Animism
The primary belief structure of the Sahahimu Peoples consists of a strong belief in a tangible faith. The concept that the world itself is alive and a spiritual being, and that all life that inhabits it is as well. To this end they respect and cherish all aspects of creation as a viable and important part of it, offing a respectful sense of dignity to every action that involves taking something from it. There is no defined deity in their belief, but rather they view all of creation as a whole and timeless thing, conscious in its own way and aware as, for them, there remains no real distinction between the physical and spiritual realms.
Structure
There is no defined organizational structure to this belief system, however certain aspects of nature are universally honored such as equinoxes and solstices, phases of the moon, and unique cosmological events, which the Sahahimu People are very adept at predicting.
Every tribe will have a Singer of the Last Breath however, an individual entrusted with the sacred rite of passing a spirit of a fallen Sahahimu on to the next life, literally transferring the spirit from one to the other. This particular rite remains sacred and private.
History
THis has always been the way of the Sahahimu Peoples for as far back as their understanding of time can reach. Due to their unique point of origin, being the only species of Cairne not created by a higher power or brough t to the world from outside, this system has remained without degradation following the Blight, but at the same time, if offers no real power beyond the passing of the spirit from one life to the next.
Divine Origins
The true origins of this belief are very hard to nail down, as to the Sahahimu People, they have simply always been such. While they do revere the moon as the point of their origin, they do not recognize it as a point of divinity in the classical sense.
Cosmological Views
The moon was light, and around it flowed an eternal river of darkness, and in that place, all was silent and pure. The darkness flowed and the light held fast, and the balance of the two was immutable. There came a time however, when change came upon this perfect place in the form of a dream. The moon, in her slumber, dreamed of six rays of light that shone forth from her form, each illuminating a thing in the darkness that had been hidden. The first light burned forth and, in a powerful and strong pulsing ray of yellow it illuminated a vast city made of gold and silver, and from that city spread the movements of men, sojourning out into the darkness and building where they found purchase. The second ray of light, soft and radiant, gentle and warm, moved through the darkness with a simple grace until it landed upon an enormous tree, lush and vibrant and quivering with life, and from that tree sprouted vines and seeds that moved into the shadows and began to grow a great forest filled with beauty and majesty. The third ray was a burning ray of heat and fire, and it illuminated an anvil upon which was crafted the first weapon, a tool of destruction that would lay waste where it went and enforce the balance of life and death. The fourth ray of light shone down upon a beautiful river awash with golden hues, and from that river moved a crimson song that split the darkness around it and began to spread with each twist and turn of its melody and rhythm. The fifth ray was subtle, and almost moved without notice, but where it landed, there was a beating heart, pumping with determined presence and purpose, and from that heart came veins and arteries that carried love and kindness into the darkness, offering shelter and sustenance to any it found there, and the sixth ray was barely there, and seemed to seek its own path in the darkness, though its own light was dim. It found haven in the shadows, and used this to traverse far and wide, to seek out and find all the secrets in the dark places if could, or would, dare to uncover.
As these dreams manifested in the darkness and began to spread, they quickly and fearfully became aware that they were adrift and soon to be lost in the all encompassing dark, and in that fear they ran to the only thing they could see, the moon. The moon, still dreaming, was unaware of the struggle for survival that now played out across her brow, and while she slumbered, her terrified children in their desperation, tore their mother apart, each seeking a foothold in existence. Their struggle and the spread of their influence used the unwitting sacrifice of their mother, the moon, to craft beneath their feet a world upon which they might stand and grow, each of them moving outward to explore this new existence, and this new reality. All that remained of the poor moon, was the death's head countenance of what was once so pure and beautiful, a reminder of the sacrifice of life for life, and the balance of all things, but not all of her was consumed.
While her children reveled in their new found existence, building up beautiful and terrible parts of the world they created, a small sliver of the moons abiding light fell quietly upon a small island in the ocean, far from where her children played. Unnoticed, the first people were formed from that light upon the water, and hand in hand walked out of it and into the world. Since they were not created, and instead born of the moon's sacrifice, they were tied to the spirit of the world, the pure embodiment of the Mother-That-Was, the moon, and to show this, their spirits were split as hers was, one part in the realm of Sahahimu, and the other in the realm of the world that was wild and untamed. Their spirits were so entwined that the two became one, and lived on into perpetuity through the ever revolving act of birth, death, and rebirth through the return of the spirit to the vessel of a newborn.
Type
Religious, Other
Official State Religion
Permeated Organizations
Location
Related Species
Comments