Kathan

To many people in Oma, the rest of the world places an unreasonable reliance on the worship of painted gods and natural elements. The way forward comes not through the protection of supernatural deities, but through the adherence to what makes a human powerful—their virtues (katha).

At least, that was what it was theoretically meant to be, as set out by the philosopher Ios during his support of the iconoclasm movement in the 2nd Century BC. In the centuries since, the virtues have taken on a life of their own, with many incarnates (sphora) acting as their representations in temples across the country, many said to have some hefty control over the universe—and to be summoned to grant that control to those who follow their chosen Paragon (ekothas). There is even some association with the Heavenly Bodies of the Mandate and the nature-worship of earlier times, although officially they would not be considered the same.

Saints

Saints (Phaeroian sphora, singular sphoron) are those among humanity selected for their adherence to one Virtue or another. It is a rare thing for a person to be deemed an Exemplar in life—though it does happen, if one can find a priest of high enough rank willing to grant that holy office. Sphora of various sorts have made quite an impact on history; some of them are creatures of folklore, but others—like Pethros of Hylodis, Exemplar of Mercy, who oversaw the Grand Pact in 1 AB, or Czyrsza of Kodim, Exemplar of Justice, who brought Kathan to Lewidzia back in the 50s AB—are very much documented.

The most important of these, or at least the oldest, were the twelve Apostles (ptoikkhai), who wandered the length and breadth of the Three Seas explaining the nature of Virtue back in the late 2nd and early 1st Centuries BC. Some wandered further afield; it is said that Xelar of Impana, Exemplar of Care, made it all the way to Drezaddion by the end of his life, far to the east.

There was no Apostle for Wisdom. At least, none officially recognized.

Governance

In theory, the practice of the Virtues is supposed to be sans leaders; part of the tragedy of Ios was his decision that there should be a centralized hierarchy, with the sphora ranked more highly than others even in life, and his successors have done their best to promote the opposite—that Virtue is decided in concert with others. Still, it would be folly to say that there are no hierarchies within the faith. The difference between layman and priest is easy enough to spot, and there are differing schools even within the orthodox branch—although once the Twelve Virtues had their own internal hierarchies, this has become somewhat generalized based on their school, and the school in turn is patronized by one country or another. Typically, then, it is the school from which one derives one's view of the world. A number of them, however, such as Gnea and Riak, have been deemed sufficiently alien as to be defined as unorthodox at best (and heretical at worst) rather than merely local but compatible variations.

Saints, Sinners, and the Afterlife

To followers of Kathan, the myriad afterlives of the Mandate of the Heavens are just too untidy, and there are no demons or devils as we would understand them. At least, not at first. In the minds of the first sphora (usually translated “saints”), no single entity sought humanity’s end. Instead, they were set upon by the Athaia, the servants of oblivion—not as a person, but as the opposite of a person, beings with no desire except the destruction of the soul, no emotion save contempt. For Kathadoi, no reincarnation awaits the dead, nor will they find a heaven or, indeed, a hell. The dead become untethered from the world, not lost from it but removed one step…and the virtue they have acted upon in life pulls them closer to Kathas, God as Virtue. But too little virtue, too little thought given to the world and the people within it—whoever they are—and the holes in one’s defences grow wider, and the Athaia set upon the soul and tear it to pieces in an agony that lasts an eternity. True, there are stories of those sphora who have given hope to restless souls, opened a path for some form of redemption. But those are old stories, and in the Anthaion outside the world so many souls traverse the winding dark that the saints will have difficulty finding even the repentant selfish…

Of course, there are other variations of the afterlife. Some sects speak of a pressing need to help in life, or else one will wander the earth and hear and feel only the suffering of others as if it were one’s own. In Gykken, the Virtue of Wisdom is called a psychopomp of sorts, helping to stabilize the recently dead before they rise to meet God. (This is linked to the earlier cult of Dol.) To the philosopher Neczą of Miaszeńy, who wrote about it in the 7th Century AB, the human soul itself is Virtue; the lesser virtues resolve themselves through detaching themselves, which if there is enough of the goodness will feel like ascension to heaven…and if there is not enough, if Virtue has not been cultivated, it feels like being torn apart. 

Gnea

Gnea (also called Dusin) is a division within Kathan that has its origins in Koppuni as a popular faith in the late 6th Century AB. Key to this faith is the belief that the apostles strayed in rejecting the key point made by Ios: that there is one god, whose name is Kathas (Katas in Koppuni). The Virtues are merely aspects of Kathas, and the excess dogma around them—and, worse, around their Exemplars, who are after all merely human—creates unnecessary division within communities.

Followers of Gnea, perhaps to affirm the veracity of their beliefs, unanimously claim Setterday as their gomon. They are also commanded by a naeyeot (transliterated as neias in Phaeroian), who selects a successor from among the faithful.

Riak

Riak is the particular iteration of the faith found around the somewhat isolated (but very large) Lake Chuna in Yashdar. Separated from the rest of the Kathanic community for a number of centuries, Riak (the Classical Sau word for "virtue" or "holiness") does not consider specific days to be more appropriate for specific Virtues; instead, they assign Virtues to particular months. (Which the people of the north do as well, just different months.) They also have a clerical hierarchy based around the city of Miyankut (modern Trēi Men, Classical Sau Phmian-Kluet), and long ago translated the Twelve Books into Classical Sau, which is used as a liturgical language. Riak is tolerated by the Qariyyu (who after all claim Lake Chuna as a province of their empire) so long as its believers pay homage to the mayiz, the Emperor, in their own way and don't try to convert good Siras to their faith.

Dragan

Dragan, sometimes called Oulyson, has been a separate sect almost as long as Kathan has existed as an independent religion. The followers of Dragan believe in dragas, Wisdom, above all other Virtues, as a form of angel who appears to the Wise in their own image and grants them prophetic visions of the future, to say nothing of guidance. The daragadoi, the Wise, have no fixed abode, following the exiled lifestyle of Ios, ultimate founder of all Kathan; many consider them to be one step lower than heathens, on account of their perversion of Virtue into something to be summoned like a genie in a lamp. But there are also those who go to the caravans and seek out potions and even spells to aid them—and sometimes a child goes missing, some say in exchange…

Daragadoi have only a loose hierarchy, albeit stricter by Kathanic standards; the Odarax or "goodly wise", who bears the staff of Ios, is their ultimate leader and bears the same responsibilities and power as the Prophet himself, but beyond that, every caravan is a castle, and each matriarch or patriarch a king.