Osterian Villagerism

Osterian Villagerism is a different interpretation of Villager Lore, made by the osterian people as they learned and adapted things from Villager Lore that they learn from the original population of Osteri, villagers. This religion not only includes many conceps from it's original version, but adds many elements exclusive to the way to view the world of the Osterian and how they interpretated the things teached to them by the villagers.

History
The Osteri found their way through the wave into a villager town, where they were later accepted. As they lived with the villagers they adopted many of their costums and amoung them they learned about their religion. Although many things that the villagers told them sounded wrong to the osterian they started to appreciate many of the things that their host teach them. As much of the sailors had been kicked out of their original homes by war and fammine their belifes on their previous gods were weak and villagerism, at least what they could understand about it through the language barrier,  gave more logic to their struggles.

Pre-Vanishment Era
As Lonely Light started to develop and the osterian population settled they began to adopt villagers. This adoption was not well recorded but is understood that the villagers were doing the best they could do to teach the lore and maintain it's values. During this era it saw little changes from it's original form and, despite being practicated by the osterian, largely dependant on the villagers to carry on any type of ceremony and to keep sacred books. As the language barrier could never be truly broken many of these books are lost to translation and are used today as relics.

Vanishment Era
As the villagers started to die of strange circusatnces the religious teachings stopped, starting a crisis of Villager Lore on the island. The osterian did their best to help the villagers, and to take religious responsibilities. Due to this the Vanishment is concider to be the birth of Osterian Villagerism, and it's golden age. It is also remembered as one of it's most tragic moment.

During this time many of the characteristics, traditions and rituals that separate Osterian Villagerism from Villager Lore developed. The main difference being the belife that souls stay on earth after they die, with a few exceptions.

Post-Vanishment/Osterianism
During this era many of the original traditons of Villager Lore, as well as some of the adopted during the previous era. This is also the time when the Osterian’s began to expand. It is consider to start since the moment of the founding of Harktlady (the osterian buildings on it), and ended somewhere after the colonisation of Hollenkreis.

Funerary Rituals
When an osterian dies their body is taken to Flower Island, where it is prepared and buried. The osterian’s that have the time to come to this even always make it, many abandoning important tasks to be at the funeral.

Once the body arrives at the island  it is prepared by the island keeper, often with the help of friends and family of the decese. It is cleaned and perfumed, to conceal the odor, and balsams are applied to maintain the body. Once the body is clean, they are dressed with their best attire or are gifted one by a friend or relative. As soon as it is prepared it is put on a metal sarcophagus and stored in a special underground room to be preserved by the cold.

Osterian sail to the Flower Island to get to the funeral. After it’s deemed by the Island Keeper, he will start the celebrations from the morning to around 8 am, until the sunsets. There are competitions, food and alcohol. On the banquet the sarcophagus is brought out from the underground and opened. At the end the banquet, everyone that so desires takes a moment to talk about the dead.

Burial
On the sunset the will is read by the Island Keeper, and is considered bad luck to protest, as a sign of disrespectful to the dead, that is considered to be there in spirit. After this a spot is selected and a hole of 3 meters deep is dug, stakes are put on the four corners, with rings to pass the ropes. At the same time, lamps are scattered across the island and the ships on the shore ignited all their lights.

At midnight the burial begans. The dead is taken out of the sarcophagus, usually by pulling a leather stretcher underneath. This is then tied by the ropes and slowly descended down into the tomb. Once it reaches ground the rope is cut, dropped down into the hole, and the stakes are removed. Then everyone gets to say some last words to the dead, usually only the family and friends, before it is covered by dirt. No markings are put to signal the burial site.

Transport Difficulties
As the osterian land grew it became more complicated to transport the bodies to the island that came from colonial lands. As it was more likely that the body would decompose on the way. To solve this the people from Hollenkreis and GrayStar had to make use of different techniques to preserve the body until it reached the island, yet complete embalming was seen as an unnatural option, as the body is expected to fuse with the earth on the island and not to be preserved. When someone dies away from the island they must be covered on balsams and wrapped on linen to help the preservation. Immediately after it is taken aboard the fastest ship available to bring it to Flower Island. On some occasions this resulted in a funeral without anyone assisting or with a leather bag to avoid the sight of the decomposed body.

Religion
The original villagers believed in 2 gods and 2 pairs of dualities. The sky, one of the dualities, is a central part of Osterian Villagerism, as it was for Villager Lore. as on it live the two main gods. There is two gods of the sky, who struggle over total control of the sky force of Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam. The Earth force, on the other hand, is totally untamed and remains wild, as no one can control it.

Gods:
the Sun god Hmra

the Moon god Henu

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam (The Sky Force)
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam is one of the most central aspects of Osterian Villagerism. On it live both gods and they fight for it. The sky is the only wall between Rathnir and the higher layers of existence, so it is seen as a place to ascend to, an space of order and peace. The exception for this being storms, that are interpreted as results of the battle between Hmra and Henu.

Hmar (The Earth Force)
Hmar is the untamed and wild part of Rathnir, untouched by the gods. As such is home to the work of the player, and the villagers before them. This doesn't mean that the gods won't pay any attention to what happen underneath them.

Similar to the Sky Force it is considered a wall separating Rathnir from layers below us, but not as effective on this separation, because of the wild nature of Hmar.

Layers
Osterian Villagerism belives on the existance of 10 layers, with Rathnir (and Eldham) on the center. The higher layers are thiner than the ones under the earth. The 10 layers are:


 * 1) Fifth Aether (Hmriiiii heugh)
 * 2) Fourth Aether (Hmriiiii uwu)
 * 3) Third Aether (Hmriiiii heheh)
 * 4) Second Aether (Hmriiiii o_o)
 * 5) The Aether (Hmriiiiiii)
 * 6) Rathnir (Hroruum)
 * 7) The Void (Uuuuuuu)
 * 8) The Nether (Hmaaaaam >:▭|)
 * 9) The Second Void (Uuuuuuuuu o_o)
 * 10) The End (Hmeeaaaam)

Lower Layers
There is 4 of this layers that, one less than the higher ones, yet they are concider to ocuppy more space on the world, they are also concider to be the only other layers that a living person may be able to go on life, although they wouldn't survive for long.

The Void Layers
This are some of the largest layers, working as separation between the other. Their capabilty as separators is incredible, as any living thing that ventures into the void not only will die, but won't be able to scape it. Yet there is ways to go around this. Portals have allowed to go straight to the neather and even The End. There is also creatures and things that live there, or even worst, that can travel through it.

Nether
It is one of the most explored areas. Although it was something feared by the villagers and their religion to Osterian Villagerism it is different. The main difference is that the osteri don't believe in it as a common form of after life. This may be because they venture to it more often.

==== They do believe that some souls go to it, not as a form of divine punishment but because of special circumstances at the moment of death. This could be something like the use of magic weapons that bound the soul to it. Many nether creatures are then souls that were  banished to it. These souls tend to not have any memories or reason. Yet some may be able to retain this then. They believe that Holly (the original founder of Hollenkreis) was such a creature. ====

The End
The End is the deepest place, very rarely something with a soul exist on it. From the few thing that live on it the most well know is players that die without any xp at the moment of their dead. This become the creatures know as enderman. Is believe that this players can go back to be humans by obtaining a certain amount of xp.

Creation Story:
Note that most of Villager Lore literature is lost to time. As such, future followers of the Villagers Beliefs came up with their own folk tales of how Rathnir and the 9 other layers formed.

Formation of the Universe
In the Beginning, the world was nothing but molten lava and stone. Devoid of any life or spirits. Soon, Hmra and Henu were born from the molten rubble. They soon found themselves to be close friends and wanted to make the world they lived on a better place. Life was slowly introduced to the world by Hmra, filling the deepest parts with water and putting mobs and plants on the highest grounds.

Henu, on the other hand, feared the destruction that they could cause. Henu talked to Hmra to solve this issue, but simply ignored it. Henu took matters into his own hands, creating monsters that would kill the creatures he hated. However, Hmra didn't tell Henu how the mobs worked. He filled each of them up with a life substance called EXP. This gave them the ability to pump their heart, breath, and move around. What Hmra didn't say is the EXP and Soul/Spirit were two separate cogs in the mob. If a mob were killed, the EXP would drop but the soul still remained in existence. As spirits, the dead mobs, and as such Henu's personal monsters, caused chaos among the world they created.

Hmra and Henu were forced to think of a solution. They decided to create two different kingdoms, the Aether Layers and the Void Layers. From there, they could decide which mob and monster could go to base on the system of Monsters and Mobs. This also seemed to be Henu's punishment for releasing a chaos onto the world that could not be solved. From there, Hmra surrounded himself with the spirits of Mobs and Henu was surrounded by his own Monsters.

Age of Dualities
Henu soon found himself regretful for the actions he caused onto the world and blamed his own creations and the spirits they let free. While Hmra's Aether was separated based on how holy and good a spirit was, Henu's was less forgiving. He would sometimes torture the captured souls, with each layer getting worst for the poor souls that inhabited them.

Henu still though that some of the soul of the lowest Aether layer should belong in his own realm. He asked Hmra for this change, he agreed, but he told Henu that he could not torture his soul anymore. Henu reluctantly agreed to this. But in return, he unleased monsters into the Void layers that would do the job for him.

The world layer itself, now named Rathnir, was wildly uncontrolled. Hmra had to keep track of how the mountains and clouds behaved, or else they could buckle, killing many mobs. Henu heard of this and had a solution. In the Nether layer, one spirit roamed the landscape shaping the mountains to his will. He would keep track on how the world was shaped and fix any irregularities he saw. Henu soon recruted him and brough him up to see Hmra.

Henu showed Hmra his powers and said that he could control the ground and mountains of Rathnir. Hmra was reluctant at first, the spirit (named Hmar by Henu) was mischievous and uncontrollable. Before accepting his offer, he found a spirit that could keep Hmar in check. He found Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam, a spirit that could control the skies. He told her that her duty was to keep the ground spirit Hmar in check if he ever challenged the strength of Rathnir and the Gods. With the selections picked out, Hmra and Henu threw them out onto Rathnir.

Age of The Sun and Moon
The spirits kept the world at balance, Hmar kept the land together and Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam protected the skies. If Hmar started to act out, Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam would cause violent storms that would have snapped Hmar out of his rage. Mobs were now at peace.

It wasn't perfect however, Hmar felt angrily towards Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam, starting a rivalry between them. Hmar tried purposely to mess with Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam in order to disrupt the skies or cause thunder to spill out of the clouds. If Hmar was sleeping, Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam would cause a powerful storm to wake him up.

This soon got the attention of Hmar and Henu, who didn't want to see their plan backfire. They came up with a solution, they would regularly keep the spirits in check and keep an eye on what they were doing. Each would take turns patrolling the skies one day and rule their kingdoms the next. Sometimes the gods are away for a long period of time, in which only prayer could prevent the Destruction of Rathnir.