Azan Faith

The **Azan Faith** is centered around the Faceless God Bronzar, and his Prophet Aza, who helped the ancient nations of the west and south defeat an unspecified evil in ancient times via divine magic. It's a religion popular in the western side of Giantstep, especially in those areas with historical ties to the Azan Empire.

The **Old Faith** had a more binary and hierarchical view of the world, while the **New Faith** is more flexible and prioritizes spreading the Faith and maintaining its moral supremacy in case one day Bronzar must unite much of the world against evil again.

## Key Figures

### Bronzar, the Faceless God

A powerful force, but selfless and humble, Bronzar is credited for safeguarding the world against great evils in ancient times, and is still considered active in modern times. His faithful are sometimes granted divine magic, generally healing, but also sometimes offensive magic meant for demons, undead, and other evil beings. Bronzar discourages egotism, and in ancient times was generally depicted as a man without a face. The Old Faith often gave him a draconic appearance, and the New Faith heavily discourages depicting him at all, though some regions ignore this. Bronzar rarely communicates directly with followers, perhaps seeing petty politics and doctrinal disputes as beneath him.

### Aza the Prophet

The main prophet of Bronzar in ancient times, when he, and some others like him mobilized ancient humans against some great evil.

### Alarna Hiranur

The second main prophet of the Faith, there is some debate whether she actually is a prophet as she never claimed to be one in her lifetime. However, her reforms are the backbone of the New Faith, so most assume she was in some way guided by Bronzar, otherwise why are the members of the New Faith able to access divine magic still.

### Other Figures

Depending on the region, the local church will sometimes integrate other gods into the faith, along with a wide range of local prophets and saints. The logic behind this is generally that as an altruistic, selfless god, Bronzar will naturally have friendly relations with other relatively altruistic gods. Some known saints include:

* **Saint Ansis**, patron of merchants and bankers. In life, he was born a peasant who, through hard work and dedication, became one of the richest men in his city. During a war with the Drow, he donated all his belongings to war-refugees and went on to die in battle. He is now revered as an example of duty and sacrifice.
* **Saint Basilius**, patron of the harvest and wine. Revered in many rural areas as a protector of the crops. Many wine barrels are branded with his markings to make the wine age more gracefully.
* **Saint Comenna**, patron of teachers, researchers and book keepers. Revered by many students and people during trials. Many of the rituals dedicated to her revolve around the maintenance and copying of ancient books to keep their lore from being lost.
* **Saint Dimmerio**, Furlan patron saint of Bora's Saint Dimmerio Regatta. Revered in eastern Fûrlaniya.
* **Saint Estrela**, patron of musicians and theatres. Many theatres, circus and other buildings dedicated to public entertainment hold many statues of her.
* **Saint Hesychia**, patron of soldiers and the Terusia Isthmus, died fighting the Drow. Revered in the Terusia Isthmus and the Azan Empire. See the eponymous town of Hesychia in the Terusian Isthmus.
* **Saint Lila'**, patron of unwanted jobs. It is said she protects any who dedicate their lives to tasks no one else wants to do, blessing them with good luck and self-realization.
* **Saint Oderica**, patron saint of Fûrlaniya and pine forests. Feast day held on the Last Sunday before the Autumn equinox. Revered in Fûrlaniya.
* **Saint Serso**, patriotic Fûrlaniyan saint executed by Changrilese troops by being tied to a burning wheel. Feast day held on the 4th Sunday after the winter solstice.
* **Saint Yunnan**, patron saint of shipwrecks and  puffing monkeys. Revered in Fûrlaniya, the Nasr Satrapies and Changrila.

## Organization

Over time, the Faith has become highly decentralized, with separate church hierarchies appearing in any nation or cultural region where existing hierarchies can’t gain traction. These separate hierarchies disagree on a wide range of minor issues, and often end up distinct aesthetically as they adapt to local culture. However, the religious leaders back in the core Azan region have the most moral sway with branches of the New Farith, and smaller branches often follow their lead on new issues.

### Enoria

The basic unit of the majority of churches in the Azan faith. An enoria is usually made up of one temple, administered by a priest (*Enorios*) with the help of several vicars (*Efimeroi*) as well as lay servants. If an enoria covers a wider area due to a lack of funds or parishioners, it may contain filial temples administered by the senior efimeroi which answer to the main temple and its enorios. Some churches are more diligent than others in ensuring each enoria contains but one major temple. Enorias are not self governing and answer to their prelacy in all ecumenical and worldly matters.

### Prelacy

The basic unit of self-government within the Azan faith. A prelacy, also known as an *Ierosynia* is typically centered on some larger settlement and rules over the many enorias scattered around the countryside. They also assume the function of an enoria for the place they are seated in. The heart of the Ierosynia is its high temple, from which a prelate rules and preaches. High temples are elaborate structures that include at minimum a main nef for services, an eternal flame and the prelate's quarters. Depending on how rich and influential a prelacy is, it may also include a library, a hospital and a seminary or boarding school. Though in theory each Ierosynia is self governing, the vast majority of them band together into ecumenical unions where the older and more influential prelacies function as the first among equals. Many Ierosynia can trace their heritage back to the missionary efforts of some older prelacy and as such consider themselves obligated to them even if they are technically independent.

### Arch-Prelacy

Arch-prelacies or *Archierosynia* used to command many smaller prelacies before the reformations of the Azanese faith and remain the leading prelacies to this day, specially in Azan proper. Old and prestigious, their number and territories of influence roughly correlate to the old Azanese provincial system of the 5th dynasty. Many are now left outside the empire proper though most of those try to remain in communion with the core imperial faith, which does sometimes raise eyebrows amongst those skeptical of lingering Azanese dominance.

### Exarchical Prelacy

Also known as *Ierosynia Exarchica*, they were founded by elevating a select few arch-prelacies during the administrative reforms of the 6th dynasty. Nowadays mostly a prestige title.

### Metropolia

The oldest and most prestigious Ierosynia that can trace their lineage to the very founding of the Empire. The leaders of metropolia are called patriarchs (*Patriarkos*) and are considered to be amongst the holiest of men. There are only 7 metropolias in the world, 5 of them tracing their lineage to the begging of the empire, with 2 more Archierosynia elevated to this rank during the history of the empire. They are considered to have the final word on all religious matters and the vast majority of the Azanese faithful look towards them for final judgement on on theological, liturgical and dogmatic matters. While some of the 7 try to remain in communion with each other, their traditions have much diverged over the millennia and in practice every metropolia teaches their own version of the faith. Differences between them can range from minute differences in liturgy to fundamental disagreements over the nature of the faith. Strong emperors would often attempt to reconcile these differences, usually by exercising their rights as successors of Aza to call a general conclave of the faith where such differences would be smoothed out. However with the decline of imperial authority it has now been almost 400 years since the last general conclave was called.

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The metropolia are:

#### 1. The Original Five:

**Essakor** - generally the dominant one as far as Calcabra, Furlaniya, and Birna are concerned, new azan faith

**Birna or Vesta** - new azan faith, influenced by the regional religions in that area

**somewhere in Azhar Nar** - does their own thing these days, but not enough to be excommunicated

**Drayrlolugrath** - still maintain a lot of the old traditions, even though technically new azan faith

#### 2. The Two New:

**Calcabra (I will think of a city name later)** - new azan faith - responsible for westerling inhabited areas and influenced by westerling religions

**Moridan** - heavily influenced by southern faiths, also currently usurped by the blind bastard

#### 3. The Excommunicated and Heretical:

**Siuverland** (added later)

**Lorient** (added later)

**one, perhaps two in Changrila (originals)** - Fenqui is too far north to be in the bounds of the original azan empire

### Temporal Power

Due to quirks of inheritance and dynastic law, some prelacies and arch-prelacies have, over the centuries, acquired temporal as well as spiritual power. In such situations, the resulting union is called a prince-prelacy, ruled by a prince-prelate. Such arrangements are highly variable and no two can be said to be completely alike.

## Locations

The Azan Faith can be found throughout range of the old Azan/Dragon Empire and beyond. It co-existed with a number of other religions even at the height of the Old Faith’s intolerance and excess, and has since then managed to get along with most relatively altruistic religions in most places, allowing it to exist as a minority religion in many regions.

The New Faith emphasizes altruism, humility, thoughtfulness, and non-judgmental behavior, except in the face of true evil.

The Old Faith has a more binary view of the world, seeing evil everywhere and seeking to stamp it out. In some places, the Old Faith has become fanatically pro-human, and borderline genocidal against “evil races” like the demon tieflings, witch-elves, or drow.