The Sylvalan Faith

#### The Ancient Faith

The Sylvalan Faith is the religion of the early humans of Karn, which was reformed by the Mortanites through the teachings of the Prophet Azur around the year 0 AL, this becoming by far its most widespread incarnation, though the old faith also had a great deal of influence upon the Zami'ite Pantheon. The religion became an official denomination of the Unified Faith as of the Council of Qeotal in 838 AL, which due to the human-dominated nature of that council resulted in only some minor alterations in practice within the faith (nevertheless these have still been fiercely rejected by the Malcolite heretics).

The ancient Sylvalan Faith, as practised by the first human settlers of Karokarn and Karanoth, centres around a cosmic struggle between the Sun, Zæn, and the Moon, Mɵn, for control of the universe, ÆŒƟɅ - Aer'ora, the Aurora. Zæn and Mɵn, whilst both too powerful and alien to be comprehensible to humankind, both broadly represent opposing concepts - the former rules over the realm of Hævn, modernised as Haven, representing order, light, warmth, but also emptiness and the void, and thus true death; the latter, meanwhile, rules over Hæl, modernised as Hale, a realm of chaos, turmoil, darkness, cold and rot. The legends tell that the continual clashing between the realms of light and dark resulted in some muddying at the boundary - a blob of chaos entered the realm of light, where the mixture of order and chaos, fire and ice, resulted in the formation of the earliest form of Œða, the world.

Though Œða was far too insignificant for Zæn and Mɵn to fight over directly, these mighty beings each chose to dispatch their children to the unformed planet in order to claim it for their respective realm - Zæn sent the siblings Zylvœlʌ, modernised as Sylvala, and Zærʌv, modernised as Seraf; Zærʌv created the land, and Zylvœlʌ populated it with plants, forests, then humans. Meanwhile, the Mɵn sent the siblings Ɵndiʌ, modernised as Undea, and Leetœz, modernised as Letus; Undea created the sea, to swallow the land and nourish only chaotic, tainted life (the early Karnites could be described as a society of thalassophobes), whilst Letus created predatory and monstrous beasts, diseases, and insects, to torment and destroy the living things of Œða. The Faith explains that passage of time through night and day as simply Œða spinning to face the realms of light and dark every half-day (thus granting forces aligned to light and dark more power respectively), while the progression of the seasons represent phases of the perpetual war, with winter drawing Œða further into the realm of chaos, thus causing the decay and lethargy of its plants and creatures as well as the increased duration of nighttime, while summer is precisely the opposite.

Whilst the faith does vaguely encourage its followers to side with light in the Manichean struggle it paints, nevertheless it teaches an element of balance: due to the destructive nature of Zæn and the realm of light, evidenced in summer by the wilting of crops and lack of rain, an element of tamed chaos is needed to sustain life on Œða; thus, while Zylvœlʌ and Zærʌv are wiser and greater than Ɵndiʌ and Leetœz, they cannot triumph over the forces of evil until every sinner on Œða has been saved, for with the ascendance of the planet into Hævn, an event called the Klozoværðnʌ, all without the purest of hearts would be left stranded in Hæl. Only when people have lived a good life, helping steward the world without succumbing to evil acts, can they be destroyed instantly and painlessly, to become one with Zæn, since the realm of light permits no chaotic imperfection - meanwhile, those who stray too far unto the path of evil are drawn into the realm of chaos, which can never destroy them due to their connection to Zæn, but brings them eternal decay and agony.

Religious practices peculiar to this early form of the Faith include that of marriage, although this seems to be more a matter of tradition given vague religious justification (the stable relationships resulting from formalised marriage are order-aligned, and thus meant to be intrinsically more holy than a less formal relationship). In fact, a large number of the acts encouraged and condemned by the faith are explained through this same logic, that sins, such as murder, lying, cheating and the like bring chaos to human relations, whilst holy acts, such as the giving of charity and regular prayer encourage personal orderliness; the indeterminate nature of this vague commandment, supposedly from humanity's patron gods, allowed early rulers to justify any given set of rules, as well as their own rulership, and thus kept human society together and functional through hard times in their snowy home. However, it also allowed the faith to be easily moulded by Zanor and her followers in Karokarn into something closer to the kraal value system - her alterations gave rise to the Zami'ite Pantheon.

#### The Azurite Reformation

As well as merely reviving the open practice of the Sylvalan Faith in Karanoth, the decayed state into which the old teachings had fallen and the proselytising power of his followers gave Azur considerable room to reform the religion, even during his 13-year stint in the palace jail - whether he altered canon under the divine influence of Sylvala, or merely by his terrestrial inclinations for an envisioned free society of humans, is a matter for true believers and apostates, but that he performed some heavy-handed near total rewrites of the ancient Faith cannot be denied regardless. Although much about the creation story remains the same, gone are the two caring custodians of humanity and their dark, moon-spawned reflections - Sylvala is the sole Goddess of humanity, protecting Her children against threats from every direction. Indeed, the Ideals worshipped by the elves are quite real too, but can be no consolation to terrestrial man - they have their own flock to protect, and thus they and their commandments are incompatible for human society (this was a bigger deal in Azur's day, as he lived towards the end of the overlordship of Mortanite man by the Elvish Kings, devout worshippers of the Ideals).

Seraf, too, is not a false god, but simply a false idol for humanity - although he once created a wonderful green land in Karn for humankind, he was seduced by Undea, and allowed her chill to seep into the land, where his sister Sylvala barely managed to preserve humankind - he became the fallen god, the betrayer Letus, who tempts humanity to sin in order to balm his own shame. Here, perhaps, the unconscious influence of the Elvish Ideals on the reformed Faith can be felt - Letus is a very similar figure to Valatë, the fallen Ideal who the elves of Axanaira believed to be the progenitor of humankind. Naturally, Undea remains a terrible antagonist, a dark inversion of Sylvala the earth-mother; due to the betrayal of Letus and the forbidden liaison of the two deities, She is joined by a whole brood of lesser deities, her children, who steal onto and corrupt the land (much like Leetœz of the old Faith was supposed to). These are:

* Vela, goddess of sickness, poison, decay, and monsters sent to hasten these things.
* Gugna, god of anger, violence, and monsters that exemplify these things (as well as many natural disasters).
* Tirac, god of isolation, dark voids, frost and the monsters it brings.
* Lycea, goddess of cruel fate, lost time, bad luck.
* As well as a mysterious creature referred to simply as Undea's Titan, master of the tides.

Gone was the narrative of a world on the verge of perfection, protected by two benevolent, all-powerful deities - the gods of humanity had created their children in their own image, and, as demonstrated by Letus, were similarly susceptible to sin. Sylvala is effectively alone, against a great array of evil forces, and needs the undying devotion of Her creations in order to prevent the apocalypse, a reverse Klozoværðnʌ, in which the world would slip into the realm of Hale. This is marked as the point when the Faith, quite probably by Azur's design, became both proselytising and actively militaristic, despite the contradictions this posed to the Faith's own doctrines against violence; suddenly, mankind was not on the edge of salvation, but the verge of damnation, and only the most radical action could save it.

Azur also canonised a more official set of rules surrounding the main sins, his five Principles of Faith, intended to remove the arbitrary power gifted to rulers to reinterpret the Faith; these were:

* Worship of a being or object other than the Goddess Sylvala is infidelity, and worship in a manner not prescribed by her anointed saints\* and their servants is heresy; infidelity and heresy are absolutely forbidden to the true believer.
* Taking the life of a being with a tongue to protest and a will to persist, and no intention or ability to harm the true believer, is murder - murder is forbidden.
* Intimate relations between a man and a woman outside of wedlock is adultery, and adultery is sinful - children resulting from such relations are born into sin.
* A word given on any honour other than one's faith, to any other than another faithful, binds not. A word given in this manner binds absolutely.

* Laws enforced upon a true believer by a monarch who does not conform to the first four Principles are tyranny, and tyranny must be resisted. Laws enforced by a monarch who does conform to the first four Principles are just, and must be followed to the letter.\*\*

\*One addition to the faith made a little after Azur's death was the introduction of sanctification - Azur was the first and most famous Saint to be canonised by the Church.

\*\*This last Principle was never pronounced directly by the Prophet, but rather found posthumously in his writings, and has thus been hotly disputed by numerous groups who found it inconvenient, ranging from Seers, to Malcolites, to Free States insurrectionists.

Alongside these more spiritual additions to the canon, Azur also proscribed multiple means of applying the teachings of the Goddess in terrestrial matters, most notably through the creation of a Holy Society - one in which every aspect of law, order, and existence in general are organised around the teachings of the Faith. It was roughly by this design that the Azurite Church of Our Lady of the White Flame was organised shortly after the the human uprising in Axan; the influence of this Church, and its sub-organisations, the Dauntless Spirit Temple, the Merciful Spirit Inquisition, the Fervent Mind Scholarship, and the Valiant Heart Knights, directly led to the Sylvalan Faith becoming the religion to interfere with the lives of its followers by far the most of any in history, perhaps excluding a few particularly zealous sects of the Zami'ite Pantheon.

The Azurite Reformation represented a complete split with the Zami'ite Pantheon, and is a large part of why the differences between eastern and western human society are viewed by many as irreconcilable; in both groupings, however, faithful adherents to the older faith, as well as the Old Mortaani language and a number of other traditions that have fallen by the wayside for the majority of humankind, stubbornly preserved their way of life and survive in small numbers to this day. Tribes following the old Sylvalan ways exist today amongst the raiders of the Karanothi isles, and roam the snowy flats of north Zamiel and Lorelock where they were forcibly relocated by the kraal of Gidur from Karokarn - despite their diverse history, these peoples are grouped together under the label of The Forsaken, believed to have joined the ranks of the Godless through sin and to have been consequently abandoned variously by Sylvala or Zanor, and their position in relation to the rest of human society has always been complicated.

#### The Unification of the Faiths

Despite the apparently major and far-reaching consequences of decisions taken at the Council of Qeotal, for the Sylvalan Faith (or more accurately its Azurite incarnation) many of these represented a simple codification of changes that had been long in the making. As Azur had refrained from dismissing the Elvish Ideals as perverse superstition and instead declared them just as holy but uninterested in the affairs of mankind, Saint Catrain the Evangelist, heading the Azurite delegation, canonised the godhood of Daia, the river goddess worshipped by the Daian lenks, Zanor and Gidur, venerated both by the kraal and many of the Zami'ite clans; she also created the mechanism for which other deities of individual clans could be accepted into this diverse pantheon, a similar process to that of Sanctification, although it was made clear these would be considered lesser gods. Additionally, the Godless status of both the torochs and the Zami'ites, previously a matter of heated contention within the Church, was formally revoked, as it was declared that the Goddess Sylvala had taken the torochs under Her protection, and that the Zami'ites had been adopted by Zanor in a similar manner (upon contact with the Zami'ite clans the belief that these people had been abandoned by Seraf, who agreed to shepherd them when humanity was sundered in Karn - this became the canonical explanation for the decline of the Sylvalan Faith amongst these peoples soon after Unification).

The acceptance of torochs as not merely a Godless race, sheltered by the charity of the Goddess, but full and equal believers and flock-members of that same benevolent Goddess, was not merely an act of appeasement to the growing toroch follower-base in Fimbria, as well as veteran toroch crusaders (due to poor opportunities for advancement in their Fimbrian homeland, a disproportionate number of torochs joined up with any crusading order that would take them, particularly the Silver Shields - a large number of them settled in Galea following the war and continue to complicate the official Church position on the Insurrection); indeed, it represents an oft-forgotten period of toroch rights advocacy by the Church during the 9th and 10th century, which also led to them attaining equal citizenship in the Fimbrian kingdoms, much of which was subsequently reversed. It was this change which was considered most radical at the time, since little-to-no precedent could be found for it in the writings of Azur and his early disciples, and was a large part responsible for the spread of the Malcolite heresy.

#### The Malcolite Heresy

Named for the infamous Knight-Captain of the Valiant Hearts, Malcolin the Red, who led his order against the Church in the Valiant Rebellion, the heresy is inextricable from its roots in the conflict over the division of the spoils of the Second Crusade, yet this history is often used to wrongfully dismiss its present incarnation by its detractors. Prior to the Council of Qeotal, a number of debates raged openly, if fiercely, about the exact place of torochs and other minority races in human society within the Sylvalan Faith - the Knights under Malcolin took the extreme but by no means heretical position that they were merely Godless peoples given grace by the Goddess and Her followers, and were thus ineligible for certain holy offices under the teachings of Azur. These arguments began long before the Crusade, but only became more hot-blooded once disputes over captured territory began, with the Church not wishing to further empower the increasingly belligerent Valiant Hearts with gifts of land and spoils. Although Malcolin and his order were eventually excommunicated, on grounds of heresy no less, it was through probably fabricated accusations of Letus-worship that this was accomplished (thus the tale of Malcolin summoning the blue flames of Letus in his confrontation with Galien). It was only 4 years later, at the Council of Qeotal, that the Knights' actual position was declared heretical - leading to the executed "heresiarchs", and all living adherents of those beliefs who refused to renounce them publicly, being branded "Malcolites". Far from discouraging dissenters from associating themselves with an alleged servant of the Dark God, this led to the creation of possibly the most influential, long-lasting heresy in history.

Modern-day Malcolites reject almost every alteration made to the Faith following Azur's reformation: many dismiss the gods of the other races, particularly Zanor and Gidur, as meaningless superstition (whilst others depict Daia as a mere façade of the evil Goddess Undea); most reject the Zami'ite Pantheon out of hand, as well as the religious equality of the torochs (though a notable cohort believe that Sylvala is the only truly good Goddess, creator of all the sentient races, and thus would willingly grant that equality to all who can demonstrate their commitment to the Faith). Almost all believe that the modern-day Church is a corrupt institution far from Azur's vision of a holy society, and thus the entire heresy can be considered political enemies of the Church (although this hasn't stopped many infiltrating the organisation). Although the heresy is strongly associated with the Valiant Knights, and has been historically strongest in Southern Nivena, it also has adherents with no connection to the order spread through Nivena and Fimbria, particularly on the Zo'an isles, often descendants of those originally excommunicated following the Unification intermingling with more recent enemies of the Church and even converted members of the Forsaken, amongst whom the heresy has had significant proselytising success.

The heresy has never quite escaped accusations of collusion with Serafites, many of which are fairly credible, unlike the original posthumous trial of Malcolin, and these have managed to keep it a minority faith (and often taboo) even within the Valiant Empire - indeed, despite their origins, Emperor Hidelith and his sister Queen Hesta both claim to be followers of the Azurite Church, though neither have made significant attempts to curtail the spread of the heresy within their lands. For this reason the heresy continues to be the lesser of a multitude of worries for Church authorities - nevertheless, should it truly take hold in Nivena, it would surely lead to a total breakdown of the relative religious peace that has existed on the subcontinent for the past 350 years. Indeed, if the Azurite-reformed Sylvalan Faith could be described as militaristic, its Malcolite form is actively warlike, bearing none of the practical contentment that the main faith developed for existing side-by-side with other religions; it revives all the old Millenarian fear of an approaching apocalypse without the tempering of over a millennium of no such apocalypse materialising, its followers preaching of a deep rot saturated within human society and the growing power of enemies of the Goddess and servants of Undea. If the line of thinking it pushes becomes mainstream, few doubt a return to the age of Crusades, made far more bloody by the growing prevalence of magic in warfare and the military might of the Empire and its satellites.