Fjaldian Faith

The Fjaldian Faith is the standardization and culmination of the Heimrean folk traditions that originated in the region of Heimr. The Faith was codified in Hofn-Heimr after a clash of folk traditions and Mountic Thought. The Fjaldian faiths main practices concern the after life and how one should live their life. The Fjaldian faith has had a prescience in four contents across two worlds. It is one of the state religions in the Federation of Halge and is followed by a wide population there.

Creation
All Fjaldian histories start with the world already existing and being led by ¨Fjals of Darkness ¨. This is widely understood to mean that evil or dark gods led the world; not that literal Fjals who were evil led the world. The Fjalda then came into being. They were the fractured pieces of one source god from another realm they were escaping from, due to its death. The Fjalda at this time consisted of Audue and Ruk, who had no knowledge of the world they were from or the one they now found themselves. They would then slay ¨Fjals of Darkness¨ along with many other gods native to the world.

Chaos
After the death of the worlds dark overlords the world then fell into a great war were all gods and spirits of the world would battle. The Fjalda did not know who was in the right and wrong of any of these battles so even with there great power they could do nothing to bring the world into order. Over time the Fjalda found allies who would teach them the ways of the world and its history. As the Fjalda's knowledge and allies grew they would begin to bring the world into a peaceful age.

A Brave New World
The greatest crimes of the ¨Fjals of Darkness ¨ were ¨killing the sun¨ and forcing the gods and spirits of the world onto Jagdas. Once peace had been regained the Fjalda would correct these great sins. They would ¨rebirth the sun¨ by lift the palace of the gods, a place of pure light the ¨Fjals of Darkness¨ had ruled from, into the sky illuminating the world. Many beings had adapted to the darkness so they had this ¨new sun¨ rotate around the world so darkness could return for those who needed it once a day. The Fjalda also allowed the gods, spirits, and sapient beings that had been forced onto, the now war torn, Jagdus out into the broader world so they could prosper.

Not Just Power
Before peace was established the Fjalda were nameless beings who only worried about survival and healing the scars that they believed they had inflicted apon the world. All of this changed after the great chaos was ended, and the Fjalda stopped just being incarnations of power, but rather people with personality and attributes. Under Fjaldian tradition this is the time period were the Fjalda were truly born.

Ruk
Ruk is often depicted as a Raven, but is always depicted as a bird post chaos. Ruk is almost always described as being female, or simply as sounding like a woman. Some older texts describe Ruk with a term that some anthropologists think describes a third gender or simply non-binary. Other anthropologists think that this term is merely an older term for female. Both interpretations are accepted by the Fjaldian church itself and while main line church documents use She/Her pronouns some town churches do not. Ruk is often called the mother of the dead as she is the one who allowed for life to continue after death. Ruk had all of the other gods pool their energy and give it to the non-divine sapient creatures of the world so when they died their consciousness could counties along with that energy in the after life which Ruk would create. All of the other gods agreed in exchange for Ruk staying out of their affairs and so a portion of all of the gods and spirits divine energy was given to Ruk making her by for the most powerful being in the world. Ruk would then create their palace which we know as the moon. Ruk is know for being caring, but short tempered and fickle. Ruk does not intervene in mortal or divine affairs often and when she does it is to rectify a believed self created problem or prevent something that effects her.

Audue
Audue is most commonly depicted as a Yak, but has also been depicted as a bear and goat. Audue is exclusively depicted as being male. Audue while at some points having titles like their counter part Ruk, Audue has no dominant or established titles. With that being said Audue has been called the ¨Land Wonderer,/Father¨, ¨Bear of the West¨, and the ¨Mountain King¨. Audue is the physical embodiment of every physical non-water feacher under the sky. Weather that be forest, mountains, caves, and every thing underneath the surface. Audue often had great problems with encompassing to much. Embodying everything, but water and the sky was incredibly taxing and led to many problems.

The Beginning
The Fjalda for the most part act as a ¨figure head¨ for an area of nature or the world. Ruk does over see the after life, and along with it the sky, but this because Ruk created it, while Audue did very little in comparison. Ruk represents the sky and the after life as they are one in the same, but Audue represented everything under the sky. The power of belief is very strong so over time as people began to split the things under the sky into different categories they began to split these new categories into different gods/groups of gods. This intern began physically pulling Audue apart. The Fjalda couldn't do anything to stop it as that would require directly meddling in mortal affairs a thing they had sworn off.

The First Battle
This state of affairs would escalate until Audue properly split into two distinct entities. Those two entities would dub themselves Buck, the nature god, and Huk, the god of earth. Buk and Huk were new to the world and knew nothing as they were basically new born children. Ruk would admittedly jump into action and try to get Buck and Huk to reform Audue as Ruk didn't want to loose her brother. Ruk would battle Buck and Huk for some time, but could never force them to re-unite. Over time though their battles began to threaten their power among the other gods which threatened to spark another great Chaos. Buk and Huk recognized this as they had begun to learn more about the world and so they met with Ruk on a mountain. They considered mountains to be neutral places as it is were the ground meets the sky and is blanketed with nature. After lengthy talks Huk and Buck merged, bringing back Audue.

An Awful Cycle
Audue would never be the same after this and many more splits would take place. This era is blamed for Audue's mixed and jumbled image as he would often act in illogical ways as he was slowly torn apart and then forced back together. All of this would continue in a awful cycle of Audue being split, then Buck and Huk reeking havoc, and then them merging because of the threat of the other gods.

The Heimreans
Every time Audue split there had never been real damage. No one had ever been harmed it was always just broken trees and Ruks time being wasted. That was until the battle was done on the Heimrean plateau. During the battle many of the human Heimrean natives were harmed and their local gods were killed. Even still battle would go on in the region for some time. This would carve valleys into the once flat plateau and begin to divide the Heimreans. Once the battle ended after ages of fighting Audue and Ruk would be racked with guilt by leaving the Heimreans godless, after killing theirs. Audue and Ruk would then reveal themselves to the Heimreans on a mountain top that would later be called, ¨The Heimr¨. They would gifts the Heimreans many things for example a unified language. After this every Heimrean began worshiping the Fjalda and Fjaldianism was born. Because the Heimreans worshiped Audue as one being he was more able to stay as one being.

Audue the Man
Many texts believe that the first united Heimrean leader, and war hero, Hagor the Great, was the son of, the embodiment of, or a vessel for Audue. Hagor had many traits that he shared with Audue and Hagor is said to have done great magic that only a Fjalda is said to poses. Some have asked by Audue would have inhabited a human vessel/taken a human form and speculate that it may have been a method to prevent splitting. Hagor was one of the greatest Heimreans and is worshiped as a saint for keeping the Heimreans independent up until his death. Shortly before his death he negotiated integration into Frostmarch, the nation he had been resisting

The Heimreans Fade
After the Heimrean integrated into the Frostmarch their culture began to fade as the mainline Valdic language superseded the Heimrean branch and the religion of Nostíkur began to take root. Due to this Audue would begin to start splitting more and more as faith in him wavered. Some Heimrean groups would even begin to worship Buck and Huk independently. This would be the last nail in the coffin and any good the Heimreans had once done was no more.

Audue no More
Overtime the Heimreans would make a resurgence, but due to the split over worshiping Buck and Huk or Audue it didn't matter. Audue and Ruk still did their best to protect the Heimreans, but really couldn't due to what amounted to a civil war in Audue. During one of Audues splits the Heimreans would be invaded and deported from their lands. This would be the last straw for Audue and he would make a choice he had long contemplated. He intenchaly split himself into Buck and Huk and told Ruk not to get them to merge. He also created a new god with all of His knowledge and wisdom called Palna.

Buck
Buck takes the form of a stag, or other Cervidae. He embodies all of nature and is his official role within the world of the gods is to protect it. Buck and his brother are known for not being the most responsible as relative to the other gods they are very young and often don't fallow their role in the order of things. Buck is most known for playing tricks on people who venture to deeply into the woods. Their dedicated followers have always been relatively small as Fjaldianism after Audue's death has mostly been practiced in urban environments, but that is changing as Fjaldianism expands and the Heimreans begin settling more rural environments. There are a small group of Heimreans seen as more nationalistic who predominantly worship Buck and see him as a god above all others.

Huk
Huk has many forms; some include a mole, goat, bear, and ground hog. Huk is seen as generous and giving, but can still be childish like his brother. Huk is more widely fallowed then his brother, but does not have many followers who worship him above all others. Some mining towns makes sacrifices to him before large mining operations and some communities believe mine shaft tunnels should be collapsed in his name so the earth can heal the wound.

Palna
Palna is solely depicted as a lama/alpaca. They have been dubbed the traveling mother and shelter of the people. Palna is seen as a protector of the Heimreans and travelers broadly. This is do to them being created around the time the Heimreans began their great journey north and them taking the form of a lama which were widely used during the great journey. They are seen as being a distinctly Heimrean god while the others are merely worshiped by the Heimreans and serve the broader world. They have all of the memory and wisdom of their father Audue so is seen as their successor and as much more sway with the rest of the gods.

Evolution of Fjaldianism
As time has passed the ways in which the Fjaldian church has acted has changed a great deal. This is like wise for which beliefs and interpretations