Ekdianism

Ekdianism is a religion originating near the Solitary Peak. Its foundation date is unknown, but it began to gain traction in the Vardanid shahdom in the early 2nd Century BCE.

Ekdians believe in a single 'good' deity, Ekdos, the lord of the desert in which they tend to live. In recent times, with the spread of Ekdianism to areas of grassy plains, this 'Lord of the Desert' title has generalised and he has transformed, in those areas, into a land god as holy texts are reinterpreted. This is currently causing a schism betwen those who believe Ekdos is literally the lord of only the desert, and those who believe in Ekdos as a land god.

The mythology of Ekdianism is fairly simple: Ekdos, the Lord of the Desert, protects the mortals of the realm against the innumerable 'evil' deities - called Zahurians - who command other, uncontrollable, quantities. The leader of these deities is Zahur, the Lord of the Sky, and he is joined by dozens of other Zahurians who seem to coincide remarkably well with the gods of other religions. This is one of the primary causes of friction between Ekdians and non-believers, though Ekdians are split again between those who wish to exterminate the non-believers for their heathenry and those who believe they have been misled by Zahur and want to convert the heathens.

## History

Originally, the only set fact of the religion was that Ekdos was laid to rest at the top of the Solitary Peak. This being in the middle of Suren's Desert, it made sense to people of the time that he was a desert god, sat on his throne at the top of the Solitary Peak and gazing out on his followers.

Later, when the religion spread, the people of Buscua identified Ekdos with the founder of their city, Hector of Troy. This grew into an accepted fact in the area, and made Buscua a holy site. Naturally, the keepers of Ekdos's original temples in the desert grew jealous of Buscua's wealth and a schism formed; this was the basis of Orthodox and Inclusionist Ekdianism, with the former centred by the Peak and the latter in Buscua.

## Orthodox Vs Inclusionist

Ekdians can be split into two broad groups:

* **Orthodox Ekdians** believe that Ekdos is purely a desert god. This puts him at odds with the Inclusionist Ekdians of other regions, separating desert dwellers from others by ideology as well as geography. Orthodox Ekdians tend to view themselves as being superior to others - they are Ekdos' 'chosen people', residing in his own domain.
* **Inclusionist Ekdians** believe that Ekdos is a god of the land. This makes him, by definition, the patron god of humanity. By extension, all humans are Ekdos' 'chosen people', so Inclusionist Ekdians tend to be quite peaceful and, as the name implies, inclusionist towards other humans. This doesn't mean they're pacifists, though. Inclusionist Ekdian monarchs have been known to frame both political and military opponents as worshippers of Zahur to justify their actions.

## Customs

### Religious Taxes

One of the major customs performed by Ekdians is the religious tax. Ekdian settlements collect between 5-15% of their inhabitants' wealth every twenty years and send a pilgrimage to a local holy site, where the wealth is offered to Ekdos.

The main offerings tend to be either iron, which Ekdos can use to create a weapon to defeat the Zahurians, or gold to adorn their tombs (Zahurians are deathly afraid of gold in Ekdian myths and this would prevent them from being resurrected to rejoin the fight). This custom doesn't have a formal name, but farmers and other lower-class Ekdians tend to refer to it in rather colourful terms, as one may expect when the priests are probably keeping this tax for their own personal use.