The Old Faith

True to its name, the Old Faith is believed to be the oldest religion in Aotra. In its thousands of years in existence, the Old Faith has spawned many offshoot religions, faiths, and cults, but only one has risen to prominence: Dichotomism, the faith dedicated to the worship of the pantheon of deities known as the Dichotomy. The Old Faith lives in tension with Dichotomism. While the latter has taken its place as the official religion under the Circle of Nine, the former has been relegated to the background; many Dichotomists view the Old Faith as old-fashioned and obsolete.

Mythology & Lore

The Old Faith teaches that the world was formed by four great primordial beasts, godlike creatures with potent power of creation. These beasts had existed as energies within the vast empty cosmos since the dawn of time, ageless and undying. Each beast was a manifestation of a specific type of elemental power: Leviathan was a creature of water, Zaratan was one of earth, Phoenix one of fire, and Tempest one of air.
For unimaginable stretches of time, the primordial beasts lived alone in the empty cosmos, biding their time until all agreed that they had had enough of their solitude. They made an agreement to use their combined power to bring life into the void. Exerting all the power they possessed, the four beasts collaborated to bring forth a single world within the nothingness. Leviathan and Zaratan crafted a lone planet, and Phoenix and Tempest formed the atmosphere and stars around it. They gave their essences to millions of little inheritors: plants, animals, rocks, winds, and finally, the first ten humans.
This was an act of creation so powerful that its magic echoed out through the empty cosmos, reverberating around the new world until these echoes of power settled upon the planet, encircling it in a shell of magical energy: the Myth. This was an accidental creation by the four beasts, but one which would serve the inhabitants of their new planet well. Meanwhile, the effort expended by the beasts was so immense that they sunk into a hibernation; each had invested so much of its power and soul into the world that it had no more to give. So the four sat back to watch time tick forward on their marvelous world, biding their time and recuperating their magic so that one day, when the universe needed their power again, they would be there, yet again, to answer its call.
The mythology of the Old Faith does not explain the presence of the Otherworld. In the eyes of those who follow the religion, something so alien and hostile as the Otherworld cannot be a creation of the four primordial beasts. Though some sects and cults of the Old Faith offer answers, the core mythos of the religion does not account for it.

Tenets of Faith

The fundamental tenets of the Old Faith are summarized in the Code of Guidance, an ancient text of mythology, sacred rites, and theology dating back to the earliest days of Aotran civilization.

I. Patience. Fear we not the passage of time, and dread we not the unknown. In due time will the world turn; worry will not hasten it.
II. Peace. Our makers are too the makers of trees, of fish, and of mosses. For every virtue we hold over other creatures, they hold another over us; we take no precedence over others.
III. Hope. Though the great beasts rest, they have not abandoned us. In our time of greatest need, our calls will always be answered.
IV. Gratitude. The wilderness offer all we need, for we were made to exist within it. Our world provides for us, and that is a thing of beauty.
V. Moderation. We were made to share the energy of creation, and that is not a gift to be taken lightly. It is our responsibility to tread carefully in our pursuits, lest we become carried away with that power.
From the Code of Guidance

"All in due time."

Type

Religious, Other

Alternative Names

The Faith of the Four