Mistfaith

Description

Mistfaith is the dominant religion of Fellfen and Mendaris as well as in Mistwreath, its region of origin. As distance from the "holy lands" increase, so does the fervor of the faithful decrease. Most inhabitants of Mendaris mostly just pay lip service, even when professing to be faithful. While the Fellfen has a good mix of devout and unbelievers. This is not to say that unbelievers deny the existence of the higher powers, but they do not care to include them into their lives.

About the adherents

Birth

A child should be concieved inside a marriage, and having the first child is the addition that makes them a family.

During the childs first year a priest, or another representative from the church is expected to bless the child and welcoming it into both in literal material family unit, as well as the cultural and divine family of the Mistfaith.

Childhood

Throughout childhood, a child is expected to learn to maneuver the social and practical customs of life. There is an emphasis on learning to serve the community, often observing the tasks of their parents, and assisting when they become capable of doing so.

As well as a prerequisite of a functional larger society, the act of mutual cooperation and interdependence is held as a virtue. Not being dependant, but being able to be depended upon to do ones duty. This trustworthyness is a kind of social currency a child is expected to earn when growing up.

Adulthood

Becoming an adult in the eyes of the Mistfaith ...

• find a spouse, often partly through arrangements with ones parents, as their judgement is usually valued.
• men are expected to start a lifestyle that can provide to the home
• women are are expected to administrate the internal affairs of the home

Old age

Death

If devout in life, an adherent Mistfaith-petitioner is said to enter the domain of their deity after death, starting their journey towards a merger.

If an adherent has lived a decietful, discordant, or in general heretical life, they may be damned to not pass on. They are said to become one with the mist. Wandering the wastes until they have endured the bleak existence long enough.

Another result for the rare and exeptionally few, is sainthood through acts performed in life. These individuals set the examples of their own virtues instead of following those set by their gods. In a theological sense they expand upon, or fill a vacant portfolio. In a societal sense they perform acts adherents use as inspiration for living better lives. Upon death these individuals also go to the domains of the divine family, but retain a greater degree of individuality than an ordinary petitioner.

About the pantheon

As can be deduced from the names of their deities, The Mistfaith pantheon takes the structure of a family consisting of the parental Vadros, the Father and Alia, the Mother. Under them are their children, deities such as, Eryel, Jerun and Ocharis, and Inden.

Ascension

Ascension to membership of the divine family is possible, as demonstrated by Jerun. This is however a matter of some contention for theologians, as the ascendants are treated as always having been a part of the family, with only a short incarnation as a mortal to expand their experience and spread influence.

Mistfaith also revere several lesser divine-adjacent figures, some of which will grant spells to clerics, like Saint Vergil, and others who grant other boons to their adherents, like Saint Oswyn

Vergil's ascension was officially recognized after a decree from high priest Hyrmund Pyre, after what the priest said was a divine revalation.

Clergy

• Silent clerics training at Brugenheim
• Sanctified alchemists (healers and keepers of knowledge)
• paladins and inquisitors guarding against demons
• rare oracles, though these are given guidance after discovery.

About the religion

Origins and overtones

Started with the interdependence of husbond and wife, and their union. It was a necessity to maintain order after a cataclysm, but the faith in their customs made the emergence of actual deities inevitable.

Central tenets

• safety in unity
• sanctity of the family as an institution.
• sacrifice for the good of the village/city/family.
• vigilance against the outsider/strangers (both from the material as well as other planes)

Rituals and holibells

• Lighting the darkest month, with a period of darkness for stargazing, Lightsmas is the common name
• Jerun's ascension
• Vergil's Vigil
• The Masquerade of Inden
• One bell in a week is when families mingle with other families from the local area, and at times there are visits from other cities, where introductions and preludes to marriages are made.

Hirearchy of deities and saints

The head of the polytheistic religion is the head of the divine family, Vadros. He represents the responibility the head of the family has to keep them safe from ousiders.

Alia, as the mother, is equal to the father in many ways, but has a different set of responsibilities reflected in their differing domains.

The children of the divine family expands upon roles found throughout childhood, adolescence and youth.

As a sort of extended family, there are a collection of saints. These start out as mortals that exemplifies virtues that resonates with the church, or the pantheon.

Opposition

• "The outsiders" - people not of "the family"
  • meaning demons, monsters, wandering strangers, and other religions/social structures.

Taboos and heresy

• Extramarital affairs - breaking the sanctity of the family is an affront to societal cohesion.
• Demonology - meaning actual demons, as well as most outsiders, and unsanctified spirits/vestiges
• Incest - the family has roles, and a child being e.g. the wife of their father, is sacrilege.

View of other religions/gods

• "They are not our gods. They have their own power, but it is not for us"
• The Fey are in their own way as bad as demons,