# Looking for inspirations for a pantheistic, druidic religion I am developing. *LONG*



## WaffleSingSong (Oct 7, 2017)

It's what is on the tin. Philosophical concepts, IRL religions, historical events, etc. I am also going to use this post as a request to critique my writing. It is not the best I am sure, so I would love to make it a lot more fun to read. Anywhom, thanks in advance for reading!


Ava: There never was, is or will be nothing.​ 
Ava (roughly meaning “all and/is one” in Cerelan) is eternal and has always been, but continually evolves itself through the physical world. There is an aspect of ozjiava, pure Ava, that can never be observable by mortals. Instead, ehalasava is the visible aspect of Ava: matter, energy, magic and mind, all visible through and because of the senses. In layman’s terms, you can say that ozjiava is the soul of Ava, while ehalasava is the body of Ava.


So, one of the leading guidelines of Ava’ete (roughly meaning “Truth of Ava”) is to understand, and get closer to, Ava by understanding ehalasava. For example, if you are a farmer, what is considered pili, roughly meaning “complete understanding, excellence, mastery,” is understanding and perfecting the craft of farming. It is seen as a righteous act to master and understand aspects of empirical existence and action. The reasoning for this is due to people’s role as Atsan, meaning “mindful agent.” Since people are a portion of Ava themselves, and that they are a portion that is sentient, sapient and self-aware, people are described as “Ava understanding Ava,” and the responsibility of atsan is to understand, manage, and protect the rest of Ava for their sake. Going along this responsibility comes in the form of seven behaviors.

Tosurei (“temperance”) Not abusing the produce of Ava.
Piterei (“diligence”) Fulfilling atsan to full potential.
Biidurei (“openness”) Not being averse to exploring Ava.
Riahariirei (“curiousness”) Being enthusiastically inquisitive about Ava.
Sjitorei (“kindness”) Respecting fellow atsan.
Caifatarei (“fortitude”) Being mentally strong as atsan.
Yailerei (“truthfulness”) Accepting Ava for what Ava is.

All these behaviors are de-jure malleable by the Siuxon, or the religious/professional class of Cerela, which translates to teacher or druid. However, this has not happened since the official reorganizing of the religion during the start of the Cerelan Royalate. That said, clear disobedience of these laws is considered “cancerous” to the eyes of Ava’ete, and looked with disdain. One of the most cancerous acts one can do, however, is the concept of Dzuhos, which can actually be translated as “wish” or more accurately “prayer.” Ava is a being that does not take interest in anything else but itself as a whole, and it is up to people, in the eyes of the Ava’ete, to take up their own matters when possible in order to strengthen themselves as atsan. If there is something that one may dislike, such as a headache, bad harvest or a death of a loved one, then one must either understand and then accept the will of Ava, or to realize their nature as atsan and change the circumstance to a more favorable position. The act of “calling out to Ava” is translated to the minds of many Ava’ete as “demanding that Ava take particular interest in an insignificant portion of itself for a trivial reason,” and thus is incredibly vain in the eyes of many in Cerelan culture.


It is unknown how long the religion has existed, but it is considered to be one of the oldest in Cerela and the most significant faith with native roots in Altaria. Native Auswanians (or derogatorily named “orcs,”) Auswania being the peninsula that Cerela sits on, had almost all of the concepts of modern Ava’ete, such as Ava and Ava’s two forms, siuxon, and general guidelines for life. However, it was the shortly after the birth of the Cerelan nation following a coordinated slave revolt between enslaved Native Auswanians and the combined incarcerated population of Flaxen, Ebonies, and Ausvmeans against the Angels that would set course for official reformation.
The first Prime Royal of Cerela, the semi-legendary leader of the revolt known as The Eyamai, assembled siuxon all across the pacified borders of the country in the growing town of Zohenomaya. He suggested that promoting unity within the faith would further solidify the new “Cerelan” culture. Thus, siuxon intensely debated on interpretations of Ava, Ava’s forms, and people’s roles as atsan. After three months, the vast majority of siuxon codified texts of their average observations of Ava and how people as atsan should live as such.


It is crucial to know that every Ava'ete does not follow these guidelines, the main branch of Ava'ete that refers to the reform and reorganization of the religion during the 432 A.E. Assembly of Zohenomaya. Few rebellious siuxon did not agree with the Zohenomayists and formed different sects. The largest such sect worldwide is referred to as Ozjiavists. This sect states that ozjiava is actually sensible, and can be done so with meditation, psychoactive substances and the removing of “distractive” sensory output by use of blindfolds, earplugs, ice baths etc. They also believe that magic is the direct connection between ehalasava and ozjiava, and mystics tend to be expert mages. Ozjiavists state that sensing ozjiava is a state of transcendence from the painful physical world, and wish for their souls to ultimately become in unison with Ava in its purest state. Some mystics within the sect even go as far as cutting off their ears, nose or tongue, and/or gouging out their eyeballs and/or searing their mouths with coals in order to accomplish this.


Zohenomayists detest their beliefs, seeing it as both vain and cowardly. They understand their desire for their souls to become one with Ava in a literal sense as dzuhos, and their use of psychoactive substances as a violation of Yailerei/truthfulness. Meanwhile, Ozjiavists see the Zohenomayists as cruel for pushing people to embrace the world that is painful and temporary, and not being able to see the forest for the trees regarding the pure, raw power of Ava via the connection to magic. 


Another sect is the Church of Ava, but it might be more accurate to refer to it as a syncretic faith between Ava’ete and The Omnian Church, and that’s where it gets the colloquial name of Compatibilism. In the Omnian faith, Omnius, the god of everything, won a battle with the god of nothing. From his wounds, Omnius died and formed new gods from his corpse, such as the god of elements, the goddess of life and the god of magic, and eventually, those three would also die to form the universe. In Compatibilism, Omnius is equatable with Ava, and instead of dying outright, his static corpse became ehalasava while his dynamic soul lived on to become ozjiava. Compatibilists have weekly services like Omnians, where figures from the Omnian Bible are mixed in with a Ava’ete worldview, and many siuxon in this faith act more like monks and priests than druids and philosophers. Both the Omnian and Ava’ete faiths do not consider Compatibilism outright heretical to their respective faiths, and are thus not discriminated nearly as much, but are distanced nonetheless as a strange offshoot.


The siuxon spend their lives understanding ehalasava, They are an enormously influential group of individuals within society, and their order orchestrates much of Cerelan life. They usually pick a field of study, say biology, law, linguistics, martial arts, or malacology,* and choose that as their primary study for the rest of their lives. Usually, the craft that they decide to master affect what kind of job that they have. For example, a siuxon that studies law become judges, and are the primary interpreters of statutes within Cerela. If another siuxon studies engineering, they tend to become master architects. That said, all siuxon are expected to be polymaths to some degree, especially with learning about the environment and social aspects of life such as history, culture, and economics. Siuxon iq43 expected to help members of society by way of service and teaching, and most rulers of a political unit within Cerela has a siuxon(s) within their court.


Education is an extremely important in Cerelan life, as it is considered an equivalent to religious study. People are also expected to learn basics about topics for about 8 years, typically from age 8 to 14, either in various schools taught by siuxon, or direct tutelage. These include reading/writing Cerelan, their local society/environment, survival skills, and more advanced studies such as biology and mathematics later on. During this time, they eventually start learning the basics of a craft and focus more on that area. At age 15, most "graduate" and go on to start their lives in whatever craft they chose, in attempts to keep fulfilling their roles as atsan. However, few stay to get more education. Those who stay for 3-5 more years get to become a usjape of a study, or a proven expert in their field. During this time, even fewer might wish to stay even further, and this typically leads them on the road of becoming a siuxon. This is usually extremely strenuous for most usjape, but the payoff is not only becoming one of the most influential members of society, especially in the scope of their field, but also a chance to get closer to enlightenment by a total understanding of ehalasava.


*malacology is the study of curses.


----------



## Annoyingkid (Oct 7, 2017)

> The Eyamai, assembled siuxon all across the pacified borders of the country in the growing town of Zohenomaya.



Hah?  I couldn't get through it because you're name dropping too much.It gets in the way of understanding the concepts.


----------



## Annoyingkid (Oct 7, 2017)

> The Eyamai, assembled siuxon all across the pacified borders of the country in the growing town of Zohenomaya.



Hah?  I couldn't get through it because you're name dropping way too much. It gets in the way of understanding the concepts.


----------



## WaffleSingSong (Oct 7, 2017)

Annoyingkid said:


> Hah?  I couldn't get through it because you're name dropping way too much. It gets in the way of understanding the concepts.



Eyamai: Leader of the slave revolt that founded Cerela, and first ruler.

siuxon: Main clerics/druids of the faith. 

I have explained all the names within the text, do you think that I shouldn't do this, despite that?


----------



## Annoyingkid (Oct 7, 2017)

WaffleSingSong said:


> Eyamai: Leader of the slave revolt that founded Cerela, and first ruler.
> 
> siuxon: Main clerics/druids of the faith.
> 
> I have explained all the names within the text, do you think that I shouldn't do this, despite that?



That was just an example. I know you gave definitions, but they're within paragraphs, so the reader would have to remember the definition of each word to proceed as you often explain  unfamiliar words with those unfamiliar words you defined before. The reader isn't going to remember it with a readthrough. One would have to find and keep checking back to the definitions, using that to understand the new word and it keeps going like that. It's too much intellectual labour to go through it.


----------

