Temple of the One and Six Gods

The practice of the worship of the One and Six Gods is the largest religion in the world, being the imposed state religion of the Sura Empire for the past one thousand years. It has spread at the end of the Sura militaries sword for most of that time, and its priesthood is integral to the leadership of the empire.
The Temple of One and Six Gods is the formal, organised aspect of the religion; it is headed by the Great Priests. Integral to the Sura Empire's government, the Temple constituents an enormous bureaucracy that operates thousands of temples, schools, infirmaries, and has an active hand in government itself. The Temple is extremely wide spread, with temples outside of Sura itself, though it has never achieved much popularity in nations not forced to yield to its worship. The largest population of followers of the One and Six Gods outside of Sura is found in the Sarimarcus Empire.

Beliefs

The followers of the One and Six Gods believe that in the beginning of time the One God created the world in a night of great labour, and from his exertion were born the first five gods. From his spilt blood Binothres, War and Sesothris, Earth. From the sweat of his brow Noimysn, Intellect. From his tears Hetu, Water, and from his breath Ahuronsu, Fire.
The world was good and the One God commanded the five gods to spread to the corners of the earth, and to beautify his creation. And so they did, and when they finished they return to the One God proud and showed him their works, and he approved. But the five gods said that such beauty should be appreciated, and asked the One God for intelligent beings to inhabit their paradise. And so the One God created Anapara, Life, and coupled with her to fill the paradise with life. From Anapara was born the first people, from whom all are descended.

Governance

The religion is headed by the Great Priests, the six most important figures in the religion, headed by the Rex Sacrorum, whose seat rotates between the Six each decade. Traditionally the Priests of The Great Temple of Sura, Senet'tu, Bakieh, the Palace, Asekara and the High Priest of the One God are the six Great Priests. Below the Great Priests are the High Priests responsible for all the temples of each god specifically, the Pontifex’ who govern their gods temple on a province wide scale, the Arcpriest who govern cities or regions, and the priests of individual temples.
Each god is served by a dedicated priesthood, who perform the ‘miracles’ of their god and maintain the libraries and temples of the gods, as well as fulfilling various other aspects of religious and civic governance.

• The Order of the One God serve the Royal City and Royal Family;
• The Order of Binothres (War) constitute the largest component of Sura's military.
• The Order of Sesothris (Earth) govern agriculture and farming across the empire, as well as building works.
• The Order of Anapara (Life) operate the vast majority of hospices and infirmaries.
• The Order of Noimsyn (Knowledge) serve as teachers, librarians and scholars, and the sect also controls the education system and the regulation of Mages.
• The Order of Ahuronsu (Fire) control blacksmithing and other industries utilising fire.
• The Order of Hetu (Water) manage the waterways, ports, irrigation and fishing.

History

The religion evolved out of the worship of the Two Gods Innumerable followed in Sura before that point. The modern form is the product of historical revisionism by the Emperor of Sura in 2140 YSB, who wished to unite the disparate religions of Senet'tu and Sura under one banner. The theory was that a shared religion would make his empire more stable for the future.
Previously the followers of the Two Gods Innumerable believed in a Male and a Female deity who adopted a host of different avatars for the aspects of life and the world as a whole. This belief system was shaped from the original pantheon of Sura, with each avatar in fact being a pre-Two Gods deity. The author Tureis had revised Suran religion in 1065 YSB, consolidating the many gods into the Two in his now lost writings; the first attempt to properly codify and write down Suran religion, which before that point had been largely oral in nature. Tureis however massively altered the previous nature of the religion, and while slow to change the state of things his version became popular with the aristocracy and later spread to the lower class, supplanting the pantheonic version of religion over a hundred year period.
The religion of the Wa'Senet people was derived from an ancient worship of monarchs after death; they had originally believed their Kings became gods upon death and guarded them from the afterlife. After Sura conquered them, this tradition was ended but already deified monarchs continued to be worshipped.
The One and Six Gods were taken from the two religions; The One God and Anapara being the Two Gods of Suran belief, and Binothres, Sesothris, Nofre, Hetu and Ahuronsu - five of the most notable monarchs of Wa'Senet belief.
Nofre was later renamed in the Sura style as Noimysn, being connected increasingly with Noimysn - the original Avatar of Wisdom from the worship of the Two Gods Innumerable, who had continued to be worshipped as a separate cult after the Emperor’s revisionism of religion. The cult became pervasive by 2490 YSB enough that the government pursued attempts to explain it as an aspect of the state religion, which were successful.

Insignia of the Temple; six squares encircled representing the One God surrounding the Six Gods.

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Parent Organization

Sura Empire

Related Professions

• Mages

Controlled Territories

• Noldutt