Treatise on the Division of
Nyrundian and Aerdian Religions
from A
Treatise of the Current Religions of Oerth
by
the Scholarly Mage Eof Matain, the
Bigby Chair of The University of Greyhawk, Greyhawk
City
Much
discussion has come up of late as to the native religions of Oerth. In
this treatise I will attempt to summarize and categorize these
religions.
Aerdianism
The
Great Children’s Migration occured presumably at the end of
the onset of the cataclysmic Reign of Colorles Fire (circa 200 years
before the beginning of the Age of Sorrows) in the Sea
of Dust
and
marked the end of the Age of Legends, the demise of the
Balcuni-Silouese Empire, the first appearance of humans in
eastern Oerth,
and the founding of the
Aerdian religion.
From the
learned research of the Sage Sophora Van Arthog(1), we know that the
religion started as little more than a synthesis of childhood
farytales, rhymes, and limericks remembered by these young immigrants.
As these children tried to make sense of their new environment, they
created religious constructs to explain natural and supernatural
occurences. These constructs, in the absence of any other education
mechanisms, or a competing well developed system of logic, became
engrained within the psyche of the forming culture. The brutal nature
of the life and death struggle due the pressence of the indigenous
monsters amplified the need for a reassuring ethos. The growth of the
religion was facilitated by the practicality of the
natural-force-centric philosophies and the community building oral
traditions. These
factors in concert led to the development of a deeply entreanched
faith.
By Zircon’s Third
Law(2), it was this extreme zealotry
by a large faction of people that led to the creation of their gods.
Precepts within the religion dictate food and coin be sacrificed to the
deities within the pantheon. Thus, Aerdianism started as an agrarian
based city-centric religion. Prosperity induced trade, and with trade,
cities were able to diverge into other trade specialities. Each city
was dedicated to a specific deity in the pantheon which correlated with
the cities exports. These exports in turn could be traded for the
nescessary food sacrifices. The relative economic prosperity then
became the dominant factor as to which sub-religions dominated the
Aerdian culture. The overall religion grew with the outward expansion
of the populace. When majority of eastern Greyhawk was conquered, the
Great
Aerdian Nation was
formed (YR1 Age of Sorrows) and the religion was formally
adopted with the Overking being both King and supreme religious leader,
dedicating his city to the ruler of the pantheon, Enlil. The religion
flourished during the five hundred years of the Aerdian
Nation’s existence.
CY 1 Aerdy Kingdom founded.
Overking/High Priest is crowned in
Rouxes. Aerdian religion is the official religion with Enlil as ruler
of Pantheon.
In Aerdianism, every worshipper is considered a direct servant of a
god. Every city has a patron deity, and all people belong to that
temple ONLY. All officials are clerics, and High Priests are kings of
that city-state. Temples have a stepped pyramid shape (like the Aztec).
Sacrifices of condemned criminals are made to the gods during services.
Each temple has an image of its god on a raised platform in the inner
shrine, closed off to the public. Buildings have side chapels, etc. The
most important are on hills (ziggurats) or red brick. Food is
sacrificed for the gods every night (by fire). 7, 15, 25th of the month
are holy days. Sacrifices are made on the New Moon. Clerics must shave
all hair from their bodies and wear kilts of white with colored
borders.
Development
of Nyrundianism
A
major schism developed circa YR320 of the Age of Sorrows, however. At
this point the Great
Aerdian Nation occupied all of eastern Oerth and was beging to expand
into west central Oerth via a route south of Highfolk Forest(3). The
nation had expanded past practical boundaries. Political potentates in
the western reaches of the empire became detatched from the centralized
goverment of the Overking in Rouxes (southest corner of Oerth).
Messeges, edicts,
and aid were all slow to
arrive in either direction
and it was rare that decisions made in Rouxes encompassed concerns
and needs felt by those in the northwest. Even close to Rouxes there
was dissatisfaction. With prosperity had come lethargy and corruption
within the goverment and many figures were dissatisfied(4).
It
was at this time that Enmerkar emerged from the City of Rel Mord.
His
desire was to break away from the Overking and the Aerdian Empire and
form his
own state. Not politically powerful enough alone, he was forced to
recruit other figures with influence. Thus, he turned to unhappy
figures within the Aerdian Church and other powerful nobles. The split
was made on religious grounds with complaints accusing the Overking of
selling redemption, entrance into heaven, and other religious goals for
personal gain. The split also involved a general accusation of a
missinterpretation of original religious texts. The clergy involved in
the split maintained the Overking and his church misinterpreted many of
the roles, goals, names, and importance of various gods. In order to
garner
support from the nobles, it was nescessary to forge an agreement
that within the new nation, there would be a separation of church and
state. Thus was Nyrond born.
Although the war for
independence took
over a hundred years, the split was accomplished. Those clergy that
supported Enmerkar were given lands to the north of Nyrond for the
foundation of the Theocracy
of the Pale
Mountains (YR343 Age of Sorrows)
with their leader
crowning Enmerkar under the auspices of the gods. It is of little
surprise that the reinterpretation of the importance of various gods
correlates to those of the clergy that came over in support of
Enmerkar. Many came from less popular sub-faiths (correlating to
smaller cities in the Aerdy Nation) while some came from subordinate
positions in the more popular faiths(5). More western lands were soon
to follow stride, such we see the emergence of the nation of Furyondy
and Veluna,
etc. In order for
these states to form their own kingdoms,
the clergy in the Theocracy insisted that the churches within those new
kingdoms follow the edicts
and bulls of the
Theocracy. Under those
conditions, the Theocracy gave religious acceptance of the political
rulers by crowning them King under the auspices of the gods. So, while
Nyrundic religion may differ in the names used for the gods
(Anu
instead of Enlil, Ishtar
instead
of Innana) the basic stories and setup
are the same. Nonetheless a great rivalry still exists between Aerdians
and Nyrundians.
Religious Treatise on the Gods
of
Aerdianism and Nyrundianism from the Sermons of Rahasia Alvere of
Babylon
See the Teachings of
the Theocracy
of the Pale for details about
the
relationship between worshippers, churches, and gods.
History
of the Gods
Following the epic of the Enuma Elish,
worshippers of both Aerdian and Nyrundian religions believe that Tiamat
and Apsu, the great dragon gods,
created the universe. Unlike the explanation provided by Zircon's Third
Law, they do not believe that gods were created by faith, but rather,
see the cycle of rebellion and uproar caused first by the gods then by
humanity as waking the dragon Tiamat and invoking a harsh, cataclysmic
punishment on all of Oerth. The first "Final Battle" was the battle
gods waged against Kingu, the great general Tiamat raised up after her
slumber was disturbed by the gods, after which Ea created humanity to
serve and worship the gods and keep them quiet.
The various ages of history (of which we know only the latest three,
the current Age of Heroes with the founding of Babylon
and the expansion of Ket
and the New
Orcin People's Republic, the Age
of Sorrow with the founding of the Aerdian Empire and
Nyrundian
Kingdom
and the lands of Iuz,
and the Age
of Legends with the founding of the Balcuni-Silouese Empire). We also
know of an earlier age when the First Tribe of Man grew to adulthood.
Until then, humainty was under the protection and guidance of the
mystical being, the
Karasoothra. we suspect that this time was also a period of
cataclysm
and war leading to that resolution. Eventualy, when
humanity finally grew strong enough to stand alone and exercise its own
free will, the gods split the Karasoothra into the
Karasooth and the Soothra lineages, making the great creature into part
of humanity with echoes of their former leadership abilities and a
Nietchean soul that can transcend the generations. We suspect that the
events leading up to this split were marked by a "Final Battle."
and at some point later, it is believed that the First Tribe of Man
migrate to the Dimension known as Harn. We also know that several ages
of dragon empires preceded the empires of
humanity and many gods, and they, too, were surely marked by their own
"Final
Battles" carrying on the cycle of conflict and rebirth.
Age
of Legends
The "Final Battle" at the end of the Age of Legends was provoked by the
lack of worship of the gods. In this Age, humanity had long forgotten
the gods of their youth, the gods of the Enuma
Elish, the Annunaki
and the Iggigi. They had no inkling of their responsibility to offer
sacrifice and
worship, and their forgot that they must never wake the dragon-god, Tiamat.
In this Age, humanity, in the
form of The Balcuni-Silouese Empire had risen to great heights of
arcane power. With their Pattern Magic they could move mountains and
shape the earth according to their desires. In fact, many "artifacts"
were created in this age and the knowledge to create and in some cases
opperate them was lost with it. In this Age, as the teachings go, there
was a Pattern Mage on the ruling council who was dissatisfied with his
place. This mage, known as Ishmael (later to be known as Iuz
the
Old and Iuz the Wicked) searched old texts and rumors for alternate
sources of power and energy - sources that could grant him personal
power quickly. He eventually found information on the location of such
a place (at this time, the outer planes were not known to the
Balcuni-Suloiuise) and created an item known as "The Bore" which
pierced the fabric of space to open a gateway to this place. Unbenounst
to him, this place was the first plane of Hell and the first creature
he encountered was the sleeping dragon Tiamat.
In his folly he woke her.
In her wrath that humanity, the children of the gods, were not living
up to their duties, she called for one of their own, Vecna,
another powerful pattern mage of secrets, the tester of alignments, to
be sent down to the hells where she would learn Tiamat's secrets and
unleash the Invoked Devastation at the Primal Plane to end Tiamat's
creations on the entire dimension.
Vecna followed Tiamat's instructions, even raping Morgus, a dragon from
the first generation of Tiamat's children, to obtain the components to
create the Reign of Colorless Fire. Vecna and her allies, the Forsaken
(including Iuz), raised up a great army under the leadership of Lord
Kas of the Soothra lineage, and prepared to end the world. Before the
Dark One could unleash the Invoked Devastation on the Primal Plane
where it would spread throughout all of shadow, Lord Kas
rebelled against his master, and, guided by Ishtar's
wisdom--though he
did not even know of her--threw the Colorless Fire, the Dark One's
greatest weapon at her instead. The rest of the Balcuni-Silouese empire
established strategies to survive the Reign of Colorless Fire, which
also attracted dragons to the Sea of Dust where they could gain greater
powers from interacting with the many magics unleashed there. Finally,
the last people of the empire packed up their children and
sent
them out to find a land where the Colorless Fire did not Reign, to
start a new life and repair the mistakes of the Age of Legends.
As explained in the texts of Sophora Van'Arthog, the nursery rhymes and
fairytales of the Balcuni-Silouese Empire, were,
in fact, the echoes of the Enuma Elish
and
other tales of the gods, passed down from ages before the Age of
Legends and preserved to be reignited with inspiration from the gods as
the children forgot their pride and became open to listening to those
stories once again. St. Cuspa,
one of
the older children among the original group, became a great leader
among their group as they grew older. He helped them to establish the
religion and was able to draw the first clerical circle of protection
in hundreds and hundreds of years.
Age
of Sorrows
Eventually, the Aerdian religion and Aerdian cities arose out of the
wreckage of the Balcuni-Silouese Empire, and with the founding of the
Aerdian Empire, the Age of Sorrows began. The Final Battle of the Age
of Sorrows was again provoked by Vecna, the Dark One of
the Age of Legends, and
her Forsaken who used relics of the Age of Legends to cut off access to
the gods. Through the Dark One's machinations, the end of the Age of
Sorrows was moved up nearly 400 years, making the Age of Sorrows (at
only 578 years) one of the shortest ages of history. Only the great Swords
of Power,
forged by Ishtar,
Kothar-Wa-Hasis,
Gibbil and Girru
in
the heavens and empowered by all of the Nyrundian (or Aerdian) gods,
were able to pierce this net. The Dark One destroyed Gorsend in Furyundy,
Kothar-Wa-Hasis's only
city, and effectively destroyed the power of this god in the Nyrundian church.
The gods threw the swords
down to Oerth
to be a help to humanity in this time of trouble, and Ishtar
herself
left the heavens before the Dark One's web was complete to lead her
children in the war on the ground. She founded a new circle of druids
whom she trained in Onwall, and she prepared for the Final Battle at
Tovag Baragu where she fought against Teram Verostak, the Dark One's
avatar. This time, mercifully, Timat
was not awakened, and the relationship between humanity and the gods
was preserved.
At the same time that the Champions of Sophora fought for the defeat of
the Dark One at Tovag Baragu, heroes from the Legion of Gold, battled
another shadow of the Dark One at the forging of a new pattern in
Avalon. The Solarian of the Legion of Gold used the crown, rod, and orb
of holy might to call to the good people of Oerth, who were being
battered by earthquakes and storms thrown by the Dark One across all
Oerth through the godstones of Tovag Baragu. Some 25% of the good
people of Oerth accepted the Solarian's call to leave Oerth, travel to
the shadow of Avalon and found a new society there. The remaining good
people of Oerth stayed to win the battle here.
The last years of the Dark Times of the Age of Sorrows were marked by
several cataclysmic effects that served as harbingers of change.
Notably, no children could be conceived in the final years of the Dark
Times, probably because Ishtar,
goddess of fertility, was no longer in
heaven. Only the connection to
Woundhealer, the Sword
of Love, Sword of Mercy, allowed
Rahasia
Alvere to conceive a child, and
her daughter, Chirissa Alvere,
became the first child of the new age. Famine, Plague, Natural
Disasters, and War erupted throughout Oerth, and many families lost
loved ones. The people of Oerth all underwent a change of alignment,
religion, or class during the Dark Times due to the traumatic events
they witnessed or participated in.
Age
of Heroes
In this Age of Heroes, the unfinished business of the foreshortened
previous age continues to torment the people of Oerth with echoes,
repetitions, and even a time-traveling invasion from the Final Battle
at Tovag Baragu in the Age of Sorrows. Yet, the survival of the
religion, the preservation of the relationship between humanity and the
gods, and the conversion of cities in the Sea
of Dust,
the Southlands,
and even
New Evermore to the Nyrundian
Gods bodes well
for this new age. The further founding of new cities, such as Babylon
(YR1), Selid-City
(YR20), and Sidhe (YR30) also speaks to the heroic spread of Nyrundian
religion in this age and the return of peace and harmony between
humanity and the gods.
The new role of Babylon
as
the guardpost of Tovag Baragu and the Church of Ishtar
as the keeper of
knowledge and strategies for the defeat of the Dark One (whichever Dark
One Tiamat
may choose to raise) at the
Final Battle further encourages the people's faith and hope that this
age may be better than the last.
