Religion in Tairghol

This article details religion on the continent of Tairghol, both as seen from the viewpoint of its citizens and in reality.

## In Reality

Religion in Tairghol is, on the meta level, a difficult concept given the reality of the world - namely, that the continent of Tairghol is part of the afterlife, as far as Earth is concerned. Humans, upon their deaths, are dumped onto the continent of Halcyonia, far to the north. Here they were granted immortality by some form of mystical item. Originally, Halcyonia was presided over by a council of twelve humans from the ranks. The most famous of these are now recognised as the major pantheons of human mythology - the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Norse, as well as Aztec, Hindu and Chinese mythologies were spawned from these elected councils.

Around the rise of Judaism on Earth, Halcyonia's council was overthrown by a dictator who ruled alone for hundreds of years. This gave rise to the monotheistic religions of the Earth. Later, in the sixteenth century, several thousand humans finally staged a rebellion against this dictator. After a lengthy war, he was defeated and the mystical item responsible for holding humans immortal and sending them to Halcyonia was destroyed in the chaos.

After the defeat of this sole dictator, several million humans expressed the desire to leave Halcyonia. Around three hundred thousand of these sailed south as part of an enormous convoy. Here they arrived in Tairghol and the rest is generally accepted and known history on the continent.

## In Mythos

Most of the above information is unknown to the citizens of the continent. While there is a strong cultural memory of arriving on a convoy down the Flentia River, and patchy memory of a tumultuous warring period before that, this has passed mostly into old wives' tales and local legend.

Most humans, upon arriving in Halcyonia, had their religious beliefs smashed - polytheistic ones by seeing that their gods were on the same level as themselves, and monotheistic ones by seeing that their God was an antagonistic, controlling brute who enforced a dictatorship on the continent. Because of this, most humans dropped religion entirely, instead investing their hopes and dreams in the natural leaders of the eventual rebellion, leading these characters to take on a god-like status given their charisma, kindness and intelligence. Instead, religion in Tairghol is based mostly around the near-mythical leaders of the various contingent:

* Ekdianism, the prevalent religion in the Sacred Coalition, is based on the deeds of Hector of Troy, who happened to be the leader of one a minor (Trojan/Anatolian) contingent and settled in Buscua.
* Talrycg is based on the beliefs of its leader - Aethelred of Mercia was a spiritual man who, after finding that his Christian God was a ruthless dictator, coped by believing that every object had a soul. This practice was carried on by his followers and eventually snowballed into what it is now.

However, it has been over a thousand years since the Halcyonian Flotilla, and other religions have begun to naturally occur - forms of worship which will always pervade human religion. The Sernurians worshipped twin deities of fire nad water, while the Armedeans worship a pantheon of gods taking on different aspects of fire.

Further south, ancestor worship has taken root in the Kaiganese and Balayan lands on the shore of the Persidian Sea, and in the lands of Huon Sa and Tianguo as well.

In the trading republic of Arpia, the citizens generally worship any one of several dozen co-existing monotheistic gods, which usually preside over either prosperity or the sea.

South of Arpia, in the lands of Vorsilia and the Farasian Steppes, religion hinges around the sky, snow and horses. Many countries here worship anthropomorphic eagles or centaur-gods. In the land of Ghorny, situated in the heart of Vorsilia, a new movement has begun to take place - worship of nothing. Ghornian philosophers have begun a renaissance of sorts, beginning to take more stock in humanity as a whole.