Sacrificial Humans
In the Frankish Empire religious sacrifices are generally frowned upon. Nominally Christian in belief, the thought of human sacrifice is disturbing to the average citizen. Many other religions are also present and have the same belief after it was established that outside of warfare, the deliberate killing of a human was morally & ethically wrong.
History
Many of the local citizens of the Frankish Empire come from older belief systems and human sacrifice during religious festivals were common. When the Franks were nominally Christianized, the practise quickly fell out of favour overall. The nobility led this change and found the practise were generally despised by their allies the Papal States. So, they put in place laws to prevent it. The trade-off was that animals are still able to be sacrificed, though most of the pagans only nominally do this, looking it more as a gesture and a way to still honour their gods. This keeps the peace, and most of the Christian population still accept this, seeing that it was necessary to appease the deities of the Old Ways, and other beings such as elements of the Fey.
Nominal votive offerings in the form of human shaped totems are common now. Sometimes made with a bit of blood from the creator of it, and this sometimes causes a bit of controversy between the non-believers & believers. Seen as a bit of a throwback to earlier times, the non-believers think its a bit to close to the sacrificing of humans.
Participants
Led by clerics & paladins of the relevant pagan faiths, the believers can come from any walk of life. A few of them have laypeople sometimes referred to as 'Gothi' helping out with the organisation of festivals.
Observance
During their celebrations, an animal (sometimes more) are sacrificed to make a connection with the god or gods. They use a human shaped token on & off due to trying to make a direct connection itself.
Important Locations
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