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Faith of Ikoyo

From Dragon Eye Atlas

The Faith of Ikoyo is a polytheistic religion in central and southern Auseka. It is the second largest religion on the continent, with over 6 million believers.

The faith has a curious relationship to the Faith of Nesra. Both are based on largely the same ancient mythology, but their founders and first prophets revealed very different truths from those seeds. This has led to at times peaceful coexistence, when the similarities between the two religions were dominant, and at time bitter conflicts when the differences were more pronounced.

For the past century about, relations have been peaceful, but affected by a deep distrust and intense verbal conflicts. In fact, in the last thirty years alone, scholars from both sides have produced texts and proclamations proving the other faith as a disfigured, wrong version, in volume easily dwarfing the actual amount of holy texts on both sides.

Gods

Where Nesra saw six and ten gods, Ikoyo discovered a deeper truth, or so he claimed: The gods are many, but they are grouped into three pantheons and those within the pantheons appear to be the same to humans who are not sensitive enough to see the subtle differences. This is because the gods choose to appear to mortals in human shape, even though their true shapes are inconceivable to mortal minds. They might appear sometimes as man and sometimes as woman, leading to the illusion of six gods.

Instead, the followers of Ikoyo believe that there are close to a dozen gods in each of the pantheons, and they are accompanied by countless half-gods and other lesser entities. Most of the gods are seen as good by Ikoyo, though all of them also have their dark sides, often the exaggeration of the good.

Another important aspect, and one that sets Ikoyo apart from Nesra entirely, is the acknowledgement of local gods. These have largely vanished in the northern faith, but Ikoyo supports the existence of city and other regional gods, and those add another two dozen or so deities to the pantheon.


Jardos

The Jardos are the gods of all that is alive and good. Order and nature, life and hope.

  • Adlan and Iona, god and goddess of nature, animals and hope
  • Jukon, god of justice and order
  • Galenil, goddess of light
  • Kusmis, goddess of fertility and her two husbands Tholos and Erdall, gods of the growth, harvest and plenty
  • Zoasis and Qomis, god and goddess of the seasons and orderly progression of the year
  • Gurth, goddess of the cycle of life and death
  • Eken, god of day and night
  • Gadros, god of health and illness

Karmak

The Karmak are gods of strength and power and all its expressions. Growth and expansion, battle and truth, challenge and victory.

  • Batall, god of battle and war and his concubine Barila, goddess of fortune and truth
  • Rerohr, god of justice and the law, but also of injustice and oppression
  • Testus, Kases and Bolan, the three gods of all the monsters and wild creatures
  • Khoton, god of strength


Tossa

The last group, the Tossa are gods of the inner world and humanity. They support honor and love, beauty and art, song and dance as well as philosophy and magic.

  • Shotu, god the magic of men and Itia, the goddess of the magic of fairies and demons
  • Soto, god of inner strength and will
  • Ecmera, goddess of loneliness and confusion
  • Ola, goddess of love, and her sister Cinna, goddess of beauty and art
  • Aditos, god of honor and his brother Ziklos, god of mercy and peace
  • Unira and Ozot, goddess and god of betrayl and broken promises
  • Ridarae, goddes of envy and jealousy
  • Dystus, god of success, triumph and well-being


Prophets

Ikoyo was a lesser noble from Cyrinia (today part of The United Provinces of Sila), their seat near the coastal town of Phaies. He was a scholar and explorer and became fascinated with the teachings of Nesra early on, before they were very popular, as he had stumbled upon them by coincidence during his travels into the north.

For a time, Ikoyo became a follower of Nesra, and one of his close friends. But when Nesra went to the north, Ikoyo had a vision of his own and went south instead, where after two years of contemplation and writing, he began to preach his own version of the faith, claiming that Nesra had mis-interpreted important aspects of the gods. The two men never spoke a word again, but both became popular and gained more and more followers.

Unlike in the north, Ikoyo brought others to his side and trained them as prophets. Where Nesra remained a lone figurehead until his fatal expedition, Ikoyo soon became one of seven prophets, though always the most important.

(TODO: more about Ikoyo and also the other prophets)

Temples

(TODO)

Priests

Priests following Ikoyo dedicate their lives to one of the pantheons, and after a three-year initiation period will focus on one or a small number of gods within it. Male and female priests will follow different paths, expressing the male and female aspects of their chosen pantheons through their own words and actions.

And important aspect of priesthood within the Faith of Ikoyo is that Ikoyo ordained that all priests must be grounded in ordinary life. Every priest has to learn an ordinary craft for at least two years before he or she can become a full priest. While this has become a ritualized formality in larger cities, the priests routinely help out their communities with labour where needed in villages across the lands. There is even a stonemason's order within the priesthood, responsible for keeping and developing the secrets of construction of the large temples.


This page is still incomplete and missing content or details that are planned, but have not been added yet.


Rules and Traditions

(TODO)


Cults

The Mahuman Hereticals are a cult within the Faith of Ikoyo that follows a nihilistic interpretation of the faith.