Eirinism

A religion centered around the principles of peace and harmony. The faith originated with Olive Tree Dryads but is practiced by members of many species. Most of its followers embrace a fully pacifist lifestyle.
The faith does not recognize a proper hierarchy within its followers. However, there are some old dryads that have been recognized by the followers as spiritual leaders who have furthered the faith either through their exemplary conduct or by expanding on the tenets of the faith with spiritual texts.

Origins

The faith traces its origins to a document written by an unknown Greek philosopher. The document is only survived recorded as its Arabic translation from centuries later. The dryads have tell stories about how this document came to be. There are many different variants, but they all have some common elements.

A long time ago a philosopher sat down in an olive orchard. He wanted some time for himself and mused about his theories and ideas. Talking to himself to elaborate his arguments and train his rhetoric. He enjoyed the peace and quite the orchard offered no one could disturb his musing. Or so he though. One somber night he was lamenting the wars and conflicts in the world and his inability to do anything about it. After a while he realized that his monologue had turned into a dialogue. Spooked the philosopher ran home to get some sleep. He returned the next day and the voice engaged him in more discussions. At first he was simply fascinated. The voice was making good points and greatly stimulated his mind. As the voice was only present within the orchard the philosopher did not think they were going mad, but were too afraid to ask who it was at first. Eventually he built up the courage to ask the voice who they were. And the voice explained that they were the tree that he was leaning on. The dryad revealed their anthropomorphic form to the philosopher. They became friends and discussed many things for a long time.

— Uninspired retelling of the origin legend by a dryad.

Leto is the dryad who many consider the dryad mentioned in this myth. Legends are told of the many trials Leto faced after meeting this philosopher. Many humans came to destroy the orchard. They always faced them with just words. Some listened and retreated, others could not hear the dryad and burnt the orchard down. Leto was reborn many times before a group of human came who could hear Leto once again and settled around the orchard to protect the peaceful tree. They were the first Order of the Olive Branch.

Tenets of Faith

To achieve peace with yourself and the world is the ultimate goal of our faith. Each of us has their own path to walk to get there. You must know and understand yourself and your role in this world.

— a guru

Eirinism is a religion of peace and pacifism. No violence is allowed, but that does not mean that followers should just accept the world as it. Words are the weapon of peace.

• Live your life in peace and harmony with those around you and nature.
• Live your life with courage and speak out against injustice and violence.
• Live your life to understand yourself and your role in the cosmos.
• Live your life to help others find their path and role in the cosmos.
• Live your life without causing harm against any other.

Mythology

Beyond the core tenets are many different myths and legends that enrich the traditions and ideas of Eirinism. They are all connected by their common theme of peace and harmony.
In Eirinism all life has a purpose and role to play. Until this role is fulfilled all creatures are reborn in an infinite cycle. Once this cycle is broken by achieving peace with one self and the world the creature is returned to the earth.

Schisms

As the number of followers grew some disagreements came up, some of which eventually let to a split and the formation of sects and cults that strayed from the original tenets in a less or more significant manner.

Evil

There are certain creatures from other dimensions that could be considered true evil. They will never be at peace and must be eliminated for a peaceful world to be able to exist. Only few agree with this idea that there are even true evil creatures. Most assume that there is a path that can be taken for all creatures to coexist peacefully. Nevertheless there is a sect that has made it their mission to hunt down and destroy all evil. This sect was absorbed by the Hunter's Guild several centuries ago.

Food & Harm

Not causing harm to any living being is quite difficult if you need to feed yourself. For dryads this is not such a problem as they are sustained simply by the tree. However, some have argued that even the tree can be harmful to the plants around it as it takes away their access to sun and prevents them from nourishing themselves. So where you draw the line has varied widely over the centuries from some people only eating what fell from tree while others are more open to using various animal products. A few sects even eat meat as eating meat is a natural necessity and done by many animals to survive. As a result there are many different arguments what it means to live in harmony with nature.

Spreading the Faith

As one of the tenets is to help others with finding their path some have interpreted this to mean that they should spread the faith as much as possible. However, most understand it to simply help them be their best selves without necessarily teaching about the faith. All creatures are part of the faith even if they do not believe in it themselves. This has lead to more than one splits in various sects and cults over the centuries.

Type

Religion

Symbol

Olive Branch

Followers

~500'000

Important Locations

Olive Sanctuary

Notable Characters

Leto