The Temples Of The Common Faith

When Thoughts Become Silent, The Soul Finds Peace In Its Own Source

Mythology & Lore

It is the firm belief of the Commonalists that, prior to the Refulgencia, salvation and purity were impossible to attain. After all, without divinity, there is no salvation. However, when the Gods were born unto the world, they instituted something known as the "Reign of Starlight". This refers to the idea that, in modern times, the Gods are an active presence in the proliferation of life, the Gods all personally deciding when it is one's time to die, judging them, and then sending them back down to Ecumene.
A Mortal soul will be reincarnated hundreds and hundreds of times again, ants coming back as ants, flowers coming back as flowers, Elves coming back as Elves, and Centaurs coming back as Centaurs. Each time a body dies, the Soul will be judged, and until absolute purity is achieved, the cycle will not break. It should be here noted that to insinuate or even say that you somehow know of who or what you were in a previous life is an irredeemable sin. On the other sign of the coin, one cannot make predictions of what they will come back to Ecumene as in the next turn of their cycle. All one can do is live rightly and purely so that the cycle of death and impure rebirth may end.
Eventually, after one has lived a life of total piety and totally in accordance with Commonalist teachings, the cycle will begin to break in a beautiful way. Now that the Reign of Starlight is begun, mortal beings can themselves attain the same purity as the Gods through the Common Faith, and while they of course cannot become a God, one can become as enlightened as the Trinity through the divine gift of Eternal Peace: a miniature apotheosis. After one life of great purity, a Soul will become "Jeweled", meaning that it is predestined to come back again and again and live a life of greater and greater purity due to the purity of that one lifetime marking the Soul itself, although those with Jeweled Souls can still fall off the path and be sent back to square one. Once one is judged as completely and utterly righteous, one will be reincarnated in the form of a tree that grows at a strange angle, marking it as a being of holiness. Within this Blessed Tree, a Soul cannot become impure and joins in union with the Gods, becoming an extension of their holiness within the Eternal Peace and existing in a state of infinite bliss, infinite knowledge, and infinite perception of reality. It is the highest calling of all Souls to search for the path to Eternal Peace, everything else being secondary to this quest.
This, of course, is all nonsense, as when a living being dies, their Soul leaves their body for good and simply joins with the rest of the mana in the universe, not at all being judged and sent back to Ecumene.

Cosmological Views

Like all religions on Ecumene, the Temples of the Common Faith worships the Divine Trinity, but the religion has chosen to worship specific aspects of the Trinity over others.
Yxotl is worshipped as "Yxotl the Wolf". His domains as the God of Animals and War are dually focused upon by the Commonalists. The Temples believe that those who pray to Yxotl will be given the ferocity of beasts in their undertakings and many poets have likened regiments of soldiers to packs of wolves.
Qhaxsus is worshipped as "Qhaxsus the Harvester". His domain as the God of Agriculture is focused upon by the Commonalists. It is believed that if you are good and do good, he will bless those who pray to him with crops as tall as their heads and foods as delicious as they are large.
Oxlan is worshipped as "Oxlan the Law-Bringer". His domain as the God of Law is focused upon by the Commonalists. Commonalists believe that it is the wish of Oxlan for civilization to continue, and for the laws of mortals (both written and unwritten) to be followed.

Tenets of Faith

The Common Faith (this being the name for the theology, the Temples being the name for the clerical and theological aspects) is the youngest of Ecumene's major religions by far, being a whole three hundred years younger than Trinitism. While the founders of the new religion, chief among them the prophet Andreas, were Trinitist clerics by trade, they and their faith would make a point of completely rejecting Trinitist religious ideals. After all, the Gods taught Andreas that Primus the Martyr was a false prophet, and therefore, most everything he said was false. It is for this reason that, while technically springing from Trinitism, the two faiths could not be any more different.
Commonalist theology is all about one's personal road to Eternal Peace, everything falling back on this one point. It is seen as completely absurd that anyone but your own self and the Gods should be in charge of your journey to break the cycle, because every life is unique and made from unique experiences. Practices and methods that lead one person to Eternal Peace may not work for another, and while there are rituals that are guaranteed to assist in one's journey, they are made to push one along, not to bulldoze the path, for every road is personal and it is highly important that one conquer their own obstacles. The wisdom gained through introspection and soul-searching will make all clear, and though the advice of others can be very useful, it can just as easily make an otherwise easy stretch of road one of brambles and jagged rocks. It is for this reason that meditation is incredibly important to the Commonalist experience, for in reflecting on one's own experiences, one's own struggles and sins, and what makes one divine, the path to Jeweling one's Soul and eventually reaching Eternal Peace becomes a little bit easier.
Due to this doctrine of personal spiritual fulfillment, the unifying holy books and practices of the Temples of the Common Faith are not to be taken as rituals and are instead interpreted as guides and exercises that assist in spiritual health. While there are many treatises and texts that advise the Commonalist faithful on how to live purely, the only "true" religious text of the faith is the Book of Life. Penned by the prophet Andreas, who was given a vision by the Gods where they denounced the heresy of the Martyr and outlined their true vision for all Mortals, it begins as a critique of the Orthodoxy (the Commonalist name for the Cult of the Trinity) before detailing the most important rules all Commonalists must follow. Interestingly, all Commonalist religious texts are prohibited from rhyming, for such a thing is Orthodox and therefore evil.
Commonalist morality is commonly seen as looser than most other moral codes, especially in how it deals with much of that which is seen as sinful. At least primarily, Commonalist morality is concerned with two things: not blocking another's path to Eternal Peace and governing the self to maintain one's own righteousness. We shall discuss this first point here. If one steals from another, they are not only harming themselves through their selfishness, they are harming the person they stole from and the community as a whole by spreading bad feelings which may tip the scales away from Eternal Peace. As such, it is the job of all Commonalists to spread love and be good to their fellows not just for their own sake but for everyone's sake: a harmonious community leading to a harmonious mind. Furthermore, a Commonalist must take care to not burden others with their own struggles. Confessionals and other such things are sinful in of themselves, for in demanding advice from someone that was not given freely or passing word of your own sins onto another, you spread the aforementioned bad feelings. Of course, discussing negative emotions or the road to salvation with others is somewhat acceptable, more so if those speaking are incredibly close to each other, but being overly forthcoming with your mental and spiritual struggles is something that simply is not done. For this same reason, the Common Faith forbids begging. One must recognize that, although community and friendship are great things that must be supported and maintained, the path to divinity is tread alone.
Further to that point, the Temples of the Common Faith practice a total ban on verbally quoting or reading from religious texts. This is to ensure that every individual is free to interpret writings on their own, not beholden to the biases and opinions of another. Perhaps paradoxically, though, proselytism is quite renowned amongst Commonalists. It is believed that, unless you are a practicing Commonalist, nothing you do in life will actually matter in the eyes of the Gods due to your heresy. Therefore, it is the holy job of all good Commonalists to put non-believers onto the true path; this does not only help the proselytizing individual's standing with the Gods, but it works to erode false and deceitful religions. However, even if someone converts, it is quite likely that they (being of a non-Commonalist race) will be reborn into a non-Commonalist family. Therefore, to truly convert to Commonalism, one must convert at least one other person, who must convert at least one other person to complete their own conversion, and so on and so forth.
Interestingly, there are a small number of dietary laws within Commonalism. Just as one will wash themselves with herbal water before going to a Temple, one is required to wash meat with herbal water before cooking it, as this is believed to purify the meat of any vestiges of an animal's Soul within that may remain. Commonalists are also completely forbidden from eating eggs or fetuses, for such things are said to have been never alive, and therefore never truly dead, and it is therefore taboo to eat them. The same principle applies to the prohibition of the consumption of living animals.
Commonalists believe that one is only beholden to themselves and the Gods when it comes to matters of the Soul, and because of this, a Commonalist must govern themself wisely. Interestingly, it is believed that suffering and luxury are twin evils. When one suffers, either from stress, poverty, high emotion, or even through penance, they will get caught up in the suffering and lose sight of the purity they are trying to attain. On the other side of the coin, if one lives an overly luxurious life, they will become so attached to their material wealth that thoughts of eternity become alien to them. With this in mind, a Commonalist must strive to live a life of moderation, ensuring they experience the joys of life, but being careful to not overindulge. It is for this reason that Commonalism does not demand modesty in dress, does not demand that sex be kept within marriage (nor does the Book of Life ever mention homosexuality), and does not prohibit the consumption of any vice. However, it is made very clear that overindulgence in anything will throw you far from purity, and as such, one must resist the temptation to drown themselves in sinful behavior (with it actually being seen that resisting the temptation to overindulge actually makes one stronger than simply shunning pleasure).
As stated before, those within the Temples of the Common Faith believe that the Gods take a direct role in the proliferation of new life, believing the breath of life to be given right before birth. However, this also means that if someone is born with a birth defect, it cannot be treated, for to interfere with the creations of the Trinity are to deny their infallibility.
Andreas and the other fathers of the Common Faith created the religion, at least largely, to preserve independent cultures in the face of Orthodox world domination. For that reason, the Book of Life warns against the mixing of the races. Just as each individual Soul must follow its own path, each race must follow its own path. Multiculturalism leads to spiritual corruption and the loss of independent identities, not to mention the evils inherent to miscegenation. If a Human and an Elf bear a child, it always comes out as crippled, as sure a sign of divine disapproval as any.
It has long been the doctrine of the Temples that each life lived is uniquely sacred. Each life, it is said, should be spent assisting others in their worldly labors, spreading love and joy, and living purely so that one may progress on the road to Eternal Peace. With all that being said, though, Commonalists recognize that some lives simply cannot be redeemed due to some especially horrible sin that has been committed, such as cold-blooded murder, rape, pederasty, or miscegenation. Those who have committed such evils are given the choice of "blood atonement". In this, a sinner will be given an opportunity to prematurely end their life (via execution by beheading carried out by civil authorities) and redeem themselves by starting again, this being seen as a benevolent and fair offering. Although the Book of Life is clear that blood atonement should be a personal choice and should be carried out in private, there are many, many cases of angry mobs lynching "sinners" for transgressions against the Gods both real and imagined.

Worship

While proper prayer is quite common and accepted within Commonalism (providing the prayer is not in verse), most worship is centered around mediation and introspection. Instead of Churches or meeting houses of any kind, Commonalists use "Temples". These are usually nothing more than a circle of standing stones within nature, be it a park, a piece of woods, or a meadow. Temple circles that surround Blessed Trees are seen as especially holy, but there is a reason Temples of any kind are located in nature. The quiet of a forest or a mountain valley, away from the labors of farm and factory, assists greatly in the clearing of the mind, fresh air and wind on the skin being as good a medicine for the Soul as any as one experiences the beauty of eternity. Before taking the walk to a Temple, a Commonalist must wash their feet, hands, and face with herbal water to symbolically and literally clean themselves.
Most Commonalist denominations allow only one individual or one family into a Temple at a time, so most meditation is done at home, although the Book of Life suggests that the faithful should visit a Temple at least monthly, and when there, they should stay for an extended period of time. It should be here noted that Commonalist meditation is more than just closing your eyes and thinking about goodness; it is an entire routine meant to dispel impurity and clear the path towards Eternal Peace. When meditating, one should be sitting in a comfortable, private, quiet spot. To begin, a Commonalist will slowly form and reform a triangle with their hands, focusing completely on this until the monotony of it all makes it so that the worshipper does not even need to think about the process. Now that they have been centered, they can allow their mind to act as it should, dispelling any stresses or malignant thoughts, focusing on working through any problems they may be experiencing in a healthy, positive manner or simply focusing on the glory of the Gods and how one can strive to emulate them more.
It is, believe it or not, highly recommended that all Commonalists keep a garden, or failing that, a flower or small tree. In caring for this piece of vegetation, a Commonalist does not just learn the virtue of patience, but feels the struggles of the Gods on a much more minor scale. They must care for this plant from before its birth until its death, ensuring it prospers and stays on the right path, but also accepting that it may be imperfect and will not last forever.
Obviously, the Temples of the Common Faith celebrate the "Refulgencia". This holiday is the most important in Ecumene, as it celebrates the day of the Second Great Surge, the day the Gods were born unto the world. While records from that era are few, it is generally accepted by both the Cult of the Trinity and the Temples of the Common Faith that the day of the Second Great Surge was around Heraldsky 8th. In celebration of this holiest of events, nearly the entire Commonalist world hangs curtains made of flowers over their windows, and everyone is expected to come out for a day of revelry and games to celebrate this momentous occasion. At the end of the day, as the sun begins to set, gifts are given out to family and friends.
Another important celebration is the "Blossom Festival", held on Bloomdawn 20th. This holiday is concerned with celebrating and honoring the Gods and all they have done for the Intelligent Races, and it has been decided that the best way to do this is to hold a Spring festival. This holiday is actually rather new, first being widely celebrated after the Age Of Faith, having its history in traditional Dryad Spring Festivals that made their way into Sylvania and then the rest of the world, morphing on the way into a celebration of the mercy and compassion of the Trinity (though in reality, also an excuse to get drunk). On this day, Commonalists first go to their local Temple to pray, and then march through the street, wearing flowers and other light clothes, devoting the day to a celebration of the Gods' gifts. Alcohol and good food flow freely and good times are had by all, but for obvious reasons, the Festival is not too popular among stricter sects of the faith.
Many denominations of the Common Faith also celebrate a winter festival known as the Festival of Fires, celebrated on Lighteve 21st (the Winter Solstice). As this is the darkest day of the year, the Commonalists resolve to fill the cold night sky with candle and lantern light (many of these lanterns being sent into the sky), symbolizing the victory of divine purity and kindness over the darkness of the Pre-Trinity world. As the fires are lit, families and communities gather around big bonfires and firepits to roast meat and vegetables, warming their skin and their bellies all.

Priesthood

The idea of a true priesthood is completely contrary to the Common Faith, but there does exist a class of holy men (and sometimes women, depending on the culture). They are known as Monks, and they are those who have devoted their life to finding their Eternal Peace. Unlike true priests, Monks have no obligations to keep. They can have families, they can dress how they like, they can own material possessions, and they can indulge in vices. Even still, the life of a Monk is a life of piety and introspection, though in proper Commonalist fashion, all of it is brought on the self. 
This is because a Monk has no certification or training (though they will very often be mentored by another Monk), it is simply a word to describe those who devoted their lives to meditation and the observance of Commonalist teachings to the letter. It is said that every other calling in life is simply a side piece from the Eternal Path, and as such, Monks disregard all else. Very often, they may take up odd jobs (though never taking a distracting, proper job) or instrument playing to make money, but just as often they simply raise or grow everything they need to be happy and build a house of their own or move into a monastery (a group home for Monks). It is the duty of these devotees to ensure that Temples are being kept clean and pure, and many will write treatises on the Faith or attend religious conferences to discuss and debate the status and practices of the Temples. Sometimes, Monks may be asked by laypeople to advise them on their own spirituality, and while Monks will offer advice, they are always careful to make sure individuals discover their own path on their own terms and at their own pace. Of course, this means that Monks, and everyone else for that matter, are entirely prohibited from actual preaching. 
It should be noted that those who have not devoted themselves to a Monastic lifestyle can and have written works on the nature of the Common Faith and of the Gods themselves, but their works are not taken nearly as seriously as the works of those who are well on the road to Eternal Peace.

Sects

Owing to the Common Faith's incredibly decentralized nature and belief that there are many ways to Eternal Peace, providing one does not reject the basic tenets of the Common Faith, a great many individual schools of thought, known as Temple-Creeds, have popped up across Ecumene. Best thought of as a sort of hybrid between religious denominations and philosophical creeds, Temple-Creeds exist as entities to supplement the base dogma with additional practices, beliefs, and philosophies and to provide vessels for both Monks and laypeople to more easily tread the path to Eternal Peace through the use of Creed-specific practices, traditions, and advice from others within the same Temple-Creed.
While it is quite uncommon, for one will almost always do as their parents did, learning about other Temple-Creeds and even converting if another catches one's fancy is not only allowed but even somewhat encouraged. After all, it is the doctrine of the Common Faith that each Soul chooses for themself what will best lead them to Eternal Peace, and choosing to follow a particular Temple-Creed of the Common Faith or no Temple-Creed at all is a major part of that choice. Furthermore, Temples themselves are never, ever to be tied to any particular Temple-Creed, for these holy places of self-improvement and meditation are far more important than subjective divides.
The "Temple of Engelfurt" is one of the oldest and largest of the Temple-Creeds of the Common Faith, tracing its doctrine back to Tomas of Engelfurt, a favored followed of the Prophet Andreas and a learned philosopher of the divine in his own right. Most followers of the Temple of Engelfurt hail from Sylvania's heartland: the Kingdoms of Aldenwald, Hasetorf, Westenholm, Oberau, and Sonnehoff. Engelfurtians are known to be especially literalist in their interpretation of the Book of Life, taking almost no liberties with the base theology nor officially recognizing many supplementary works (aside from the works of Tomas and other like-minded contemporaries) as sanctioned by the Temple-Creed. Further to this point, the disciples of Tomas of Engelfurt believe that proper following of the Book of Life is all one needs to progress on the road to Eternal Peace. Other publications from other Temple-Creeds serve only to muddy the pure word of the Book, and while it is perfectly fine and common for those of the Temple to write treatises explaining in greater detail what (they think) Andreas meant through the Book of Life, giving commentary additional to what is expressly stated in the Book of Life should not be tolerated, for while the Common Faith does indeed encourage individual interpretation of the scripture and individual seeking of the divine, proof exists that the Book of Life is divinely inspired, and as no other text can say the same, they must be regarded with suspicion. Due to Tomas of Engelfurt's own personal opinions, his Temple-Creed is also incredibly in favor of racial separation both materially and spiritually, and as such, only Elves are allowed to associate with the School. The School of Engelfurt is the only School to expressly prohibit members of other races from joining in association with it, though many others do so in practice. It is traditionally associated with white lilies.
The "Temple of the Process" is another Temple-Creed with a primarily Elven following, though it has its base in the Elves of the Westland Kingdoms: Neustein, Abendufer, and Kaiserwerder (though most Ritters in these regions are of the Engelfurtian Sect, much to the chagrin of their bureaucrats, who are often but not always Processionaries). Somewhat ironically, many Dryads also identify as Processionaries, as the Temple of the Process began its spread before the Clearances. Indeed, right around the time of the collapse of the First Sylvan Empire, a Gothi by the name of Curth Denkinger-Sunherr took a look at the troubles the Kaiserreich was experiencing and meditated on them for many days, there realizing the "truth". Said truth was that the Gods did not just judge Souls when it became their time, but that they took an active role in guiding the world towards complete salvation and the breaking of the cycle. Indeed, it is the belief of the Processionaries that every step taken either by an individual or by the world in totality is ordained by the Gods, all part of their plan for the uplifting of the Intelligent Races. Though tragedies and atrocities may happen along this path, it is understood that it is the will of the Trinity, and until the Gods judge one ready of their Eternal Peace and the Godliness that comes with it, one cannot hope to understand why the Gods make the decisions they do. The Gods may also choose to deliberately give one setbacks on their road to Eternity, denying them a Jeweled Soul or even Eternal Peace for as many lifetimes as deemed necessary, or perhaps forever, this being because the Gods will sometimes deem it better for a Soul to stay on Ecumene, helping the world along, before it is granted Peace. Or, alternatively, this can be used as a punishment for the especially wicked, dooming them to thousands and thousands of lifetimes. The road to Eternal Peace itself is indeed not seen as just a path to Godliness but a path to the realization of the Trinity's intentions for you. But what is to be done about this? The Processionaries grapple with this "truth" through regular and rigorous meditation sessions meant to allow the unworthy to possibly get just a sliver of the Trinity's intentions and thereafter allow them to become closer to the Divine, equally rigorous self-reflection to push aside one's ego and arrogance in order to become a true tool of the Gods, willing and able to fulfill the role the Trinity has demanded of their Soul, and a lesser focus on scripture and prayer as such things distract from the direct understanding of the Divine nature found through meditation. It is traditionally associated with irises.
The "Temple of the Soil" is a new and comparatively small Temple-Creed within the Sylvan Empire, only formulated during the Elven Awakening. Its line of thought was formulated by a Gothi Monk by the name of Gregor Bain-Seydel, an influential thinker within the court of the King of Sonnehoff. His Temple-Creed claims to emphasize the inherent "Elvenness" of the Common Faith through the syncretization of Commonalist practices with ancient Elven cultural practices lost to Trinitism (more accurately, practices that are claimed to be ancient) and esoteric ethnoreligious theories. One such theory, the core of the Soilian Temple, is that the Elven race is the chosen of the Gods, biologically and spiritually superior to all others. They argue that only through progression on the path towards Eternal Peace can one be born an Elf, meaning, of course, that though Elves may falter and fall back on their path, they are inherently more holy than any other being just because the Gods chose them to be born an Elf. Furthermore, they see the Elven Caste System as an inherent part of Elven society and deeply holy in its own right. The highest of the Elves, the Gothar and the Ritters, are well on their way to Eternal Peace, and though this is heavily implied in other Elven Temple-Creeds, nowhere is this more clearly stated than in the Temple of the Soil. As stated before, many Soilian practices come from what they claim to be ancient Elven practices. An example of this would be the strict environmentalism of these believers: though not necessarily anti-industrial, they firmly believe in the holiness of the natural world and its natural energies, so all steps should be taken to preserve the beauty and purity of Sylvania against pollution and mass modernization (coincidentally, or perhaps not, this would help to preserve the Caste system). Furthermore, in addition to meditation and Temple visits, Soilians will often gather in small groups, and after taking a ritual communal bath to ensure that everyone is pure, they will remain naked and pour water with marigold on a spot of wild ground to make it equally pure, and put offerings within the circle for the Gods, each Elf having their own reasons for giving the offering and silent prayers to go with it which cannot be spoken ever. Common offerings are pieces of bread and herbs (cut apart with a ritual knife shared among those gathering and made only for this purpose), poured beer, bundles of sticks, and burning candles. Although these sacrificial rituals are taken communally, that is simply to better show the Gods that the Elven people are at peace with one another and follow their teachings; they still see it as very un-Commonalist to voice your dialogue with the Divine at all. Unsurprisingly, the Temple of the Soil is much more exclusive than others (almost all adherents are young Gothar and Ritters who are disgusted by the rise of class consciousness within the Kaiserreich and fantasize about setting things back to the "old days", often through the formation of violent paramilitary groups), and the Temple has a unique initiation ritual. To truly call yourself a believer in their teachings, the Temple of the Soil believes you must be introduced to the Temple-Creed by someone who is already a believer; you cannot join it just of your own accord. Furthermore, you must study the tenets of the Temple-Creed for a year and a day before you are allowed to join in on their sacrifices, join their organizations, or call yourself a true Soilian. After that year and a day, they will allegedly have an epiphany as to their True Name - a strange set of syllables only to be used to refer to them while in the company of other Soilians - which is said to be the name the Gods themselves have assigned their undying Soul. It is thusly implied, but not outright stated (for that would be blatantly heretical), that embracing the Temple of the Soil is a vital step along the path toward Eternal Peace. It is traditionally associated with common marigolds.
The "Temple of the Ancients" was not always known as such, but would earn the name after the Western Clearances as the Temple of the Process and the Temple of New Birth became more and more popular with Dryads. Though the name was originally meant as a light insult, the Monks who subscribed to this Temple-Creed of the Common Faith readily adopted it to show how the Temple-Creed was inherently tied with the Dryads, as the Temple was one of the first to be developed by the race. To this day, a plurality of Dryads classifies themselves as Ancientians, followed by Processionaries, followed by New Birthers, followed by Unsectarian Commonalists, and followed by those of various niche and unimportant Temple-Creeds of the Common Faith. The defining trait of the Ancientians is their dualistic belief in a Purifying Force, embodied by the Trinity, and a Corrupting Force embodied by the material world. While all Commonalists believe the material world to be inherently impure, it is only the Ancientians who view it as spiritually corrupting, the Temple-Creed going so far as to say that the material world is antithetical to the Gods. Therefore, becoming one with the Divine and therefore becoming Divine yourself is an absolute imperative for the Ancientians, who seek liberation from the cycle through more ascetic lifestyles than traditionally associated with the Common Faith. Usually, this takes the form of sleep deprivation in which one meditates instead of falling asleep (a hard task indeed if one is tired), men sporting beards, and all followers of the School covering their entire head when meditating or when in a Temple to shield themselves from impure forces that could corrupt their meditation or the holy ground within a Temple. It is traditionally associated with wild cherry flowers.
The "Temple of New Birth" is a rather recent addition to the Temple-Creeds of the Common Faith. As the Dryads on the Orienal mainland were forced from their homes, most dispersed throughout the Sylvan Empire, but some emigrated into the Nereid Republics to search for a better life. One such migrant was Awira Temer-Rodî, a blacksmith by trade before her spiritual awakening. By her own account, as the caravan she was traveling with stopped to rest one night and she went to sleep, the Trinity themselves came down to her and bestowed their last pieces of wisdom with her. This was that all Souls on Ecumene will not just eventually join with the Divine in their Eternal Peace, but prior to that point, they are able to directly and personally experience "contact" with the Divine. Through faith in the Trinity and adherence to the Common Faith, adherents of the Temple-Creed invite the Gods to visit their bodies, as was done with Andreas and Temer-Rodî, an act that Jewels the Soul and is able to bestow wisdom of the divine mission and of the path to Eternal Peace which is thereafter carried into each and every lifetime a Soul will experience. This event is known as the "New Birth", and is said to be heralded by an attack of glossolalia induced by the Divine entering the body. It should come as no surprise, then, that a very large part of a New Birther's religious life is to live rightly within the Common Faith so that the Gods may see fit to bless them with a New Birth. This is achieved not only through the standard practices of meditation, self-moderation, and living virtuously, but also through more esoteric practices. For instance, followers of this Temple-Creed are some of the few Commonalists who are known to pray aloud, but they do so in tongues, indecipherable to outsiders but understood to have some sort of specific meaning to New Birthers. Ritual as a whole is more important to the New Birthers than it is to most others, including yoga, the visualization of the Gods and universal truths through diagrams, ritual feasting after a New Birth or an event of great importance, and dream and sexual yoga. As it stands, most New Birthers are Dryads that live within the Republic of Dourado, but many have also come to live in New Kopran, and there is a small number of Sylvan Dryads who identify with the Temple of New Birth. It is traditionally associated with primroses.
The "Temple of the Absolute" was formulated not long after the Common Faith entered into the Reynard lands, synthesizing traditional Reynard practices and beliefs found within their communities prior to Trinitization with the new ideas of Andreas. Absolutians are set apart from other Commonalists by their belief in Pantheism: that after the birth of the Gods, the universe and the Gods themselves became completely inseparable, as the Gods had, in their infinite power, taken the entirety of existence into themselves. Therefore, the universe as it exists now is simply a manifestation of divine power. The Absolutians, then, believe very strongly in the more naturalistic tendencies of the Common Faith. To protect the sanctity of nature is to honor the Gods, so it is that Absolutians strive to keep their communities clean through the ritual burning of all refuse that cannot be used as fertilizer, the recreational use of intoxicating plants that are said to connect one to the great divine, and the avoidance of food that has been preserved or salted. Meditation within a natural environment as opposed to meditation within the home is also very important to the Absolutians, as they do not believe proper connection to the universe's divinity can be achieved without being immersed in the stillness of nature. The Temple of the Absolute is a minority Temple-Creed within the Reynard lands, its last devotees being the Reynards who live within the isolated, Northern cantons: Rannes, Yure, Atyyaty, Limtora, Gualio, and Leanbi. It is traditionally associated with lupins.
The "Temple of Vivification" is the more mainstream Reynard Temple-Creed, but interestingly, it does not draw its core teachings from a Reynard but rather from an Elf: Moritz Loeb-Luggart, one of Andreas' companions. This particular religious movement sprung before and during the Great Canton War, led by several Reynard Monks, and touted itself not as a new movement but as a return to a more "pure" Common Faith, as they saw the Temple of the Absolute (which was much larger in those times) as a distilled and untruthful way of worship. To this end, they looked to the writings of Moritz Loeb-Luggart and other early Commonalist thinkers both Elven and Reynard to form their new Temple-Creed. As Loeb-Luggart taught that harmonious community was very important, so too do the Vivifiers. Cooperation between rich and poor, each having duties to the other, and the encouragement of peaceable and equal discussion on philosophy and local happenings are very important to the Vivifiers, even if the elites tend to owe a lot less to the peasants than the peasants owe to the elites. Interestingly, the Vivifiers are rather opposed to cooperation between their own Temple-Creed and the other Temple-Creeds, unlike most others which have absolutely no issue with inter-creed dialogue as all are Commonalists and all may choose their own path. This is because the Temple of Vivification sees itself as a revival of the Common Faith, not just a sect, and a restoration of proper Commonalist teachings is integral to the salvation of all. To this end, they, like the Engelfurtians, reject any and all writings and practices that date after the time of the Faith Fathers to follow what they see as a "pure Common Faith", although hypocritically, they have added their own practices such as the wearing of simple, ceremonial robes during visits to Temples and during funerals, the encouragement of daily cleanliness rituals not just to keep healthy but so as to ritualize one's life and make it harmonic, and the belief that rulers are inherently born to rule as becoming a loyal, humble, and wise leader of men is a necessary step on the road to Eternal Peace, and that those who become rulers do so due to the God's desire to progress them along the path. The Temple of Vivification is the most mainstream temple within the Reynard lands, practiced in most every Reynard canton that was not already mentioned. It is traditionally associated with dog orchids.
The "Temple of Integration" is the largest Temple-Creed on the continent of Sahul, followed by most Gnomes and most Centaurs not of the Tasuy Host. The Temple of Integration came into being many years after Commonalism entered the Southern continent with the convening of the Council of Cairnaleck in 433 E.D. Before this time, the Gnomes and Centaurs were divided between those who followed native-built Temple-Creeds, those who followed Temple-Creeds from Oriens, and those who still followed Trinitism, and as a result of that, chaos ruled in the realm of religion. Many religious intellectuals wanted a change, though, and perhaps a way to make conversions from Trinitism to Commonalism less of a radical shift. As such, a Council was called in the small Gnomic village of Cairnaleck, and Commonalist Monks and religious figures of both Gnomic and Centaur origin came to debate on and thereafter build a new Temple-Creed: the Temple of Integration, one built for Centaurs, Gnomes, and all others who would join in. Indeed, the Integrites tend to downplay the doctrine of racial separation so preferred by other Temple-Creeds, viewing it as an endorsement of nationalism and self-determination instead of as an endorsement of xenophobia and hatred. The Temple of Integration is also of a more communitarian bend, largely due to how deeply Trinitism had its roots in Sahul prior to the Spread Of Commonalism. Integrites have no trouble meditating or praying in a Temple when other families or individuals are around (something that others reject entirely), and Integrite Monks and intellectuals are known to be very fond of the creation of prayer books that are spread throughout Integrite communities and recited aloud. These much more traditionally "Orthodox" practices are believed by the Temple of Integration to not be contrary to the Common Faith but complementary. The Book of Life teaches that harmonious communities must be created for the good of the immortal Soul, this is doing just that, and furthermore that it may in fact be easier for one to find their own place in the Gods' realm and be encouraged to work for their own good when surrounded by others who follow parallel paths. However, they also practice forms of penance, less extreme than those practiced in the Orthodox, but Integrites are known to occasionally fast or lay outside in the elements to purge their Soul of darkness and right themselves back onto the path. It is traditionally associated with cornflowers.
The "Temple of Lumination" is another Temple native to Sahul and the one most prominent among Centaurs of the Tasuy Host. The first Luminary was a Monk known as Hojanias-Aidosev the Knowing, who developed it in the years after the religious conflict of the Crimson Decade came to a close, it spreading amongst the Tasuy (and other collected Centaurs) thereafter. The Luminaries are notable for their belief in a "total reset". Most Commonalists believe in a sort of sliding scale as far as reincarnation goes, where one will be rewarded in some respect in the next life for good behavior or punished in some respect in the next life for bad behavior. This is not so with the Temple of Lumination. Luminaries believe in a "total reset doctrine" in which each life is a new start in a completely different situation (but still within your own race), no punishment or blessing meant. While this means that each Soul stars anew completely untainted, it also means that a Soul will necessarily need to go through hundreds of different and pure lifetimes to become Jeweled, with the Luminaries believing that once one becomes Jeweled, they will only have one lifetime left, one of ultimate and total purity. To this end, the Temple of Lumination teaches rigorous self-improvement, deemphasizing prayer and ritual to overemphasize introspection, charity, and healthy moderation not for the purpose of obliterating the self to become one with the Gods but for the purpose of proving that a Soul can become good simply because they are free to be good and desire to be good. On the flip side, this means that the Luminaries are especially disapproving of non-pious behavior and tend to be much more socially conservative, as they believe in equal measure that every sin and every bad decision is one made from one's free will in this current life, not of any consequence from a prior life, and tend to favor prayers for forgiveness and purification over anything else. It is traditionally associated with sunflowers.
The "Temple of Nevernia" is an especially radical, fundamentalist, and bigoted Temple-Creed centered around the Dyffryian region of Nevernia around the Nevern River. The Nevernite creed developed prior to the Crimson Decade, developed by a people who were tired of being stepped on. As the Gnomes converted to the Common Faith, the discrimination that existed against them only heightened until it reached a fever pitch, and the Gnomes of the Nevern River were the most victimized, as traders and sailors from Orthodox, Dwarven lands very often used the river for their own purposes, always stopping to commit crimes of hatred against the Commonalist population of the riverland. By the 600s, the Gnomes of Nevernia had had enough and took the word of a charismatic intellectual by the name of Eifion Gower o Bivens for he brought promises of salvation from Orthodox oppression and salvation from the endless cycle of death and rebirth. It was said by him and his lieutenants that the Orthodox faith was not truly one of the Trinity: not only did they follow heretical beliefs and rites, but they in truth followed Pagan Gods, and the only reason the all-knowing and all-powerful Trinity allowed them to continue in this practice was so that their chosen, the Nevernites, could bring about a total and glorious victory for the Common Faith. When it comes to actual belief and practice, the Nevernites are as fundamentalist as fundamentalism can get. Not only does the Temple prohibit spoken word prayer of any kind, they prohibit the publication of any religious writings except the Book of Life. After all, the gospel has already been formulated: the only book they need is that of Life, and the only interpreters they needed are all long dead. Despite their fundamentalism in almost every other respect (in terms of prayer, meditation, Temple-keeping practices, and in ethics, though the Nevernites are zealous in their pursuit of purity), the Nevernites flagrantly reject the Book's calls for moderation in lifestyle to embrace a life of asceticism. Alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, other drugs, foreign spices, colorful clothing, facial hair, music, holidays, the idea that a woman can be equal to a man, and electricity (for it would bring the sinfulness of the modern world closer to the pure utopia that is Nevernia) are completely prohibited. The Nevernites are never to take a day off, not even for the Refulgencia (which is a holiday for those who believe a day of piety is a proper substitute for a lifetime of impurity, so sayeth the Temple-Creed), and find their pleasures in honest work and honest family life. Interestingly, the Nevernites believe very firmly in the idea of soul mates, that a man and a woman's bond is so strong as to transcend from one life to the next (though they are vocally homophobic and anti-sex in general), and that families in general will stay connected in someway from rebirth to rebirth. Adherence to the Temple-Creed is won through a rigorous tradition of lynch mobs calling for the blood atonement of those deemed heretics, blasphemers, and apostates, so it may perhaps be no surprise that those born into the Temple of Nevern are never given the chance to think of leaving. It is traditionally associated with honeysuckle.

Alternative Names

The Common Faith

Demonym

Commonalist