Unaligned Faiths

These faiths are not aligned to imperial, popular, fey, or elemental powers.

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Bespogovorni

In Ottavia, one of the largest religions is that of Bespogovorni, the worship of the god Zakonodavac, the Law-Giver. It is believed Zakonodavac taught the first Ottavian king the seven Greater Laws and the Code of Ottavia, giving them to him on golden scrolls, blessing the kingdom, and giving the king sovereignty over the land. This is the most organized and sanctioned faith in the kingdom, with the king and royal family attending services and making offerings to Zakonodavac. It has a very rigid hierarchy and set of rules.

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Chetvrtizam

A faith focused on four inmortal figures. See Unaligned Faithful for more details.

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Cincipaartsi

In Affaria, it is commonly believed that all of reality is contained in five parts: the Body, the Mind, the Heart, the Soul, and the Name. The Name encompasses the first four and is also distinct. This philosophy is common even among those Affarians who also have other faiths, and it often affects how they view things and how they interact with the world.

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Idangarian Faith

In Idangar, the Hunt is the core of their faith. They worship Nagy Vadaszno, the Great Huntress, and believe she is how they survive. She taught them to hunt, taught them rituals of the hunt, and created the first cocidians, the primary species who rule the country. They honor falcons and hawks as sacred birds, perform rituals hunts and rituals of hunting, and make blood sacrifices and offerings to their goddess. There is a loose horizontal structure to the faith, as every community has their own priestesses and spiritual leaders, but there is no major overall structure, save for the fact that the spiritual leaders who guide the rulers of Idangar seem to have more influence.

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Izgradjeno

Izgradjeno is a spiritual ideology that says that literal height is spiritual height, and that those who build upward will one day reach paradise. This pracitce, in Ottavia, accounts for certain areas with tremendously tall towers, often high up in the mountains. They do not have any Divine or other being that is the center of their worship; it's somewhere between a philosophy and a cult.

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Kopanje

In Ottavia, many worship a duo of deities known as Trgovac and Sakupljach, the Trader and the Gatherer, who are occupational deities. There is no heavily organized religious structure. Instead, they are patrons of people who engage in trade, commerce, peddling, and certain crafts. There are standard offerings, practices, and superstitions that go with the faith.

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Krhakism

In the borderlands of Ottavia, there are those who worship spirits they call Mrshavi, spirits of the boundaries and borders. They live within walls and it is believed that they want scraps of paper as offerings, which believers place in special holes in their walls. They believe the Mrshavi are protectors, making their homes and walls stronger and safe from danger. Anyone who upsets these invisible forces risks their homes burning down, collapsing, or being taken by a sinkhole.

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Kupci

In Ottavia, the Kupci are a people who are said to have been cursed for violating Divine Law. They themselves claim they are not cursed, but that they were cursed by some non-Divine being. Regardless, they dwell in shadow and worship a figure of shadow they call Skapuljachom, a maroon silhouette seen in the dark. She guides them and accepts their offerings of trinkets and small things, and protects them from those who view them as inherently criminal.

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Mortalism

The belief that though the Divine may exist, mortals have no need of it, and that mortal will in and of itself can sustain people. They believe that inmortality is a curse, mortality is a gift, fallibility is the strength of mortality, and that rejection of the Divine and religion is a necessary and good thing for all life.

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Oshtrica

Many Ottavians, especially Ottavian soldiers, honor a trio of war gods known as the Oshtrica: Crvenoshtrica (Red Blade), Crnosthtrica (Black Blade), and Smedjoshtrica (Brown Blade). The Red Blade is for any warrior. The Black Blade is for those who rely on strength. And the Brown Blade is for those who rely on skill and finesse. Warriors honor them before battle and after battle. They rely upon them, and they speak their names in war cries. When not in battle, there are special ceremonies led by zhretsi who are part of the various garrisons. Blood sacrifice is a common practice.

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Povezanostism

An Ottavian religion that worships three deities: Potpunaknjiga, a Divine fungus that contains everything; Ujednachenost, a Divine pattern symbolized by seven heptagons conjoined; and Izvrstanvodich, a Divine guide through all of reality. This religion is common throughout the kingdom. Those who follow it believe that these three deities are not creators, but rather, the whole of reality composed. Each one is connected to the others, and Izvrstanvodich guides people through it. Thus, most pray directly to Izrstanvodich to help them navigate the complexities of the other two. They cultivate mushrooms as offerings, keep heptagons either as small statues around their homes or designed into banners and flags as holy objects, and carry candles for guidance.

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Praznina

Praznina is a belief that the universe is mostly empty and what is not is decaying, and that one must embrace this to understand it. It is an Ottavian philosophy practiced mostly by the privileged, usually found amongst the more bored nobles and some strange academics and mystics. They believe that internal emptiness is a sacred state, and that decay is not to be interrupted, as that is the correct state of reality.

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Puknuti

A cult focused on Rupture and release. See Unaligned Faithful for more details.

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Skupabogism

A heretical sect that rejects traditional Burevi faith in favor of a philosophical view of the Divine and the body, nearly wiped out in 1211.

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Smeshani Faith

In Smeshan, the main religion is the worship of Velitorgovets, the Great Merchant, a patron deity of the merchant-princes who run the city. The faith is more or less a front for the city's bank; the high priest is the head of the bank. The merchant-princes control the church, the head of the bank answers to them, and the common folk pay tribute to the gold-lined halls of the temples thinking it will bring them prosperity.

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Spokojnoan Faith

In Spokojno, they worship Petoglavibog, the Five-Headed God, the god of dragons. This figure represents the five aspects of the dragon: discipline, power, territory, majesty, and accumulation. The faith is led by powerful priests and followers of the dragon lord of the country, and everyone is expected to participate in the worship of Petoglavibog. One must seek to live up to the five aspects (the virtues) of the dragon, and everyone must attend the religious observances, make offerings and sacrifices, and keep the five-headed dragon symbol in their homes.

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Svjetloism

The Svjetlo is the light that shows how the universe changes and is designed. It is an understanding of the fundamentals of existence, and a significant number of Ottavians worship it as a source of knowledge. Within the Svjelto are two figures: Svjetlo and Objak. Svjetlo is the light itself made manifest, and Objak is the haze around it that allows for interpretation and change. Svjetloists praise the light and embrace change, seeking to understand the universe. It is mostly found amongst academics and the privileged, those who view themselves as intellectual. Practices include using special candles, studying philosophy, naturalism, and mathematics, and trying to see every change around you as a chance to understand.

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Virpristati

The Virpristati dwell within an area where reality is weakened, a place known as the spiral, and they worship the unpredictable and uncontrolled nature of reality within their homeland. There is no consistent form of this worship.