Gisdalfgoda

The Church of Six Divines is a polytheistic religion originating from Illerya, colony of the Kingdom of Daelyria. It's a modernized version of pagan beliefs practiced by tribals living on uncharted islands north of Rathnir. No longer than 30 years ago said islands froze due to a drastic climate change, forcing their inhabitants to flee south under the leadership of Camilius III of The Tribe Unmourned, who transformed loose pagan beliefs into an organized religion to make it fit better into more civilized societies of Rathnir. They continuously settled and were expelled from kingdoms with lesser freedom of belief, until finally settling in the city of Illerya, built by Kushite refugees where they were accepted into the society and allowed to practice their religion, raised a temple and converted few locals to the ways of the Holy Six. Followers of this religion often become self proclaimed preachers, travelling across Rathnir spreading their faith far and wide.

Beliefs
To understand the beliefs of the Church of Six Divines one must first understand the concept of Essentia - mystical energy (or matter, scholars are still unsure of that.) that binds itself together in many diffrent aspects to create all animate and inanimate matter in this realm. The mountains, the oceans, the trees and the rocks - everything is made of essentia. As mentioned before, Essentia can take many diffrent aspects, every aspect of essentia manifests itself as a separate Divine. Before our world was created, all essentia was without proper form, floating through time and space in the Realm of Chaos (known to most as The Void), domain of the first Divine - Chern, the God of Chaos.

'' "In the begining there was Chern - the Chaos, both everything and nothing, everywhere and nowhere, always and never." ''

 ~ Book of the Six Divines 

The world remained in metaphysical chaos for an unknown peroid of time, until two droplets pieces  specks  particles units of essentia were bound together into a rock-like substance impossible to break, suspected to be the Bedrock. At that instant the second Divine of The Holy Six was born - Byel, the God of Order. Byel quickly begun creating more Bedrock, while Chern was destroying it. The two deities began their endless battle, both equally powerful, neither strong enough to win.

'' "From chaos, The Order was born, when two droplets of essentia bound into the stone unbreakable. Byel was his name and in his hands a speck of sand became a pebble, a pebble became a boulder and a boulder became a mountain. Chern despised his brother's creation, he used his hands to tear the stone apart and take it back into his realm. Both brothers were of equal strenght, thus their struggle was endless and neither could win." ''

 ~ Book of the Six Divines 

The battle of two almighty beings must have realeased unimaginable amounts both chaos and order essentia into the Void. This energy, combined in right proportions created the remaining four Divines of The Holy Six - Igni, the God of Fire - Vikhr, the God of Air - Terra, the God of Earth - Aqua, the God of Water. Newly created deities join their brothers in their endless war over the domination of the plain of existence created by Byel. Unlike Chern and Byel, four divines had both the power to create and destory, and in their struggle slowly created more and more lesser deities and transformed the realm of Byel into a habitable world, the one we call home.

'' "The battle of almighty brothers was intense. The blood, sweat and spit they shed in their effort was full of life-giving essentia tainted by both order and chaos. The essentia mixed in the void, like the waters of two mountain torrents birthing four new warriors into the celestial battlefield - Igni, the Flame, who warms the realm and burns it to ashes - Vikhr, the Wind, who gives the realm breathable air and blows it with hurricanes - Terra, the Earth, who tills the stones into fertile soils and tears them with mighty earthquakes - Aqua, the Water, who sprinkles life-saving rains and floods the land - each able to both create and destroy, capable of chaos and order. The four and the two before them were the names of the Six Blades Evercrossing, from sparks they shed new blades were forged, the blades that cut the land and it's inhabitants into proper shapes and sizes - so their followers may forever keep them eqally strong. Amen." ''

 ~ Book of the Six Divines 

After the Realm was shaped and filled with flora and fauna, the last divine was created from the remaining essentia - Populus, God of Men. He refused to waste his power on the endless fight over the Realm of Byel and instead used it to create Humanity. Other Deities felt envy, seeing the perfect creation of Populus. They tried to recreate and later destroy it, but were unable to. So instead they defeated Populus and tried to consume his essentia to control humanity and use it's power to take over the realm. To protect his power, before his death he gave every human a part of his essentia, giving them a soul and a free will to praise any divine they wish so the sacred balance might be forever kept. Every soul had tiny amounts of essentia from other Divines within itself, so every human was made with unique combination of personality traits and spiritual preferences to help guide them to the correct Divine.

''"Long after the fighting gods shaped the realm and filled it with life, from the dust that remained on the celestial battlefield the last almighty was born, the one unlike his brothers. He refused to participate in the battle over the realm, for he was wise and knew it was pointless. Blue was his blood and Populus, God of Men was his name, he used all the strenght in his hands to shape humanity. His creation was better than any of his brothers could achieve and it could rival any other force in the realm. His brothers envied him. First they tried to create something better than Men, but they failed for they wasted their strenght on fighting each other. Then they all tried to destroy his creation, yet failed again, for they wasted their strenght on fighting each other. His brothers understood that the power within humanity is the key to winning their endless struggle, so they all turned against Populus. Filled with envy and rage, the Divines attacked the God of Men, each one tearing him apart, trying to feed of his flesh and control the humanity, but Populus with his mind free of anger was wise and in his dying breath whispered to his children: <<My name is Populus, the master crafter and father of all Men. As my divine brothers turn on me, craving the power within my flesh to break the sacred balance I come to you my kin, with my final gift. Yesterday I gave you life, today I divide my godly essence equally between all of you, gifting you with soul and free will so tommorow you can praise my brothers to keep my power equally divided between them all. Do not fear praising the wrong brother, for with my power I gift you a piece of my wisdom and as long as you listen to your heart you shall never choose wrong.>> His word turned into action and his children were all gifted a soul, that like a sponge gathered tiny droplets of essentia from his brothers, giving each human unique personality, goals and ideals. Now go, turn my words into action, walk this realm and help your fellow kin see the way of the Divines so we may all guard the gift of Populus and keep his brothers in balance. Amen."''

~ Book of the Six Divines

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