Zeribian pantheon Organization in Salan | World Anvil
BUILD YOUR OWN WORLD Like what you see? Become the Master of your own Universe!

Zeribian pantheon

Zeribian pantheon is a collection of the Zeribians' common believes and gods. The religion does not have a shared leadership or common tenets of faith, and is therefore not quite an organised religion. The consept of ritual purity is very central to Zeribian religion, and is discussed in the seperate article.  

Main deities

Zeribians are polytheist animists, and worship dozens of gods, many of whom are only believed to hold regional power. These are some of the most universally worshipped Zeribian divines:
Feren, God of the sea and underworld.
Usahdeg, God of fire, war, acriculture and rebirth.
Idûrfeš, Goddess of rain, fresh water and fertility.
Haššiw, God of moon, darkness and trade.  

Minor deities

Kuh (god), god of war and beasts.
Sahar (god), a volcano god
Šamsah, a storm god, personification of lightning. The son of Feren.
Ûhiz, Wiz, the herald of Feren, often thought to reside in rivers.  

In addition to the deities, Zeribians worship a couple of the most important mythical heroes and some deified mortals. In general however Zeribians don't worship living people or their direct ancestors. It is thought to be quite arrogant.  

The manifestations of the divine

The Zeribian divines are usually represented by statues in the temples, that the spirits are thought to reside in. These statues are the main representation of the god to the common people. The statues are often paraded around the city during special occasions, but are otherwise kept hidden. The gods can also represent themselves as natural objects. The gods themselves are immaterial beings, that are generally invisible, but can appear to the worshippers as ghost-like beings. These visions are often received under the influence of various drugs, and can be produced by performing rituals. The visions can either be received by individuals, or a group of people. Powerful priests can have pretty close relationships with their gods.  

Religious celebrations

The celebrations are opened by public religious ceremonies performed at the temples, after which the people gather on the streets to share food and drink. Many of their slaves are also allowed to rest, and join their masters at the feast. The celebrations often include performing traditional dances. Normally the nobles aren't supposed to be under any drugs that affect their necision making, but on the ceremonies they will use alcohol and psychoactive drugs to communicate with the gods. Drunkennes is heavily frowned upon on common people too, and any drunkards causing problems face public corporal punisments or even death penalty.    

Believes of death and afterlife

Zeribians believe that the dead must be protected from the possession of the evil spirits. The common people are usually cremated or sunk to the sea to destroy the body. The bodies of the nobility are protected with tons of magical jewelery, and then placed in the mausoleum of their Great House. Zeribians believe in a vague sort of afterlife. If the soul can escape the spirits, it can go to the spirit world which is a paradise where the spirits live very similar lives to the mortals. A noble spirit might occasionally return to his eartly remains to give guidance, but binding spirits to the eartly plain is considered rude.

Structure

The temples that are in control of important holy sites hold the highest power in the religion.

Sects

The common Zeribian religion is open polytheism, that doesn't have a fixed set of divines or believes. The sects of the religion are formed around the cults focused on the worship of particular divines.   The state-promoted official sects are the sects that are most popular among the noble people. Many deities are more popular or even exclusively worshipped by the common people.   Some larger scale grooping can also be made. The exclusionary sects focus on the worhip of the central native Zeribian deities. More marginal sects worship Zeribianized versions of foreign divines.
Type
Religious, Pantheon
Capital
Subsidiary Organizations
Location
Official Languages
Related Ethnicities

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!