Faith of the Three Pillars

The Faith of Three Pillars or Sørligsteism originates from central Sørligste and the areas in and around Norvos and Port Leon. The religion primarily centers around the worship of the three chief deities of Sørligste, Equity, Atrophy and Erudition. There are also other minor gods and goddesses often having their own religions that are recognized.

Ancient History
In ancient times when the Akratian people appeared upon the lands of Sørligste and began their migration north and the pagi lived peacefully on their island and the valdic people weathered the frosty wastes, the three Deities known as Equity, Atrophy and Erudition appeared upon the world. Immediately they went out into the world influencing the people living upon it. Equity took to the natives that called themselves the pagi and instilled ideas of community and prosperity. Atrophy took to the shadows, corrupting those who lost their way and seeded feelings of despair and dread, wreaking havoc upon those who were weak. Erudition took to the skies watching over the land and people whispering words of encouragement to many in their sleep, giving them the strength to succeed. The influence of these gods went mostly unnoticed for thousands of years and many took up other gods and values blind to the ancient touch of the gods upon their minds and society. Despite this Equity was not angry but happy that the people were free, her values and being are said to be what brought the people of Lumaire together to form their grand republics. Atrophy now pushed further to the dark began planting dark seeds amongst the populace and fermenting dissent that would not bloom for some time. Erudition remained hidden yet all the while influential leading the rise of great scholars and leaders.

The Witch Queen
It is said that long ago a powerful witch ruled a region of Sørligste. Some theorize she appeared with the akratians, others believe she is a child of both pagi and akraitian blood. She had awoken to strong magical powers and some say out of grief she had cut a deal with dark entities older and more powerful than the three gods. Ketya the wicked queen dominated the continent from the shadows influencing events in Sorligste with impunity. Her practices seemed reminiscent of worship of Atrophy but was much worse. Dark whispers followed the witch and some say told her what to do. Of the many dark and grievous acts the banishment of Equity and Erudition was the most impactful. It through the forces that be into chaos leaving a void of power. This allowed the now unrestrained Atrophy to do what he pleased. Ruling from his dark hole he crashed upon the lands like a great wave. This resulted in many wars devastating the land and splitting the continents inhabitants into many factions and people infighting amongst each other. Some time would pass before Ketya would be discovered by nomad bandit's. It was surprisingly these bandits who would raid the Witch Queens home and ultimately end her reign releasing Sørligste from Ketya’s grasp and returning Equity and Erudition back to this realm.

With the return of Equity and Erudition they were disappointed in their brother Atrophy and went about setting the wrongs created into the rights. Atrophy still sees no wrong in his actions for not helping unbanish his siblings, suggesting to them that if the Void wanted them to return that they would in time.

Equity, Mother of Justice and Peace
One day we will all face judgment before the divine and we will be judged on our actions, intentions, and benefits. Equity embodies fairness and unbiased judgment encouraging mortals to follow by example, so their world might be easier to live in.

Equity is the embodiment of all justice, judgment, law, fairness, balance, equality  and order in the lands of Sørligste, and possibly beyond.

Equity and her sibling Erudition have been trapped for an unknown amount of time in their own divine realms by the witch queen Ketya. In the time she has been absent her eldest brother, Atrophy, has crept in from the shadows causing chaos and decay. Now though she has been released and seeks to once again help the people prosper and grow to be better and free.

Some of the people of the former GSF have adopted Equity as the head of their faith for her values, using her guidance for judgment on, wars, crimes, treaties, and freedom.

Followers of Equity are told to remove their bias when making decisions based around people, preferring to act upon facts of what you know to be true instead of rumors and stories.

Equity is a blind god with a blind fold of white cloth, her eyes weep the void for the dead and lost souls she could not save. Her eyes are future and past and her words are present. (All of these should be held to the highest respect)

Her crown is three pillars with blood stained near the top.

Her romen dress gown is black fading to white toward the top.

She wields a sword in her right hand and holds a soul lantern in her left.

She uses her sword to wage a righteous war against all who seek to destroy and commit evils upon her people and she uses the lantern to guide the people towards a safe and prosperous future both in life and after death. She will guide the souls back to the sky where they may watch over the world with her. Those souls who wish to return must face judgment. Equity will hold her lantern high for those who pass and light the path.

After the events of her imprisonment, Equity has held the removal of the stains of the witch queen Ketya as the highest priority. These stains take many forms and concepts, from lycanthropes to deep magic and sickness to memetic agents and cursed items. Equity is determined to scrub this darkness from the world.

Equity’s domain is known as the Celestial Confluence. From here she watches over the world, lighting the path for the souls of mortals and passing judgment on those who choose to return to the mortal world.

Ways to gain favor with Equity:
Removing bias in your decision making.

Judge others fairly and true.

Be the best person you can be.

Lift up those around you.

Build a prosperous society.

Cleans the wicked and evil.

Hunt bandits.

Repair the land and towns.

Pray.

Cure diseases, curses and memetic afflictions.

Rid the world of the scourge of the witch queen.

Keep Atrophy and his influence from expanding.

Perform sacrifices.

Atrophy, Lord of Bone and Shadow
The concepts of war, stagnation, decay, rot and death are dark and very real things that all living things will have to face whether they want to or not. For the natives of Sørligste war and ruin are no stranger. The constant rise and fall of nations here has caused a great depression to sweep the land in heart, mind and reality. The land contains great wastelands dotted with the ruins of fallen civilization, lost to time and chaos.

Atrophy is the embodiment of all rot, decay, stagnation, war, chaos, depression and death in the lands of Sørligste, and possibly beyond.

Atrophy sits upon his throne of bone and death in a pocket dimension known as the great pit, which is closely tied to the void, watching over the land, and influencing events from the shadows to inspire acts of war and decay.

Atrophy is the oldest of the three siblings and is seen as the catalyst and drive of the other younger gods giving them purpose in combating him and his influence.

Followers of Atrophy can often be misunderstood for being followers of the innate evil known as Entropy, for their similarity in domains. But they are different at heart. Entropy is chaos without a plan, bored and willing to play games. She would see the personality of Atrophy to be similar to that of stale bread. Atrophy is serious and focused on the goals at heart and refuses to play the petty games of his kin. Thus his followers are also similarly serious.

After Entropy’s death the world did not change. It grew stagnant and aged. If anything, things have gotten worse. Resources run dry and wars become more frequent. Many of the world's people have either chosen to turn to bloodshed or have fled. Few good rich things remain. This “evil” that washes over the land and the world at large could be Atrophy grasping at the world and filling the void that Entropy has left behind. Some may go further and say Atrophy planned for Entropy’s death or perhaps even orchestrated it to grow in power.

Ways to gain favor with Atrophy:
Participate in war and bring about destruction of morale and order.

In some way be influential in the downfall of civilization.

Seek truth and embrace the feral nature of humanity.

Build shrines

Sacrifice your humanity

Lead a life of Banditry.

Undermine his siblings

Steal and Loot

Lie

Lead from the shadows

Combating Atrophy
The most effective ways to simply combat Atrophy is to worship and follow the ways of his siblings Equity and Erudition. Other effective methods are to rebuild, repair and grow a strong moral foundation, form a strong community of outgoing and good people willing to persist and create and be active as a person.

The Sørligste Curse
For as long as the land has existed a rumored curse has been said to be present over the lands of Sørligste, only known as the Sorligste curse. The curse's effects are simple: People seem to leave the land or become very inactive. Nations spring up and crumble within days due to volatile population fluctuation that seems to be stuck in a constant downward pattern. Wars seem to be caused by the most petty of things. Adding to this the towns of Sørligste seem to have a magnetism for banditry and raiders. Enemies from all over the world seem to flock to these lands simply to make it bleed. Sørligste has been described as the wilds of Rathnir, the most untamed place in the world, a hellscape if nothing. For these reasons it is seen as being in hard mode living in Sørligste.

The curse is said to be Atrophy’s grip upon Sørligste. When it all started is debatable but many agree it all started when Atrophy’s siblings where banished from the world.

The Meta
Atrophy is our best way at giving a face to the very real Sørligste Curse. No one can explain why it is this way, so why not do as our ancestors have before us and describe it as a malevolent deity that only wishes to harm us and our efforts, it is the unknown after all and fear of the unknown is what weaves tales of monsters and terrors of legends.

Erudition, Mysterious Benefactor of Knowledge
Knowledge, self improvement, strength, powerful and vague, open concepts with open interpretation, all lead to a basic concept and path, to make one better.

People have naturally had the drives and urges to become powerful, smart, strong etc since the dawn of time. We aren’t too sure what drives it but some theorize it as the deep unfathomable power of the god Erudition.

Erudition is the most mysterious of the sibling gods of Sørligste. Only the basics can be understood and theory makes up for what we do not have. Only few things have come from the direct words of the god itself.

Known as the god of knowledge, growth, self improvement, lorewrights, historians, and omniscience, Erudition holds very powerful domains. Most living beings take a path in life that directly pleases or is seen by Erudition.

Unlike Eruditions siblings, Erudition is not known to have been present in the physical realm aside from the overworld on one occasion. The location of this physical appearance is only theorized, and recorded in holy texts. Despite the absence of presence in the physical realm many feel Erudition’s presence in apparitions, dreams, voices and miracles. A select few even receive physical gifts and messages that seem to appear without any explanation.

In the ancient past both Equity and Erudition were banished from the world of Rathnir by the evil witch queen Ketya. During this time the siblings were locked in their domains. Erudition, who resides in a mystical pocket realm known as the Shadowed Garden, rarely ever leaves this place to begin with. Despite this though Erudition was angered by the new found restriction on the freedom of movement. In retaliation Erudition sent several Entities known as Ühls to the overworld. These Ühls were powerful shadow entities who were sent to the world to carry out the will of Erudition during the age of imprisonment. These beings can be attributed to the fall of the witch queen and her minions and the continued surveillance of the world. Today these entities can be interpreted as the shadow angels of Erudition.

These angels have delivered the words of Erudition to the mortals of Rathnir and have laid out what we know today.

Ways to gain favor with Erudition:
Gain insight and knowledge of the past and present.

Become strong through any means.

Combat Atrophy and his foolish march towards the dark end.

Amass wealth and prosper

Praying

Studying

Training

Becoming stronger

Catalog history

Fire of Souls Festival
During this event a large feast will be held with Beet soup and Beer being the main focus of the dining, sweets are also aloud but must be available for everyone to grab from.

A large blue bonfire will be lit with the sacrifice of one item from each participant of their choosing.

Skirmishes, Spruce tree chopping, and bridge crossing while drunk will be the main event's with each one featuring a grand prize.

(This event is supposed to be a display for the gods so they might guide our souls when we die to the next life, judge for our character and actions)

Eve of Return
This holiday is to commemorate the return of Equity and Erudition after the banishment.

During this holiday followers will wear white clothing and a blank white face mask. This symbolizes the emptiness of the people and the wandering souls lost to oblivion during this time.

A gathering will be held and a greater prayer will be said and incense will be lit. Individuals will line up and one by one remove their masks, throwing them into a small fire that will grow with a growing number of masks.

The now exposed faces are adorned with gold paint patterns and a red stone dust is sprinkled on their heads.

When all are maskless a procession begins through the town to the local temple where a drinking and song commences until dawn.

Prayers
Prayers to equity-

Hail the holy mother of justice. May she guide my soul and bless my judgment.

Equity bless my righteous blade for these people are sinners who must be judged by your flame, guided by your light and born anew for the world to see peace.

Holy light guides my hand, their actions and my words cleanse these tainted beings.

Prayers to Atrophy-

God of death, king of bones, gaze upon us unworthy and give us resolve.

Praise be to the lord of dread, he who drinks the shadow. We offer ourselves up to you. Guide us and our souls down the right path

Prayers to Erudition-

Benefactor of knowledge grant your oversite, help guide me to enlightenment and betterment of my self and others

Ühles of Erudition here my prayer. Grant me resolve and drive. The strengthening of mind and body I offer to the holy.

My soul is steel, knowledge the hammer, Erudition the heat. In faith we forge ourselves better and strengthen our souls.

Rituals
Ritual of cleansing

Ritual of light

Ritual of the soul

Ritual of purification

Ritual of judgment

Ritual of knowledge

Ritual of holy silver and flame

Ritual of bone

Ritual of clear mind

Ritual of rebirth

Ritual of shadows