Deithweinism

Deithweinism is a religious belief, that is an adaptation of the old Polskon tribal beliefs by Deithwein. Today, it is the main belief in the town of Polskrige.

The main belief is that all nature has to be either preserved or altered to allow peaceful coexistence. Monks of Deithwein, sometimes perceived as druids by outsiders, are not allowed to harm any other human being except if they are attacked first.

Urmar Arganish and the creation of Rathnir (Gashrana)
In the beginning, the world was not more than a gigantic ocean. The ocean was not made out of water, but out of Arganish, the base of every material that exists today. The ocean was wild and cloudy, at some places cold, at some warm, and at some clear and calm. The pace of the flowing Arganish decided the time and the density decided the space. Slowly, the Urmar Arganish, the ancient sea, got more and more dense, and in a warm cloud of Arganish, which was more dense and warm than any other place, the cloud formed a solid substance. More and more Arganish settled around the substance, and so, Gashrana, the Earth, was born. Around the earth, the coldest Arganish settled, and the coolest of all formed a cloud around it. The substance in the middle of the ball, was Wheindet, and it would soon grow to become the goddess of life. She controlled all of the Arganish around her. First, she formed the warm and dense Arganish around her, and made it good and fertile soil. The colder dense Arganish formed the oceans. The cold and thin Arganish formed the Air, and the warm and thin Arganish became the light. She formed a solid sphere around Gashrana and thus formed the sky, on which the light settled in small points and one big point, which the people today call sun.

The Birth of Life
But Gashrana was still not finished. So Wheindet decided something: She formed the soil to many different figures, two of each kind, and let warm and fresh Arganish flow into them. At like a wonder, they became able to move and hear and see, and started populating Gashrana. She let trees grow, and gave them Arganish as well, thus let the trees grow fruit, which the lifeforms could eat to refresh their energy. And as a crown of creation, she created a giant tree, which could almost touch the sky. Some of the animals lived in the ocean, some roamed the skies, and many populated the forests. And at the roots of the world tree, the humans settled. Feeling, that the world was finally complete, and exhausted from the creation process, she fell asleep for a hundred thousand years.

The era of peace
The tales of the creation and of the gift of life were told years after. The people lived from the land, and fast learned how to plant new trees and grasses. The fields grew, and so did the population. Two became Four, Four became Eight, Eight became Sixteen, and so it went further. The people learnt to live in larger groups and soon they elected a king. His name was Ragnar, and he built the first caves under the roots of the world tree. But when they dug deeper and deeper, they came to a problem. They had a far way up. When Ragnar died after 500 years, his son, Garran inherited the throne.

The era of decline
When Garran came to power, they started to do something, that had never been done before. Under his rule, he let the people chop trees, seeing, that the wood was hard and suitable for building. He let them build houses, and built himself a large palace, five hundred feet long and two hundred feet wide. The people built more and more houses, and more trees were cut down. When after 250 years under his rule he died, the throne was passed to Narrag, who built an even bigger palace. After Narrag, there came Arngar, then Nargra, under whose rule the first metal was discovered, after his death Agrran came to power. Aggran was known to be very cruel. When anyone didn't follow his orders he was thrown into fire, where they burnt him to a slow death. This brought him the title Aggran the Arsonist. He didn't think much about the old legends, he began seeing them as wrong, and thus banned them in the whole country. When he ran out of space for his buildings and even larger palaces, he burnt the forrests down. The animals, who previously inhabited the large woods, were enslaved, farmed and eaten. And one day, he went to the world tree, and said:

"This tree has lived its days. It reminds every citizen of the old lies we have been told! BURN IT TO THE GROUND!" ~ Aggran the Arsonist

His followers cheered, and shot more and more burning arrows on the tree, shouting "All hail to the king" and "May a new era begin". The tree burned a hundred more years, covering the whole world in smoke. The people started hiding, and hatred grew in their hearts. The food got less and less and the trees and animals slowly perished the soil turned hard and grey forming what we today call stone. Disease spread, and people accused each other of having poisoned the food. A hundred year long civil war broke out, killing almost 90% of the world population.

The world tree had held Gashrana in balance, but now it was burnt down, and the world was doomed.

Era of Warlords
Humanity split in different factions, one led by Granar the Small, from who the dwarves descend, he settled in the mountain valleys, where they lived in caves. The second was led by Angror the Hunter, whose people inhabited the forests and hunted only as much as they needed. They later became the elves. The third was led by Gronar, who led the humans far away over the ocean, where they lived scattered over the continents in small tribes and slowly forgot their home and history. They called the land behind the ocean Garathna, which later became Rathnir. The last one, under Gornra the Tyrant, was the group who stayed in the old settlement, where no hope was left under the black sun.

Then, an era of war shaped Gashrana. Many people from the Elves and Dwarves left for Rathnir in that time, living there as nomads.

Wheindet's Awakening and St. Deithwein
When all hope for the continent of Gashrana was lost, Wheindet awoke. The war had been going for 10000 years without a stop. In anger that the humans got greedy and cruel, Wheindet thought of a plan. She let it rain in Gashrana, so much, that Gashrana sank into the ocean. The humans of Garathna were safe, their land was higher above the sea.

But Wheindet feared after some time, that the people of Garathna could get greedy as well. So she sent her son Deithwein up to Garathna, and he brought the ideas of peaceful living with him. He taught the people, who lived in the mountains of Polskon, what a good person has to be with the help of ten commandments. He built a monastery on the hills of Polskon which stands to this day. He found a Tenrian child on his travels, which he adopted some time later. When he died after a long time, he gave his Monastery to the young Zartacla, who converted the new settlers founding the Kingdom of Polskon. Zartacla joined the town Polskon shortly after.