Arrshyo
The Great Goddess opened up her maw, and within it was the abyss. Her grief knew no end, for it was as deep as the cosmos itself.
Structure
An elite class of priests known as the ommyoji would lead small groups of villages in maintaining social order through strict social codes and classes. Serving these ommyoji as enforcers and administrators were the itako, acolytes who served administrative orders on behalf of the ommyoji and were granted special privledges among the common people. Serving in the shrines were the chattyo, the chattel slaves who were used for manual labor, either kidnapped from surrounding lands or bought through the slave trade.
- Ommyoji - Priest leader, leads villagers in rituals.
- Itako - Serve the ommyoji in carrying out duties.
- Chattyo - Enslaved servants, used for sacrificial rituals.
Mythology & Lore
This dualistic religion believes that the world is seperated into the realms of Heaven and Earth as represented by the spirit Shyoga, where humans reside; and the Underworld, a cavernous subterannean world filled with dark spirits and lorded over by a grieving queen, as represented by the spirit Shyoji.
The children of these two creator spirits are six nature gods which represent the elements of fire, nature, wind, steam, storms, and deceit.
Each of these great spirits has an assortment of servants and minor deities which operate for them in an almost administrative way, where spirits contact not only humans, but also other woodland creatures. Some spirits are small enough to greet a squirrel face to face at the front door of its tree! Others are large and serve as champions and guardians, and wide variety of everything in-between.
Divine Origins
This religion began as a largely influential cult deep within the Whispering Mountains. Possibly linked to the ancient and infamous bloodline of the God Queen Morrigan and her dark magic.
No one is sure whether this cult was started by the southern Tokage groups or the sparse druidic groups of Lithosians. The architecture and artifacts found in the nearby ruins tend to share attributes from both The Drylands and Lithos.
Cosmological Views
In the beginning, the world was born from the union of the Heavens & Earth Shyoga and the Mother of the Underworld, Shyoji.
The waters gushed forth forth and the spirits of Tamatyo and Obarryo brought into the world storms and hurricanes, their battles battered the western coasts of Lithos and awoke the spirits Paishyo and Balkrryo from their long sleeping, and with their waking the earth sprang forth bursting out the secrets of fire, which were stolen by the Tobbade spirits in the service of Herryo who in cooperation with his sister Verrdyr stole the secrets of magic for their mother Shyoji.
Shyoga, guardian of the Heavens and Earth found himself in conflict with his allegiance to the natural order of things and his duty to his earthly subjects. In the end, Shyoga sacrificed himself to answer for his wife's sacriledge against the natural order. In her grief, Shyoji locked herself deep within the Underworld, and created the Yamii as guardians to keep mortals from her deep grief which threatens to swallow the world.
Tenets of Faith
Ethics
In the ancient times, the small people groups who lived in small wooden houses with thatched roofs live together in small family communities. Farming small household plots and contributing a portion of their crops to the shrines where the ommyojo resided, these people lived under the constant paranoia of leaving their homes and falling prey to the supernatural forces that existed outside their villages and away from the protection of the ommyoji.
As time wore on, and the worship of these dark elements faded with time, the walls of the hot spring baths and ancient cave side dwellings are now adorned with well crafted mason reliefs and aqueduct systems created by the lording ommyoji who enjoyed the benefits of the bath houses. The stories of these supernatural elements persisted through time and the rural countryside is full of their stories.
Worship
Every month, a ritual is had by the ommyoji and the peoples of the surrounding hillsides who gather at the temple hot springs for the Rite of the Chattyo. A sacrificial ritual in which several chattyo; slaves, are ritualistically tortured, inscribed with magical runes, and sometimes even brutalized, in order to break their will before sacrificing them to the Underworld goddess Shyoji in observation of the same act performed by her husband spirit Shyoga.
Priesthood
In ancient times, when the leadership of the mysterious cults held power over people by holding the balance of power between the Underworld below and the world of Heaven & Earth. These cult leaders, named ommyojo, held monthly sacrifice rituals to the merciless goddess Shyoji to satiate her grief and keep her in the Underworld.
Strict order was maintained over the populace through the threat of enslavement for attempting to leave the cult or falling out of line with its tenents of faith. Enslaved people, called the chattyo, were often tortured before sacrifice to break their willpower in preparation for the goddess of the Underworld. When not being sacrficed, chattyo performed manual labor for the temples, an existence as a chattyo was enough to keep worshippers in line.
Granted Divine Powers
Priests were believed to have the power to drive back the Yamii from the Underworld and protect their people from malignant spirits.
The ommyoji collected the bones from the sacrificed and used them in bone burning rituals to divine future events and to communicate with the greater nature spirits.
Political Influence & Intrigue
During the Era of Dusk, the cults this religion started around began to become smaller and more disparate, which forced ommyoji to force more people to become chattyo and became a huge driving factor in the slave trade of the time. This attracted both bold slave traders from the southen tokage tribes to kidnap the weakened communities and inspired brave mageknights from the northern lands of Senggoka and Litthos to drive out the malignant forces. Ultimately ending up in their collapse.
