Celeanism

Celeanism is a monotheistic religion practised by the vast majority of ethnic humans on the continent. It was first brought to the continent in the holds of the Westmarch ships, though it was not spread to the rest of the continent until 150. As of 1245, Celeanism is the dominant religion among humans, and is vastly more popular than its counterpart and main competition, Sliverism.

Origins

Celeanism was the religion practised by the early Westmen who arrived on Akiviras shores. Though not strictly missionaries, religion was a big part of early western culture, and it wasn't long before they began to preach its doctrine to the native humans. The humans, never having encountered organised religion before, found this to be a novel concept and allowed the Westmen to establish churches and shrines in many of the Twelve Cities. Like all aspects of human life, Celeanism was devastated by the Hundred-Year Black, and many aspects of it and Westmen society were lost in the devastation of the forgotten time. Modern Celeanism is almost completely different to old Celeanism, as most of the ancient tenants were forgotten besides the absolute basics on which the religion was founded.
Following this tragedy, Celeanism mostly disappeared from the humans, all except in the Westmarch where it was still widely practised, both for comfort and in the hopes of using the survivng texts to learn more about the past. Humans mostly continued without religion, trusting in the belief that there was no afterlife or existence after death at all. That is until the Great Disillusionment of 1230, when a legion of infamous mercenaries recently killed in battle returned from the dead. The circumstances surrounding their revival are muddy and poorly-understood; it is possibly the work of Terror Druids, most likely they of the Realmic Conjecture. However, what is known is that the Damned Brigade returned from the dead with a message for humanity. Upon death, human souls travelled to Hell, where they spent eternity in the clutches of devils, being tortured or converted into other devils to fuel the front lines of the Blood War. This revelation brought about a wave of panic among humanity, particularly in Praistein where some remnants of religious fervour still clung to the people. This made the people ideal targets for the False Gods, who saw their opportunity and arrived with promises of salvation in exchange for worship. The people readily accepted this deal, even as the Gods turned to ever more tyrannical and brutal methods of securing more power and sacrifices for themselves.
As the Gods became more and more outwardly corrupt and self-serving, Westmen monks once again began spreading the message of the Celeanist God. The doctrine, updated to soothe the newly created panic, caught on quickly as more and more humans became disillusioned to the Gods. This would not normally have led to anything, had Celeanist clerics not learned to harness the power of their faith to cast miracles using sunlight as a power source. This display, proof of the first 'true' higher power other than the Gods, inspired the people to resist their overlords more and more. In 1243, the tensions exploded and the Gods were overthrown over two years of revolution and holy war. Celeanism was finally established as the dominant religion in Akiviras, as it would remain for the forseeable future.

Organisational structure

A Celeanist church will generally have a head priest, typically a cleric, assisted in the day-to-day runnings of the church by one or more lower-level acolytes. The church is generally maintained by volunteers in the case of small towns and villages, or paid staff in the case of larger towns and cities. Each country has a bishop, who oversees the clerics and churches of the area with the aid of a team of clerics devoted to them. Each bishop also oversees a team of 'obligators', servants of the church who perform any 'dirty work' that may be required that clerics are not suited for. Each bishop reports to the archbishop of Yhare, in the Westmarch, who oversees all Celeanist operations across the entire continent. The archbishop is also the direct head of the Inquisition, a sect of mage slayers and monster hunters who specifically combat dark magic and evil supernatural elements that the regular obligators are ill-equipped to handle.
Celeanist clerics are all fluent in the dead language of Orish, originally brought to Akiviras in the form of Westmen art and paintings. A niche language even then, it was mostly wiped out during the Hundred-Year Black and only survives in what few religious texts were saved from that era.

Doctrine

Celeanism's central tenants consist of three simple ideas, all of which form the basis for their various religious practises:

1. God over all: Celeanism instructs worshippers to put their faith into God; to trust in His vision for the world and to live by His codes in order to earn His favour. Though God loves all humans, He will resort to punishing any of His children who choose to live against his word.
2. Hell is not the end: Though all people go to Hell after their death, Celeanism reassures the faithful that they will not have to endure this fate forever. God's divine host of angels are currently warring in Hell on a quest to defeat the devils and recover the souls of the faithful, and one day they will surely win. Once that happens, the dead will return to life and nobody ever need suffer the terror of Hell again. To this end, Celeanists must refuse to modify the bodies of the dead in any way, leaving them in the exact condition they were upon death. Otherwise, the spirits will be confused once they return to their body, as it is not how they left it. Until that day, bodies are to be buried in graveyards, with bells if possible in case they should wake.
3. Live life, death is unpleasant enough: Knowledgeable of the torture that awaits them, the faithful should do their best to live their lives in a way that is as fulfilling as possible, making up in some way for the awfulness of death. Full and significant lives best please God, who will reward the faithful with a speedier return from Hell, while lives spent in insignificance or regret mean the individual may be left behind entirely while more deserving candidates are allowed to return.

Celeanist clerics and paladins are expected to abide by a basic code of chivalry, including fairness in combat and assisting an enemy in repentence should they desire it. They are strictly forbidden from mutilating or destroying the body of anyone, and preventing any faithful person from living a fulfilling life is considered behaviour that goes against their religious tenants. More specific oaths and committments vary from church to church, though clerics are expected to make an appearance at church every Godsday, or complete a lengthy prayer if they are unable to attend physically. Celeanist worship does not require sacrifices, unless it is in repentence or atonement, in which case the sacrifice is always worldly goods donated to the church.
In addition to God, Celeanists worship five holy names. None of these figures were originally a part of Celeanism, but all were added at various points by Akivirans for various reasons. They each form a part of the Celeanist holy symbol, being one of the five spokes of the sun. These disciples are generally characterised as being unflinchingly reverential towards God and loyal to the codes of Celeanism above all else. Many of them have allegedly martyred themselves for the good of the people, though stories vary wildly from place to place regarding the exact description, personification, and legends attributed to each name.

1. Al'Kar: Al'Kar usually embodies repentence, forgiveness, and a forsaking of evil ways in favour of the light of God. In his youth. Al'Kar was supposedly the page of a bandit lord threatening one of the Twelve Kingdoms. His life changed when he saved the life of an ageing missionary, who taught Al'Kar the wonders of Celeanism and encouraged him to seek the light of God before it was too late. Though the missionary was executed by the bandit lord for refusing to bow before him, Al'Kar was shaken by his words and compelled to seek out the teachings of God for himself. When he did so, he quickly became converted by the promises of redemption they offered. Learning that his lord was planning an attack on an innocent settlement, Al'Kar risked his life to sneak away and warn the beleaguered settlement. They urged him to run to the nearby city and get help, which he did. He was told that help would arrive within the week, and to return to the settlement to warn them to hold out for just a few more days. While he was at the city, he also visited a priest and was officially pardoned for all his sins. He returned to tell the settlement to hold out, but was captured by the bandits while trying to sneak back through the siege lines. His former lord then offered him an ultimatum; he would spare his life if Al'Kar would shout to the settlement that no help was coming. According to legend Al'Kar was allowed to pass through the lines and stand before the city gates, with the entire bandit army at his back. There, he made the ultimate sacrifice for the Celeanist cause, yelling to the defenders that help was on its way. He was struck from behind by a hundred arrows almost immediately, but legend says that his voice continued urging the people to stand firm for hours after his breathing ceased. The promised aid from the city arrived mere days later, and the bandits were utterly smashed. A'Kar was venerated in his martyrdom, and made a hero of the Celeanists forevermore.
2. High Priest Arnd of Tdon: Though the name 'Tdon' no longer has any meaning, many claim it used to be a city or country in the days leading up to the Hundred-Year Black. High Priest Arnd was a faithful servant of the people, until the day when the lord (or master, king, magistrate, etc - each tale uses a different title) of Tdon sold his people to the devils of Hell in exchange for unlimited wealth. By the time the traitor was uncovered, an overwhelming host of devils had arrived to claim the souls of the people. While the people fled Tdon, Arnd demanded to stay behind and delay the hordes of Hell for as long as possible to allow the innocents more time to get away. In his abandoned chapel, he prayed with all his might to God to give him the strength to resist his enemy. And this was done, as he was visited by a mysterious stranger (or an angel, or a bolt of light from the heavens depending on the telling) and gifted a suit of blessed coat of chain. Legends say he stood against his adversaries for hours while wearing it, as none of their weapons could pierce it and none of their fires could so much as singe him. His staff slew devil after devil until it was nothing more than a lump of wood, and he was finally slain when a devil threw a trident and impaled him through the head. Though he and Tdon both fell that day, his noble and courageous sacrifice allowed countless innocent people to escape, bearing his name on their lips as their saviour. He is now held as the embodiment of self-sacrifice, selflessness, and unflinching courage in the face of overwhelming evil.
3. Jahydee: Jahydee supposedly existed during the time of the goblin empire, where she was the favoured concubine of the emperor. Ever cunning and resourceful, Jahydee played the part of lovesick puppy to the emperor all while hatching a plan with the other slaves of the palace. Her trickery and guile succeeded at convincing the emperor to commission a gift for her; a mask of great power that could enable her to change her form at will. The emperor had her use the mask for his own depraved amusement for many years, but Jahydee was smart and bided her time until 3PE, the year of the fall of the imperial palace. With a rebel army besieging the walls of the city, Jahydee stole the mask and used its powers to free her fellow slaves and unite them to rise up. She fought on the front lines of the battle that followed, killing a great many goblins before throwing open the gates to the human rebels. She was made queen of the people following the battle, and though the war dragged on for another three years she was forever known as the one who defeated the goblin emperor. Despite her pre-Emergence claim to fame she was first revered relatively late, with the first mention of her name coming from a source in 1211. Though her actual existence is debatable, she is idolised as a patron of intelligence, of thinking outside the box and working with what one has to achieve ones ends.
4. Saint Cuthbert the Cudgel: The embodiment of the more violent aspects of Celeanism, Saint Cuthbert embodies triumph over evil on the field of battle, strength through the grace of God, and showing no mercy to the unbelievers. Little is known about Saint Cuthbert save that he first became famous during Dur-Shraikein. Stories of him smiting evildoers with his great mace were quite common in those days, and several have survived into modern times. He supposedly left tens of thousands dead in his wake, smiting a path all the way to Durd-Nak and leaving it paved with the bones of the pagan orcs. No record of him after Dur-Shraikein survived the Hundred-Year Black, though a great many stories involving him have been invented since that time. His hammer is reported to still exist somewhere in the Deathmounts, just waiting for another worthy cleric to discover it and use it in battle once more.
5. Ryshall of the Broken Blade: Ryshall as a person is shrouded in mystery, and their story contains only a single legend. They may be a man or a woman, hence the gender-neutral pronouns used to describe them. All that is known is that they were a squire of a knight who died attempting to stop the summoning of the demon lord Jubilex in 443. As the knight and all his companions lay dying on the field, Ryshall watched as the summoning ritual neared completion. Suddenly illuminated by a burst of holy light and instilled with the boundless power of God, Ryshall snatched up their knight's sword as it began to burn with the light of the sun. Just at the moment where Jubilex began to manifest, Ryshall buried the sword in the bloated and oozing body of the demon lord. The explosion of power left neither Jubilex nor Ryshall alive, and neither have been seen or heard from since. The hilt of Ryshall's blade survived to become a prominent Celeanist artefact, but despite this their inclusion in the five-spoked Celeanist symbol is a controversial one. As they technically stand for nothing and have no story beyond a single event, some Celeanists believe they do not deserve this status. It is a debate that is ongoing in certain circles to this day.

A traditional Celeanist holy symbol, worn on the wrist or on a chain around the neck

Type

Religious, Organised Religion