Animism

The Circles of Nature

Structure

Throughout the millennia, there have been hundreds, if not thousands of animist organizations, some of which were born from nothing. Due to the intense oppression these organizations faced, they were usually structured as cells - most Animists had no idea as to the size of their group or even the identities of most of its members, often meeting in disguises to protect themselves. Typically, a group had a single leader who would dictate hierarchy for that particular group. Once they grew past a certain size, they would begin to try and reach out to other cells to consolidate resources, power, and information. When it was possible, the leaders of individual cells would form supercells - a core group of Animists who pooled their knowledge together to guide the future of the flock to safety and freedom. The existence of these supercells were only known to a dozen individuals at any point in time, the majority of which were in said supercell.

History

The Circles of Nature was founded in 2370 AC, but their beliefs have persisted for thousands of years of persecution and misunderstandings - their religion is the oldest that Humanity has ever known: the first and, as they claim, the last. They call it Animism, although the name did not come into parlance until 20 AC, and hundreds of groups have sprouted up over the millennia, each carrying a new name to avoid discrimination - or worse. Prior to this, their beliefs were so widespread that they didn't need a name, as their religion was ubiquitous enough to be considered inherently human. Everything changed when the Zamzian Empire was constructed on the bones and blood of "barbarians" and "the sinful" - their fellow man.

Terrible things were done at the order of The "Transcendent" Emperor in His quest for power. He saw the Animists, living peacefully with nature, and He insulted their beliefs and way of life, demanding that they set aside their culture to appease Him. He came to spread "truth" and "understanding" among those He saw as His lessers, and when they refused to abandon everything they stood for, He mercilessly broke them to create His Empire, calling it His "duty". His "duty" was to kill and subjugate those not like Him, and the Animists were anathema to His vision. The Empire would brook no false worship of petty plants and rocks - only their precious Godhead.

The Cult of the Emperor had many of its rituals and core beliefs stolen from the Animist practices to appease those who willingly assimilated into the machine of the Empire. The Emperor and the Divine Bureaucracy spent two decades amassing research on the belief structures of the Animists and why people prescribed to it. In 150 AC, the Cult of the Emperor was officially created to replace Animism in the hearts and minds of the people. To most, The Transcendent Emperor was a hero who raised the living standards of everyone in Zamzara and showed Humanity the path forward to Moksha. The Animists know this to be a lie.

With the advent of Imperial Cultism, worship of that which was "not human" was officially outlawed in the Zamzian Empire. Punishments varied - Emperor Jiàn levied fines on offenders, while heretics under Emperor Nappeun's rule were publicly executed and hunted down. Over the years, Animism waned in the public eye, eventually being forgotten by the masses... but never gone for good. Some adherents fled civilization to live with nature while others were never part of the Zamzian Empire and were born in the wilds. A few hid their beliefs from society, adopting secret codes and speech to mask their spirituality, forming public groups whose true purposes were unknown to nonbelievers.

Today, the Circles of Nature is the largest sect of Animist worshippers in Zamzara. It is a coalition of many smaller groups that have come together in the wake of The Kalyugi to redefine their faith in a world without the Empire that oppressed them. In the cities that still uphold the traditions and mores of the past, such as Sagara Nagara and Patrala Nagara, the Animists still stay hidden, but in the modern age many are finding more and more people willing to listen to their sermons and hear out their ideals...

Mythology & Lore

The universe lives again and Zamzara is reborn anew, as are its inhabitants. What was once, twice, an infinite times whole was split an infinite times again into the world we live in. When the Kalpa began, life was given to the earth and heavens and seas, who gave parts of themselves up to birth the rocks, the clouds, and the waves. This life energy is called Atman, and it passes on as people die, plants decay, and mountains erode. There is an ineffable quality to this energy, as it carries with it all the memories of its past lives as it is reborn into something new befitting its purity. Most other humans recognize this energy in humans as one's soul, but the Animists know better: Atman permeates throughout everything in the world, anything that can be dreamt or felt or seen... and more.

Mankind was born from the planet, and is still part of it - to deny one's connection to the physical world around them is nonsense, because the immaterial energies such as Atman or Prana are as tangible and real as one's consciousness. Body and soul are one, but when the body dies, the soul fragments as the world grows in scope. As the universe's soul is atomized further and further, it will eventually grow too small to split more, and will begin to collapse into itself, coalescing back into the original soul, only to decay and split again. This happens at the end of every Kalpa in order to herald the beginning of the new, and Humanity will know the time is nigh once the envoys of the end make themselves known...

Divine Origins

Archaeological evidence of Animist symbols dates the religion to be 3000 years old, at least. Little about the religion was passed on through writing. Instead, a complex system of interconnected symbols was used to relay history, meaning, and scripture - and the system was slow to change. While the modern system is almost unrecognizable from its early forms, key symbols have remained intact over the millennia and it is easy to see the progression over time, making translation relatively simple. As a result, it is easy for modern historians to gain insight into the beginnings of the Animist faith... when they can come across usable evidence, which is far more difficult than interpreting their syntax.

The defining belief of Animism is that everything has a soul - whether it be an animal, an object, or even a natural phenomenon. The universe itself is a grand soul through which we all live and act that divides itself into smaller pieces to give life and energy to everything, eventually recollecting itself once it has spread too thinly. When humans are born and wake to their new existence, the spiritual memories of the soul that inhabits their body are vivid and clear, diluting over time as the soul, once unbound, morphs to its new body, forgetting its past experiences. It is from these residual memories that the Animist faith derives many of its teachings and rituals - for these memories are believed to be the sacred stories of souls long past.

In the 2000 years that their faith was persecuted and outlawed, many rituals had to be... edited from what the sacred memories decreed, usually out of necessity. Those gifted with the ability to see glimpses of the previous Kalpa are just as likely to believe in Imperial Cultism as in Animism - and the Arms of the Emperor treasured these oracles who could remember the "heretical" rituals of the Animists. The truest rituals and tenets of the Animist faith, those that have survived countless existences, are those that only the most powerful and respected Animists are allowed to learn after decades of service and worship.

Cosmological Views

To Animists, the universe's life is finite - like everything, it too, dies and is reborn. Near the end of existence, when its Kaprana is spread among more and more people, animals, and ideas, it becomes weary with fatigue and wishes to sleep. In order to sleep fully, the universe must be a singular whole once again, no longer dispersed among billions, but it cannot do this on its own, having grown weak over thousands of years. As the world begins to deteriorate in its weakness, some of its energy is coalesced into envoys of the end whose sole duties are to recollect the Kaprana that prevents existence from resetting. If the world were to grow larger and larger without end, then eventually reality would collapse as physics lose the energies needed to operate and life becomes utter madness.

When a person or monster is born, it is given the spark of life through a soul. As this soul inhabits one's body, it divides itself further and further as it creates new souls from its thoughts and actions, until it has gone through so many reincarnations that the soul cannot fill the body of a living creature - these are the origins of most Kami, according to Animists. However, while most souls spend their physical existences spreading themselves more and more thin, some are stronger than that and actually grow until the shell dies, usually drawing power from souls around them. Typically, the bodies containing these souls are revered for gathering Kaprana for the universe's rebirth.

Tenets of Faith

Animism is an extremely personal belief system whose rites can vary from group to group, or even person to person. The majority of Animists simply believe that the world is full of power and should be respected or worshipped because of it, never thinking about it any further. However, some Animists dive deeper into their faith, exploring the implications of their discoveries. Among these shamans, they have generally agreed upon six fundamental truths of the world:

• Everything in the universe is alive.
  There is only one source of life in this existence: The universe itself. It is composed of an infinitesimal number of particles, each containing a sliver of the universe's vitality. Prana, Elements, Kami, Monsters, and Humans are all equally imbued with this vitality, without which all of existence would be a stagnant void, a monument to stasis.
• Souls are immortal.
  The essence of something, whether it be a person or an idea, is the same as the essence of the universe: No blade in any Kalpa can cut a soul apart - only the universe can separate something's essence or reconstitute it for its own unknowable purposes.
• The objective is subjective.
  The physical shell that contains one's soul is limited and imperfect, and its perspective is similarly flawed. Trust no person that claims to truly know something, for their hubris will be their undoing in the end. Accept no answers and search for your own truth, so it may be passed on. The only objectivity is found within reintegration with the universe at the end of time.
• All is one.
  Every soul is the same soul, merely a different fragment of it. To consider one's self separate from anything around it is a grave falsehood - the greatest deception a person can fall under. No soul is superior or inferior to another, and we are not separate from the universe, or even from Monsters.
• The immaterial is the material.
  The world is not an illusion or falsehood: it is everything. Things that we cannot see, feel, or understand are not separate from us or the universe - merely beyond human scope. A soul is as real as the body it inhabits; it is a mere atom that binds reality together.
• The Transcendent Emperor was a fraud.
  The first Emperor was a man who lusted for power and domination - he could not allow different beliefs to persist in his Empire and placed himself at the center of his false religion out of arrogance. His "enlightenment" was a tale designed to lull his populace under his control, and his words are worthless.

Worship

Animism and Imperial Cultism share many rituals - while their trappings are different, the basic concept is the same... because it was stolen. All of the Cult's rituals have their founding in Animist rites that date back to prehistory. As Animist worship became persecuted in the Zamzian Empire, there was nothing they could do to stop the Cultists from appropriating their practices to affix to their self-made god. However, this had an unexpected benefit: because many rituals were shamelessly stolen and barely repurposed, it was not difficult at all for hidden Animists to attend Imperial religious functions and couch their rhetoric in the language of their oppressors. All one had to do was spout Animist ideology disguised as "teachings of the Emperor" and see who was most interested, then slowly introduce more and more of the Animist teachings to that person until they, too, joined the fold.

Those who abandoned society altogether fled into the wilderness so they could practice their religion without molestation. Various sects view the rites that descended from these Animists as more "pure" than those of their city-dwelling counterparts, scorning them for hiding what they should be allowed to openly preach. Away from prying eyes and under the pressure to be less "civilized" than the Zamzian Empire, many of these practices would be described as "barbaric" or "macabre", overly direct and brutal. Human sacrifice, ritual scarring, and a general disregard for physical life generally characterizes these traditions. Amazingly, these rituals work in a way that their more polite variants do not: druids claim to change the weather, shamans project their bodies into the spiritual realm, and witches hex people they've never even seen. Scholars debate as to whether or not these powers are more responsible for the survival of Animism than its actual beliefs.

The Drink of Awakening

The most important ritual to the Animist faith is the Awakening, performed when a person wishes to be formally inducted into the flock. This is one of the few rituals to survive the various purges of the Cult of the Emperor, as it relied on the production of Zamzara's most holy drink: Soma. Even the Imperial Cult produced soma in controlled quantities. Animists believe that its mind-altering properties are essential to seeing the world as it truly is, without preconceptions or bias. Soma is consumed in many important Animist rituals, but the Awakening is the most vital, as it is critical for any 'true' Animist to grow closer to the world, and that would be far harder without the divine drink. The inductee is taken to a remote area of wilderness, where they consume soma and have their minds expanded. The highest-ranking Animist in the ritual also consumes soma to join and guide the inductee through their psychedelic trip. The consciousness of both people leave their bodies and journey to the Astral Realm to witness the other half of life and death. The revelations learned from these experiences last a lifetime... and possibly beyond.

Priesthood

The most recently active animist supercell is known as The Circles of Nature, its 19 members marked with its insignia: The four categories of The Elements are represented by the four outer circles, while the center circle represents Origin Energy. The members of this elite order call each other Kalyulan, seekers of endings, and one can only join their ranks through years of apprenticeship and subservience, learning the deeper workings of the universe that is essential to true understanding and wisdom. A Kalyulan embodies and studies a particular Element to pass on their interpretation of its meaning after their physical form rots away.

A Kalyulan has anywhere from 1 to 10 Dayans under them depending on the Element they represent - this is almost always one that the Kalyulan has an affinity for, as it is believed to deepen one's understanding due to the natural connection. Each Dayan is the leader of their own cell and is typically given domain over a region by the Kalyulan - this area typically ranges from 300 to 600 square kilometers (3 to 6 hexes) in size. At any given time, there are roughly 100 Dayans in Zamzara operating from the shadows - some live in the wilderness while others find new followers in the heart of civilization. These Dayans are given almost total control over their cells and are allowed as many apprentices as they deem suitable.

Dualism is a lie to separate you from yourself, the tree from the forest, and the dream from the dreamer.

Founding Date

Prehistory

Type

Religious, Druidic Circle

Alternative Names

Children of Earth, The Order of One Reality, The Wild Supplicants, The Manifesters

Demonym

Animists, The Dayan, Druids, The Kalyulan, Shamans, Witches

Deities

• The Manifested

Location

Zamzara

Prophet of Dark Forest by Veli Nyström

One of the Kalyulan, changed by his knowledge.

The insignia of the Circles of Nature.