The Faith of The Many

= The Faith of The Many =

Overview
The Faith of The Many is a polytheistic spiritual faith that is mainly practiced in Fjellheim, though has members all across the world. It is the amalgamation of four different religions that have maintained their individual practices in the four paths of the faith.

While each path may have different scripture, goals, or main deities, they all have the same core values and acknowledge all the same deities. The religion is headed as a whole by The High Council who consist of The Four High Priests of each of the paths, Esteemed Monks who are promoted and brought into the high council by vote in the council, as well as The Head Scribe and/or Head Inquisitor, if those roles are filled at the time.

Paths
The Four Different Paths function pretty much on their own, with the exception of big scripture canonization (as canon scripture can differ from path to path), or other grand-scale events.

The Path of The Knowledge Seekers
By far the largest and most active path, The Path of The Knowledge Seekers was founded and is currently headed by High Priest Hel'Seri, an avid scribe and monk within the path and the faith at large. Originally, The Spirits of The Violet Sun, this changed when Hel'Seri (who was the First Prophet of The Spirits of The Violet Sun) first met Mzechi-Tlachi, who would go on to found The Path of The Peace Keepers, and together the two started to put together the basic ideas of the religion before meeting with the other two founders.

The Path of The Knowledge Seekers have a main goal of collecting, protecting, and preserving knowledge no matter the content or type. Their temple within The Four Temples is The Divine Library of The Violet Sun, a vast and open library with crypts extending deep into the ground where they house most of their collection. Being devoted to the acquisition and preservation of knowledge means that, for a lot of the followers, they must keep an open mind when dealing with those outside of their faith. The original religion of the path, The Spirits of The Violet Sun, started off as a folk religion within the nation of Fjellheim and thus called for a more spiritual understanding and ritual to the religion, rather than a organized church effort, emphasizing the individual's understanding and relationship with deities they call "Mui" or "Spirits" instead of a strict guideline for all. This made it very easy for a lot of discussion to take place both internally and externally as well as both religious and secular which, in turn, made the transition from The Spirits of The Violet Sun to The Path of The Knowledge Seekers very easy for a lot of practicing members. Notably, however, not all practicing members of The Spirits of The Violet Sun chose to follow The Path of The Knowledge Seekers, instead choosing to follow another path or be Non-Denominational. Regardless, most who follow the path also identity culturally with The Spirits of The Violet Sun.

The Path prides itself with its large selections of texts, scrolls, and books; ranging from niche religious prayers to well known secular poetry. Largely credited with coining the phrase for the Faith of The Many–"Many Names, Many Faces; Many Tongues, Many Places"–, they are very open to all types of ideas with the exceptional of anti-intellectualism and have been known to work with many sources and institutions outside their own religion.

The Knowledge Keepers also have interesting cultural practices, rituals, and beliefs, though, these are mostly remnants/practiced in The Spirits of The Violet Sun (i.e. The Decoration of The Deceased).

Main Scripture
As stated before, there is different canon scripture for different paths, though each path follows what is referred to as "The Big Four", which are four holy texts written and compiled by the original prophets who founded the religion. There are some other texts that are taught by all, but none to the scale that The Big Four are.

The Big Four are outlined as follows:

The Founding
The Founding (Rudgamihiti in Fjelli) is a religious text dating to approximately 2 Sic Holhata according to The DLVS' dating system: The Founding