Religion: The Path of the Four

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ᛏ ᛖ ᛏ ᚱ ᚨ ᚲ ᛖ (Tetrache)

“In the beginning there was Chaos, lawless and malevolent, until the Creator came to be. Into his left hand he drew all Non-Existence from the miasma, forming the Void, until all that was left in the Realm was Existence. The Creator took this into his right hand and by his will shaped it into Creation. It glimmered like a crystal, shedding light on an incomparable endless cascade of reflections: countless worlds upon which all plants and creatures roamed and flourished. But in these infinite cosmos the Creator found little joy, as plants and beasts are simple things and cannot truly rejoice in the miracle of Being.

In his fist he crushed Creation into a fine sand, each grain a world, and with some of this sand crafted the first beings to stand upon Creation. These he dubbed The Four: the Knights, stalwart guardians possessed of great strength; the Priests, shepherds who give freely of the wealth of knowledge; the Travellers, grown from the very lands they wandered worn and experienced; and above them all the Kings, weak unto themselves but able to command the power of all others.

The Creator, satisfied, turned to attend to that which still swirled and fumed in his left hand. The Void remained vengeful and vicious and craving to return the Realm to the storm it had once been. In his absence the Kings grew bolder and bolder, until they became convinced that they were the greatest power in the Realm and oppressed their brethren. One day their hubris drove them to challenge the Creator himself. Outraged, the Creator struck out against this corruption. With wrath he cursed the arrogant Kings, relaxing his left hand and allowing some of the Void to bleed into their essence. And so he declared: when the power of a King shines too brightly, his brilliance would beget a shadow that sought to devour him.”

The Scriptures of Tetrache, Psalm 1-1

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Once the second most prevalent religion in the Eastern Territories, Tetrache in the modern day draws close to extinction. The Coastal city-state of Drachenkrone is the sole nation on Qarna which follows Tetrache as its state religion. Tetrache originates from prehistoric Qarna as a conglomeration of multiple tribal religions, and worships The Four. These philosophical exemplars are less deities and more notions of the universally necessary functions of all successful societies. In no particular order, their names and the functions they embody are as follows:

• The Knight protects, embodying service, duty, and martial pursuits.
  
• The Priest guides through education, piety, and good works.
  
• The Traveler learns through exploration, inquisition, innovation, and technical skill.
  
• The King rules, embodying leadership, stewardship, law, and money.

Throughout history, citizens of civilizations that follow the scriptures of The Four have largely been arranged into social castes. Each of these castes are generally equal in terms of rights and social privileges, but fall under the purview of their corresponding sects of the church: a town guard in Kriegerruhe, for instance, would have specific moral responsibilities as a devout of the Knight. Though the exact parameters of these responsibilities can vary between churches and followers, they would generally guide the guard towards subservient, dutiful, and martially capable behaviors.
In general, the Tetrarchal religion offers little advice to its faithful beyond a proverbial set of blueprints to ensure all individuals of a society collectively work toward a shared ideal or ideals.
Though it originated in Alman, the rise of the Jirol Dynasty around LN 1014 has seen Tetrache largely replaced with Alman’s own denomination of the Winged Faith. Small pockets of Tetrarchs remain across the Territories, but as previously mentioned Drachenkrone is now the only place where it is practiced en masse.
Among Tetrarchs, the deities termed "Gods of the Sea," "Gods of the Center," or "Infernal Binders" by other religions are instead referred to as the Circle of Kings.