Religion

Whatever form their worship takes, most people venerate the Celestials, the heavenly bodies orbiting methodically through the Cosmic Machine as they watch over Mankind from above. Though none can deny the obvious existence of the Celestials, the Dragons, and the many Medicon who reign over the wild places, the practice of acknowledging, honoring, and worshiping these beings differs from culture to culture and indeed from person to person.

The purpose of any religion is to explain the unexplainable and to give individuals hope, purpose, and community. Each of the Sphere’s religions achieves these purposes within the cultural and historical contexts that create them.

While the religions of each world are discussed in more detail on that world's page, here are mentioned some of the major belief systems that permeate all cultures on The Sphere in some form or fashion. ​

Ancestor Worship

​Many cultures throughout the ages have venerated their ancestors with various rituals and burial rites to honor their memories and commune with the souls of the departed. Some mummify the remains of the dead while others keep shrines to their ancestors upon the hearth or in a nearby field. Many who practice ancestor worship hold festivals for the dead on certain holidays or at times when the full moon shines and the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead are weakest.

Ancestor worship is practiced primarily among barbarian tribes, though it is not uncommon among rural folk living far from the safety of the city walls. Ancestors properly honored command a measure of power and influence within the underworld, allowing them the necessary leverage to depart from Setharkis and offer protection, wisdom, and guidance to their living kin. The more reverence and worship they receive, the more powerful these ancestral spirits become, able to protect their family line (or enforce their own agendas) with the same power a Medicon might wield.

While all cultures revere the Celestial gods in some form or fashion, worship of ancestors, dragons, spirits, and stars are also commonplace as well as many individuals who are entirely non-religious.

Many rituals practiced in ancestor worship bind the soul of the deceased to the earthly realm (often unknowingly), preventing them from passing on to the afterlife. These spirits remain tied to the Sphere, lingering on in the Unworld as shades tethered to the family shrine or their place of interment. Spirits fettered to the Unworld gradually lose their sanity, transforming into insane, violent spirits known as Wraiths. The unfortunate fate of many revered ancestors is to become mad, tormented souls cursed to haunt their worshipful kin.

Astrology & Star Worship

As the forces of fate turn the wheels of the Cosmic Machine, so do the heavens spin in concert, foretelling by their positions and alignment certain fortunes and dooms. The practice of deciphering the position of the heavenly bodies for knowledge and prognostication is known as Astrology. Part science, part superstition, astrologers devote themselves to understanding both the patterns of the sky and its anomalies, for both work in tandem to foreshadow what fate has in store.

Astrologers are often employed in the service of kings, lords, and the wealthy; any whose fortunes depend upon the favor of fate. In grand towers they watch the sky through telescopes, mapping the course of heaven upon elaborate sky maps and great bronze simulacra. Consortiums of astrologers often share knowledge and insight with one another as each tower holds a different view of the heavens from the vantage point of their world. The predictions of these circles are rarely available to commoners, though the public is usually not without local, less equipped astrologers of their own who offer warnings of local disasters or what the weather will be like come next week.

Despite their great insight, the heavens are not always clear about what fate has in store. The complex array of planets, stars, and other heavenly bodies makes reading the sky a difficult and unreliable process at the best of times as it is easy to mistake one sign for another. There is also the inevitability of mortal choice to consider, for none can tell which prophesies are immutable and which may yet be changed by those with the courage to challenge the hand of fate.

The Saeculum Seculori
Every heavenly body within the Cosmic Machine holds power over the mortal realms. While planets wield the greatest influence, the stars also have a measure of power all their own. Individually, the stars are not nearly as potent as the planetary Celestials. When joined in concert as constellations, however, their power grows exponentially, even to the point of rivaling the might of the planets. For this reason, many across the Sphere practice Saeculism, the worship of the stars. Though both star worshipers and astrologers watch the heavens for signs, the similarities end there. Where astrology is an odd combination of science and superstition, Saeculism reveres certain constellations as deities, praying for (and often receiving) miracles from them. 

Saeculists revere a pantheon of constellations called the Saeculum Seculori, a title their faith is widely known by. The Saeculum Seculori consists of three greater constellations and seven lesser ones for a total of ten deities the faith reveres. Each of the seven lesser constellations represent a domain such as law or war. The greater constellations represent giving, taking, or changing.

Star worshipers pray to a host of lesser gods who take the form of stars and constellations. Though the Saeculum Seculori possess little power individually, as a group their power rivals that of the Celestials.

Lesser Constellations

The Cord: Bonds, relationships, community
The Cup: Wealth, bounty, prosperity, fortune
The Horse: Journeys, adventure, escape, relocation
The Lantern: Life, hope, overcoming great odds
The Spire: Order, law, protection, justice, balance
The Sword: War, conflict, controversy, disaster
The Tree: Health, physical, well-being, nature

Greater Constellations

The Hand: Giveth; positive force, progression
The Fist: Taketh; negative force, regression
The Wheel: Changeth; uncertainty, sideways motion

Those who worship the Saeculum Seculori pray for the alignment of certain constellations, such as The Cup and The Hand for the giving of wealth or The Sword and The Fist for the removal of disaster. However, as one set of stars turns, its course is sure to affect the others. The Saeculum Seculori works by laws of push and pull; all prayers have consequences, often unforeseen. Prayers are never offered to a single constellation (and certainly not to a single star), but to the entire Saeculum Seculori. Unlike the planets, the constellations do not have specific rituals or preferred forms of worship, nor do their worshipers build temples to them. The whole of the Saeculum Seculori is worshiped as all are connected to one another and none can intervene without affecting the others.

As such, the worship of the Saeculum Seculori is strictly regimented and its leadership highly centralized. Priests of the faith are the only ones allowed to offer prayers to the stars. Though any believer may petition the constellations for help, the church has led many to believe that only the prayers of the priests are heard, fearing the consequences of answered prayer, for every desperate plea for rain somewhere causes a drought elsewhere.

Dragon Worship

​Fearful of Man’s ingenuity and inborn tendency towards chaos, the gods created the Dragons as guardians, watching not over Man’s interests, but their own. Dragons were charged with keeping Mankind from the power and knowledge that could challenge the Celestials, as they had once challenged their own makers. Though all mortals fear the wrath of the Dragons, some cults venerate them as gods, offering them worship, prayer, and sacrifice.

Those who worship Dragons do so out of the belief that their "gods" will give them power, protection, and a place for their souls to dwell upon death. Though the Dragons can guard over their charges and are known to bestow a portion of draconic power upon those who please them, they hold no sway over Setharkis and can only consume the souls of their worshipers (and any sacrifices offered to them) to increase their own power. Though the most righteous Dragons would never dare to indulge such a hunger, the majority of Dragons have no problem with this practice.

Veneration of the Dragons varies from cult to cult depending on culture and the Dragon worshiped. Not all Dragon cults are evil, just as not all Dragons are evil. The specifics of the religion depends largely on the Dragon involved. Worshipers of good Dragons like Avantaris work to bring peace and enlightenment while worshipers of evil Dragons like Galgyra sew discord and destruction wherever they go. Despite their differences, every Dragon-worshiping cult shares a handful of common practices such as burning live offerings upon great flaming pyres and offering their unquestioning service to the Dragon and their agents. Even the most vile or wicked of the Dragons can look beyond their disdain for Mankind to see the usefulness of mortal spies and saboteurs to serve their interests. Thus there exists a cult of worshipers for every one of the Greater Dragons.

Those who worship Dragons hold the same beliefs about Man and his place in the cosmos as their patron Dragon. Thus, some cults are good while others are reprehensibly evil.

Spirit Worship

​In the wild places of the world, worship of distant and silent Celestials does not hold near as much sway as the immediate blessing locals receive by worshiping the gods of nearby woods, forests, and streams. The worship of Medicon is not a new practice; for as long as Man has been living on the Sphere, there have been those who honored the petty gods around them. Worship of the Medicon varies from place to place, god to god. Most practices involve prayers to carved images of stone, wood, or metal, the burning of incense, and offerings of food, money, and trinkets left upon stone alters in the middle of the wilderness. The Medicon are selfish and proud creatures; any practice that strokes their ego will be well received.  

The more worship a little god gets, the more powerful and influential they become. The greatest of the Medicon are attended by courts of hundreds of lesser spirits, elementals, and even daemons hoping to please them and advance within the court. These Medicon are boastful and mighty, otherworldly kings and queens who command vast swaths of territory. All mortals within their realm are expected to know their place and show fealty to the true lord of the realm. Those with belief systems that condemn worship of the petty gods must carefully weigh their convictions against the very real possibility of angering the powerful and temperamental beings who watch with wild eyes just beyond the edge of civilization.

Non-Religious Beliefs

Many people are non-religious, ascribing to philosophies that put Man at the center of his own destiny. Yet even among these, superstition holds great influence. Folklore varies from region to region and most practices have little if any basis in reality. Such lore ascribes protective or healing powers to certain herbs like witchwood and wolfsbane or puts stock in arbitrary practices like knocking three times when entering any room or never killing spiders. While the rational mind may dismiss such beliefs, commoners living in a world of daemons and eldritch horrors lurking in the night will do nearly anything to feel safe. Most people who ascribe to this set of beliefs hold a mix of three philosophies: 

Skeptics believe that…

• Everyone has both good and evil in them, some more than others.
• Man does not need the Celestials, the Medicon, or any other deity and can do fine without them. Science is better than superstition.
• Nothing happens when you die; you simply cease to be.
• The Mystery is not real, merely elaborate tricks and illusions to fool the superstitious masses.

The Superstitious believe that…

• Man is good, but there are evil forces in the world seeking to trap, corrupt, and destroy him.
• Without divine protection, man is in constant danger from the evil forces in the world.
• All spirits whether good, evil, or indifferent are bound to a set of rules that force them to act a certain way.
• Evil spirits can be eluded or held at bay by taking advantage of these rules. Other spirits can be tricked or coerced into helping those who are clever enough.
• Those who die live on as spirits. Honoring one’s ancestors is a sure way to earn their protection.
• The Mystery is very real and its effects can be seen everywhere.

Mortalists believe that…

• Man is basically good but can be influenced by external circumstances to do evil deeds.
• A good person is someone who works hard, looks out for their family, obeys the law, and helps their community.
• A bad person is someone who takes more than their fair share and intentionally does harm to others.
• Your reputation lives far beyond your life, so live well and be a good person.
• The Mystery is real and a useful tool that proves the depth of Mankind’s ingenuity and power.