Ulku (/ˈulku/)
Ulku is an animistic and shamanist faith practiced by the Sashen of the region of Lìrna in Felora. It has elements of polytheism, with 10 major deities representing some of the oldest figures in the religious beliefs of the Sashen becoming more prominent in recent decades. Subsequent expeditions by Sashen traders and Ulkun Gislimins have revealed the worsening and expansion of the Joh Desert, amplifying the slightly-apocalyptic aspect of Ulkun beliefs.
Mythology & Lore
Ulkun mythology predates the Ulkun religion, itself being the response to the climate change of their native Foh, now the Foh desert. In it, the Great Creator, an androgynous deity, is said to have led the people who would become the Sashen out of a distant land of cruelness and harshness to the Foh, a realm created for their followers. Alu and Yur'a are revered as gods of life, of animal (the hunt) and plant (the harvest) respectively.
Divine Origins
Ulku, literally "way" and short for "the way of the exile" or "desert", developed as a response to the drastic climate shift that took place in their native homeland 400 years ago. Rooted in Sashen religious practice in the early history of their migration from their rapidly drying homeland, the Priest/Shaman Poha Rorni, chronicled their odyssey from their homeland into a collapsing society, Felora. After arriving in the ruins of the former capital of Lìrn, Rorni consecrated the former Èlhyaean temple of the city, a prayer for the beginning of their exile.
Cosmological Views
Like it's mythology, much of the Ulkun cosmology is continued from pre-Ulkun beliefs of the Sashe. The world was made by the Great Creator, who created several attendants out of the raw materials around him who in turn created the land of Foh for their people to escape to. This faraway land they escaped from has come to be understood as being the same as the Dàlùnsten of Ëlhyaea, due to similarities in descriptions in their texts/orations. It is believed that after Foh was settled fully, the Great Creator and their attendants created the Afterlife, where the kind in life would be waited on by the cruel.
