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Post by Seren on Jun 17, 2018 0:52:25 GMT -6
The Erdian Church The religion of Erdia is the second most prominent religion on the planet, following in closely to Meteora. The Eridan Church draws their belief system off the Mother Goddess Erde'zema and her two children Dýr and Saaxir. Followers of Erdia belief that Erde'zema found earth crippled and abandoned by its old gods and took pity upon it, deciding to make it her home. Because of this, Erde'zema is thought to be the Mother Goddess, having nurtured the world back from near annihilation. Erdia's followers have erected churches and shrines to worship the Goddess in a variety of locations around the earth, and while the Eridan Church does not have any specific epicenter, its chosen leader, x, resides within New Rome, making the church in New Rome the main gathering place for Erdian followers. Every Erdian church's design is different depending upon its location and its people, and due to being in a city New Rome's Erdian Church is massive in size with the ability to hold thousands of followers for worship.☄ beliefs A few years before the beginning of the third century, there lived a young woman named Auriol who was an animal-shifter with unknown origins who could fully shift into a phoenix without the assistance of a mage dyad. At the time she lived in a large animal-shifter community, and several people feared and were in awe of this woman and her animal since the phoenix is a mythological animal that had never been seen before.Auriol was hunted and locked up, during which time Auriol told her guards of her mother Dýr and the story of the beginning of mages and animal-shifters. Erde'zema nurtured the earth back to its current state and had two children, Dýr and Saaxir. Erde'zema created Dýr from her flesh and blood, gifting her with all the knowledge of the animals of the past and the ability to use their spirits to continue the progression of the world. Erde'zema continued by creating Saaxir from her breath and mind in order to aid his sister with the ability to speak to the elements of the world. Erde'zema then tasked her children with two different goals, that Dýr travel the world and find homes for all the animal souls within her and for Saaxir to go the opposite way and shape the world in such a way that would be accessible for the future inhabitants of the world. Dýr accepted this task easily, understanding the necessity of what she had to do. Saaxir, on the other hand, understood how large the Earth was and beseeched his mother for a companion in his travels. Erde'zema agreed and gave life to an adult female human, the young woman bearing no memories of her past learned from Saaxir and of their quest.Dýr started on her journey alone, every time she would find a home for one of the animal spirits inside of her - Dýr would lay her hand upon the landscape and the animal's souls would gain form from the earth. Through this Dýr also gifted some animals with her human form so that they had the capabilities to switch between both forms at will. During this time Dýr found a companion of her own from one of the animal souls she gave back to the world. This companion followed her around the world and they soon fell in love, once her task was complete she went back to Erde'zema.Saaxir started his journey with his companion, teaching her of all his knowledge of the elements of the world. During their journeys, Saaxir started to fall in love with his companion and in hopes of impressing her created some natural wonders of the world. His companion grew to love him as well and she bore him five children before they made their way back to Erde'zema.Believing his feats to be much more valuable than his sisters, Saaxir expected Dýr to be alone and unhappy once they met again. When they both arrived in front of their mother though, Saaxir saw Dýr's companion and grew jealous despite having his own companion and children. He had believed himself to be much better and far more intelligent than his sister and so her happiness brought him much anger. In a fit of rage, Saaxir attacked Dýr and thus began a battle that lasted for years. Dýr with only the remnants of the animal souls she had given homes and mythological ones, used what she had left to defend herself and fight back. Saaxir brought down rocks from the sky and shot fire from his hands, doing all that he could to end Dýr's life. The battle lasted for years before Erde'zema intervened, angry with her children and the destruction they had wrought. From this the dyadic pact was created, Erde'zema creating an unbreakable bond between her two children that in order for either one to gain full access to their magic they must remain in this pact with the other. (Unknown to several people except for a few mage followers of the religion, it is said that in an ancient text that Saaxir was so upset at this pact that he tampered with Earth magic in order to extend his own life while he remained in this pact unbeknownst to Erde'zema.)The battle ended it and Dýr and Saaxir remained in their pact to assist the new inhabitants of the world. In his old age, Saaxir gifted each of his children with power over one element for his gifts to continue on. While in captivity Auriol explained that she was blessed with her animal form from her mother Dýr in order to be a messenger of the story of Erde'zema and her children. The guards were so captivated by Auriol's story that they let her go and spread her story to their friends and family and so on. Auriol spoke more of her story after she was let go and soon captured the fascination of several animal-shifters around the world. As she traveled to more mage populated settlements, Auriol came across another belief called Meteora and would explain to mages that the crater site was merely a result of the fight between Dýr and Saaxir. Lastly as the story goes, it was told that once Erde'zema believed that her children and the world would be okay - the Mother Goddess sank into the Earth in order to give it her own power to continue on. ☄ teachings Erdia is a form of Pantheism, thus the religion teaches that every being on Earth is a part of the Mother Goddess Erde'zema. The focal point for Erdia is to treats others how you would prefer to be treated. Kindness and compassion for others is a must, not for the lack of taking care of yourself. ☄ daily influence Erdia is considered to be a more ancient way of thinking compared to other such religions such as Meteora. Despite this, the religion is considered to be much more well regarded in the animal-shifter populace. Dýr's story is one that several animal-shifters relate too. ☄ saaxirism A subsect of the Eridian Church, they hold the same beliefs, though felt that Saaxir was wronged. This group is more populated by Mages, as they feel a stronger connection to their precursor. They generally feel that Saaxir was justified in attacking Dýr as Erde'zema treated them as equals when they clearly were not. Putting Saaxir into the same category as Dýr is considered blasphemous amongst its worshippers. The followers of this group see shifters as sub-human, as they understood old-Earth sentiments of animals being inferior to humans. Erde'zema must have recognized these old-Earth sentiments when creating her two children, thus inherently made her daughter inferior.
The Mages of this group do not believe the ancient text that stated Saaxir tampered with the Dyadic pact that bonded him with his sister, as it is disgraceful to his image and was forged to vilify him further. Instead, they have their own theories on the necessities of the Dyadic pact. While they see Shifters as beneath them, they will engage in the pact with them, in fact, every Mage it is encouraged and sometimes pressured for them to do so. The reason is that they believe that Erde'zema wants the Earth to take the form that it had previously, with animals being inferior to humans. Once every Shifter has been paired with a Mage, they believe that the Shifters will all take animal form permanently, bringing nature back into balance.
Saaxirism is not exclusively worshipped by Mages though, some Shifters also follow this sect. Often though, these Shifters will see themselves as inferior and desire to be the wild animals of Old-Earth, whether they’ve been brainwashed or outcasts of society that refuse to participate in a human world. These Shifters are highly regarded by Saaxirists as they believe that they perfectly exemplify how a Shifter should see themselves. Hybrids, on the other hand, are strictly forbidden, as is Mage-Shifter relationships. They see these relations as essentially marrying an animal, being just as taboo as Old-Earth.
Due to their beliefs, they often don’t get along with Erdian worshippers, though they are a much smaller section of their religion. As such, to avoid being phased out in historical times, Saaxirist were encouraged to falsely worship the regular Erdian doctrine. It is not considered blasphemous to follow the Erdian Church if the Saaxirist felt they were in danger of prosecution by their parent religion. This still stands to this day, though for the sake of social diplomacy. Since they desire to make a Dyadic pact with every Shifter, they must earn their trust enough to get that far. As such, Mages within the Erdian Church are seen as much less trustworthy considering that there are much fewer real followers of the Erdian faith than that of Saaxirism.
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