Syncretism

Syncretism is not a Religion in and of itself, but more a process by which multiple Religions can be combined, or aspects of Religions can be absorbed into other Religions. Most of Aloria's Religions are polytheistic, and Gods are generally also fairly flexible in terms of their pantheon membership. One God's divine lessons can be applied to believers from another Religion, for example. In technical canon interpretations, Syncretism is heresy. However, Religious Roleplay already happens rarely on the server, and we do not want to limit the reach of this type of Roleplay by putting hard limitations on interactivity. Syncretism is meant to be optional, we only recommend experienced players experiment with Syncretism because it comes with its own problems.

Syncretism Rules

Syncretism as a concept follows several rules. These rules are hard set in stone, and going beyond the limitations set out means your Character is a Heretic to all faiths involved. If a Religion is not mentioned here, assume that it cannot be Syncretized.

• Your Character must always have a dominant Religion and a sub-dominant Religion. The dominant Religion (main Religion) will define your Character's Religious Mechanics, Afterlife, etc.
• Your Character may choose 1 or 2 Gods of the sub-dominant Religion (secondary Religion) only to worship. It is not possible to worship a whole pantheon for the sub-dominant Religion.
• Your Character does not receive the Religious Mechanic from the sub-dominant Religion, nor access to the Afterlife. Its Gods however do treat your Character as a worshiper, for example in summoning.
• Ailor gain a special Mechanic that changes the rules of Syncretism, refer to their Heritage Traits for more information. Minor Faiths can also be Syncretized, but The Mortis Cult can never be Syncretized.
• Syncretized Characters cannot be priests or any other form of Religious figure for their sub-dominant Religion, it is purely to gain access to their social community and religious services.
• Player Characters both as worshipers of your dominant and sub-dominant Religion, may reject your Character as a heretic, particularly if your Character chose a problematic Syncretism.

At the end of the day, Syncretism is meant to give your Character validation in their belief and access to other Religious communities, but still allow other Players to reject the combination you have chosen, if they think it is not something their Character would support. At a baseline, the Gods will always support your Character's choices, but you can never force other Players to include your Character if they do not want to. While for example, it is possible to play a Baskarr worshiper who Syncretizes with Estelley Gods, those Gods were involved in historical crimes against the Asha. We leave room for the Players to examine these combinations and reserve the right to their own to reject your Character if the combination you have chosen is deemed unacceptable to their OC, but the Gods won't ever reject these combinations, because they benefit from the power of worship, and the more worshipers they have on an individual basis the more powerful they are.

• Unionism can be Syncretized (and works well with Draconism or Estelley).
• Draconism can be Syncretized (and works well with Unionism or Fornoss).
• Estelley can be Syncretized (and works well with Unionism).
• Fornoss can be Syncretized (and works well with Draconism or Evolism).
• Evolism can be Syncretized (and works well with Fornoss or Baskarr).
• Baskarr can be Syncretized (and works well with Evolism).
• Nilthism can be Syncretized (and works well with any Religion).
• Minor Faiths can be Syncretized, except Mortis Cults (and works well with any Religion).

Syncretic Beliefs

When Syncretizing, a believer does not copy the whole Religion including its vices and virtues and tenets from the sub-dominant Religion to the dominant Religion. Rather, when a faith is chosen in Syncretism, they adopt a singular religious concept called the Syncretic Belief. This Syncretic Belief is like an add-on core concept for the dominant Religion, and the Gods that were chosen from that faith reinforce it. For example, if Fornoss is chosen for a dominant Unionist, then they would gain the Fornoss Ancestral Nature core belief, and choose one or two Gods to add to their personal Unionist Pantheon. The exact Syncretic Beliefs are listed below, and they remain consistent no matter what dominant Religion they are added to (even if the concept may clash with the dogma of specific Gods). Please choose your Character's Syncretism carefully. While you can swap once or so, frequent swapping Syncretism will be seen as lore in compliance.

• Unionism: The Unionist Syncretic Belief is called Manifest Unity in which the believers profess that the Regalian Empire is the world's best shot at world peace and a stable world order that is not outright perfect, but closer to the concept of paradise than any other, and that they should work towards increasing the geo-political power of the Regalian Empire, or help lands as of yet not ruled by the Regalian Emperor to join the fold. The central belief is that the Regalian Empire brings enlightened ideas of commerce, social welfare, freedom of religion thought security and protection, and general welfare, and that the further it reaches, the safer the people within it are.
• Draconism: The Draconism Syncretic Belief is called Immortal Stewardship in which the believers profess that creation has an obligation to the Dragons (creators) to assist in the preservation of the world in its Dragon-intended state as a realm of life. That can include but does not require joining up with the Archon when they combat the forces that would cause mass death and use Dark Magic on Aloria, or generally getting involved in the work that the Dragon Cults engage in to ensure the survival of Dragon Sites, world functioning, and the general work of creationism. Draconism's Syncretic Belief in essence conscripts outsiders to join in the defense of the world and the living as world protectors.
• Estelley: The Estelley Syncretic Belief is called Perfect Ascent in which the believers profess that one must strive for a better world, through the perfection of self rather than grief at the others. Perfect Ascent embodies the idea that the rest of the world cannot be blamed for its shortcomings in war, famine, suffering, and disease. Rather, to meaningfully change the world, believers of this Syncretic Belief require that the faithful cultivate inner perfection first, and then outward perfection as they apply their inwardly cultivated skills and aptitude, but also hold their immediate surroundings responsible for their lack of self cultivation and exploration if they do nothing to better themselves.
• Fornoss: The Fornoss Syncretic Belief is called Ancestral Grounds in which the believers profess a heightened respect for ancestry, their forebearers, ancestor spirits, and the power of elements in the environment. Syncretic believers show greater respect for the pristineness of nature and profess a connection with the gods in the elements of fire, air, water and earth. But most importantly of all, it adds the concept of high-held honor and the different ways honor expresses itself in Fornoss. With the Fornoss Syncretic Belief, Syncretic believers gain access to Soldi and Svaldi, and are judged by the Fornoss Gods for how much honor they have, even if it can never used to enter the Fornoss afterlife.
• Evolism: The Evolism Syncretic Belief is called Evolution Progress in which the believers profess the necessity for evolution and self-improvement in a biological, mental, and spiritual way. Under Evolution Progress, the faithful must seek out ways to advance themselves or their people or be left in the dust by the march of time. Fornoss Syncretic Beliefs work slightly differently. While normally sub-dominant Religions do not give Mechanics, Fornoss does grant Mechanics, but only the Mechanics associated with the 1 or 2 Gods that are chosen from the Evolist Pantheon to be added to the dominant Religion. This only applies to Evolism as sub-dominant Religion.
• Baskarr: The Baskarr Syncretic Belief is called Sacred Place in which the believers profess the necessity for every culture, people, belief, religion, society, country and historical grievance to be respected, and have its place to flourish in the world in harmony with other elements. Simply put, the Baskarr Syncretic Belief stands for the idea that no single thing can replace or remove from the world any other thing, and that the people in the world must seek a way to make the world work where everyone has a place for themselves and their ideas and beliefs to exist without harming others. This Syncretic Belief is a form of cultural preservation, and seeking karmic balance in the world.
• Nilthism: The Nilthism Syncretic Belief is called Binding Duty in which the believers profess the need for mortals to ward against the insanity of the Primeval Beings, in this case particularly the Blind God. Because Nilthism only has a single God, The Blind God is automatically selected when Syncretized. With this Syncretic Belief, Nilthism almost becomes a secular duty, an additional layer to spirituality where the dominant Religion is for self/world improvement, while the Nilthist part is a form of duty and self sacrifice to make the good possible. Syncretized Nilthists are generally a lot less desperate than pure Nilthists, due to their reliance on other Gods to do good for them.
• Minor Faiths: Minor Faiths do not add Syncretic Beliefs, because their dogmas are very simple. Just refer to the actual writing of their Dogma on the Minor Faiths Page, to understand what their Syncretic Belief would be.

Further Notes

If you have any questions about Syncretism, we strongly suggest you make Staff Ticket on the Discord to discuss. Religion lore is some of the most complicated and nuanced lore on the server, which is frequently misread or misunderstood due to the implications that are not always clearly written out. In order to avoid making some simple mistakes, we will write down some general thoughts for you here, of things for example to avoid, and some things that may work well. All of the writing below is purely optional guidelines. If you really want to do something that the writing below indicates is difficult, you should still do it, just be aware of any problems beforehand. Baskarr is for now not yet included, because their Religion Page has not yet been updated to the modern standard, which makes inclusion in this section difficult.

• In the context of Unionism:
  • Draconism Regulus and Gaia work well, the former is a Regalian Prince, and Gaia used to be a Regallian Knight.
  • Estelley Cemaan and Talea may cause problems because they center an ongoing cold war between Regalia and the Allorn Empire.
  • Fornoss Any of the Vola is not impossible, but difficult, because Regalia sees many of these entities (wrongly) as its enemies.
  • Evolism anything is not impossible, but difficult, because Regalia bans many of the practices encouraged by these Gods.
• In the context of Draconism:
  • Unionist Theomar, Ness, Eora, Juvin, Brand, Allest, Elia, Leona work well, because all were prior Dragonsoul carriers.
  • Unionist, Keep in mind that Brand, Morgan, and Nicholas were Regulus Dragonsouls, so worshiping them is doubling up on Regulus.
  • Unionist, This section will be added onto when Unionist Schisms have been re-added to the Unionism Page scheduled for a Lore Expansion soon.
  • Estelley Melca and Sinnavei work well, because both have a history of working with Dragons already in the past.
  • Fornoss Vola are difficult because many of these Gods have just come out of a 70,000 year war with the Dragons.
  • Fornoss, the above problem is also extended to Eirny and Bard, who are both Arken or Arken related one way or another.
  • Evolism anything is difficult, because the Dragons have fought the Dark Gods tooth and nail for thousands of years.
• In the context of Estelley
  • Unionist Sinnavei and Vyrë exist in Estelley already, and as such should not be chosen twice as Syncretic Gods.
  • Unionist Belialus is still an avatar of Void Demonhood, this is complicated for a mostly Exist oriented Religion.
  • Draconism Triton is a Void Dragon God, which is complicated for a mostly Exist oriented Religion.
  • Draconism Aurora and Gaia were hunted, and Gaia actively killed by Estelley worshipers. This may have a weird optic.
  • Draconism Felicula and Orion work well with Estelley, Felicula due to her proximity with Minoor, and Orion for thematic reasons.
  • Fornoss Vola Gods are all Void touched, which is complicated for a mostly Exist oriented Religion.
  • Fornoss Eirny and Bard work well, due to their proximity as Elven Skyborn and the Justice Arken/God.
  • Evolism anything is all Void related, which is complicated for a mostly Exist oriented Religion.
• In the context of Fornoss
  • Unionism Gods Brand, Allest, Elia, and Leona killed a lot of Fornoss worshipers, which may be a strange optic.
  • Unionism, there are those who believe Neall and Nolven are refractions from Aedán. So beware of this combination.
  • Draconism Regulus, Luna, and Silas, are good fits, as they represent elements not generally seen in Fornoss: lightning, ice, and metal.
  • Estelley in general may have a weird optic, because Estelley worshipers engaged in millennia of warfare on Fornoss worshipers.
  • Evolism works surprisingly well, because Soldi and Svaldi indirectly connect to many of the Gods' evolution messages.
• In the context of Evolism
  • Frankly, anything goes. The Dark Gods are far less concerned with minor optics, as are their worshipers.