Dichotomism

The most widespread religion in Aotra, and the official religion under the Circle of Nine is Dichotomism, the faith dedicated to the worship of a pantheon known as the Dichotomy. Ten deities make up the pantheon: five, referred to as the Paradigm, are deities of good, while the other five are deities of evil, known as the Forsaken.
The deities of the Paradigm include:

• The Huntress, a goddess of wildness, passion, and resourcefulness.
• The Gardener, a goddess of fertility, creation, and nature's bounty.
• The Judge, a goddess of law, peace, and discipline.
• The Scholar, a god of knowledge, study, and invention.
• The Balancer, a god of souls, life cycles, and the Myth.

The deities of the Forsaken include:

• The Thief, a god of misfortune, chance, and disaster.
• The Hunger, a god of decay, desolation, and nature's wrath.
• The Destroyer, a goddess of war, bloodshed, and rage.
• The Traitor, a goddess of subterfuge, betrayal, and forbidden knowledge.
• The Stranger, a god of monsters, chaos, and the Other.

Mythology & Lore

The lore of Dichotomism is rooted in the Old Faith; specifically, it picks up where the Old Faith leaves off. The Old Faith teaches that Aotra emerged from the efforts of four primordial beasts, manifestations of pure elemental power: Leviathan, Zaratan, Phoenix, and Tempest. Once Leviathan and Zaratan had forged the planet, and Phoenix and Tempest had shaped the space around it, the four beasts worked together to meld their power into one united force, and so they created the Myth. According to the mythos of the faith, after the beasts of the Old Faith created the world, they used their combined power one final time to forge sapient, spiritual inhabitants for their creation. From their combined effort, the first ten humans arose: two echoed each of the four beasts, and two were an echo of the Myth.
From Leviathan, the beast of water, came one that embodied fickle wildness, quick thinking, and swells of passion, and another that embodied chance, disaster, and senseless misfortune.
From Zaratan, the beast of earth, came one that embodied generosity, growth, and nature's bounty, and another that embodied desolation, decay, and nature's wrath.
From Phoenix, the beast of fire, came one that embodied discipline, honesty, and justice, and another that embodied wrath, hatred, and rage.
From Tempest, the beast of air, came one that embodied curiosity, invention, and learning, and another that embodied secrets, deceit, and subterfuge.
And finally, from the Myth came one that embodied protection, moderation, and the patterns of life and death, and another that embodied unchecked chaos, predation, and the incomprehensible.
As the beasts contented themselves to rest, fading into obscurity, they left their progeny to populate their planet.
Their makers had invested each of these humans with a mote of their own spirit, an energy bound to come into conflict with all unlike itself. These first humans struggled to collaborate; they were intelligent and wise, but they were vastly different and uncompromising. Not all in the group shared anywhere near the same goals, and as time went on, it became clear that from the pure neutrality of the primordial beasts had emerged not more creatures of neutrality, but rather creatures of intense polarity.
After eons of argument about the creation of the first civilization, an agreement was finally made, though it was one not for any course of action as much it was for a course of inaction. What drew these unlike minds together was the agreement that though they had been made to populate the planet, they were too raw, too primal to do so themselves. Though the ancient beasts were mighty, they lacked the ability to create true humanity. That required another degree of removal from their power. The group of first humans made the decision to sacrifice their physical forms in order to create a second generation of humans, these with more nuanced souls, minds more capable of compromise and collaboration. And so, as their creators did, the ten faded into the background. They breathed life into one thousand humans with the power of their sacrifice, their fundamental traits reshuffled into each. These were the people that would go on to work together, to build civilization, to learn to coexist with the world around them, and eventually, to tap into and use the Myth.
Though they were no longer a physical presence within the world, their progeny would not forget those first humans. As each of the ten lived within every one of the next generation, and in the generations after that, they stayed in constant connection with their creations. The humans that lived after them retained a distinct idea of who each of their forebears was; when history had forgotten their true names, their identities lived on in titles. As time went on and people reflected on the natures of their forebears, examined the traces of those first humans within themselves, people began to see patterns, the most important of which being the dichotomy: good and evil, giving and taking, growth and hostility. It was from this that the Dichotomy got its name.

Tenets of Faith

Dichotomism asks its faithful to see within themselves the traits of each of the gods of the Dichotomy, good and bad, and to consciously choose to emulate the ways of the Paradigm. The religion is one that puts high value in self-knowledge, force of will, and the power of choice. While individuals may seek to emulate specific traits from different deities—an academic may fixate on reproducing the Scholar's focus and dedication to study, while a homesteader may choose to channel the Huntress's adaptability and respect of the wilder parts of the world—the overall theme of knowingly seeking to represent the divine remains at the heart of the faith.
As the Paradigm serves as a model to emulate, so serves the Forsaken as an opposite. The traits fo the Forsaken are those that Dichotomists seek to identify within themselves and choose to reject. Critical to the faith's concept of the good and evil is the understanding that everyone has traits of every member of the Dichotomy within them; no one possesses no features of evil, and thus having the traits of the Forsaken is not an evil thing, but a human thing. The faith teaches to be evil is not to see the presence of evil within but to allow oneself to be driven by that evil.
There are, however, exceptions to that rule. Believers in the Dichotomy believe that the darker traits of the Forsaken are not without purpose; when used with thought and care in the right situation, those traits can serve as powerful tools for the greater good. A warrior defending his community from an incursion from the Otherworld may unleash the wrath of the Destroyer in battle with a horrific Other beast in order to drive him to victory. A mage who unearthed ancient, dark rituals in her research may channel the secrecy of the Traitor in order to hide these rituals away where none can be corrupted by their haunting power. In such circumstances, the traits of the Forsaken are valuable. The most potent factor is the consideration and intentionality of each individual.

Ethics

As the religion leans so heavily on the importance of individual will and choice, the most grievous ethical violations in the eyes of the faith are those that take away the self-determination of others. Enchantment magic, particularly that which charms its target, is considered to be sinful because of this tenet, which is why most enchantment is illegal within the Circle of Nine. Conversely, it is a pious act to enable others to live a life of self-determination; followers of the Dichotomy seek to promote liberty, justice, and access to information.

Priesthood

Pastors of Dichotomism perform religious rites and guide communities of the faithful. Due to the values of the religion and the close relationship with the government of the Circle of Nine, churches of Dichotomism often serve as quasi-legal arbiters within the community; priests serve their communities by providing guidance in legal and interpersonal matters as well as spiritual matters.
Pastors are appointed to the role after three years of study and service within the community in which they aspire to be a pastor. In that time, they are referred to as apprentice pastors. Over the course of their studies during apprenticeship, some future pastors choose to specialize in the philosophy and spiritual practice associated with a specific deity of the Dichotomy, but many are generalists, especially those who become pastors in smaller communities.
The priesthood is a very egalitarian system, designed to maintain as little stratification in the hierarchy as possible. All pastors are equal, and decisions made in regards to the practices of the religion are made by committee. Pastors meet regularly in local groups, semi-annually with the other pastors of their nation, and every ten years in a large convention of all pastors of Dichotomism. It is in those conventions that the deliberations about policy are done via majority vote. Community matters are decided within the community, national matters within the nation, and only the most significant matters are decided in the worldwide meetings.
The faith's pastors wear tidy white tunics and pants with simple leather boots. They wear the symbol of the Dichotomy as buckles on their belts.

In every soul are the tools to do what is right.

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Permeated Organizations

• Ceryx
• Elasiril
• The Circle of Nine