Ayshanism

Is Ayshanism a religion? Academically, some would argue no. Theoretically, the dogma uses religious mysticism at lower levels but encourages worshipers to advance in theological study to understand the "true" doctrine of Ayshanism: that godhood is subjective and ultimately unimportant, but that the true essence of spirituality is to treat others well regardless of who reigns in heaven. But religion is not a purely academic pursuit, and there is a great deal of emotional reality to the worship of Aysha as the one and only true god of the world (Aysha being an immortal entity of light housed/trapped in an indestructible Lighthouse in Shirpatra). Ayshan priests and followers will often dodge and weave on this point- is Ayshanism dogmatic or not? Is it a repudiation of false claims or godhood or the following of the true god? Often it is a mixture of both.
Ayshanism is an evangelical faith that is at war with the other great organized religions of the world, which it sees as exploitative and misleading. It is also a very centralized faith, with dogma and official church policy strictly controlled by Aysha herself. It is a faith that seeks perfect balance between the species of Halika and the participation of Solars in sedentary society. To some, it is a force of liberation and equality; to others, it is a church of evangelizing zealots who burn temples of other faiths, wage war on the gods, and seek global domination. Competing religions often tell their adherents grim horror stories of Ayshanism, that they are debauched, godless, family-destroying demon-worshipers who live only to commit sin. It is a very polarizing topic to say the least.
What do Ayshans actually believe? On a mystical-cosmological level, that the Goddess Aysha is the emanation of true divinity and can save any soul who rejects the false idols of the demi-urges (the material gods who made the world and trapped us within its cycle of suffering). Aysha gave us the sun, knowledge, and hope and all of her believers will rise beyond suffering and time when the world comes to an end. But recognition of her power is only the first step: to truly believe in Aysha is to be good, to seek out the best part of yourself and find your own bit of humble divinity. Ayshanism rejects the reality of the Architects and strives to create something kinder in its place.

Structure

The church hierarchy is very centralized, though there are gaps in its power. Several rogue cliques of priests do exist in parallel to the canon church, often associated with radical dogmas. Priests are given a great deal of theological leeway for how they relate concepts to their community, so the church often misses growing radical sentiment in fringe churches.

Rank	Role	Selected by	#
Goddess/God	Supreme management of the faith	Are Eternal	2
Prophets	Management of church policy and administration, act as Supreme Council	Gods	11
Solar Masters	Management of regional church administration	Supreme Council	15
Wardens	Work under Solar Masters to manage minutae	Solar Masters	Many
High Priests	Manage cities or other areas where multiple churches are close together	Solar Masters	Many
Priests	Manage church, community along with laystaff	See Below	Many

Priests are nominated by community with recommendation of another priest, and then confirmed by Solar master to become official.

Culture

Solar Culture and Solar Marriage

Ayshanism is very popular among solars, and solar clerics are held in extremely high regard. Aysha's blessings have allowed faithful solars to settle down permanently, creating a unique blend of dryad, prism, human, and solar populations in Ayshan cities. As solars tend to be the oldest and most powerful city leaders, Ayshan elites have adopted many solar cultural practices. Most famous of these is Solar Marriage- family structures built around polyamorous triads that are the basis for solar society. Ayshan definitions of marriage are based on Solar Marriage: inherently flexible, can involve multiple parties, and can often require renewal after a certain period of time. Regardless of direct parentage or marriage expiration dates, all parties involved are expected to care for the children produce by the marriage for life (as is the community more widely). Ayshan marriages are tailor-made for the individual parties rather than existing as a static status quo, and have extreme emphasis on the consent of all parties involved. While arranged marriages among certain elites continue illegally, the often-temporary nature of elite marriage means that divorce is far less stigmatized. Ayshan definitions of marriage, family, and relationships are one of the most threatening aspects of the religion to foreign churches and power structures, and have attracted many critiques of Ayshanism as anti-family and hedonistic. Opportunists claiming to be Ayshan priests have also perpetuated these stereotypes of "the hedonistic Ayshans" by using Solar Marriage as a way to perform "one night marriages" in countries where extramarital sex or sex work is illegal. These opportunists often sell their exoticized versions of Ayshanism in gambling dens and other "immoral" corners of foreign countries- both to legitimize their enterprise as foreign culture and to advertise their businesses (after all, who knows a good time better than those diabolically hedonistic Ayshans?).
What foreigners will not tell you is that Ayshan/Solar culture is also very ascetic. While Ayshanism is materialistic in the philosophical sense that it focuses on physical conditions and what we actually know about the world, it often mocks those who base their identities around material culture. Solars have few physical needs and raise their young to reject private property and hoarding. Emotional investment in non-living objects is seen as one of the great downfalls of mortal-kind; one of the Twelve Steps is to overcome such things. Food and water alone are seen as sacred, and Ayshans are encouraged to learn how to prepare food for species other than themselves as a form of holy devotion.

History

Ayshanism's detractors will say Ayshanism began as a joke. That's sort of true: in the early centuries, Aysha and Haru often joked about packaging their divine-skeptical philosophy as a religion. As the centuries flew by, their aid to local communities earned them religious titles and the jokes stopped being jokes. But to be clear, the philosophy was never a laughing matter to Aysha. The two immortals forged the foundations of Ayshanism trying to understand, cope with, and do better in a world that seemed so confusing and hopeless. Haru had met the Architects and the Architects had told him that they were just people who had no inherent plan, morals, or purpose for the world. Aysha brought her own revelation: that even Halcyon, kindest of a pantheon of cruel gods, had made a world of limitation and suffering and would not be enough. They had to rise above the architects if they wanted a world worth saving. They built Ayshanism with the hope that it would inspire that seem feeling and goal in mortals, to build their own ethics within themselves that went beyond what any petty godling imposed.
In 700, Aysha finally launched her plan. She performed an ironic apotheosis ceremony, calling upon the Architects to destroy her before claiming that they were limited, flawed, and outdated. If such things were gods, she was a God. She called upon the spiritual leaders of North Samvara to summon the wisest and most learned mortals who would learn her ways and the Synod of Apotheosis was at hand. There, she built her priesthood and had them compile the Book of Light to educate others. They developed the twelve steps, a protocol of mystical teaching that could be used to allow holy people to walk their followers through the sharp revelations of Ayshanism without falling into despair or denial. While early Ayshanism was much more athiestic, the roots of it as a full-fledged religion were present from the start.
Ayshanism grew within Aysha's personal empire of Shirpatra. Its followers became known as thinkers and healers who would provide aid to the needy regardless of religion or nationality. While the elites of foreign empires were wary of their radical theology, they were able to dodge accusations of atheism (which was often seen as blasphemous and illegal in most of Samvara) and the healers and teachers were accepted into courts across the continent. From 700 to 850, eccentrics and philosophers gathered from far and wide to join the Order of the Healing Sun. In the 850s, the mystical organization of Ayshanism had begun to preach more seriously- aristocrats courted them for magical secrets, commoners sought their magic and wisdom for healing, and rival churches began to see them as a real threat. As the other religions began to persecute and censor Ayshan teachings, Aysha had to restrain her followers from fighting back- she refused to allow her church to engage in the holy wars and purges that had so devastated Samvara. But Aysha's control was not as permanent and absolute as she imagined. In 931, the The Khilaia assaulted Aysha's home and slew her apprentice- the great holy solar Ponder. While the invasion was smashed, the ensuing chaos seriously limited Aysha's ability to control her own holy empire. And the religion of Ayshanism had grown so large over the centuries that it could no longer be micromanaged. After decades of being driven out by other churches and empires with no retaliation, the Ayshan clerics finally saw an opportunity to pursue revenge and take the religion into their own hands.
Three great solar clerics- the apprentices of Ponder- became the leaders of this religious rebellion: Cherish, Reason, and Joy. Each apprentice had their own vision of Ayshanism that they pursued on their own: Cherish sought to evangelize "peacefully" in foreign lands, Reason sought to overthrow foreign tyrants to bring Ayshanism to foreign peoples by force, and Joy believed that the Ayshans should kill foreign leaders in revenge for transgressions against the church. In 980, the three apprentices took as much of the church as they could and headed South together to enact their plans away from Aysha's micromanagement. Cherish began mass evangelism; Reason launched a military invasion of the failing kingdom of Nadram to create their own theocratic state; Joy began hunting selkie leaders and foreign church authorities as well as generally stirring chaos in the Southwest.
From 980 to 1000, Aysha tried in vain to reign in these rogue clerics. But again crises drew her attention in the North, as a pod of Leviathans began tearing up the Northern coastline in 1000 ME. Undermined by church revolts, attacked by rogue monsters, and then invaded by local empires, Aysha found her authority plummeting. She was forced to decentralize the church and began handing more and more religious authority to regional clerics. The crisis eventually passed, with the invasions repulsed and leviathans lain by 1100- but the church had changed forever. While Aysha remained the one true god, she was no longer the hands-on direct manager she had been. In 1200 ME, Aysha quietly mended the schism between her church and those of Cherish and Reason. The rebel clerics were now heroes, and Ayshanism stepped up to embrace the holy wars they started.
From 1200 onwards, Ayshanism openly evangelized and warred alongside the other great faiths. Internally, there were consistent problems with regional leaders adopting the practices of Pratasam and Halikvar: ruling as theocratic druid-priests above the base sinful commonfolk. These druids- the Ayshan Alkoa- were a ghost in the system, always out of Aysha's sight but slowly growing. The power struggles and hypocrisy of Ayshanism drew plenty of critics from within and without. The most infamous of these critics was one of Aysha's own grandchildren: a powerful cleric known as Virtue Seraja, who argued that Ayshanism was not only corrupt but was bound by a limiting worldview of objectivism and materialism. Virtue would go on to lead their followers out of the church to form their own religious movement, known as Sumoxa in 1400.
The Ayshan Alkoa were finally mass-purged by a series of reforms in 1720, but from 1200 to 1720 they represented the pinnacle of Ayshan hypocrisy. Conspiracy theorists and propagandists often contend that the hypocrite-druids "rule Ayshanism from the shadows", but little evidence of that exists. The church has since flourished- standing strong against its enemies and remaining popular among Solars. While Sumoxa's less strict theology has proven more adaptable and easier to evangelize, Ayshanism remains a potent force to be reckoned with.

Mythology & Lore

The Demiurges

In the beginning, there was endless light. It formed into an endless number of beings and universes, all of pure thought. There was no pain, there were no limits. Time was malleable and every entity was both a god unto itself and deeply connected with the rest of creation. This world of possibilities still exists, but we cannot comprehend it. For four beings chose to isolate themselves from the world and make a corner all for themselves. These tyrants used their infinite power to create a limited world, where creatures would be forced to fawn over them and suffer for them. These tyrants are Halcyon, The Masked One, The Chimera, and The Hidden One. These are known as the Demiurges; the false gods of the material world.
The Demiurges had no idea that while they controlled their world absolutely, that they had planted the seeds of power beyond them. For within every sentient being was a soul, an ember of true light that could become a god just like the Demiurges. By creating a material world that generated billions of these potential gods, the Demiurges had accidentally created a vast host that they could not truly control. And while they focused on indoctrinating and controlling those souls, their evil deeds piled up and infused the world itself. They sank into the evil world they created- and that evil attempted to destroy them. The very fabric of reality revolted against them, trying to devour the Demiurges. And so the Demiurges infused their divinity into the three goddesses: Aysha, Suwota, and Mavara. These houses were to subjugate reality for them, as the Lunar Pantheon were given powers to subjugate mortal souls. Exhausted, the demiurges fled into the void to rest and recuperate.
While two of the three great goddesses obeyed the Demiurges in their evil intent, one of them rejected dominion over mortalkind. Aysha abandoned her post to meditate alone for two hundred years, before she finally ascended beyond the rest. She escaped the bounds of time and space to see the realm of light from whence the demiurges emerged- and she returned with divine wisdom and power as a true goddess. The Lunar Pantheon, scared of her wisdom, asked Haru to convince her to return to her post. But Haru joined her instead as her first disciple and divine consort.

The Prophecies of the Age of Light

One day, the Demiurges will return to the world to reclaim their power. When they do so, the world will once again rise up to devour them, and to devour the souls they created. The Demiurges will try and trick mortalkind into slavery and subservience, and the world will try to do the same- Reality will coalesce into four terrible false gods who will march against the Demiurges. But their false dichotomy will be a path to spiritual destruction. It is prophecised that Aysha will instead march an army of enlightened souls to destroy both of them, to end the reign of the Demiurges and save the world from eternal darkness. That will begin the Age of Light, when the souls of Purgatory and Paradise will be set free to ascend and Aysha will rule the world as a benevolent Goddess.

Cosmological Views

The Ethereal and Material

Ayshanism divides the world into the ethereal and the material, with the ethereal inherently divine and the material inherently corrupt. The ethereal is the world of thoughts and emotions that make up the soul and are connected to the "true world"; the material is the world of our bodies, and makes up the false world. The material must be shunned or at least overcome to embrace the sacred ethereal: if you are a slave to your impulses or lost in the material world, you are an unwitting slave of the Demiurges and Reality.
Does that mean that alcohol, food, drugs, and other forms of physical pleasure are evil? Mainstream Ayshan doctrine only asserts that you need to be in control of your impulses, and that pleasure is not inherently evil. The Twelve Steps also include the critical step of moderation, stating that some physical pleasure is okay. That said, the cosmology of Ayshanism quietly implies that physical pleasures are fundamentally evil and do not exist in an ideal world- and implication that radical sects are all too happy to expand on.
The sharp divide between ethereal and material is not all bad. All souls are equal in the eyes of Ayshanism, making all species and social classes inherently equal in the faith on a fundamental level.

Revelation as Parable

The Twelve Steps are intended to be taken seriously, but the Revelations of Aysha are not intended to be accepted as wholly literal. Ayshan services, study, and worship all encourage worshipers to examine Ayshan texts and beliefs as metaphor rather than literal factual truth. After all, the false material world inhibits pure truth from being communicated- all true wisdom must be processed within, cleaned of its material impurity. Parishioners are encouraged to consider the possible truths that can be learned from each passage, with clerics as academic advisors that might help the flock along. Advancement in the clergy requires relentless study and interpretation, though there is a "traditional path" that all clerics must study and acknowledge to advance: to question Aysha's godhood, realize that the title of God is meaningless, to realize that all Gods and Spirits are simply people with enhanced power, to realize that all sentient beings are inherently equal, to challenge the need to have different equal creatures exist with differing levels of power. In this way, priests are to imitate Aysha's rebellion and ascension by ritually "overthrowing" her divinity and ascending themselves (though, unlike Aysha, they remain obedient to their god in this rebellion).
Unlike Sumoxa, Ayshanism does not reject the idea of objective truth altogether- it actually is quite set in the idea that there is an objective truth that can be known. But that objective truth can only be discerned through study and careful analysis, as the senses are flawed and communication is imperfect.

Tenets of Faith

• Treat Others With Kindness: The highest form of divine communion is unconditional kindness to strangers
• If it is not harmful, let it be: Everyone is on their own journey to goodness. If it doesn't hurt anyone and does not violate anyone's consent without coercion, let it be
• Care for your neighbors who are unlike yourself: Every soul is the same, but the Gods divided us into different bodies and cultures to keep us from seeing the whole truth. The most sacred form of rebellion is to see beyond cultural or biological differences. Learn how to care for children and neighbors of different culture or nature, learn to cook and apply medicine to them- that is truly sacred.
• Welcome the stranger: Those shone kindness will see its power. Welcome always the stranger, the refugee, the traveler.
• Learn and Build: We must never allow ourselves to become complacent. Build with your neighbors, grow food, build structures, learn trades, discover truth, study the wisdom of the elders. It is only through that hard work that ascension may be had.
• Consent is the basis for all mortal interactions: True consent, consent without coercion, is the basis for a just community. All relationships are based on this. To threaten or coerce is to engage in evil behavior.
• Rise above superstition: Traditions that do not serve us are without purpose. Traditions that harm people are actively evil, and must be destroyed as vile superstition.
• Reject false idols: False gods are actively harmful influences that support evil power structures and seek to imprison their followers. Destroy false gods and wicked idols.

Ethics

Holy Utilitarians

Goodness is inherently individual. While communities must foster goodness, they must also avoid destroying the spirit of the individual. Ethics are based around the Harm Avoidance Principle: if it isn't hurting anyone, let it be. Goodness is not measured in the glorification of the divine, but in how it helps other people live happy and enlightened lives. And since all people are inherently equal, the greatest good is done when it helps the most people (rather than elites).

Consent and Violence

In Ayshan theology, consent without coercion is required for all true revelation or divine magic. Even Aysha herself is bound by this rule. For this reason children must choose to join the faithful when they come of age, without threat of abandonment or ruin. Similarly, charity must never be tied to conversion: good must be done unconditionally, or it is not good. The forces of evil- the Demiurges, Material Reality- operate on coercion; Good operates on consent.
Ayshanism defines coercion as any use of violence to compel a certain decision. But in defining violence, it goes further than most: it includes both threats of harm and the withholding of necessary materials such as food, shelter, or medicine.

Worship

The most basic form of Ayshan worship is the weekly day of communion, where the community meets together at the temple to engage in prayer, contemplation, and discourse. These can vary dramatically between communities, but typically involve segments of prayer, song, sermon, and community discussion. This last section is something of a weekly town hall, where worshipers can air grievances, ask for guidance, beg forgiveness, or propose ideas. The first part of this is public, and can be quite dramatic; the second part is purely private, between the priest and the worshiper. The day of communion is a strange merging between community assembly and day of prayer, and is often used to hold public votes and can be a vehicle of popular discontent and protest.
The Ayshan calendar is also full of holidays celebrating the holiest of heroes and thinkers, as well as 'days of service'. Days of service are akin to holidays, but rather than celebrate worshipers are encouraged to engage in public service. That service can range from tilling community fields, constructing public buildings, or assisting the poor.

Priesthood

Priests of Aysha often wear robes with bright and warm colors (red, orange, yellow), marked with a small badge or symbol over their heart denoting rank. Modesty in costume is encouraged as a sign of humility and devotion, so it can be difficult for outsiders to detect differences in rank.
Priests are initiated into the priesthood after at least four years of religious education either under an ordained priest or at a religious college. Priests are expected to donate all wealth and accumulated property above a certain limit to the common good upon dying, to limit hereditary gains. Priests are also barred from most forms of warfare and combat that are not deemed ethical by the church.
Within communities, priests have a number of roles as educators, community leaders, and mediators. They also hold "solar councils": secretive meetings with community leaders intended to manage problems, track trends, and solve disputes within the community. These meetings also serve to bind the interests of local elites to that of the church, keeping them loyal and in line.

"Walk Only in Light"

Founding Date

700

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Alternative Names

Shenyavar

Demonym

Ayshan

Leader

Aysha

Permeated Organizations

• Empire of Shirpatra
• Holy State of Ayneva

Deities

• Aysha
• Haru

Divines

• Aysha

Notable Members

• Ponder

Related Plots

• Another Dragon, Another Court