Udu

Udu is an animist religion where the chief deity is unknowable and unreachable, and must be communicated to through its lieutenants, who must be called and appeased before a request can be made. Udu is a prime example of indirect deity. 
The practice includes sacrifices and cannibalism. 
The particular sacrifice observed by udu uses special sacrificial daggers of iron and silver forged supposedly in sacrifire.
== Tenets ==
The objective of udu is to ask help of deities or to send messages to their unknowable god. It is used to bless warriors and heal the sick. The practice tends towards the worship of ancestors and spirits of their respected tribe or the land in general. 
They consider deities to be individuals much like living creatures, greedy, hostile and dangerous. Udu initiates also believe their ancestors linger on as jealous revenants who miss the land of the living and require blood sacrifices to appease them. 
They believe the sacrifice of sentient creatures appeases malicious spirits. Second, they believe that after death, an enemy’s spirit can visit misfortune on its killer. By consuming the flesh of their enemies, initiates believe they can also consume their enemy’s spirit, or at least damage it enough to render it impotent. This is true because their weapons are what creates deities.
Holy rituals are when udu initiates create new deities. It involves ritual mutilation of the body with ritual daggers to bring the sacrifice (usually an ancestor) into the incorporealm. However, this practice will sometimes attract deities that would devour the new arrival. To prevent this, the initiates will simulate the sacrifice of a corpse to distract nearby hungry deities. The deities, drawn to the pretend sacrifice, would fail to notice the new deity entering their world. This allowed the deceased’s spirit to pass more easily into the incorporealm and find a place for itself without harassment. 
Udu initiates don't condone cremation, and the use of sacrifire in general as they believe the body provides the spirit with a tie to the mortal world, and to destroy it sets a spirit adrift and confused for eternity. To avoid the possibility of undeath, they either bury their comrades’ bodies in hidden places or in sections (usually the body in one place and the head in another).
Udu communities live in small villages called mills where their houses are made from large carved logs, and establish networks of hunter lodges. 
== Hierarchy ==
=== Healers ===
Their Healers interpret omens and exorcise them when they can, attempting to appease the deity before it causes the approaching catastrophe. Instead of focusing on the worship of specific deities, Udu Healers are in charge of memorizing preferences and displeasures in order to better guide their faithful in their rituals to deities. They specialize however, on an interpretation of their unknowable god, and will often debate with deities on its nature, in time, they can become that deities avatar.
Healers are aided in their task by hunters, which are their deputies and command bands of headtakers and grapplers, the soldiers of the faith.
=== Hunters ===
These cunning warriors are trained to hunt, track and trap the most dangerous beasts in the wild in order to sacrifice them to their gods. In times of war, however, hunters return to their mills to lead thrashers and headtakers in the name of their healer upon their enemies without hesitation. The Udu religion makes hunters the providers for their deities, as such they are responsible for feeding the gods. They are often blessed by the preta and deity their faith subscribes to.
Hunters interact little with the mill, only returning with sacrifices and the occasional quarry for the villagers. they are the military leaders of their mill, and in peace times, leave leadership to the Healer. 
=== Grapplers ===
Decorated with blessed war paint, these warriors are known for their blood drinking before battle which gives them the strength to tear the head off of an enemy. Suffering numerous experiments with strange chemicals and potions by the Healer, the thrashers have had many strange abilities bestowed upon them, such as regeneration, and some say, undeath. 
When out of times of war, grapplers also take part in hunting, where they are forbidden from drawing blood from their quarry until it is placed on the mills altar to be sacrificed. 
=== Headtakers ===
Lowest rank of udu warriors, only granted this rank when they've taken their first head from an enemy. Specialized in thrown weapons, they make use of francisca's, spears, and nets . Headtakers are mostly concerned with feeding the mill, and as such they take part in the everyday tasks of the mill they belong to. 
== Mechanics of Udu ==
Upon death, an enemy’s deity lingers in the body for a short time. Then the deity flees the corpse and is free to wreak havoc and revenge on its killer. Healers believe that a newly created deity lairs in the corpse’s head before fleeing the body. Those who wish to trap enemy deities often turn to head-shrinking. To shrink a head, first the fallen enemy is decapitated. Then a slit up the back of the head is made and the skull carefully removed (which can be saved for craniomancy or discarded). Then the incision is sewed up and the head is boiled for two hours to shrink. The troll uses scalding hot rocks and sand to fill the head cavity and shrink the head further. When the head is fist-sized and rubbery, the eyes, mouth, and neck are sewed up with elaborate stitching. The enemy deity now remains trapped inside the head until it starves to death. 
Category:Udu
Category:Religions
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