Agian Faith

Faith has more power in this world than anything else. It fuels beliefs and makes miracles happen. While Church of Irath, and the Church of Rathias both lay claim to the people's faith, it is not something that can be easily controlled.

Understanding Faith

How do we understand faith? That is a good question. I have tried to read all the religious scriptures within Agia to understand the phenomenon. And I concluded that Faith has more power than we might understand. Luckily, the Book of Irath and the Scrolls of Rathias have provided plenty of sources to better understand this... and how they have been used for their purposes. I came up with the theory below to better explain Faith.

— Aewydim Scibodaeth

Although understood as two distinct things, they are correlated. Faith can both mean complete trust or confidence in someone or something, a firm belief in one’s skills, or in the doctrines of a religion.

Faith in another being can grant remarkable powers, and the more people believe in that person, the stronger the person becomes. A person can also have faith in their own abilities, giving them the edge to do a thing they desire. An organisation can also derive power from its followers' faith, although it is less visible.

The three types of faith: individual, in another, and organisational, all have different levels of the power they generate. The individual is the least potent of the three, and depending on how much faith is placed in another being or organisation, it becomes more potent.

The best examples of how faith works, or used to work, are found in the Book of Irath and the Scroll of Rathias. In both religious scriptures, Irath and Rathias use their followers' faith to gain strength to fight each other. When the faith in them dwindled, the balance between them lessened, and one might defeat the other. Thus, it was an eternal battle for them to gather more followers than the other did.

The Illendrith is another example of how faith works. Whether it was Irath’s faith in them or people's faith in their ability to create miracles is unclear. But one thing is certain: they had the ability to use faith as a power to work miracles.

Faith is Weakened

No one understands exactly why faith is losing its potency, but the gap between miracles is widening. The last miracle that happened was several centuries ago. There are three different theories behind the decline:

The Goddesses’ death caused the decline. Without the goddesses, there was no entity strong enough to provide the faith to create miracles.

The Illendrith, who was the original organisation that created miracles, was eradicated by the Church of Irath. This could have caused the decline in the creation of miracles.

Our understanding of Agia is completely wrong, and we know not how to actually access the true power of faith. Though the power of faith may rise when the souls of the goddesses return.

Type

Metaphysical

Different religions' faith:

The Lasfydd or Irathism: The Church of Irath is the biggest religious organisation in Agia, which is why Lasfydd is the most influential faith, with Lesfydd coming in a close second.

Since the followers of Irath and Rathias both believe in the return of the goddesses, I would assume their faith has been combined to keep the faith in order to make the Ptlomethia's Prophecy of the Goddesses' Reincarnated Souls happen

Iragrefeimian: Well, despite having a direct relation to how Lasfydd works, I would consider their faith completely equivalent to that of Lasfydd. But since it is only the Galifrems who follow this doctrine, I cannot imagine it to be as potent as Lasfydd.

I wonder how the Galifrem has been shaped by their faith. Illendriths had all species in their organisation, but Dynbodauls are most represented in the Book of Irath. Ghrefeims had to add more content to their version, mostly their own hierarchy of Hailan.

Tynelusium: One can wonder how Tynelusium's faith actually works, since its base is the balance, dark, and light, which are intangible concepts. I wonder if these three are actually to be considered entities, and thus should have the same equivalent power as gods.

Otherwise, the faith might work individually, granting a believer of the Tynelusium more power through this belief. I would love to investigate this further, if it were not such a dangerous topic amid Western Agia, where the Church of Irath has its primary seat.

Faith in Other Parts of Agia

While our primary understanding of Faith relies heavily on the words of the Book of Irath and/or Scrolls of Rathias, there are several other religions in other parts of Agia. Though these religions exist mostly in the Southern Islands of Agia, where the Church of Irath and the Church of Rathias have less influence.

The most well-known religion in the Southern Islands is Saithonic Pantheon, which originates from the ancient civilisation known as Satlonian.
The Saithonic Pantheon has several gods, but the most well-known and oldest gods of this pantheon are Oranth, Hethna, Has Orin, Ob Nath, Setsan, and Sunra.

by PanthersEye

In the ancient scriptures from Satlonia, the kings were believed to be direct descendants of Sunra and Has Orin. If we are to believe that faith provides power, then these kings would have gained a large amount of power through the people's faith. That is, if the religion were not imposed upon people through fear, thereby creating a different type of power. Faith could only be created by their own original ethnicity and the belief in their superiority.

How Saithonic Pantheon’s faith works today is both a mystery and a wonder. Not only did the original belief survive the fall of Satlonia, but it also remained fairly contained after the The Church of Irath began the “cleansing mark” to convert people to Irathism.

Scholars hailing from Saithon have informed me that they have incorporated Irath and Rathias into their pantheon, albeit with different names that fit the Saithonic language. This is to pacify the Church of Irath, which reluctantly accepts this, but only because it cannot currently afford another religious war.