Averrë Nenn

¹Priest: I ask all who are gathered today — Who is the Stranger?
²Congregation: He is Life.
³Priest: I ask again — Who is the Stranger?
⁴Congregation: He is Death.
⁵Priest: How can He be both?
⁶Congregation: For neither one can be without the other.

¹Di'Marrë: Qanë idë ormë têýnë mordenë vanto kiradana qarë idertë Di'Lertanysre
²Di'Averêni: Di'Teýna siltanë Di'Vaeýdëre
³Di'Marrë: Qanë idë fîtë retëne qarë idertë Di'Lertanysre
⁴Di'Averêni: Di'Teýna siltanë Di'Lertëre
⁵Di'Marrë: Qarë methi silnë Di'Teýna vinevire
⁶Di'Averêni: Kirannë bila silnë nilvinë ζ sendë nilwydarmëre

Di'Averrë Nenn, the Faith of the Nine in Tretalleri, is considered the oldest religion continuously practiced to the modern day in Sekhar. Its longevity can be attributed to the long lives led by its primary followers, the tretâllë, as well as its status as the official state religion of the Dominion.

Structure

The Faith of the Nine, in its modern incarnation, is easy to think of as an apparatus of the state due to its close ties with the throne. The upper echelons of the Faith of the Nine reside in the Grand Rookery, which is owned and operated by the throne. Furthermore, the Faith of the Nine was founded by an imperator, Cilritanë a'Detvida.
However, the Imperator, and by extension, his Prince of Ravens, are considered part of church leadership only in name. The true spiritual leader of the Faith of the Nine is known as the Prophet (or Prophetess). This styling takes after the Prophetess Llyrileýwa, who is traditionally the individual that introduced the tretâllë to the teachings of the Stranger.
The Prophet has administrative authority in that he has the final say in any church decisions, but he does not partake in the day-to-day governance of the church. Instead, the role that the Prophet fulfills is one that is considered more important by the church's faithful. The Prophet serves as the mortal conduit for the will of the Stranger, and it is through him that the Stranger delivers the widest-reaching of divine revelations.
Beneath the Prophet in the hierarchy of the Faith of the Nine are Di'Irrîca, and Di'Marâlttë. In common parlance, these are the Scribes and the High Priests, two organizations that serve vastly different but complimentary roles in the service of the gods and the Prophet.
Di'Irrîca, or the Scribes, are a council of theological experts and scholars who spend their lifetimes poring over the canon of the The Pale Grimoire and the numerous related texts that have been written about it through the years. As a body, they are responsible for delivering church opinion on the matters of the day based solely on scripture and past precedent, with as little personal bias as possible. Whenever a new question of faith that cannot be decided solely on scripture and past precedent arises for the church to answer, Di'Irrîca are responsible for drafting the articles that the Prophet will use to call for an ecumenical council on the matter.
Di'Marâlttë, or the High Priests, are a group of clergymen who represent and oversee the church in vast swathes of the empire. There are usually two or three assigned to a single continent, such as for the Pāll-tanír, where there is a Maralttë for each of the continent's three wards. Marâlttë are Marâkrë who are elevated to their position by a vote from their peers.
Below these two organizations are Marâkrë, who each oversee regions that span two or three major cities each. Below the Marâkrë are the Marîssë, men and women of the clergy who each oversee a major city and its surrounding villages. The lowest rung on the hierarchy of the Faith of the Nine belongs to the Mârrë, priests who each oversee individual communities and temples.

Tenets of Faith

Like any other organized religion, the Faith of the Nine has a number of tenets that form its foundation.

Gods guide; Men Act

These four words, "Gods Guide; Men Act" form the basic, fundamental principle that underscores the entire Faith of the Nine. These words are taken from the passage, "Gods guide, and men act, and the seasons turn from light to dark and back again until the end of time," written in the Pale Grimoire. These four words, though simple on the face of it, represent a number of concepts that inform many of the beliefs and positions held by the Faith of the Nine.

Gods Do Not Act

The gods do not Act upon the world of man. The gods have their duties in the world beyond man. The gods Act only in the world beyond man. Gods only observe the world of man, and provide the wisdom granted them by their divinity should man ask for it. The gods do not provide, nor do they take away. Man praying to the gods for a good harvest does nothing, but if man angers the gods, neither does man need fear divine retribution.

Man Is Accountable

Gods guide; man Acts, therefore, only man is responsible for man's Acts. The gods provide their wisdom and their guidance, but they never move the hand of man. With man's capacity for reason and choice, it is man's will to Act or not Act upon the guidance of the gods. Both blame and credit for man's acts lie solely at man's feet.

Man Is Called to Action

The gods uphold the balance of the cosmos, preserving the necessary aspects that they preside over in the world beyond man. These aspects are not necessary for existence in the world of man, but they are necessary for balance, peace, and prosperity. Left to wither in the chaos of the world of man, the aspects will bring about great chaos as the world heaves for their absence.
By providing their guidance and letting man know their will, the gods call upon man to Act on their behalf in the world of man in order to ensure that what needs to be preserved and nurtured is preserved and nurtured.

Gods Do Not Judge

Man is accountable to man alone. Responsibility for man's Acts falls upon man alone. Blame is man's to apportion, and so is reward in equal measure. Gods do not Act. Gods do not Judge. Judgment of man is man's responsibility alone.

The World Acts

The world of man itself can Act. Storms, wildfires, earthquakes, and other such disasters are Acts of the world. These Acts can be unpredictable and devastating at the worst of times, but they are not the Acts of wrathful gods as the gods cannot act in the world of man, nor are they Acts of man, as nothing man does can avert them.
The Acts of the world are as inevitable as the turning of the seasons, but unlike man, who possesses the capacity of reason, and choice, the world is not able to choose its Acts. Therefore, the responsibility falls to man, if man wishes to suffer less as a result of the world's Acts, to place itself in a position to suffer less.

Life Is Precious, And The Living More So

New life is a beautiful thing, whether it be a child, or a faun, but bringing it into the world must never be pursued at the expense of a life that is already being lived. A life that is already taking place, that has already been set into a path, should never be forced to sacrifice itself for a theoretical life that has not even left the womb yet, that does not even have the means to live independent of another creature, yet.
The death of the unborn is a tragedy, but even more tragic would be the death of a woman, given no choice but to risk death for the sake of her unborn child. The woman might be able to have another child, if her unborn died, but her spouse, her friends, her family, would never have another of her. Every death represents pain, but more so the death of the living than the death of the soon-to-be.

Death is Absolute

All things must die. That is the truth of the cosmos. However great, however small, all things will, eventually, end. Even the man with eternal life will die, when life itself dies. Even death itself will die, fading to oblivion when there is no existence to give it meaning.

All Men Are Equal In The Face of Death

There are those born into happiness and prosperity, and those born to tragedy and squalor. Some are born higher on the staircase of life, and others lower. Some are able to climb more than one step at once, and others are forced to be careful, climbing carefully step by step. Inequality is a truth of the world of man, there are the wealthy and the poor, the healthy and the sick, the good and the bad, the genuine and the disingenuous, the principled and the hypocritical, the fortunate and the downtrodden.
And yet, whatever the station of one's birth, the destination is all the same. The staircase of life leads to the same landing: death. At the end, all men stand equal, shoulder to shoulder, not one higher than the other, not one lower than the other. And if all men are equal in death, all men should be treated equal in life. No man should be treated as less than the dirt they trod on for merely being different, as they will stand just as tall as the tallest man in the end.

Death Is Peace

Death is not something to be feared, nor something to be chased. When death comes it is to be embraced, not fled from. It is freedom from the shackles of the world of man, from the grievances that plague all who live. Death is a release from the pains of the past, and the pains yet to come. It is peace from the unending war that rages between those who would do right and those who would do wrong by their fellows.

Death is Sacred

Let the dead lie, for they deserve their rest. The dead are owed respect for fulfilling their journey, for returning to the earth as part of the great cycle of life and death in the world of man. Whatever the traditions that surround them, however their funerary rituals are performed, the dead must be left to rest for they have earned their peace. To defile the dead or to command them as puppets is to commit a crime most heinous and unforgivable in the eyes of the gods, an injustice which all men are called to correct by spilling the blood of the defiler.

Gods guide; men act

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Demonym

Avereni

Location

The Grand Rookery

Related Ethnicities

• Deýliri