Cruor Cruoris

**Cruor Cruoris**, also known as *"the Cruor Heresy"* or "*Utumnism"*, is the only religious belief native to and practiced by the wirl people.

The religion itself, according to wirl practitioners, is innate to the wirlomeyan race and cannot be taught, forgotten nor can its practitioners convert from it into a different dogma.

Historically, religious texts were crafted to illustrate its principles using a made-up language known as "utumnic". This language existed in only written form and was eventually substituted by a dialect of old Ardati used for record keeping and praying.

## **Pantheon**

### ***Urkandel***

The Cruor Heresy is a monotheistic (or arguably henotheistic) religion that venerates a single entity known as Urkandel (usually written as "monolith"), an irrational yet intelligent manifestation of strength and destiny to whom entities known as Sankanias (usually written as "rifts") serve in a celestial court as agents of its will. Though these entities are praised and venerated, they are distinctly not considered to be gods given their lack of any sort of agency or free will independent from Urkandel.

### ***Sankanias***

There is an innumerable amount of sankanias in the world, as historically wirlomei did not have a settled land, it has lead to various different gods from different religions to be adopted as sankanias or to replace partially or in its entirety a previously venerated sankania. Notable sankanias are:

**Soleris:** The main sankania of fire, as well as one of the most powerful entities on the pantheon overall. It's generally regarded as a malevolent source of uncontrollable emotive outbursts and insatiable desires. It's represented by the sun.

**Kallistos:** It's believed kallistos was originally the main sankania of fire before Soleris and was called "the most beautiful" and "the eternal flame". According to legend, was murdered by Urkandel to create the world, it's considered to the creator of the wirl people and it's the main subject of veneration by them.

**Lamitha:** She's the only sankania of life and the only one to have an assigned gender. She's believed to take many appearances and names and be the responsible for all life that exists on the universe with the clear exception of any entities deprived of sexual organs, reason why she's not worshipped by the wirl. Even tough she's generally been conceived as a deep-ocean goddess, she's lately been associated with the moon.

**Truwushi:** The sankania of destruction and work, it is venerated by doing grind or build work and it's worship is focused on the appeasement of other sankania. It is represented by creepers and lightning.

**Boskumsi**. The sankania of rest and peace. It is venerated by enchanting and farming, and it's worship is focused on clean the practitioner from fear and desperation whilst transferring such feelings to someone else. It is represented by a flock of oversized Phantoms.

**Unwekém**. The sankania of ambition and ruthlessness. It is venerated by going fishing, trading and committing crimes and atrocities against one's foes. It is required for a cruor practitioner to have a stomach for cruelty to be properly venerated. It is represented by an all-encompassing storm.

## **Creation Myth**

Early history is written in the Utumno Manuscript and read as follows:

"As things were created and the world was young and naive for a change, and the blind force of the monolith engorged the fine line of reality to bring out its horrors to age. With calmness and tranquillity the violet punishment was sent upon mistakes. Death and life had been created, and death and life had been erased; but it was not for all of which was dead to die, as was not for all which was alive to live, and from the rifts created sprouted blood, and from the blood, most beautiful of liquids, emerged a world. Now better, from what was before." (*Utumno Manuscript, Chapter I)*

   "[...] and as the world sank in the ages and all which was unholy and wonder failed to escape their deaths, one last rift was to be made for smoke erode the cities. Gray and red and twisted, blood mixed with light as the rift made that which it needed from its blood, most beautiful of liquids, and the last life who was ever to be was to be created, carried by the dying ocean to incubate on it's mind. As reason plagued the madness and sense came about, the rift became the sun and the mind became it all, a single monolith within the monolith, a green littoral of green and flowers, as the rotten sun collapsed and the second world was formed, it was seen on his greyed eyes the shape of Ivrea and its sons, the wirl." (*Utumno Manuscript, Chapter IV)*

Transcriptions from the manuscript prove difficult given the amount of wirl enchantments put in place to transmit significant information to wirlomei alone. Further explanation given by practitioners about the doctrine states the world was created twice; the first one was made with what the wirl people consider to be "horrors" and was partially deleted, leaving just a few remnants of it from which the bases for the second world was created.

The wirl believe the Nether to be the decaying body of Kallistos, from whose blood the overworld was created and from whose remnants it is maintained and nourished; the wirl also believe to be natives from this first world, back when it was still inhabitable. Posterior history comes from various different journals and records kept by the wirl as relics of an alleged recollection of how the world was created.

Uniting all sources, after the world was created all current sankanias came to be and Lamitha created all living and sexual beings, their souls were given to Solaris but this soon proved to be a mistake as war erupted; Truwushi, Boskumi and Unwekém stepped in and took many lifeforms under their command as to avoid a second violet punishment.

Meanwhile, wirlomei worked in Ivrea to create their own counterpart of the world, and creatures born from the decaying body of Kallistos such as piglins, ghasts and magma cubes were experimented on and kept as pets, soldiers or slaves. At one point the decaying and corrupted body of Kallistos became a threat, his lingering presence ordering all wirlomei to escape immediately. Wirlomei attempted to bring all of Ivrea to the overworld, as to keep their empire intact, but doing so provoked a severe rift that reshaped the Nether and Overworld in its entirety and prevented most wirl to ever find each other again; this is also the mythical origin of wirlomeyan pisus such as Utumno, Ninansuyo, Tersmuno or Céruma.

Wirlomei believe Kallistos will end up rotting in its entirety and it's just a matter of time before the world collapses and Urkandel decides to start over, most of wirlomei doctrine professes an eternal journey in which wirl are not allowed to rest and are required to push forward until the will of Urkandel is beaten and death becomes merely an option.

## **Practices**

### **Magic**

According to Utumnism, wirl people do not belong in the overworld and therefore can understand and manipulate it to a higher degree than other creatures, this is supposedly accomplished by channeling the fading power of Kallistos into themselves.

Common magic feats a wirlomei can allegedly perform generally include shapeshifting, teleportation and astral projection, leveling mountains to the ground, spawning natural structures out of nothing, bringing misfortune and disease as well as luck, summoning familiar spirits or "allies" to intervene in their favour before the sankanias, etc.

Magical rituals performed by the wirlomei generally lack spoken dialogue and are centered mostly around movement, unintelligible screeches, and the bearing of numerous sigils; one of the most common being the broken cross that is believed to attract and strengthen other wirlomei, while siphoning and breaking down the very soul of those unwelcome.

### **Philosopy**

Wirl philosophy centres around the dogma of an "eternal journey". This dogma claims the current world is not perfect, and as creatures of the first world the wirl people are even less perfect than any other that roams the lands and outside the circle of destiny; and given how destiny itself makes mistakes then their very existence can only be justified by the constant improvement of their situation, no matter the circumstance or cost.

Wirlomei also believe than in actively avoiding the past is the only way to build and create a better future, the wirl believe that it's important to change allegiances, morals and objectives constantly depending on the current situation at hand.

This comes hand to hand to a deep rooted xenophobia amongst wirl individuals, best described by a famous wirlomei proverb *"no hay antídoto para veneno de rosa"* which literally translates as *"there's no antidote for rose poison",* implying it's easier to cause harm from a position of affection. Wirl are extremely eager to make friends and be as welcoming as possible with anyone and everyone whilst attempting themselves to remain distant and isolated to, according to various wirl sources, *"guarantee our independence, prevalence and defence"*.

### **Symbology**

#### The Rotting Sun of Kallistos

The rotting sun is the symbol and sigil that represents the decaying body of Kallistos, it is believed to possess supernatural abilities as it is a constant reminder of their lord's sacrifice and thus a constant and unending act of prayer.

#### The Broken Cross of the Wirlomei

The broken cross represents the separation of the wirl people from each other after the creation of the world, it's generally used as a sigil and it's believed to be charged with every wirlomeyan's rage and depression for their lost land as well as their hope for reunification.

#### The Mantle of Light and Darkness

The mantle of light and darkness is a mythological scene represented by a cross, a dented salitre and a centerpiece representing a well. The disposition of these elements suggests the moment in which the land of Ivrea was destroyed and turned into numerous wells, the cross is being broken, which is represented by the dented salitre, symbolizing the separation of the wirl people and the origin of the Broken Cross of the Wirlomei, and the direction of the dents represents the defiance of the wirl people and their movement back into a new land of Ivrea.