Dercesism

Derces is what most Trajistavi people belive in. Its beliefs promote the Derces, the unity of the terms God (which does not signify a divine being to Derces followers), Infinity and Universe. In Derces, all of these terms are synonyms and therefore have the same meaning. Derces was a mortal being that eventually turned into the Universe and its whole: The Infinite.

History
Dercesism in its present form was first developed in The Kingdom of Trajistav, in the faraway realm known as Grotth, about a couple hundred of years ago, before the cataclysm of Grotth.

Derces was a young and bold adventurer, who claimed that one day he would reach the stars of the dark night sky and that he will enlighten the world even more. He went as far as to wish for no more dark and depressive rainy or cloudy days, desiring an evergoing state of satisfaction and accomplishment for all beings. His first steps in the quest to reach the stars were hard, for the overconfidence he had dragged him down each time he tried to climb the great mountain that would raise him closer to the sky. Derces had to climb down the mountain, for his people told him that will and strength alone can not get one far enough. He began to wander across the land, searching for the other virtues that the people told him he required. In each tribe that he met he had to accomplish tasks that would teach him wisdom, courage, truth and The Union of Man in order to escape from the temptation of his instincts.

As time passed, scholars and clergymen began to question the meaning of the word Derces due to several archaeological discoveries from the homeland. There were symbols, a star and a curved shape that connected two circles, representing infinity. These discoveries from ancient Trajistavi sites led to several years of uncertainty regarding the identity of the gods and whether they exist or not.

Scholars and clergymen have eventually reached a consensus, considering that Derces was not a god, but that it conveyed a meaning. The Unions through which the soul and the body wandered were no longer realms of gods or mortals. Derces gained the newly discovered meaning of truth. The ancient Trajik people, having been led by other empires and cultures that have eventually faded away from history and time, may have been infused with the ideas of actual deities through legends and spoken tales. However, Derces and The Unions were in fact a simple celebration of life and its virtues.

The Unions and the Afterlife
Life consists out of two unions that are separate realms: The Union of Derces and The Union of Man.

The final afterlife, which is known as The Union of Derces is a transcendent state in which the soul of an individual becomes one with Derces. In Derces there are no boundaries. The Union of Derces is the purest form of life, the celebration of all nature which is as it should be. Those who have passed through to The Union of Derces will have finally discovered the true meaning of life. However, until one manages to reach The Union of Derces, one must pass through several lives in order to attain the knowledge which will allow the soul to transcede into The Union of Derces before the ending of the last life in the cycle of The Union of Man.

The Union of Man represents our material plane and life and constitutes life as we all perceive it currently. It is the state in which our soul has to learn to take control over the entirety of the body as to make it a tool for the attainment of knowledge and truth. It is through these lifetimes that we learn to overcome the easy temptation of sin. After a lifetime has passed, the soul wanders for an unknown period of time between both Unions. A soul can sometimes choose wrong and may end up losing its previous knowledge. Rarely it occurs that one individual can reincarnate into one of his own close relatives, a reason for celebration among the specific family.

The Ascețyi
There are, among the Derces Pantheists, some that dedicate their life to knowledge and wisdom, trying to learn how and why do we exist in The Infinite and why is it that we are bound to our limited bodies, yet capable of so much.

These people are known as The Ascețyi, and they lead a solitary life, devoting themselves to lecturing, thinking and discussing or debating only with those who follow the same path as they do. These people usually coexist in places far away from any other societies, in remote monasteries. Visitors are not allowed, to enter such locations, unless they have a special grant to do so from a Velik Mudryman (a High-wiseman), which is one who has served long enough as one of The Ascețyi and has decided to spread the words of wisdom to all people of the world, thus ending their self-imposed seclusion. Usually, Velik Mudrymanyi serve the King at his court, although they are also teachers in universities or schools, or practice any profession as long as it does not intervene with all the beliefs proper to Derces.

The Knights of Truth
From Trajistavi, the word ”Valvat” would rougly be translated in english as ”truthfulness, honesty, veridicity”, or even ”axiomatic”. This fraternal order known as ”Valvat Kavaleryi”, translated as ”The Knights of Truth”, are also protectors of Ascețyi that choose to travel through dangerous paths.

The Knights of Valvat also act as an order of justice and truth, taking it upon themselves to act as judges in matters of the common folk. This order also hunts any bandits and criminals and seeks to punish them. The Knights of Truth hold their headquarters in castles, also acting as an elite body of the Trajistavi army.

Symbols
Derces Pantheism has two main symbols, the first being the Infinity mark, which represents the Union of Derces, "all things as they are". This is a strong reminder that whatever we do, it was all meant to be as it is, and that we should be grateful for the balance and equilibrium that it represents.

The second symbol is a five-pointed star. Each ray of the star represents wisdom, intelligence, honesty, love and unity, all bound together by the middle of the star which represents truth, or Derces itself. This symbol represents The Union of Man.