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Light and Shadow PDF: Religions (Patreon)

Published:
2015-04-27 00:40:31
Edited:
2016-08-28 04:39:20
Imported:
2026-10
Tags:

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Content

Welp, are you ready for 12k words about clar religions? Because that's what this is! And it's not even completely in depth, though it's probably less of a general overview than some of the other PDFs have been. To the main story, not very much of it necessary to know, but several other stories I plan to write will have a lot of this information woven into it, especially about the bautan sect for Kir and Darban's story. And maybe a few small details from the main story will be recognizable in this PDF (for instance one of the hndari festivals is seen happening at a point in Skiagraphia). Enjoy an excess of information~

Comments

Kevin Wotipka

You've really done a bang-up job here. This is very interesting and even poignant at times (like the hair-cutting ceremony).

lonealien

It's good to have context. It felt a bit weird that Kir was "the only religious guy", so this makes a bit more sense. Speaking of which, is there a reason why the oenclar are less religious? Did the government suppress or ban it? You would think some other religion would fill the void. Also isn't Ociir one of the priests of the hndari religion? How does he reconcile preaching that with his relationship with Rysa & Keyd?

Kevin Wotipka

I just recognized the "hndalio" from Skiagraphia. :D That is cute.

Teromain

Kir's the really obvious religious guy because people just aren't in the army when they're bautan, and that's the most obvious religion/lifestyle possible. The non-violence thing means you absolutely can't be in the army, and which a whole big part of Kir's backstory and has been mentioned, obviously, that he's not in contact with his family because of his choice to go into the military - the family name he uses in the story is not even his real family name, he's using a different one because bringing his bautan name into the army would basically be seen as shaming his entire family and the sect. There would be other religious people around in the military though who practice iaphun, but obviously their religion is way way more subtle. If Alan was hanging around with civilians more he'd probably see more religious stuff, but in the military it's very subdued. I probably could have gone over why the oenclar are still less religious currently - other than the fact that they basically had to endure a religion that was telling them they were awful for existing for a really long time, they shied away from ALL religion in general, even away from creating their own. Their religion was basically their sense of community, which is why that 'other oenclar beliefs' part was included, since they do have beliefs but they aren't classified as an actual organized religion. They also kind of have this mentality that, after they broke away from the clarbach, they didn't NEED religion because they didn't need divine guidance or assistance since they had liberated themselves without it. There wasn't a suppression or ban, but the oenclar in general considered they were functioning fine without it. Obviously iaphun and bautan survived, but mostly because those didn't have any gods in them and the oenclar were really sick of being told that the gods hated them. It's a mentality that's stuck - there have been waves of smaller religions that have cropped up from the separation of the raced to modern day, but none have really stuck very well because the oenclar just don't have a religious mindset at this point; their culture has been shaped around not having one. And yeah, Ociir is a priest of that religion...but he's actually not very religious. Insofar as the fundamental principles of it go, which are the light=clarbach=good, dark=oenclar=bad parts, and that was even before what happened with Rysa. And after Rysa he was even more kind of like "well I really don't like this part of the religion but I like ALL THE REST, and I like helping people find spiritual comfort, so I just won't ever ever ever talk about that one part or preach it". Which does make him a bit hypocritical since he is still a religious leader that has this bias as one of its foundations, but he justifies it to himself that as long as /he's/ not promoting it. Also at this point he's really pretty powerful in the religious community so he does have some influence over what other priests are focusing on. Aha, essay answer~

Teromain

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed reading all of that, haha

lonealien

Thanks for the in-depth answer. That makes sense and I appreciate you adding that "non-religious beliefs" part; it's interesting to know about cultural differences that are more philosophical than religious. That seems like a bit of a cop out on Ociir's part, but I guess his position helps out Alan whenever he goes to Ulliad.

Teromain

Yeah, for them it makes sense that their beliefs would be less religious or that there wouldn't be such an emphasis on religion in their culture. Also I rarely see largely non-religious SFF cultures so I though it would be interesting to have one with reasons for it. It probably is a bit. To be fair Ociir kind of stumbled into being a priest and didn't really pick it and it wasn't like his ultimate calling; he'd kind of rejected doing everything else and was running out of options.