The Iron Faith

The Iron Faith is the main religion in Ordin and is strongly represented in the other worlds as well.

Thorák

Thorák, the Allfather, and the Forger of Worlds, is the god of the Iron Faith. He proclaims planning, hard work and the strive for perfection.
The Father of Creation is always pleased with good planning and master-crafted work, and gives praise to details and a good finish. He teaches to always work hard, and be patient to strive for perfection; to defend the family and community with honour and strength; and to respect the world and it's living creatures.
He is depicted as a large, stern man with a long, thick white beard, usually with his tools in hand. His tools are his hammer, Slág; his bellows, Nyordáblas, Sennáblas, Ostáblas and Vestáblas; his tongs, Grip; his hardy, Splitt; and his grinder, Slip. His workstation is between the Mountain of the Gods, Esáfyáll, and the Sea of Gods, Esálák.

The Creation

He created the world in 7000 years, each thousand year a new step in the forge, and a new gift to the world.
First he created earth and metal, using his pick to dig through the Mountain of Gods to find the perfect ore to forge the world from. Each day he found a new ore, each better than the previous, always digging inwards to the core. On the day, a thousand years later, he found the one that would fit his creation. The day is celebrated as Earth Day.
He then started to heat the ore to a perfect temperature. He used his four bellows to feed air to his forge. Each day he used a bellow, and circled to the next the next day. He continued for a thousand years, until the world was burning red on the inside, and pure white on the outside. The bellows are called North blow, South blow, East blow and West blow, and the winds are said to be excess air from the bellows when he heats the forge.
He then used his hammer to form the world to his wishes. He hammered day and night for a thousand years; each stroke creating a new mountain, a new forest, a new animal or new race. Each stroke also created a spark that flew of his anvil, each becoming a star. The last two strokes on the thousandth day he created the female and male human, and the sparks became respectively the moons and the sun.
When he was finished, the world was perfect; the mountains where rich with minerals, the forests full of food, and peace across the lands. He saw that this creation was flawd, because there was no perfection to strive for. He took his tongs and twisted the world; stripping some minerals from the mountains to place it somewhere else; making forests burn and make some animals carnivorous; and making people and races different, and seed envy and greed. After a thousand years he put the tongs down and saw it was not enough.
He set up his hardy and started to hammer cuts into the world; each cut bringing bloodshed and war. This was so that the mortals would have history of terror to remind them what imperfections bring. He hammered for a thousand years, ending when the world had suffered enough.
After 5000 years he finally cooled the world, dipping it in the Sea of Gods. He let it cool for a thousand years, stirring the world slowly back and forth. When he lifted it back up he saw that the water had clung to the cuts he made, creating rivers, lakes and oceans, with his even stirring creating the tides and waves.
The last thousand years he used his grinder to grinding the surface of the world. He let the dust particles whirl around and land at other places of the world. Whenever someone inhales one of these particles, he will gain knowledge about the material it came from, be it mortals or minerals, history or future. Whenever you gain an idea or a fortune, it is a glimpse of the creation of Thorák, and the believers consider this as divine knowledge.

Rites and holidays

The belivers have few holidays, because you cannot feast and rest when you should work. It is therefore more common for each family (or town, or any sort of social group) to celebrate achievements, be it a master-crafted forging, a marriage, a childbirth, a completed structure or a victorious battle. These celebrations can be as simple as the family gathering for a good meal, or a festival lasting for many days, though the common denominator is always good food and alcohol.
The few rites that are marked are: The Earth Day, funerals, confirmations, and the Air Break.
The Earth Day, also known as Yorðták, is the celebration of the world's creation and the day of the new year. The celebration starts a week in advance, where everybody gets leave from work to prepare for the celebration. Each day a specific part of the preparations must be complete (such as gathering the food, decorating the streets, setting up the booths, rehearsing a play, etc.) and on each night the achievement is celebrated for being accomplished, usually escalating as the days grow nearer Earth Day.
On Earth Day the celebration starts from dawn, where booths are filled with free food, streets are filled with music and dance, and the stages are filled with speeches and plays. The celebrations lasts until dawn, but they usually end way out in the night, and sometimes all the way to dawn. Anybody are free to join this celebration as long as they pay homage to Thorák.
The confirmation, called Kindomstákn, is the day a believer turns 15 and is the rite of passage from a child to becoming a man or woman. The actual rite is at the local church where a priest anoints the child's, and says a few words, but the arrangements around it depends on the family. There are usually trials before the confirmation, which can be forging, pilgrimage, hunting, etc. These trials depend on the traditions of the family, and must be completed before the confirmation. Though the rite usually happens when the child turns 15, this can be done later if the trials are not completed, but this is looked upon with grief and shame. After the confirmation there is usually a feast or gathering. The family traditions vary, but it is common that the man or woman is given a gift, be it a hammer, sword, house or even a husband to wed.
The marriage ceremony is also a form of confirmation, and is called Trólovntákn. It sometimes falls on the same day as the Kindomstákn of the bride, but in some families whenever the couple wishes. The trials and traditions are much the same where the bride and groom are challenged by the opposite family, and the only difference between the confirmation of adulthood and marriage is that rings for the couple are forged during the ceremony.
The funeral rites, Dáodáferd, are a mix of grief and celebration. It usually starts with people gathering on the Hill of the Dead, or Dáodáósn, which is a tall hill or mountaintop blessed by the priests for such purposes. Here the diseased is burned on a plinth of wood, with his belongings decorated around him. The priests lights a fire for each accomplishment, in the hopes of a swift burning. Raining and storms on the funeral day are seen as bad omens, and if the fire would extinguish before the diseased is fully burned, it means he has lived a lie or his accomplishments were false. The diseased is then buried. Children who has not confirmed are always given a swift burning, because children are not meant to suffer for their inexperience.
The last rite that is marked, is the Air Break: Ánden. It happens infrequently, whenever a person wants it, and it is when he takes a break from work to breath fresh air. This symbolises the time of rest, and to enjoy the work of Thorák, and the inhaling of new knowledge and inspiration. Each person has their own way of doing it, whatever makes the person feel the presence of Thorák. It can be to hike on top of a hill to admire the the view, to stroll through a forest and take a deep breath, or to stand on bow of a ship and feel the breeze. They usually also does a prayer or a praise as they do this, and it is also common to go to the church afterwards to pay homage. This ritual is very personal and intimate for a person, and it is best not to disturb them when they do this. It is said that during this ritual you will gain a clearer understanding of troubling thoughts, and even a divine intervention.

Church and priests

There is always a church in each city or town with Ordin . Though these places vary in quality and size, there is a basic architecture: An anvil is set in the centre of a circular room, called the arch, with bellows and tools surrounding it. From the arch, an extruded rectangular room, called the nave, has benches or chairs for followers to sit. The nave also sometimes contains a bema, an elevated platform where the higher ranked citizens sit during ceremonies.
Depending on the church and the community, the architecture can vary such as the arch having rich sculptures and statues, the bema being a balcony on both sides of the nave's walls. Some churches have atrium at the entrance, where the followers can converse and lock in their weapons, and some have sanctuaries, where only the priests may enter.
Another feature that is common in most churches is that it also works as an emergency fortress. During an attack the citizens can escape to the church and the priest trigger the defence mechanism. Traps are armed, spikes emerge from the ground, caltrops are sprinkled, and citizens given shields. Some churches also provide suits of armour and summon iron golem to defend them.
The priests of Thorák are called Iron Priests. They conduct ceremonies, and teach the way of Thorák. Most of the ceremonies consist of prayer while simultaneously forging an item in the arch, where this item has a significance to the theme of the ceremony.
During their priesthood, a priest can specialise himself within the 7 Stages of Creation: Mining , Heating, Hammering, Cutting, Bending or Quenching. Many turn this into a divine focus and becomes a cleric within this stage, though people also become clerics through divine intervention.
All iron priests are master blacksmiths, and use forging as a form of prayer and meditation. Many priests use the time of forging to prepare their spells for the day, and most blacksmiths will gladly lend their anvil to a traveling cleric of Thorák for his morning ritual.

Omens and expressions

Thorák is distant to the world, and avoids direct contact with his followers. This because followers are encouraged to find their own confidence in their life. He instead gives omens if they are needed.
Whenever there is a thunderstorm, Thorák is hammering on a new creation, which means that something new will come to the world, and it will be a tool to solve a current problem. "May lightning strike soon" or "Mo lying snárást slágá" are common expression when an unexpected or seemingly impossible problem occur.
A broken tool or weapon is always a bad omen, warning an upcoming accident. When it breaks you should melt it down and throw it away, because if you use it, the accident will come true.
Profanities against Thorák are:

Faðeyt

May the Father burn in his own forge

Kókkslág

May Thorák use the hammer on your penis

Faðr skeggláos

Thorák, the beardless

Afterlife

After one's death you turn to a mineral in Esáfyáll, and can therefore be reformed by Thorák. Depending on your achievements you can be reborn as gold, diamonds, sand, gravel or any other material that seems fit. Thorák forges every day, and use materials all the time to create forgings. If you turn into a precious metal, you will be forged into something great, but if you are turned into gravel, it will take a long time before you are forged, and when you are it will be something lesser or even worthless. All children are forged by Thorák, so a child is in a way a reincarnation of the Dead, but he uses many material, so it is not a one-to-one ratio.

Type

Religious, Organised Religion