Taohuan Religions

Nayu Legalism is a transtheistic religion centered on the Empire of Dako Nayuta. Its practitioners acknowledge and worship a set of gods, but believe that beyond and above those gods lies something even more important. These gods are in most cases similar to the deities worshipped in other regional pantheons. In this case, practitioners worship one God, whom they call the Great Being and whom they depict as a bee hive, but they know that ultimately the Great Being merely stands in for and points the way to Being itself. For believers, the problem with the world is uncertainty and the solution is obedience to the state. According to this tradition, the great problem which besets the world and the mortals in it is uncertainty. Their chosen solution to this problem is obedience to the state, which all of their religious practices and beliefs are directed towards. In their view, the State and its rulers are divine agents of the Great Being, placed to bring order to the empire, and someday to extend it across the face of Aestas. 

Each community has and maintains its own sepulchre, where practitioners may stop by for comfort, guidance, private worship, or prayer. The sepulchre is laid out in a radially symmetrical pattern and its primary focal point is a raised platform. In addition to the community clergy, clerics called "Censorials" wander from place to place, where they cook meals, maintain sacred sites, listen to problems, and read the entrails of animals to predict the future. These Censorials rely on their own wisdom, charisma, or power for their authority. They cannot marry and they take vows of celibacy. Sepulchres are maintained by local clerics. Practitioners meditate privately in their homes, and gather for a communal meal each week in the local sepulchre. Tradition is passed down through a series of legal codes and tales passed down through the clergy.

The Circle of Eastern Gods is a faith practiced in the lands of both the Rusak and Tawan Krai peoples, mainly on the peninsula and southern islands. This religion began as an offshoot of the same defunct faith that spawned Nayu Legalism, but grew in a very different path reflecting the different cultures involved. many of the deities are similar in both religions, though very different things are held as truths. Followers worship thirty-three gods. These gods are constantly in conflict, even though they were all once one being called the "Once Whole One", which chose to divide into the several different gods, and even though they will all in time become the "Once Whole One" again. Popular gods include Kwanatrang, whose symbol is an androgynous figure and who is said to be attended by a host of spirits of their ancestors, and Huryabes, whose symbol is a labyrinth and who is said to be part demon and thus better able to fend off the forces of darkness.

According to this tradition, the great problem which besets the world and the mortals in it is existential loneliness. The best solution to this problem is fellowship, which all of their religious practices and beliefs are directed towards. Each community has and maintains its own grove, where practitioners gather for worship. The grove has an interplay of light and dark spaces, lit with candles or lanterns but also filled with burning incense. Each local community has one prophet, the primary order of clergy, and usually one sage, a secondary order of clergy. Prophets perform healing and provide protection, and speak out against corruption while sages defend community members in civil courts, and ask practitioners difficult questions. Both types of clergy answer to a wider Prophet Council, whose nine members are elected by all prophets. The Council defines proper belief and ritual, and appoints local prophets and sages, seeing to their education. Sages can marry, but prophets cannot. 

Practitioners walk through the nearest wilderness, and attend night worship each week in the grove. Tradition is passed down through carefully memorized songs and ballads. Famously, this religion teaches that people reincarnate after death--in one of several heavens if they were good in a past life, or one of several hells if they were not; this world is one of the hells. There is also some controversy regarding this religion's polygynandrous marriages.

Jalan Dewah is the loose and practical polytheism of the Besar people, and the dominant religion in the Taohuan Realms. Practitioners believe in and worship many gods, but only one at a time. They worship a different god each day, including the popular god Ujikeras, who is said to beset mortals with difficulties in order to strengthen them, and the shrouded Aum, who is said to have imprisoned the evil god who brought death into the universe. According to Jalan Dewah, the great problem which besets the world and the mortals in it is mortality. The best solution to this problem is making a good mark in the lives of future generations, which all of their religious practices and beliefs are directed towards.Jalan Dewah is very old. It is normally said to have begun with the "First Sovereign Empress", who certainly did give the religion much of its present shape, but even she was drawing from an older, but much less sophisticated, tradition of ritual and belief, one so ancient that no one knows its origins. More recently, the religion has become somewhat complacent and conservative, maintaining the status quo. There is, however, a small but growing movement which insists that they have strayed from the true tradition, which is more demanding and less forgiving.

Each community has and maintains its own garden, where practitioners may stop by for comfort, guidance, private worship, or prayer. The garden is laid out in a radially symmetrical pattern and its primary focal point is an altar of unworked stone. Jalan Dewah does not have fixed clergy, but priests wander from place to place, where they listen to problems, give spiritual guidance, and record the tradition. These scholars rely on their own wisdom, charisma, or power for their authority. They cannot marry and they take vows of celibacy. Gardens are maintained by youths called "garden-maidens", often trained by a local elder.

The One God of the West or Zovkanism is the common name given to the odd monotheistic tradition of the kingdoms on the western periphery of the Taohuan Realms. Followers worship only a single god. This deity, which they refer to only as "Zovkan Burkhan", is the original creator of the universe, and is eternal, omniscient and omnipotent. This sole god created the world then withdrew to watch it unfold, for the its own inscrutable reasons. According to their beliefs, followers are the chosen people in the world, but they are being tested for the strength of their faith. Other gods are fictions at best, demons at worst, and are not spoken of in polite company. The dominant Taohuan sect believes that the other common deities are Zovkan Burkhan's intermediaries, set up to administer the world in the its stead. 

The religion is a literary one, filled with numerous works of doctrine and parables, most of which are known by heart by all adults. Followers do not believe in reincarnation, instead believing that souls are judged in the afterlife. The worthy join the One in some unfathomable way, while the unworthy are cast away, either remaining in limbo forever or returning to this world to torment the living. Only a very few scholars and sages have ever noted the uncanny similarities between Zovkanism and the Sevastin faith in the Keller Lands. In the Taohuan Lands, the religion has spawned several school of thought, countless monasteries, and more than a few militant orders.