Xurugwi

Dominant in Agrona and parts of the Major Continent, the Xurugwi religion is unique in Nideon because its official canon bears no reference to a creator god or goddess. Followers believe that their souls once lived in another plane of existence and were tricked into coming to this one, where they were trapped in human bodies and forgot where they came from or how they got there. Thus, they will continue to be re-incarnated on Nideon until they can remember their home and return to it. Though the final goal of the Xurugwi faith is to end reincarnation and return to the First Home, their actions and tenants focus primarily on the present and what people can do in this life to help their souls and others remember.

Rites and Rituals

Birth Rites

When a child is born in the Xurugwi faith, they are considered a re-incarnation of a person who recently died. If someone in the Xurugwi community recently died and bones were left behind after the death rites, the child is considered a reincarnation of that person and gifted with their Xurugwi Death Beads. There is usually a small ceremony in which a member of the Xurugwi clergy blesses the child and a parent first places the beads around the child's neck, though the beads are later saved to be presented to child again when older, to prevent the baby getting hurt. This ceremony usually occurs within the first week of the baby's birth, and often occurs at a religious gathering, but does not have to. If no one in the community recently died, or if they were considered to have ended their cycle of reincarnation, then the Xurugwi believe that the baby is a reincarnation of someone from a non-Xurugwi culture. This is seen as a sign the soul is remembering where it came from. During the ceremony, the child receives a blessing and usually a symbolic gift, welcoming them home, such as a necklace of flowers.

Marriage

The Xurugwi faith does not have a traditional method for proclaiming romantic interest in someone, nor does it have specific courtship rituals that are followed once lovers become involved. Xurugwi followers are encouraged to be direct about their feelings, first to themselves, and then to those who they experience them for, and it is common for people to court a variety of others before settling on the person or persons whom they wish to marry.
Xurugwi weddings involve up to eight people, and partners are encouraged to think for a long time about who they wish to marry, as divorce is rare, and primarily only happens in situations of spousal abuse. Thus relationships and engagements may carry on for years before an actual wedding takes place. In some cases, the partners may stay engaged throughout their lives, but never actually marry.
A wedding usually lasts for a full week, with the first five days including parties or other gatherings with friends and family, after which the partners are expected to go home and meditate on whether they truly wish to marry. In the last three days, there is a public meal, often held around an open air fire, at which time, each member declares whether or not they still wish to marry, and then the final wedding ceremony takes place.
For the final ceremony, members of the marriage usually dress in brightly colored clothing, often dyed with a wax-dying process that involves layers of several different colors. Those who are marrying have their face and arms decorated in yellow paint, and anyone who has decided not to marry has their face and arms decorated in green paint. If the wedding is outdoors, a member of the Xurugwi clergy lights a bonfire. If indoors, this is usually replaced by a candle. One by one, each member of the marriage offers something of their old life into the fire. This could be a piece of clothing, an old toy, or even a carved wooden representation of their life. This represents them taking a step in their life and their soul moving closer to the First Home. As they do this, they may state vows to their new partners. Then all participants join in a dance around the fire.
After the dance, those who are painted in yellow are officially married to one another. Those who are painted in green are not considered married, but they still participate in the ceremony, as they are celebrating that their soul has learned something. There is no stigma against choosing not to marry, even if one backs out within the week of the wedding, and even if no parties actually marry, the community still celebrates because the participants the honesty that the participants had with themselves and their communities. This means their soul has made progress toward remembering the First Home. The wedding celebration usually ends with an all-day celebration including more dancing, games, and a feast.
Neither the gender nor sexual orientation of the people involved in a wedding is important. Xurugwi weddings are considered between soul mates, which necessitate neither romantic nor sexual relationships. Partner groups can consist of polyamorous groupings, dedicated friends, multiple couples with strong ties of friendship, or any combination thereof. A wedding means partners agree to dedicate their lives to one another, but the exact details of this are up to the partners. Therefore, a wedding could occur between close friends who have no sexual relationship with one another and do have sexual relationships with people outside the marriage whom they never marry. If a marriage includes less than eight people, the spouses may decide to have a later marriage to join with more people, but if a person is to marry another, they must also marry any spouses that person already has--marriages do not overlap. Eight is a holy number in the Xurugwi religion, and they do not believe that a soul can connect so deeply to more than seven others in a single lifetime.

Death Rites

When a person dies, the Xurugwi believe their soul has left the body, either to return to the First Home, or to be reborn and continue the memory process. As the body is no longer needed, it is carried out to the wilderness, often on a plain, woven mat, and left to be eaten by animals and decompose, along with the mat it was carried on. Thus, the body is used by the ground and the animals who can use it.
After some time, usually around two weeks, members of the community return to search for bones. If bones are not found, the soul is believed to have remembered the location of the First Home and returned. If bones are found, they are believed to be left behind as a connection to the soul's previous life. Any bones which are found are cleaned and made into Xurugwi Death Beads, which are passed on to the next child born into the community, as a way of connecting their soul with its previous lives. If there is a lot of bone left, additional items may be made and passed to family members as keepsakes. As the possessions of the dead are allotted to community members, some important possessions may be saved for the next child born, as a further connection to their previous life. This is especially common in areas where Xurugwi bone art has gone out of fashion due the stigma from other cultures of wearing jewelry made from human bone.
The focus of the Xurugwi open burial is for the body to be used by someone who need it, as the soul that once inhabited it no longer does. As a result, Xurugwi today, especially those living in cities, where open burial is difficult, do a variety of things with the bodies of their dead. In areas with universities, the bodies are often donated for scientific study, if possible, with and agreement that some or all of the bones will be later returned. In other areas, they are buried in natural areas as a preservation method, crushed to help rebuild coral reefs, or used as fertilizer, similar to Sprite funeral customs.

Stillbirth

The religious significance of a stillbirth, and in some places, a child dying in infancy, is that the baby's soul has remembered the First World, and returned, leaving behind the empty shell of a body. The Xurugwi also acknowledge, however, that though another soul has returned to the First Home, the loss of a child is usually immensely painful for the family, especially the mother. Therefore, the body is usually buried, rather than left out, and the grave is marked with a natural marker, such as a tree, or an arrangement of rocks. This allows the body to be used by the world that needs it, but also allows the family a place to grieve. If the baby had death beads, they may be buried with the baby, or given to the family as a connection to the other soul.

Connection with Science

Relationship with Other Religions

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Related Ranks & Titles

• Trickster-Trapper

Manufactured Items

• Pembroke's Flute

Related Myths

• The First Government of Antarand

Trickster Genders

Though they recognize male and female bodies, the Xurguwi do not recognize the gender of the soul, as a person can be re-incarnated from a male form into a female form and vise-versa. Those who experience gender dysphoria are said to be of "trickster gender," meaning the tricksters who trapped their souls on Nideon have additionally tricked them into an inappropriate body or otherwise tricked them into not understanding themselves. All of this is done to prevent souls from remembering how to return to the First Home. This was originally met with a variety of responses from encouraging a person to present as the gender they identify with to blaming them for eating too many eggs in a past life, but as scientific studies reveal more about gender identity, the Xurugwi are fast becoming accepting of a variety of gender identities.