Religion

There are three main **religions** in the Shadow Realm: the Unifiers, Created, and Individualists.

Because the Unifiers try to help the poor and needy, the Created don't feel compelled to do anything they don't feel in their hearts, and the Individualists actively harm the innocent, irreligious scholars tend to categorize these as adherents of good, neutrality, and evil, respectively.

## Unifiers

The Church of the Unifying God, or Unifiers, is the most popular religion among humans, and the most predominant religion overall. Every territory has a church.

The Unifiers worship the Unifying God as a supreme being whose ethereal body, called the Encompassing Spirit, is connected to the souls of every living thing and seeks to unify all people into a single Holy Kingdom. Unifiers believe that the Unifying God is perfect and can make them perfect as well by following His ideals of loving everyone and being united in spirit.

The Unifying God sent his avatar, named Wonderful, to teach people how to live in a united spirit. They say His avatar was assassinated by the Created, but that Wonderful allowed himself to be killed to demonstrate that death was meaningless and a passageway to the Unified Kingdom. The Created claim that they not only never assassinated Wonderful, but that he never existed to begin with.

The churches of the Unifying God have red-tinted windows to remind them of Wonderful's death. Their religious icon is a circle to symbolize the Encompassing Spirit, with a branch above to indicate the Unifying God, and a branch below to symbolize his avatar.

At one time, the Created outnumbered the Unifiers and attempted to stamp them out. The Unifiers began training Holy Knights and were able to repel the Created, but some question whether the Knights killing people fits the ideal of Unity. Either way, they allowed the United to rise to become the major religion.

## Created

The Created, or The Family, is the primary religion among the rulers, spirits, and ghouls.

The Created believe in a man they call the Creator of Light who made himself into a god and created the world. The Creator is said to have promised to grant the power to become a god and gain immortality onto those who he considers family. As such, believers often refer to themselves as The Family and unbelievers as strangers.

The Created disagree as to what the Creator specifically had in mind to join The Family, but the general thought is that one must declare loyalty to the Creator of Light and prove themselves to be a useful member of society. Governing lords are said to be direct descendants of the Creator, and are automatically members of The Family, no matter what they do.

Spirits are believed to be those who were loyal to the Creator, but failed to be useful, so they have been given a second chance. Once they proved their usefulness, the Creator accepts them into The Family and they vanish.

Because it is difficult for the poor to be useful, they can get into The Family by living a second life as a spirit.

The symbol of the Created is the "ethcron," a crossed circle with three points over it. Lords, being true members of The Family, display gold ethcrons. Everyone else, who are trying to be adopted into The Family, are only permitted to display green ethcrons. Anyone who uses a gold ethcron and is not a direct descendant is considered a usurper and can be executed for treason.

## Individualists

The Individualists are demon worshipers who only care about their own self-interests and personal power. Each Individualist is typically only loyal to one demon.

While the promises of the Unifiers and Created can only be fulfilled after death, the Individualists can acquire visible power within their lifetime and use it to get what they want.

They are direct adversaries of the Unifiers and represent a lack of unity with promotion of self above all others. However, they rarely engage one another and generally just avoid their rivals.

Because the Individualists can use demonic powers to commit crimes with impunity, they are hated by most everyone in general. Nevertheless, the allure of power continues to attract fresh recruits.

The symbol of the Individualists is a mockery of the Unifiers, depicting a red Symbol of Unity enclosed in black.