity. Curiously, their main gods were not representations of their own people, but instead four animalistic entities. Many believe this remnant is from some form of animal worship by ancient Drovv society which simply never faded, as for all of their technology and construction skills, they did not support huge urban centers, nor intense resource gathering. It is also important to note that the Drovv, and their faith, were against the use of Magic. They had Mages, but such rare people were often ritually restrained or were considered to be in penance for breaking the rules of their society, but for a greater mission overall. The four main gods were as follows:
- Ronnovv, the Blue Beast: The god of intellect, wisdom, justice and simultaneously Magic and anti-Magic, Ronnovv appeared as a large blue creature with multiple wings and a serene face crowned with a winged headdress. His Precept was the value of incremental learning, and to never sacrifice the now to benefit some uncertain future.
- Unaalavv, the Horned Beast: The god of hunting, resources, the natural world, and the world outside Drovv territory, they were depicted as a genderless cervid-like being with a dense network of splits to the two antlers emerging from the top of their head. Their Precept was temperance in interactions with things not of the Drovv themselves, be it animals, plants, and even extending to other peoples that populated Aloria, as there would always be a reaction in turn from such forces.
- Muronntavv, the Spider Beast: The god of warriors, combat, conflict, fear, and danger, Muronntavv was depicted as a female spider-like being, either half arachnid and a Drovv torso and head, or with multiple eyes and a more traditional humanoid form. Her Precept was to train one’s body, even when not a warrior, and learn to conquer your fears, to better serve all and defend the world from evils.
- Xarkavv, the Stone Beast: The god of crafts, construction, architecture, family and the home, Xarkavv was the largest of the gods and appeared as some sort of huge mole-like creature, with a star nose and unseeing eyes. His Precept implored Drovv society to remain chaste in all things and to build their homes and families on bonds greater than only love.
- Melca, the Beloved: A pseudo-fifth god in The Duty, Melca originally appears to have been a form of ancester worship by the Drovv. Tales claimed she was the first Drovv to learn from all four gods, and from her came The Duty itself as well as the first great leaders of Drovv society. She seems to have gradually turned from mere folk hero into a god in her own right, though when she was united to Estelley is unclear. Her role changed as a result, but she broadly stood for tradition, respect for ones elders, and understanding of others as well as the ways of the world.
The Duty, teaching temperance, diligence, unity, and a warrior way, survived for millennia among the Drovv across the full span of the Allorn Empire, and they remained one of the more respected people the Elves encountered, to the point that a number of Elves and even free Ailor from what is now Ithania joined the Cult of Drovv, an Elven adherence to the Drovv ways. Melca, at some point, became incorporated into Estelley, and became the figure that these followers of the Drovv worshiped. Some have noted that Melca's role curiously reflects Talea's in some ways, but unlike Talea, Melca is a true goddess, who became part of the Estelley pantheon. However, the Drovv’s annihilation at the hands of the Fifth Void Invasion also killed off The Duty. Today, Melca rarely speaks of the past, as she has instead become a goddess focused around insight, and the future. The Duty now only exists in writings of the Sihndar and certain ruins or elements of the ancient fortresses the Sihndar now call home.
Cintlia’s Gale
Cintlia’s Gale, sometimes called the Corn Cult, Ochil Winds or Winds of the Ochil, was a monotheistic faith followed by the Ochil, a people who came from an isolated region of what is now Westwynd. Slender in form but brightly colored, these humanoids had a limited degree of advancement and were at a tribal stage when they were initially found by the Allorn Empire thousands of years ago.
Cintlia’s Gale was a faith led by a voluptuous female goddess called Cintlia, said to govern the world through her winds. Appearing similar to the Ochil themselves, only physically larger, both in height and physical mass, she blew into a large, more ornate version of a unique wooden instrument created by the Ochil known as a Huehoy, which created the breezes that surrounded and frequently buffeted the Ochil’s isolated peninsula. When the winds came, all should be happy and merry, their lives serenaded by her divine breath and living song, but when it stopped, it simply meant it was time to return to work and prepare for when she would next bless them. Celebrations undertaken by the Ochil during these times were raucous, with music played on their own Huehoys, dancing, and feasting. Exactly where Cintlia was located is somewhat vague, but it seems the Ochil pictured her as living on an island out beyond “the disc of the sea” which was also interpreted to be the place of the Ochil’s afterlife. Cintlia’s wind also brought her gifts of fertility to the Ochil’s world, as for such an unadvanced people, they understood plant life with considerable skill. They greatly venerated a major crop, Maize, sometimes also known as corn by modern peoples. Maize was said to have been a direct gift from Cintlia, its first grains blown across the sea from her realm, and taking root in the earth. Every product possible was formed from its entirety, even many parts of Ochil clothing. The faith did not reject Magic, though it was limited to the priestly caste of their society, but it did intensely reject technology. Many believe this may be why the Ochil had such a simple existence, as little to no metal refining happened in their lands, and they rejected more complex creations in everything except the arts, from bead making to music and instruments to cooking.
Cintlia’s Gale survived for centuries among the Ochil, but after contact with the Allorn Empire, the faith’s vision of the world was immediately shattered. Their system of belief implied Cintlia’s blessing of fertility and life was only to the Ochil, but the arrival of the Elves broke this belief, and the religious priesthood was not quick enough to adapt, also entranced by the advanced knowledge in Magic the Allorn displayed. Several hundred Ochil left the area, beginning a depopulation made permanent by the complete enslavement of the group several centuries later. The Ochil ultimately forgot their faith, and when they went extinct in the Cataclysm, any lasting elements were forever forgotten. The faith now only survives in scholarship and private collections.
Kellsa-Raavan
Kellsa-Raavan was the polytheistic faith worshiped by the avian Raav of Sileria. They were advanced, building mountainous cities known as Skynests, and were capable of learning Magic. Their society was highly egalitarian but also considerably fractured, each Skynest having its own protectors and traditions of dress and culture. However, their faith was a unifying element and called on three primary deities.
Kellsa-Raavan’s three deities were all avian creatures much like the Raav were, and curiously had traits matching those of species found outside of Sileria. How or when the Raav might have learned of these species is unknown, but what is certain is that they held these three in high regard. Beneath the three, however, were the Many, a term to describe the dozens of Rokha: giant mountain birds who dwelt with the Raav, and who established some sort of relationship with the corvid avians. While claims of Rokha intelligence are hard to confirm today, as few Ailor have encountered one alive, the Raav firmly believed they had great knowledge, and were each the guardians of their chosen Skynest, suggesting that the city-state-like structures were built in and around Rokha nests rather than the other way around. Kellsa-Raavan’s specific traits as a faith are unclear but seem to have revolved around concepts of power and theft, in a very “might makes right” world. Magic was embraced by the faith as a gift from their three gods, while Kellsa-Raavan offerings were often carved wooden sticks, marked with the prayers of the person seeking guidance from the gods. The Raav also revered the dead to some degree, but not to an extent that created any known link to the Ordial realm. Rather than bury their dead, or drop them down the mountains, they first charred the bodies, before wrapping and storing them in spires located at the gates of their cities. They believed that when the end of the world came, the ancestors would cry a warning. The three deities of Kellsa-Raavan were:
- Thraav-Mes: Also called the Thunderer, the Living Storm, and the Tumult, he was a large Rokha-humanoid with emerald eyes and Iron wings. Stormclouds billowed under his wings, and he oversaw rulers, warriors, and the priesthood. He was also missing an eye, with a now-lost myth describing how he lost it.
- Thraav-Gak: She Who Snows, the Living Ice, and the Glaciation, Traav-Gak was a beautiful Thunderbird-like humanoid avian with ice-blue eyes and Silver wings. Ice storms, blizzards, and freezing breezes billowed beneath her wings, and she oversaw the poor, the hungry, the weak, who could use the cold as a weapon in their trickery. She wielded a special spear made of ice, with stories claiming she successfully stole this from another goddess.
- Thraav-Wav: Known as the Crackler, the Fire Giver, and the Flaming Beast, he was the smallest of the gods and was a Fire-Tailed Paradise Bird-humanoid with yellow eyes and golden wings. A great fire burned beneath his tail, rather than under his wings. He was the god of the makers, the resource gatherers, and the laborers. The Raav claim he took fires from the north and used them to warm the Skynests in a time of great need.
The Raav lived for several millennia at the fringes of the Allorn Empire, occasionally raided for slave stock, but ultimately escaped the grasp of the Elves. However, after the Cataclysm, the Kathar came to Sileria and began a brutal war against the sentient species found there. The Raav were the first to fall, in a savage conflict that took around ten years, the Kathar rendering them extinct rather than keeping them as slaves. Their Skynests broken, bodies plucked of feathers for Kathar war trophies, the faith of Kellsa-Raavan died with their founders.
Trivia
- Many Extinct Races likely had cults, faiths and more forever lost to the world thanks to the actions of, primarily, the Allorn Empire.
- Dead Faiths are a small area of study in Regalian scholarship, or indeed any scholarly tradition, as the long span of existence in Aloria, coupled with the devastation of the Cataclysm, often leaves little to be understood or found.
- Some claim that the gods of dead faiths are claimed by the Ordial plane, dead gods for a dead world, but others believe a god can never truly die, instead simply fading away into a weakened, observer state, unable to offer anything but perspective should they somehow get called upon.
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