Religion and Spirituality in Gwendor

While there is no organised religion in Gwendor, there are wide array of local beliefs, and communities built around spiritual experiences and happenings of those regions. As lordship expanded, each faith befell a different fate at the hands of their new masters. It is rare to see an integration of worship and state across the Lordship. The western Reach culture has not historically placed much power or emphasis on ritual or spiritual practice. This said there are enclaves of organised and personal religion up and down the Lordship, and religion/spirituality still plays a large part in numerous communities, primarily in the northmost and southmost parts of Gwendor.

The prevailing academic attitude to religion is to define it in terms of adherence to ritual. This has led to many local belief systems and traditions being denied status or approval as those who practised them were absorbed, further eroding the place of worship in everyday life. The faiths that remain are those most codified and therefore able to most effectively integrate into the apparatus of state government. On the other side of this spectrum are faiths that remained so decentralised or personal that no amount of government oppression or cultural destruction could quash them. It is for this reason primarily that the faith centres of the Lordship are in the far north and far south.

All this said, spirituality still plays a small yet irreplaceable part in the majority of people’s lives: urban or rural, rich or poor. There are divided attitudes on what urban folk would call the supernatural and superstition, as rural communities often tend to be more closely connected or fearful of the spiritual landscape and natural world. Nevertheless, even the most secular urban dweller understands that there are powers at work behind the veil of the material plane.