[As some of you may know, I am currently working with Matt on creating the world on which our fall D&D4e campaign will occur. We're still roughly in the initial stages, but making excellent progress, and I would naturally like feedback when possible. However, given the semi-public nature of this blog, I can only post things that would be potentially be ok if the PCs saw. Hopefully you will enjoy what I do post though, and I'd love any kind of feedback you can give.
The world is a tidal-locked, low magic world, more in the style of GRRM than Tolkien. There are 3 major countries, and 3 major religions (those three sets don't necessarily map onto one another).
The following is one of the three religions, the one modeled roughly after Shinto, with some various other elements thrown in. As before, feel free to respond in any way!]
Hanae
Creation Myth
God existed, and chose to begin to create the world. He formed a ball of dirt and sea, and set if adrift amongst the stars. However, the brilliance of His existence burned the half of the world as he faced it, while the opposite side froze without his attention.
He didn't notice this, however, till he tried to create life. As soon as he created beings, they quickly burned at his incredible radiance. He quickly realized that He could not exist at the same time as His creations, and thus split himself into many smaller parts. Together, the his parts created the races of the world, and all was good for a time.
However, these creations were still blinded by the pure beauty of the elements of God, and relied on them for everything, refusing to think for himself. This was not what God wanted for his children, so he realized his error and split himself into a thousand thousand pieces.
These pieces bound themselves to all living things in the world, imbuing them with the power of God.
Beliefs and Practices
Followers of Hanae believe power should never be too concentrated in one person or group. They also believe in no absolutes; since God is in everything, there is truth to be found in every person and every argument. They don't have any real standard practices; individual groups sometimes develop their own forms of worship, but more often than not it consists of going into nature and meditating.
Similarly, followers of Hanae believe they must forge their own destiny and cannot rely on some higher power; instead, the power is already within them, and they must simply find a way to channel it. Some followers also take this belief to an extreme and are pacifists, since God is in everything, but that extremism is fairly rare.
Organization and Major Figures
This is no central structure, and even no houses of worship. It is instead passed down orally, often from parent to child. There are a couple of monasteries where Hanae monks commune daily with nature and provide care for sick and destitute, but because by nature these monasteries are deep in the wilderness they are not often visited.
It is more common in rural areas.
There has been only ever one famous follower of Hanae, known as Huk the Insightful. Roughly 500 years ago he wandered the cities of Alastia, and would seat himself in the town center. There he would pose questions to the population, and hold intellectual debates on the nature of wisdom and authority. This odd form of proselytizing had never occurred before or since (indeed it is the only recorded event of an Hanaen actively spreading the religion) but it led to several converts, often with the more higher-class intellectuals in the cities, and thus many cities have small groups of Hanaens where before there were none.
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