Vianolites

Pursuing a dream

The Church of the Orders is an outlier religion in Salike, though it is seeing a bit of an uptake in adherents lately. Believing The Traveller to be a messenger from the Gods, they regard the metal from the meteorites to be divine, and thus the use of it in Daemon tech to be blasphemous. They claim that Daemon tech is against the natural order of things, and that it was dabbling in things we shouldn't that brought The Traveller - who they call The Messenger- down upon them in the first place.
The Vianolites are a group of adherents who broke away from the church to pursue a life on the river, in the hope the Holy relic of Vianola would be returned to them. They believe that if they follow the wisdom of Vianola, and keep to the way of order, Kyevyag will grant them knowledge of the pendant's whereabouts. The pendant holds great significance to the Vianolites, as they still hold to the belief that it was the power of the pendant that saved their forebears in Nysada.

A shared belief

All Vianolites follow the Way of the Orders, a religion brought from Nysada by those fleeing the devastation wrought by The Messenger. They believe that if they adhere to the Way and shun the chaos of the city that Kyevyag will grant one of them a dream, as he did Vianola, and the pendant will be found again. They see the traveller's reappearance in the sky every twenty years as a reminder that Kyevyag is still watching, waiting to see if his previous warning was enough: waiting to see if the people would stray from the Way again.

Culture

Average technological level

Their river craft run on a mixture of clock work and hydropower. They have quite sophisticated (for their time) navigational equipment. They have an excellent grasp of astronomy and are well versed in the movements of the planets and stars and other heavenly bodies.

Common Etiquette rules

Craft will always overtake another on the left hand side. Always call out greeting to passing river craft.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

Every twenty years they observe a ritual during the days of the comets appearance in the sky The Messenger. They observe seasonal changes with feasts and rituals. They also mark annually, the date on which Vianola had her dream in which Kyevyag spoke to her and told her where to find the pendant. Whenever they pass the catacomb cliff everyone chants a passage from their religious texts.

Funerary and Memorial customs

They place their dead in hollows dug out of the cliff on a certain section of the river. Catacomb style.

Common Taboos

They will have nothing to do with Daemon Tech.

Common Myths and Legends

They say that the Holy relic of Vianola saved their forebears during the great quake. They believe that if the are studious in their following of the Ways, then one of them will be granted a vision by Kyevyag and he will show them to the pendant.

Historical figures

Vianola - Emissary of Kyevyag and most important religious figure aside from Kyevyag themselves. Sanchir Zayat - Founder of the Vianolites, and their first priest

The vianolites live a life on the rivers. They travel in large barges and house boats usually all together but they do sometimes split up into smaller groups depending on the needs of the group. Each barge is usually owned by an extended family, however smaller families or those without famillies, will share a barge or boat.

Related Myths

• Holy relic of Vianola