Nedira

All must suffer for their evil. All must live within their station. All must respect the system of law and power, for it is the conduit of divine insight. This is the justice of Nedira, and justice is the only true order of the world.
To create a system of law that embodies justice, rulers must be conduits and reflections of divinity- they must aspire to be Gods and Judges of their realms, ruling in perfect authority, impartiality, and wisdom. They must also conform to the system themselves, just as Gods work within reality.
While this all sounds very rigid and authoritarian, Nedira has its own sense of fairness: that the Gods see all souls as equal, and punish all evildoers and reward all good souls regardless of rank or status. The world is just, even if you can't see the justice take place. According to Nediran thought, if evildoers were truly wise, they would seek to face justice now to atone their guilt through punishment rather than face that same justice from a cosmic source after death. This fundamental equality of souls also means that there are codes of conduct and expectations of decency between social classes. And if a system encourages evil, there is a divine mandate for the lower classes to rise up and destroy that system, so a new and holier system can be made in its place.
But theologically, what is Nedira? In short, it is the belief that there is a divine system of perfect cosmic justice. This imperfect world and the imperfect people in it are doomed to a fairly bad time, as they are unworthy of the cosmic perfection of the heavens. But because the gods are fundamentally good, you can appeal to the divine wisdom of the Supreme Goddess Tishalla The Chimera for guidance, atonement, and salvation after death. There is also a pantheon of other Gods that shape the world and while their physical aspects are often tainted and imperfect, they contain a pure essence of benevolence.
As for species-preference, Nedira theologically sees Prisms, Solars, and Humans as the three "main" species that all others are derived from- and sees them as the pillars on which society should be built. That said, Nedira's pre-occupation with building balanced systems of law and power has generated a wide variety of experimental legal codes intended to balance the needs of all species. The religious media still focuses on the "big three", but the systems of power the religion supports tend to be pluralistic and balanced. These vary state-to-state still and some solutions can be deeply flawed (such as reserving certain jobs for certain races), but the greater Nediran systems works overtime to prevent systematic neglect of a specific race or the creation of species-caste-systems. Half Prisms are more common in positions of power in Nedira due to their heritage and access to sorcery, but every generation of intermingling with Kobolds mixes things up more.
More troubling than species-preference is Nedira's cultural elitism, militarism, and deeply-ingrained classicism. Foreign cultures are outright labeled inferior and Nedira encourages conquest and "spiritual liberation" of foreign peoples. Military conquest of foreigners is seen as a moral good. Heritage is seen as an inescapable "destiny" and hereditary monarchs and aristocrats are given a divine mandate and often compared to lesser gods. And while Nedira has mechanisms for switching up the order, it is by no means an egalitarian faith.

Structure

Nedira has a regional top-down structure that mirrors state organization. Large conventions of Nediran leaders can set general policy, but most of the time a high shofet's word is religious law.

Rank	Role	Selected By
The Divine	Religious leader of Calazen and Nedira as a whole	High Shofets of Calazen
High Shofet	Leader of religion within a particular state (or administrative sector in the case of Calazen)	The High Shofet selects their replacements
Arbiter	Second in command and heir to High Shofet; manager of bureaucracy and budgeting	High Shofet
Watcher	Manager of cult, heresy, and outside religions within a state	High Shofet
Shofet	Regional leader	High Shofet
Priest	Community leader	Shofet

Cults have internal structures that lie largely outside this framework.

History

Pre-Nediran Religions: Daripar and Ikito

Nedira was not the first religion of Inahng a wide variety of local traditions existed in the early days of the continent, increasingly dominated by Cults to The Chimera, Ghavi, and Jade Atharzen. These were joined by other major hero cults, which formed a regional network of inter-related cult known as Ikito ("the cult of heroes"). Ikito was still aggressively local for the most part, with the most internationally-connected cults oriented towards merchants and travelers. Ikito had no doctrine, no prescribed way of living, and no central authority. While Ikito spread and mutated, a different religious tradition arose in Calazen: Daripar, the doctrine of sharp reality and legalism. Daripar was less of a supernatural belief system and more a philosophy and worldview: the world is evil, people are flawed at best and usually wicked, heaven is distant. Dariparan scholars argued that a system must be created to reduce direct harm and create as much food and wealth as possible. This system should reduce the individual, investing power in a small handful of mostly-inactive judges who would dedicate themselves to impartiality and act as arbiters. Impartiality, they argued, is achievable in a way that goodness is not. As Calazen continued being the center of Inahng's trade and culture, they exported Daripar across Inahng. In doing so, Daripar and Ikito merged: Ikito worshiped the gods and heroes that built the world, while Daripar worshiped the laws that preserved what was built. Daripar slowly became the main name for the religion and its systems as it consumed Ikito whole. Only on the fringes, where strong centralized states failed to hold together, did "pure" Ikito remain, though it barely had a chance to ever firmly exist in the first place. Some religious historians dispute the idea that a definable "Ikito" existed- others argue that it never died, but remained a distinct sub-philosophy within Daripar that has since passed into Nedira. Regardless, in terms of political-religious entities in Inahng, by 300 ME there was one organized religion in Inahng that was referred to as Daripar.
Daripar changed with the times, adopting new cults into its organization and altering its "divinely inspired law" over the years. Dryad migrations Northward across the 400s began a troubling movement towards "blood destiny philosophy": the idea that, since bloodline defines one's destiny and abilities, various species should be organized according to their predestined "purposes" in order to create a harmonious society. To make matters worse, the lack of social mobility meant that these dryads and newly arriving humans were trapped in perpetual poverty and exclusion. A caste system began to develop. In the 500s The Lunar Goddess Jade, revered as a hero-god by her loyal cultists, organized a series of religious takeovers of Daripar administrations by the formerly-Ikizo hero cults. Joining them were Nafenan Bards, who were welcomed into Inahng to create their own hero-cults. Many of these bards were members of the Vetevic "final choir" - a foreign religion dedicated to creating a race of all-encompassing super-beings. They formed the Cult of Apotheosis- an important hero cult and bard college that has remained an institution in Inahng to the modern day and is now part of Nedira. Cult dominance changed Daripar into a more centralized and international religion, but it was not a permanent solution to the caste system. Civil war, migration, corruption, and a focused interference campaign by a group of rival lunar deities all undermined Jade's ability to project power, and hints of species-caste philosophy crept back into the circles of power. In the latter half of the 600s, species-caste had come back in a new, more wealth-based form, and Jade continued to struggle as the other lunar gods continued to disrupt her control over the religion (each had a collection of cults they had founded in the 100s ME that they used to project power themselves).
In the 700s and 800s, a new migration disrupted everything: mass arrival of Kobolds. They had always been a presence in the West, but their arrival in the more species-variant East completely shattered any attempt at categorizing families based on species. Kobolds produce offspring of random species when they interbreed with other species- they are an element of absolute demographic chaos. They also introduced Half-dryads into the mix, further blurring the lines between races. Religiously, they also brought outside evangelism into Inahng for the first time. While trade with Nafena was controlled enough that religious intermixture could be carefully regulated, these Kobolds came in large numbers and brought ideas of Kivishta, Uvara, and Suneka. These ideas and systematic changes fundamentally threatened Daripar, which responded by doubling down on its harshness. Religious infighting escalated between the many schools of Daripar, even during periods of peace and authority the religious establishment was slowly crumbling.

The Making of Nedira

Amidst the chaos of the religious infighting, a fringe school known as the School of Heavenly Justice fled to what is now the kingdom of Minarsa and secluded itself. It spent the 700s and 800s in obscurity meditating on the perfect system, on the nature of justice, and on the nature of the gods. It was a deviant school of philosophy, having long been considered outside the Daripar norm. It had long disputed the cynical claim that heaven was distant and that it was impossible to achieve a truly good society in life, and it rejected the idea that heroes were unique creatures of exceptional good.
In 875, a young Prism monk named Marasa in this community wrote a startling piece of innovative theology called The Empire of Heaven. The Empire of Heaven took the School's philosophies to their logical extremes and proposed revisions to the established cosmology. While it was dismissed by the School for going too far, sections of the Empire of Heaven were copied down by one of her peers and repackaged into a smaller, less academic text. This repackaged text soon gained a large following among local elites- and spread like wildfire across the land. It attracted enough attention that Dariparan mercenaries were sent to arrest Marasa and the school. This was a miserable failure that only attracted more attention, and as Marasa fled from realm to realm writing, her popularity grew. In 880, she was approached by a claimant to the Calazan throne and that promised to give her a high-ranking position in the empire if she endorsed them. In 883, the coup and ensuing civil war ended with Marasa's candidate in control- and Marasa in charge of imperial policy. With imperial protection, she gathered together the School of Dinikem- a great college of like minded priests. By the time of her death in 1030, Marasa was revered as an inspired scholar. Her teachings became Nedira, and the School of Dinikem used Calazan imperial authority and the support of Jade to stamp out Daripar entirely.
While pre-Nediran religions never truly rallied against Nedira after 900 ME, it still took time for Nedira to consolidate its control of Inahng. The divergent form of hyper-materialist imperial cult in the Southern kingdoms required their own adaption of Nediran dogma that was only officially accepted by Calazan priests in 1070. The hero-bloodline cult of Zethko, which dominated the Northern mountains, only joined Nedira in the late 1100s. Traditional (non Daripar) religion in the far South remained completely independent of Nedira well into the 1300s. And just as Nedira adapted and absorbed divergent religious traditions, chunks of Nedira began mutating away from the rest. The offshoot sect of Tikrit formed in the far Northeast in 1450 and a large number of heretical schools rose and fell across the continent. But the question of what is dangerously different and what is regional quirkiness haunted Nedira, inspiring endless fierce debates. Two main factions formed among the priests: regionalists and centralists. Regionalists believed that every state had its own destiny and could determine its own definition of what was safely Nedira; as long as the mutations respected the other regional schools and authorities of Nedira, they were valid. Centralists believed that regional mutations would inevitably return Nedira to caste and internal war, and that a central religious authority was needed to police the priesthood and keep order. While the centralists flourished in the wealthy central area around Calazen, they struggled to enforce their rulings and authority on the regional offshoots. While the regional offshoots were brought in under several charismatic centralists leaders, they inevitably drifted away again when Calazen fell into internal chaos- the empire and the centralists were so deeply intertwined that it seemed impossible to separate their fortunes.

Centralism and Metena

While the North and Center received constant attention and accommodation from the centralists, the regional offshoot in the far South always remained on the fringes. The plains there were hostile to permanent state structures, and Nedira's dependence on sedentary states ruled by divine monarchs made traditional dogma weak there. To make matters worse, while the tribes of the far North were of the same religious-cultural group as the traditional heartlands of Inahng, the tribes of the far South were overwhelmingly culturally and religiously tied to the waves of majority-dryad migratory groups. So while Nedira played easily with the standard cosmology and gods in the rest of Inahng, the South required substantial dogmatic revision to appeal to local communities. The incredibly difference between Northern Nedira and Southern Nedira became evident by the 1500s, and several attempts were made to try and bring the South closer- but these focused exclusively on the wealthy coastal trading enclaves rather than anything inland. And those old inland traditions created a hotbed of mutation and deviation.
This was of little concern or consequence until the 1600s. Two seemingly unrelated forces met to ignite the powder keg of Southern heresy: the failed religious revolutions of the 1600s and 1700s in Eastern Calazen, and the great Southern Amphibious Renaissance of the 1700s.
In Calazen, Nedira faced an immense internal challenge in the 1600s: religious cults associated with the other members of the Lunar Pantheon went rogue and attempted to form their own religious movement known as the Masafi. The Masafi grew illegally and in secret. They claimed that the Empire was evil in nature, that true justice could be used to destroy destiny, that the true head of the pantheon was Halcyon rather than The Chimera, and that only certain Lunar Gods (notably Lily of Red, Theia the Liberator, and Hiku ) could provide a path to spiritual freedom. The Masafi leadership launched a series of revolts throughout the late 1600s and 1700s, briefly seizing control of the Eastern Empire and forming a Druidic Theocracy before being unseated by their own counter-revolution. The counter-revolution, while initially hailed as heroic, was led by an extreme charismatic leader grew to become its own heresy known as Daio or Asa-Daripar. The entirety of the East was purged of all signs of either heresy, and the heretics scattered across Inahng. Many of these heretics sought to hide behind local regionalist factions, but the most welcoming of all regionalists were in the far South. The Masafi in particular found a warm welcome there, as their allies in heaven prepared safe havens for them among the inland communities.
The Southern Amphibious Renaissance, meanwhile, was much less obviously dangerous to the religious order. A group of unusual warlocks from abroad brought voicebox technology to the aquatic races of Inahng in the late 1600s before settling down in the far Southern kingdom of Dimedsa to form a small warlock community. One of their students, a local Dimedsan named Tsala, was a prodigious warlock as well as a curious dabbler in other forms of magic. Tsala was able to use their charisma and curious combination of magical arts to coordinate druids, warlocks, and bards in the creation of a massive artificial reef in the great Dimedsan bay. The resulting trade hub of aquatic races and magical specialists created a boom in wealth and culture known as the Amphibious Renaissance. But the Amphibious Renaissance's intermingling of ideas (including Aquatic ideas) created a flourishing semi-heretical school of thought. This became known as the Individualist School, and it turned many of Nedira's core principles on their heads. The Individualist School attracted its fair share of negative attention, but was largely dismissed as a real threat compared to the heresies that actually tried to directly challenge Nediran authority. But much to the dismay of Northerners, the Individualist School only grew more popular over time.
From 1750 to 1850, Individualism and Masafi intermingled with Nedira and local religion alike to form a hyper-divergent local tradition. But still there was no central Nediran authority to decide what was "too far"- until the reign of Emperor Esam the Great. Esam was a master-sorcerer and conqueror of legend, who took control of Calazen in 1828. He wanted to conquer all of Inahng, and perhaps beyond. To win the priesthood over, he promised the centralists complete support in making a central authority for Nedira as long as they supported his regime absolutely. And so they did- and the regionalists were absolutely destroyed as Esam annihilated state after state.
In 1869, Dimesda fell to Esam's invasion. As Nediran centralists descended upon the far South to re-order it in their own image, a human who had once been a fringe religious figure became a symbol of resistance. Skitavi the Silver-Tongued, a charismatic scholar and mystic, rallied the religious communities of the South in rebellion. He promised divine support, and his resistance movement coalesced into its own heretical uprising. While Skitavi died in prison in 1889, his followers successfully overthrew the regional government in 1900. From their uprising, a new religious movement began: Metena. Metena, while based in Nediran cosmology and largely in agreement over many major theological points, fundamentally rejects the importance of government or leaders in religion or morality. It is the final form of the individualist school, with elements of local religion and Masafi cult as well.
But while Nedira lost the South the Metena because of Esam's imperialism, the centralists were able to properly seize control of the rest of faithful. Nedira now is ruled by one great religious authority: the Divine. Nedira is now officially defined, regulated, and policed. While the faith may have lost some of itself in the empire, some might say that it saved itself from complete collapse.

Mythology & Lore

Origins of the World

The World began as a pinpoint of pure existence in an endless sea of void. That existence was Enerad, the principle of pure law. That sea of void was Sangshi, the principle of pure chaos. Within Enerad was all matter, locked eternally in motionless stasis. For Enerad was the world as it had to be- it is pure destiny, with no room for movement or chance. Sangshi was formless, timeless, flowing cosmic void that could never be anything. For Sangshi is the world as it could be- ethereal, meaningless, fantasy, possibility without consequence.
But where Sangshi and Enerad met, a cosmic song began to play: it was the vibrations of the universe in its purest form. This song was Truth, and it formed from where Enerad and Sangshi did not withdraw and conflict, but met in peace. Truth beget Truth, and from its cosmic harmony it sang the heavens into being. The heavens were neither Sangshi nor Enerad, solid nor liquid- it was pure sky, infinitely flexible yet infinitely strong. Truth and Harmony became their own force- Dinikem, cosmic justice and truth. Dinikem formed its will into an individual: The Goddess Tishalla, the cosmic Chimera of many forms and faces. Tishalla descended upon Enerad and Sangshi, and she ordered them into all the world.
Tishalla made many Gods to order the world and reside with her in heaven. First she made Imatya, the sun-bird, and Iponek, the night bird- the twins who guide and judge the dead and turn the wheel of day and night. With time created and life beginning to form, Tishalla formed herself into three great spirits: Tishalla Shenon the River-Mother and Queen of the Seas, Tishalla Arzan the mountain mother and Queen of the Land, and Tishalla Ritsabitalla the Queen of magic that invented all knowledge.
To provide Iponek companionship, Tishalla Shenon sent up the moon god Burmet, who invented booze, music, and excitement as gifts for their lonely friend. To assist Imatya, Tishalla Arzan created Mearza the Goddess of crafting, to create clouds and rainbows to bring her joy. Lastly, to guard the lands under the sky, Tishalla created Riodem the wind-huntress and Maeziri the hearth goddess. These six gods, the direct descendants of Tishalla, had a great family together and made many lesser gods.
While the pantheon carried out Tishalla's will in creating the foundations of the world, Tishalla Ritsabitalla decided to make mortals as the ultimate expression of earthly harmony. For in the beginning, there were were animals and there were souls- but never did they intermingle. From pure Enerad, Tishalla Arzan had made soulless Prisms of stone and Tishalla Shenon had made soulless humans and animals out of clay- but souls remained ethereal glimmerings of pure potential that formed and faded endlessly in the void. Ritsabitalla collected many of these souls in a basket woven out of starlight and placed these souls into their respective bodies.

The River Prophet

After animals and Prisms were given souls, the world entered a period of great chaos and adjustment. The many creatures fought one another as the law and chaos within them fought- just as they had in the beginning of time. But once again, there were moments when the law and chaos joined together into harmony- and in those moments, goodness was born. But many of the confused and fearful creatures saw goodness as dangerous, and sought to destroy it. Many sparks of goodness were extinguished, but one remained safe and protected: the spark of Mazenha, a woman born to the human Etezja tribe. Mazenha used her goodness to see the world beyond the world, and could perform great miracles- she lived for one thousand years and taught her people order, goodness, and agriculture. The Etezja tribe lived happily in hiding as they grew and prospered in a golden age- but one day a serpent noticed the Etezja's most beloved weaver leaving to gather medicine, and bit her on the ankle. It killed her and ran to tell the world where the goodness had been hiding- but had its legs ripped off by Imatya for its sins.
The peoples of the whole world laid siege to the Etezja- all except for the Prism warrior Zethen, who had enough goodness in his heart to lead his people away to build their own kingdom instead. For years, the Etezja fought valiantly to protect their home. But one day, Mazenha's young daughter, Yena, decided to put an end to their evil once and for all. She gathered up the warriors of the Etezja and went to conquer the world to bring it to justice. Mazenha, who sought peace in all things, recognized this necessary evil and taught her daughter a hymn of protection- as long as Yena sang her hymn, no weapon could harm her. But the evil hordes of the Thousand Armies were sly, and slaughtered a million bison to create a great orchestra of horns so loud it would drown out her hymn even to herself. They besieged and exiled the Etezja and slew Mazenha. Injured and desperate, Yena retreated from them with her warriors to the River Depahn, the river of all rivers where Tishalla slept. Tishalla was awoken by the hymns and horns and rose to heal Yena and her warriors of their wounds. Tishalla gave Yena two gifts for her bravery and goodness: a spear that could turn any mortal or demon to salt, and the greatest of the Sudraco as an unstoppable mount. All Sudraco descend from this legendary lizard, which carried Yena to victory. The Thousand Armies surrendered at the sight of Yena and her divine majesty, and instead of enslaving them she taught them goodness and agriculture. She was worshipped by all peoples of the civilized world, who settled in Inahng to be near her.

Ghavi and the Divine Bloodline

When Yena conquered all the world, Tishalla Ritsabitalla rose again from the river to crown her queen of the universe. Tishalla instructed Yena to throw cowry shells into the river to summon Tishalla whenever she needed aid. Yena called upon her many times, increasingly as personal visits until they fell in love and married. They ruled for many years as god-rulers, and from their union they produced a child. But inevitably, Tishalla had to return to the heavens- and so Yena raised her child the best she could as she ran the empire. Her child was named Ghavi , and he was a demigod by nature. He was bold, charismatic, magical, and strong- the epitome of youthful strength in every way.
Ghavi waged war on those who did not accept Yena's just rule and won great glory abroad. But he was also belligerent and often picked fights. One such fight was with one of the sons of the great Prism war-king Zethen, who was equally headstrong and greedy. They competed, but the Prism insulted Tishalla by accident and Ghavi killed him for blasphemy. This began a feud between Ghavi and the eldest son of Zethen, Azetho, who ruled Zethen's kingdom. Azetho was a fierce warrior, proud and lawful- he saw himself as rightful king of all Prisms. He had once been an incorruptible and honorable leader, but his pride had curdled into paranoia and hubris. Ghavi took Azetho's challenge head-on, but found that Azetho's city lie on the top of the tallest mountain in the world. Ghavi was tricked by demons along the way, and imprisoned in a block of ice. Azetho, paranoid as he was, was still honorable, and had Ghavi freed and locked in his dungeon to be tried. There, Azetho has also locked away his nieces and nephews he believed plotted to steal the throne. One such niece was Jade Atharzen, child of one of Azetho's sons and a demigod child of Mearza. Jade knew of Ghavi's plight, and knew that Azetho was too afraid to hold a fair contest of justice between them. And so, Jade freed Ghavi and the two ran from Azetho to Jade's clan in the South.
Jade and Ghavi fought together and ultimately slew Azetho in a fair contest of arms. Having freed the Prisms from tyranny and placed her mother on the throne, Jade returned with Ghavi. They two fell in love as virtuous warriors, and sought to marry their divine lines- but Yena disapproved. The two begged for ten days and ten nights before finally Tishalla and Mearza came down to intercede. They allowed the two to produce children- Half Prisms- who were given the whole world to rule.
Eventually, after their golden age of rule was over, Ghavi and Jade retired to heaven to guide mortals forever.

The Unjust War and the Second Moon

The First Divine Empire of Calazen was glorious and eternal, but many unjust peoples lived in fear of it. They mulled together and raided and fought but could never organize. But while the forces of good were distracted, they did not notice the dissent in their own ranks. Riodem, the Winter Huntress, silently fumed at the limits placed upon her violence. When asked by Tishalla (who knew truly what she felt) what irked her so, she lied to the goddess- and from her lie and ill-feelings, an evil part of her was formed- Arlo the plague god. Tishalla saw this and cast Arlo into the earth, where he was imprisoned in chains of pure destiny. But the demons, devils, and ill-wanting mortals gathered at Arlo's prison and took on a fraction of his power. He wanted them to go into the sky and take the moon god Burmet hostage to ransom Arlo's release. With Arlo free, he could destroy Calazen and the forces of good and cast the world back to what it was. He sent out the serpents, vengeful in their leglessness, with Gem Plague to spread chaos and slay the peoples of good, to distract them from this plot.
While the heroes of goodness battled Arlo's plagues, the great army of evil planted seeds of pure chaos into the mountains of pure law. From their conflict grew a great tree of squirming conflict, which they fed with warfare and deceit. This great demon tree rose up into the heavens, frightening even the lesser gods. It wrapped around Burmet, and began pulling him from the sky. Just as Burmet was about to be torn down, one of the human leaders of the devil-cultists, an honorable but misguided chief named Ishkibal, realized the evil that was being done and drove his blade into the vines, cutting Burmet free. In his righteous fury, he became a spirit of good and led his people in rebellion to stop Arlo. As the evil forces fought, Burmet gave the tree a soul and freed it from its demonic destiny- and so it began wrestling with its own morality. The forces of evil panicked, and gathered what evil sap they could from the tree even as it formed its goodness into a fruit. That fruit became the second moon Atbala. Atbala rose to join the pantheon as the goddess of magic, prophecy, scribes, and witches. The evil that was gathered coalesced into Aishal the great leviathan of wickedness. Aishal was terrified of Atbala and fled, and so the forces of Arlo disbanded. The tree, realizing that its very body was a threat to the heavens, destroyed itself. Its scattered shrapnel of wood became dryads, who organized under three great kings chosen by Atbala: Lily of Red, Orchid of Blue, and Wimbo Aizitu. Atbala then created Paradise for souls to wait in bliss until judgment- though Aishal tries its best to take whatever souls it can to Purgatory (particularly humans, which it resents as traitors). In Paradise, Atbala asked Jade to gather the greatest heroes of all time together to act as the Lunar Pantheon to guide mortalkind towards goodness.

Cosmological Views

Dinikem aka Cosmic Justice

Dinikem means truth, order, justice, and reality. Reality at its truest core is just; since reality is just and truth is the perfect expression of reality, absolute truth begets absolute justice; order is the manifestation of justice on the world. Chaos is not the opposite of Dinikem, as chaos is part of reality. Cosmic Disorder can itself be orderly or lawful, as it is simply the inversion of justice. Dinikem, as the heart of reality, is the inevitable conclusion of existence- it is not only morally right, but inescapable.

Destiny and Choice

Every person and thing in the world is pulled between two great forces: destiny and free will. Destiny may be some great heroic path for some, but it is theologically defined as the person you were born to be. Destiny is the limitations of a person's birth and context- a pauper cannot choose to simply become an emperor. Destiny is changeable- not by individuals, who are by nature unable to overcome this, but by just societies.

Time as a River

In Nedira, the physical landscape of Calazen is itself a metaphor for reality: existence flows down from the great stone wall of the mountains down through many valleys and turns into the inevitable churning chaos of the sea. The world is doomed to end some day, dissolving back into chaos and order before inevitably reforming back into the world. When the world ends, so will the afterlives as we know them- it shall be the great reckoning, when all wrongs are righted. For a a river will inevitably carry you to the sea- no matter how slow justice is, it will arrive when the world ends. The goodness of people will rise above the destruction of the world, carrying the souls of the good with them. The evil shall perhaps be shown mercy, if they deserve it- or they shall receive cosmic punishment.

Souls as Embodiment of Choice

Every mortal being (possibly everything in general) has an eternal spiritual essence that is the perfect culmination of that thing. While a soul is molded and tested by its experience within a body, death is the final and perfect liberation of the soul. Bodies are vessels of pure destiny- all they do is limit and define and predestine. Souls are sparks of pure choice, and as such they are judged primarily on what choices they made within their vessels. Every choice permanently stains and defines a soul, and only by purifying oneself, seeking forgiveness, and facing judgment in this life can a soul be saved from the cosmic justice of the next life.
While a Soul pre-body is nothing but pointless freedom without any kind of context or meaning, post-body the soul is forever defined by its experience and becomes ordered. For this reason, when they are inevitably faced with the churning chaos, those who faced justice and have been purified will not fall back into chaos, but will instead rise into the purity of perfect creation to sit alongside Tishalla in the Highest Heaven. To do so is the only true escape from suffering.

The Forces of Evil

Evil is defined from distance from Dinikem rather than its own cosmic force. That said, there is supernatural evil in Nedira- demons and devils. These are the parts of the world did not join Dinikem and Tishalla in goodness. Demons and devils cannot match gods in power, nor do they pose some sort of cosmic threat. They can, however, do great harm to fragile mortals. Luckily, invocations of beings stronger than them can scare these despicable creatures and spirits away. They cannot enter temples, weak ones flee from priests, and those who weave prayers into the foundations of their homes can ward off lesser demons. Demons are different from devils only in that they are beings of pure Law- they are destined to do evil and cannot be any other way. As beings who lack the agency to be good or prosperous, they tend to be monstrous and chaotic in their behavior. Devils are beings closer to chaos, who use their free will to choose to be evil. Devils that were born out of the cosmic chaos simply do not understand what suffering is and lack context or understanding- they simply revel in spite and enjoy toying with things below them. Mortals or living creatures can become demons by having their souls removed; they can become devils by choosing to accept evil so fundamentally that it consumes their body. Ghosts are vulnerable to becoming devils while the magically raised undead are vulnerable to becoming demons.
Demons and devils can gather around non-benevolent gods known as Vaid-Gods or Ania-Gods. Vaid Gods are strange or exceptional Gods that exist outside of heaven but are not malevolent; Ania-Gods are children of Tishalla that were somehow corrupted into becoming malevolent. No God is pure evil and they are not powerful enough to challenge Tishalla, but they can make the world worse. For example, Kedzerkem is a malevolent god of transformation and child of Tishalla that is believed to have created Ederstone to manifest demons physically. Kedzerkem could never attack Tishalla and it is unlikely he would even want to, but his creations do defy typical demon rules. These non-good fringe gods are held responsible for foreign religion, disease, and unusual supernatural evils. They are destined to be destroyed when chaos consumes the world.

Tenets of Faith

• Do Only Righteous Harm: Harm only when the law demands it, for all life contains a spark of the divine and pain is the essence of disorder.
• Fulfill Your Destined Role: You were born into this life and you are shackled by birth into a limited set of choices. To fight against destiny is to prolong your suffering- instead, seek to flourish in the life you have.
• Do Not Permit Injustice: When someone hurts someone else without just cause, they create a world more full of pain and injustice. This can only be corrected by visiting justice upon the perpetrator- it is your moral duty
• Bring Joy To Others: Happiness is a divine good- to inspire happiness in others is the ultimate worship of the divine.
• Build Greatness: Every future soul awaits a world that you are building. Make that world as wealthy, prosperous, and beautiful as possible. Make your society flourish and build great monuments to inspire the future generations
• Respect the Past: You were born into a world built on the dead. Respect the dead and their accomplishments and be grateful for their gifts to you
• Be Impartial: To look upon the world with the eyes of a God is an act that makes you more divine. So look with the impartial eyes of a God- see beyond what others can do for you or how closely related they are to you. To a God all souls are equal in nature, regardless of destiny. To see this way is to see truth and become an instrument of justice.

Priesthood

Priests typically wear a variety of bright colors as well as robes with feathered collars. These grow more elaborate the higher the priestly station. Priests performing service or otherwise on "active duty" also wear heavy necklaces attached to instruments of justice (such as a ritual hammer, shell, or horn used to get the court's attention).

Sects

Schisms and mutations are categorized like deviant gods: into categories of Vaid and Ania. Vaid means weird or exceptional- Vaid sects are recognized as unusual and treated with caution but are to be tolerated. Ania means dangerously deviant sects that will lead to spiritual peril.

Vaid-Nedira Sects

Cult of Apotheosis: One of the most unusual and powerful of the hero-cults, the Cult of Apotheosis is a mystery cult devoted to the Final Form of mortalkind. They worship the end of the world incarnate known as Tishalla Malaho or "The Reckoning" and are dedicated to prophecies and the "final life" of mortalkind. They seek perfection, to live beyond the end as god-like ascended beings.
Tikrit: A particularly unusual sect born of the Cult of Apotheosis, Tikrit believes that the end of the world is not only approaching fast but can (and should be) accelerated. The Reckoning is accepted as a fourth perfect form of Tishalla. Extreme temperance and purity is believed to be important as the world could end tomorrow, and you cannot rely on mundane justice to be carried out in a timely manner
Cult of Zethko: Zethko, the legendary Prism war-leader, is said to have ascended after death to guide Prism-kind. His bloodline is said to grant certain warriors immense strength and to have a special relationship with the heavens. Worship of Zethko, his bloodline, and the immortal demigod daughter of Zethko, Mavara, is seen as critically important in areas where the cult is dominant.
Ronako: Ronako believes that the material is everything and that the souls found in Paradise are spectres of living memory that must be sustained by the living. Ronako places sublime importance in consequence over intent, and believes that one's works or creations can act as extensions of oneself. In this way, physical labor or planning in the construction of infrastructure or monuments are a supreme form of atonement (and even pre-atonement for sins yet done).

Ania-Nedira Sects

Daio or Asa-Daripar: Daio and its sister-sects are often known as Daripar or Asa-Daripar by Nedirans, as a way to defame it as fundamentally pre-Nediran. Basically, Daio is the repudiation of free will and the emphasis on destiny over choice. Great diversity exists among these heretics as for what is to be done about this.
Masafi and Metena: On the other side of the debate, we have these sects, which see Free Will as dominant. Destiny is seen as evil, surpass-able, or illusory. Great diversity exists among these heretics as for what is to be done about this.

Founding Date

875 ME

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Demonym

Nediran

Permeated Organizations

• Empire of Calazen
• Kingdom of Sikrek
• Kingdom of Sonisha

Deities

• Ghavi
• Jade Atharzen
• The Chimera

Divines

• Ghavi

Location

Inahng

Related Ranks & Titles

• Zethko