Pagan Cults

Pagan Faiths is not one consolidated Religion, but rather a small collection of living monotheistic Religions that pre-date Ailor civilized status. This means that these religions date back to the days of tribal Ailor kingdoms in the Regalian Archipelago, as well as Religions that pre-date Fornoss as a faith from Oldtera before the Destruction. The page will highlight important background for the continued worship of these still living gods, as well as how they connect to the modern world despite being so ancient. Characters are able to worship as part of these Religions, and gain specific traits or powers from them in connection with the Proficiency System. These faiths are also able to create Godborn.

• For more on Aloria’s Dead Faiths, Pagan Faiths which lack the powers of their gods, read this Expanded Lore

Xeradon's Will

Xeradon's Will (sometimes also called Xerdonism) was/is the monotheistic belief in the Deep-Sea Leviathan Emperor Xeradon. This Religion supposedly pre-dates even the Maraya, however, the original believers of this Religion have long since died out. It does not actively compete with the other global religions, instead content to be nothing more than a Cult of sorts that likes to hide itself away from the world. Xeradon's Will is particularly popular among Allar and Finullen that roam around the Hadar area, but some Slizzar who have turned from Draconism, and Ailor Sailors have gotten used to worshiping Xeradon as well, if only out of fear to have their ships not be swallowed by the deep. Xerdonists are generally speaking sociable, but also very good at hiding their true nature, because Xeradon is considered a cruel and violent deep-sea entity beyond their extremely niche society living in the depths of Hadar. This society is made up of a mixture of Mai-Allar and Finullen who belong to no nation state, but have a curiosity for all that lives on the surface. Xeradon is fear-worshiped by land-walkers, but for the true believers deep below, Xeradon is the master of all seas and the most glorious being that can swallow whole islands as if they were appetizers. He is terribly powerful, some say even more so than the Dragons themselves, and is solely responsible for preventing any of the deep-sea creatures of Hadar from turning into Void or Exist-infested Demons like they do in the east. Xeradon's true full appearance is rarely seen (survived), though a depiction of it can be seen in the art. Xeradon is also known to shapeshift into more humanoid and human-sized appearances, particularly as the Finullen Admiral known as Finbul, or the Allar cage-fighter called Qar. Xeradon's worshipers know these secret identities, but they are not known in the outside world. Xeradon's Will is in general considered a hedonistic religion, which prescribes the world as the faithful's oyster, and land-walkers as temporary playthings. It does not have an Afterlife or Tenets (beyond just being amazing and worshiping Xeradon as the ultimate being), merely a chaotic view of the world of the living, and the endless silence of the deep that follows after. Rituals and traditions often involve water prayers, and activities in and near the water. Xeradon is the only currently known Pagan God that also produces Godborn called the Deep Ones. However, information on the Deep Ones is rarely known outside of their own religious circles, because Xeradon's will is already an obscure Cult religion, and because its members deign land-walkers to be too inferior of mind and comprehension to behold Xeradon's true glory. Even if Xeradon walked in Regalia, the faithful would suppress their urge to praise and worship him, and work with him instead as if he were their stern father, because none should be alerted of his true identity. Occasionally however, when Xeradon's faithful have established some sort of social rapport (read: feel their social contacts are pet-like/subordinate enough to them that they would not spread the word), they will inform them of the glory of Xeradon in the hopes of converting them. This usually goes paired with a longer running attempt to either magically mutate them to allow them to breathe underwater, or attain some part-aquatic Racial distinction to allow them to swim underwater with them. Eldertide Cult A Calemberg father's worst nightmare, the Eldertide is an unknowable entity that exists somewhere between reality and the dream state of those who subconsciously hunger for its affection and carnal passion. The Eldertide is a monster that resides in the minds of those who have unexplained feelings towards the Occult, or have illicit dreams they would not divulge to even the most secretive of confessors. It contacts them in their dreams, slowly revealing itself in a plane of astral awareness and metaphysical existence until the subject of any gender gives in to lust and spends a carnal night in this Eldertide's arms (or tentacles!). The Monster itself is never described the same by every person who has had contact with it, leading to the assumption that it is a shapeshifter. Some describe it as a charming Ailor with horns and claws, while others describe intangible horrors and mounds of flesh and appendages. It is generally assumed that the Eldertide appears in whatever way plays into the dark desires of the subject, but that its real appearance is incomprehensible. Its subjects wake the next morning with an infant in their arms, having been born from their pairing, called an Eldertide Godborn. This Eldertide Godborn is born as a Monster. While normally the Races of Aloria can Transform into Monsters with the right powers, Eldertide Godborn can only Transform out of being Monsters. They are born with multiple heads, appendages, shapes, horns, claws, wicked fur, spikes, beastly traits and so forth. From this point, there is usually a junction, either the subject violently rejects the child and their dream, and the child is thrown into foster care or ends up on the streets, or the subject gives in to their dark desire and joins the Eldertide Cult, raising their child as one as well. The Eldertide Cult is one of monsters. It is not a traditional religion with an afterlife and a code of conduct, but rather a single ideological belief: the Eldertide is truth and divinity and freedom all at once, and the world is full of monsters. All people, ideas, philosophies, systems and concepts are monstrous and in hiding of their corrupt truth. Only the Eldertide and its children appear as they are in honesty, revealing the ugly truth of the world in the physical, and relishing in it. The Cultists seek to return to the loving arms of the Eldertide in their dreams, while its children roam the world either as wretched and hated outcast, or as truthteller that reveals the rot in the wide world for all to see. Some are brazen in their monstrous appearance and consider it true beauty, while others try to hide their status and fit into society as best as possible. Many of them end up hunted by the Lothar and other anti-Monster forces. The exact nature of the Eldertide is not known, some have speculated that it is a Demon, though its coloration is distinctly orange, and has never seemingly cast any kind of Magic besides the creation of its astral reality. The Eldertide is feared wide and far, because its visitation on good and pious Estelley and Unionist homes usually is followed by family drama and misery, as the true allegiances of one of the family members are revealed in due time, breaking the family apart. As a result, the Eldertide is sometimes also called the Homewrecker, a term that is commonly used in vernacular to deride adulterers who lead themselves and others astray. The Blood Covenant The Blood Covenant is still a very much living and breathing religion that originated from Old Ceardia, but has since spread almost globally, at least wherever Velheim settlers have gone. The Blood Covenant is seen as part ancestor, influencing, but also being influenced by Old Gods, as it predates Old Gods as a religion, and may well be one of the oldest Ailor religions still around. The Blood Covenant is by some Old Gods faithful considered a heresy, because it denounces Arne, and the other Old Gods, favoring a very much fixated focus on Halfvel and the Godcursed Marken. The Blood Covenant is still existing in various parts of the world, but is particularly popular in Talahm Gall, the more clan and tribal lands of Gallovia where the Gallovian Ailor live, and few Regalian missionaries dare go for the tales of Marken who defend their Queen of Blood. The Blood Covenant worships a monotheistic female Marken goddess called the Queen of Blood, or the Matron of the Covenant. The Blood Covenant was once a very different religion thousands of years ago, but an event called the Bloodrot which coincides with the betrayal of Jord and Gro in Old Gods, swiveled the Blood Covenant from a fairly peaceful wolf-worshiping religion, into a rather violent cult of Marken with a vengeance. It is said that Halfvel, the only Old God recognized from the Old Gods pantheon, is the consort of the Queen of Blood, herself a massive wolf goddess, and that the Marken are her children. She however is barren, and so killed an Old God, from which the rotting corpse oozes so-called Rotten Blood, which if consumed causes a person to become Marken. This phenomena is somewhat studied because it happens somewhat close to Regalia, with scholars verifying that the Blood is not quite Occult in origins, but causes manifestations of Primal Revenants in those who consume it, that turn them onto a dark path of violence. The central command of the Blood Covenant is to consume the Rotten Blood, as to fight the "encroachment of all that is golden", but also to avenge the event called the Bloodrot (though it remains somewhat unclear what this means, it just instills a dislike of Old Gods worshipers). The encroachment of all that is golden appears more like an analogy against the march of progress, in essence: fighting against anti-Magic sentiments, fighting against colonization, fighting against the eradication of tribal or uncivilized societies by centralized states, fighting for the autonomy of culturally dissonant regions, and having an intense hatred for lies, deceit, and falsehoods. Worship of the Blood Covenant is done by sacrificing animals (and sometimes, people), and consuming their heart before going on the hunt, with the hunt being either literal, or figurative for an enemy. Trivia Pagan within the canon universe refers to religions pre-dating Unionism. While this technically also includes Fornoss from the perspective of the Ailor, because Fornoss is such a large and populous religion in the modern era, it is not included in classical categorization, even if some Fornoss worshipers refer to themselves as "The Pagan". Not all Pagan religions were Monotheistic, but in general the majority of them are, and at least all the Pagan religions that are well known or to some degree understood and still around. Why Ailor religions suddenly swapped from monotheistic to polytheistic is unknown, though it is speculated to have been related to a widening of perspective on the world from only regional awareness, to global awareness.