The powers worshipped throughout Avaria are as diverse as the world itself, ranging from an all-powerful creator god, to pantheons of local deities, to ancestral and nature spirits. The religions on this page represents only the most common faiths likely to be encountered in the game, and the list is not by any means exhaustive.

Religion in the Sirdabi Caliphate

Within the Sirdabi Caliphate where the game is centered, the most common religion by far is Azadi. Though in the minority, Kalentians and Yashani are mixed into the population in respectable numbers, often dwelling in their own separate neighborhoods. Worshippers of Nirzali can be found in the western, Idiri part of the caliphate, while small numbers of Elestaarians can be found wherever there are Irzali despite the fact that practice of this religion is technically illegal in the caliphate. Most people of the caliphate have a very general familiarity with one another's beliefs, but do not always trouble themselves to learn the particulars. Naturally the members of the minority religions tend to know more of the majority Azadi faith in which they are immersed than the other way around.

Jandhuri and Suvhaism are known to some Sirdabi from contact with Jalanit and Irulao populations but both are in general quite foreign to the caliphate. Few are very familiar with Nagai'i, though some have some vague knowledge of it simply on account of the festivals celebrated by Irulao neighbors or trading partners. The Children of the Dream are remembered by most as demons worshipped in error or, just as often, as the figments of simple ignorance, though worship of the Children of Dawn persists in upper Amunat. Kholabi and the Unbeing remain widespread in Sirdabi folklore, more as superstitions than anything else.

Faiths of The One True God

Worship of the One True God is perhaps the most widespread single form of belief in Avaria, but this worship takes many different forms. The Yehani and perhaps a few other peoples have followed The One God for over a millennium, with other cultures only later building their own particular structures of belief around the same deity. The general conception of the One God is relatively uniform across these different faiths, with each believing in the omnipotence and omniscience of The One God, and conceiving of this deity as the Dreamer of all things in existence. However, certain details of The One God's nature differ from one religion to the other and they conceive of their faith communities differently, while each separate religion adheres especially to the teachings of a particular prophet whom they believe to have brought the final and most perfect message of the God.

Yashani

Yashani is the name for the Yehani people's worship of The One True God, guided by their compiled texts known as the Yashtal, and by the revelations granted to the chief prophets Mari, Nehud, Eshul, and Bithlah. They worship in temples where rituals are carried out by priests called kohanim, while spiritual leaders and teachers of the community are known as ravi.

The Yehani were in fact the first to worship The One True God, and they still consider It to be the God first and foremost of their own people. To the Yehani The One True God is Elu-Hani, one of many deities whom the Yehani (as the ancient Yemelites) in error once also used to worship on the same level as Elu-Hani. However, thanks to the Prophet Mari the then-Yemelites were awakened to the recognition of Elu-Hani as the One True God, Dreamer of all things, and the other gods as only lesser deities who either served Elu-Hani or defied It.

The name of Elu-Hani is often rendered as Lord of the Sea, but the fundamental meaning of the words signifies something closer to the captain of a ship. The Yehani see themselves as Elu-Hani's crew, obedient to Its command and eager to carry out its directives, and indeed to live their lives according to the rules of their captain. Though Elu-Hani may at times be fearsome and seem harsh in Its demands upon the Yehani, this is because It alone knows their true course and in Its wisdom must command them in such a way as to see the ship and crew as a whole safely through existence. When the ancient Yemelites changed their name to the Yehani, this was meant not to suggest merely the people of Elu-Hani, but Its crew, those actively carrying out Its wise orders and thereby accepting Its covenant to conduct themselves safely through life.

While others are not discouraged from acknowledging Elu-Hani as the greatest of all gods and the Dreamer of the Dream, Yehani believe that The One God specifically created the Yehani to serve and love It and follow all its strictures, and that Elu-Hani in turn focuses Its chief care and attention upon them.

The Yashani faith is followed wherever the Yehani themselves can be found, most typically the lands encircling the Adelantean Sea, but also in Marzum and throughout the Sea of Sala'ah. Besides Yehani, some others who spend much of their lives at sea find Yashani attractive and have converted to it.

Kalentism

Kalentism is worship of the One True God by those who follow the teachings and example of the prophet Kalen. To Kalentians the One God is Dionos, signifying Our God in the sense of the universal deity of all mortalkind and the Dreamer of all the Dream. Although Kalentians believe that Dionos is the singular deity of all creation, they also believe that Kalen himself is the Song embodied in mortal flesh, known in both his person and his message as the New Song.

The religious community of Kalentism is known as the Kalentoi, or the People of Kalen. Kalen, who was burned at the stake but reborn from the ashes, is seen in the image of the phoenix and therefore known by the full title of Kalen Phoinikos, and as lesser birds flock in the wake of the great phoenix when it makes its passage from land to land, so those who revere Kalen are often referred to as part of the flock of the faithful. Kalentics worship in churches where services are conducted by various clerics which may include diacons, presbyters, biscops, and even archbiscops, who hold their own niche among a host of other ranks and types of clergy. The Kalentic church features an intricate hierarchy, reflecting the Kalentian worldview that sees each person, creature, plant, and object in the Dream having its own proper and preordained place.

The Kalentic faith features an enormous array of saints, women and men who lived lives of the greatest virtue or died in defense of their religion or the Kalentoi community. Saints are revered, not worshiped, and all their powers are believed to be granted through Dionos and Kalen. They serve as intercessors between the faithful and the One True God, and even after their death are capable of working miracles. The greatest saint of all is Elen, the twin sister of Kalen and the object of significant reverence among many Kalentians. Dispute over the exact nature of Kalen and Elen, and the precise relationship of each with the Song and Dionos, has been the deciding factor in the creation of various schismatic sects of Kalentism.

The Kalentic religion predominates across most of Ruvera and into Ruleska where it is part of the Holy Kalentoi Empire. It is also the religion of Kuslovik in Altaruleska. Divergent sects, such as Nabhetic Kalentism, are found scattered across Amunat and other parts of the Sirdabi Caliphate.

Azadi

Azadi is the faith of those who worship The One True God according to the tenets of the Perfected Song of God, as revealed to the Sirdabi prophet al-Azad. Azadi call the One God Annur, signifying a holy commingling of pure light and harmony, and believe that It is the sole deity in the universe and the Dreamer of the Dream. Besides the Perfected Song, Azadi also consider the Remembrances of al-Azad to be divinely inspired and use them to guide their personal actions as well as the community as a whole.

The Azadi faith community is collectively known as the Redeemed, as having been released and redeemed from the bondage of religious error, just as the Prophet al-Azad was released from a prison both physical and spiritual following his first revelations from Annur. Azadi have no priests or priestesses, but instead simply have prayer leaders called imams who conduct services for the faithful in mosques. Just as important as the mosque is the sirdab, a garden with accompanying water features which promotes al-ansijam, a fusion of internal and external harmony. The Song and the concept of harmony infuse much Azadi thinking and practice, to the point where another name for the community is the People of Harmony.

Though Azadi deny that any other gods exist, they do believe in semi-divine angels who exist as helpers to Annur and workers of various small miracles in the world. They do not have saints in quite the same sense that Kalentians do, but many do believe that some individuals and their families possess a special holiness that is similar. These are called generically wali, which may also be used as a form of address, while in north Idiri especially they tend to be known as marabouts.

The Azadi religion is most common in the lands of the Sirdabi Caliphate, where it is also the state religion. This includes the lands of Ruleska and north Idiri as well as Zalawi. Other practitioners of Azadi can be found in Jalanjhur, Yalanbari, and throughout the Sea of Sala'ah more generally. Although now part of the Kalentoi Empire, Cadenza also still harbors significant numbers of Azadi.

Elestaarianism

The Elestaarian religion is centered upon the God of Good Thought, or Hama Zabadi, and the pursuit of the Good. Hama Zabadi is acknowledged and worshiped as the best and mightiest of divine beings, as well as the creator of mortalkind, though not of the Dream itself. Though vastly powerful, the God of Good Thought is not omnipotent, and thus is not perceived as responsible for the undeniable evils of the world. Instead, the God has formed a partnership with willing mortals to advance the cause of Good and increase its dominion in the world, thereby working to more swiftly bring about the ultimately inevitable triumph of Good over evil.

Followers of Elestaarianism are called simply Elestaarians, with the name of faith and community deriving from its founder, the priestess Elestaari. While sometimes the faithful will say prayers at the most sacred hour of noon, Elestaarians believe that the most important act of worship is simply the act of doing Good. To guide them in their endeavors and further honor Hama Zabadi, the compiled texts of the Burning Word are studied and followed, particularly by the Elestaarian priesthood. Both priests and priestesses conduct rituals and lead prayers in the fire temples, while the most exalted of priests are known as magi.

Elestaarianism is most common in Nishkol and neighboring Irzal, the lands of its origin and chief development. Technically illegal within the Sirdabi Caliphate, it is nevertheless still practiced discreetly in many places where the Irzali people dwell.

Jandhuri

Jandhuri is the ancient and highly complex religion of the Jalanit people, encompassing a large pantheon of deities, philosophies, and modes of spirituality. Despite the wide range of divine and semi-divine beings recognized by Jandhuri, there is no overarching consensus on their hierarchy or exact relationship to one another, and beliefs regarding the creation or origin of the Song and the Dream, or whether there is a supreme deity above all the others, vary widely. Nevertheless, certain deities are generally recognized as of especial importance, including Varusha, god of destiny; Liutani his queen, patron of dance and the arts; wise and lucky Utanishtra who helps guides the affairs of humans; and Rivathi, the vulture goddess of death and renewal.

Nagai'i

Nagai'i is the state religion of Yalanbari and several other smaller Irulao kingdoms. Blending ancestor worship with more organized religion, Nagai'i is centered upon the honor and propitiation of the Naga people who are said to have intermarried with humans to give rise to the royal dynasties of the Irulao. The rituals of the faith are chiefly carried out by the kings and queens of these lands, aided by priests also drawn from the royal bloodlines. Commoner Irulao acknowledge and revere the naga, but generally only join in the formal worship of them during the religious festivals scattered throughout the year.

Nirzali

Nirzali involves the worship of the goddess Nirzali as chief among deities, while simultaneously believing in and typically also worshiping other deities and supernatural beings as well. Nirzali is associated with both positive and negative domains, many of them related in some way to water or the lack thereof. These domains include rainfall, fresh water, storms, floods, and droughts, as well as healing of both body and spirit. The Pole Star is also associated with Nirzali and is believed by Nirzalites to be the goddess in her role as eternal Outcast, watching over and guiding the lives of her faithful. In this capacity, solitude, sorrow, and spiritual guidance are also considered part of her domain.

Worshipers of Nirzali do not make up a distinct community, but instead are part of a larger pagan tradition that includes the honoring and propitiation of numerous other deities, spirits, and elemental forces. However, the goddess does have her own well-organized priesthood, with numerous distinct roles within it. Ordinary worshipers give prayers and offerings at temples and shrines, while priests and especially priestesses conduct rituals at the temples and observe various festivals all meant to care for and honor the goddess.

Nirzali is chiefly an Idiri deity, and the goddess is worshiped widely throughout the continent. Her religion has also spread from there to parts of the Sirdabi Caliphate in Ruleska, though its incidence lessens the further one gets from Idiri.

Suvhaism

Suvhaism is more a certain practice of spirituality than a religion as such, as it does not directly involve the worship of any divine beings. It does, however, seek communion with the Song and reverences the founder of Suvhaism, the Hanjama sage named Suvahki but later called by his followers Suvhai-bala, the Pure Flower. The practitioners of Suvhaism, called Suvhites, believe that all the suffering in the world results from no longer being one with the Song, instead having been broken apart from it into separate individual resonances. They strive for reunion with the Song and the dissolution of their separate souls back into its all-encompassing harmony.

Suvhaism emphasizes meditation and self-knowledge over prayer and communion with supernatural beings, though it does not preclude worship of such beings or even the practice of other religions. They are simply external to the true goal of Suvhaism. Suvhites uniformly seek the wisdom and harmony that will help them achieve reunion, but may follow different paths to attain this, with each path known by the name of a different flower. The name of Suvhaism signifies "blooming" or "blossoming", a bloom of wisdom unfurling petal by petal, just as Suvhai-bala achieved his own state of harmony while meditating upon a single blossom in a field full of flowers.

Suvhites are found widely throughout Riendu and in the Hanjama kingdoms of Jalanjhur. However Suvhaism is also practiced among some communities in the the human-ruled portions of Jalanjhur, and even in a few scattered parts of the Sirdabi Caliphate where Irulao dwell. Most Flower Folk are also Suvhites.

Other Deities & Faiths

The Children of the Dream

The Children of the Dream are an assortment of deities who collectively have been said to reside atop the Pillar of Creation, the highest known peak in Avaria which lies at the heart of the Tin Chalun Mountains. They are divine in their extraordinary powers and their influence upon mortals, but often human-like in their passions and ambitions. Neither omnipotent nor omniscient, they still can perform incredible feats beyond the reach of any mortal, and likewise have greater knowledge of past, present, and future than any human might hope for.

The Children of the Dream consist of two separate but related pantheons, the Children of Noon and Night and the Children of Dawn and Dusk. The Children of Noon and Night appear to have been among the earliest deities worshiped in the lands around the Adelantean Sea, but for reasons that are now deeply obscure they seem to have faded from view several millennia ago. The Children of Dawn and Dusk are said to be their progeny or otherwise appointed successors, and have been worshiped in the same region for at least the past three thousand years. But they, too, have suffered declines and disappearances, and worship of them is now limited to a handful of lands and peoples.

Once widespread, the followers of the Children of Dawn and Dusk now persist in widely scattered locales, most notably the Ruveran kingdom of Jadniez and the city-states of the High Hinterlands. Other worshipers of the Children can be found in the more isolated areas of far northern Ruvera and Altaruleska, as well as in pockets of Near Ruleska and northern Idiri, where they often blend with local shamanic traditions. The peoples who are best known for still following the old gods are the Rovara and the few remaining Yemelite tribes. But for reasons unknown to all but these peoples -- and perhaps not even to them -- all of the Children of the Dusk save for the goddess Neiru are said to have departed from the lands they once occupied, and only the Children of the Dawn remain touchable by the prayers and pleas of the faithful.

Kholabi

Kholabi is one of the Children of the Dream, once numbering among the Children of Noon and Night who have now vanished from reach and sight of mortalkind. In ancient times she was the goddess of magic and arcane mysteries, as well as of refined civilization, and was also worshiped as the mother goddess of Amunat. Both respected and beloved, Kholabi was often called upon to extend protection and fortune to those in need, but her ways were also mysterious, and ill luck could be attributed to her sometimes unfathomable will.

Even more than other pagan deities, Kholabi has been vilified by the worshipers of The One True God and is now thought of more as a fiend. She is sometimes presented as an angel who fell afoul of the One God for her ruthless thirst for knowledge and power that could belong to none but the God Itself; other times she is described as an extremely powerful jinni. In either case she is viewed with dread and a little awe, and even if she is removed from direct contact with the mortal world some people still fear attracting her notice somehow. The evil eye is a power whose origin is ascribed to Kholabi, and her ancient symbol is an eye. She also remains associated with the dark phase of the moons and with the seventh month of Kholabi which still carries her name, times when the boundaries between the seen and unseen worlds are believed to be at their thinnest.

The Rovara people are said to still worship her along with the Children of Dawn and Dusk, though it is uncertain whether Kholabi hears their prayers or not. Nevertheless, non-Rovara often consider these wanderers to carry the goddess's own misfortune with them, as well as the gift -- or curse -- of her sight.

The Unbeing

The Unbeing is an entity that is very poorly known but seems to have existed for time out of mind. It is associated with the liminal and inchoate -- shadows, reflections, delusions, and dreams -- and also with chance or luck. Nobody has ever been known to actually worship the Unbeing, which also goes by the names of the Other and the God That is Not, yet its existence has survived in folklore and the scantiest of written records down through millennia. More recently it has come to be recognized by many Elestaarians as the embodiment of darkness and evil, the antithesis and archnemesis of the God of Good Thought.

Ushum

Ushum is a somewhat obscure god of Raziya who appears in the form of a small dragon-like creature. Ushum is said to be the protector of animals and children, and to bring good luck to the perennially luckless. Ushum can however be quite mischievous, to the point of being malicious to anyone who harms those under his care. Although not the object of worship in any formal sense, some humbler folk will offer small prayers to him as well as inexpensive gifts, the latter deposited before the little dragon statues which one can find scattered in odd spots across the province.

Relevant Forum Posts

For some additional information touching on the topic of religion, posted on the website forums but not necessarily fully documented on the wiki.

• Creation Myths (29 Jun 2024)

• Kalentian, Kalentic, Kalentoi, Ohhhh Myyyy (28 Mar 2024)

• Lucky Symbols? (07 Mar 2024)

• Religious Art (14 Feb 2024)

• Divine Justice and the Afterlife (12 Feb 2024)

• Folklore (07 Feb 2024)

• Specifics of the Sirdab (16 Jan 2024)