Beetriaty

Beetriaty is a religion that believes in making the world accept the beetroot. They believe that the messages of gods can be heard through the beetroot, and mass destruction and death are certain for those who deny the beetroot. The religion is split between hardcore cultists who worship the many deities of Beetriaty as individual gods, and Aethochronists who view the deities as vessels of the one god Aetho.

For those who view it as a branch of Onion Aethochronism, they believe the deities of Beetriaty are vessels of the god Aetho because of their wings and how they too communicate through vegetables like Aetho is said to communicate through onions.

Mythological history
The actual origins and events in the history of Beetriaty have been twisted. This is the story that most Beetrians currently believe, but the events of the founding changed a lot from recorded history over the years.

Origins
Beetriaty originated in the catacombs of Solanaria, a city in Bardonia. Followers of Tuberism in Solanaria condemned the worshippers and consumers of the beetroot as they were committing 'heretical' acts. All 'alleged' beetroot consumers and worshippers, which is debated to have included a lot of the innocent non-religious population, were slaughtered or imprisoned in the city's dungeons where they were tortured or executed. All the corpses of the victims of the massacre were thrown into the mostly unexplored lower levels of the catacombs where they would remain unseen for several years.

The ideology was founded when Jorgel and his Tuberist father Hipps descended into the catacombs where they found a cauldron of beetroot and human soup. The deity Cauldrax emerged from the cauldron and slayed Jorgel's father, before making Jorgel drink from the cauldron to see the truth. It spoke to Jorgel, reminding him of the massacre he saw the Tuberists commit as a child, and delivered him the message, "Through beetroot and blood they can all be saved."

These words caused Jorgel to devote himself to Beetriaty and spread its messages.

Fall of the founder
Soon after Jorgel would encounter the deity Bthoro. He raised a small cult of worshippers named the Sons of the Cauldron and joined with other enemies of Tuberism from elsewhere in Bardonia (Aethochronists from Annunor). His ultimate plan was to contaminate the entire vodka supply of the city of Solanaria with beetroot to enlighten the population. When his beetroot hoard was discovered by Tuberist authorities, the plan fell through. Soon after Jorgel was captured by the tyrant mayor Erian Seiz. He survived an execution but was killed by a stab to his heart in the ensuing battle between loyalists to Erian and rebel groups. At the end of his life, the cultists performed a ritual funeral with the founder's body.

Battles against the Tuberists
After the founder's death, there have been a series of battles against the Tuberists. The largest of these are named the Tuber Crusades, but there have also been several smaller skirmishes involving beetroot worshippers and Tuberists.

The First Battle of the Roots was a battle in which Onion and Beetroot Aethochronists and the Sons of the Cauldron joined forces to defend the giant roots that emerged outside of Port Solanaria as Tuberist Crusaders planned to burn them. After their commander, Cedar, was injured, the Aethochronists and cultists retreated to Virothen. Some of the cultists were left behind in the darkness of the roots and were picked off. The battle was ultimately won by the Tuberists.

The Battle of the White Cliffs happened after their loss at the roots, when the forces soon regathered. They constructed a wooden fort on the white cliffs overlooking the Phagosian Sea. The Tuberists soon followed suit and built their own fortress. When all the preparations were made, the Aethochronists and Beetrians marched out towards the Tuberist's fort to attack. The Tuberists pushed them back to their fort, but suddenly Bardonian Dandelist soldiers swarmed the Tuberists' rear. Their formation was broken and they were quickly cut down and forced to retreat into their city's walls. It was an overwhelming victory against Tuberism.

In the Second Battle of the Roots, the group rallied their strength again to liberate the great roots and attack the city of Solanaria itself. But their armies were much smaller than before. After realising this, Onion Aethochronists decided against fighting and instead made a deal with the Tuberists. The Beetroot forces were left alone to battle again at the roots and lost.

After their loss, the Sons of the Cauldron's numbers were diminished greatly and they were forced into different warfare tactics. They would make smaller attacks intended to cause maximum disruption within Solanaria and grow their resources. A group of former city guards and Vacy Mafia members prepared to export drugs across the Phagosian sea at the city's docks. The Sons of the Cauldron launched a surprise ambush on the ship after all the drugs were loaded. This skirmish is commonly referred to as the Ambush at Saint's Harbour. After a fight, they captured the ship along with all its exports successfully.

Sanctity of beetroots
Beetroots are undisputedly an object of major importance in Beetriaty. The condemning of beetroots ultimately caused the deities to reveal themselves to man in hopes of ridding the world of beetroot hate, and the eating of beetroots can cause people to be spoken to and enlightened by the gods. This shows how beetroots are the main connection between humans, the underworld, and the divine.

Day of Reckoning
The Day of Reckoning is an idea shared and accepted by many faiths, but none look forward to the end of the world as much as Beetrians. Followers of Beetriaty anticipate that the rest of the world will be punished by the gods for their mistreatment of the Beetrians and Beetroot worshippers and ignorance of the gods. They believe that Beetrians themselves will be at one with the gods as they spectate the destruction of every last block in the world. It is believed that Bthoro, a huge horned deity will rise from the sea and overlook this destruction.

Cleansing of disbelievers
Hardcore Beetrians believe they must rid the world of those who deny the beetroot. They will spread the word of Beetriaty and proselytize others, but if this fails, they will not hesitate to use violence against those who do not accept the beet. This is based on the first message of Beetriaty, "Through Blood and Beetroot they can all be saved". Beetrians show particular violence towards Tuberists. The religion of Tuberism strongly condemns the worshipping of the beetroot. There is a recorded history of Beetroot worshipper execution in Tuberism's holy city of Port Solanaria occurring in many gruesome ways not limited to public beheading, genocide, imprisonment and starvation, torture, and burning at the stake. For this reason, plots against Tuberists are frequent in Beetrian History. Notably, the Sons of the Cauldron planned to contaminate the city's entire vodka supply and mailed many beetroot poisoning devices to the locals of Solanaria.

Consumption of beetroots
Beetrians should regularly eat beetroots to show their loyalty to the deities, Aetho and love of the vegetable. This is one of the most basic practices done by Beetrians. Beetroots are most commonly eaten raw or cooked as a soup; some enjoy the delicacy of human blood in their beetroot soup. It is believed that the consumption of the beet means Beetrians can hear the deity Cauldrax or Aetho communicating with them.

Cauldron Baptism
A convert to the Sons of the Cauldron should undergo the ritual baptism to be accepted into the cult. This involves the complete submersion of the body into hot beetroot soup. Here the beetroot of the soup binds with their body and soul, and the words of Cauldrax enlighten them to true Beetriaty.

Ritual funeral
The traditional Beetrian cult funeral involves the removal of the heart of the Beetrian, which is then replaced by a beetroot. The body is then placed on a raft or vessel of some sort before being pushed out to sea. This ritual is based on the funeral of the founder. The idea is that the Beetrian will be united with Bthoro who lives at sea, and during the day of reckoning, because of their beetroot heart, they will be able to rise again and witness the destruction of the planet. The heart of the dead is often drained of all its blood which is drank by other cultists.

Deities
Aethochronist Beetrians believe that the many deities of Beetriaty are all vessels and creations of Aetho, the one god. Other Beetrians, such as the Sons of the Cauldron, believe each deity is an individual god.

Aetho
Aetho is the eagle god. The supreme deity and creator of the universe is believed by Beetroot Aethochronists to communicate with followers through beetroots. It also is believed to have the ability to create the other gods or incarnate itself in the many forms of the Beetrian deities, which are all winged.

Bthoro
The giant horned deity Bthoro is believed to be the most powerful god by Sons of the Cauldron.

Bthoro has two huge arching horns on either side of his skull-like head, he has bright crimson red skin, wings and a human-like build with his chest open and exposing his ribs and heart, his heart has the appearance of a huge beetroot. Although he has only been seen from the waist up, Beetrians say that he is 100 metres tall.

He first appeared to Jorgel Rykuh, emerging out of the seas outside of Port Solanaria at the white cliffs of Syltor up to his waist. He appeared here again a second time, but only his head emerged above the water, to swallow the body of the founder during his ritual funeral. It is believed that Bthoro will swallow the bodies of all cultists who have gone through the correct ritual funeral (removal of the heart and replacement with a beetroot), so that they can be born again to watch him destroy any deniers of beetroots at the end of days.

Cauldrax
The first deity to reveal itself and cause the beginning of Beetriaty.

The deity is tall skinny and human-like in appearance. It does however have red skin, six arms, wings, two horns and an extremely gaunt, almost skull-like head. The deity often moves by crawling with its six arms, and dwells inside of cauldrons of beetroot.

This deity crawled out a cauldron of soup to kill the founder's father and convert him to Beetriaty. It is believed the whispers of this deity are contained within the soup he dwells in, and can often be heard by those drinking beetroot soup. Allegedly the deity was born when a beetroot worshipper was boiled alive in a cauldron by the Tuberists as a method of torture.