Hybrid religion of Themiclesia

The hybrid religion of Themiclesia developed from the syncretism of the original ancestral cult, cults of other gods, Buddhism, Sindoism, and elements of other religions. The Themiclesian census uses the term to identify a group of "faiths and practices that have historically influenced each other". There are many sects within the hybridized religion, and many adherents to one sect may not adhere to the dogmata of another.

Deities

Trinitarian interpretation

In the 12th century, some writers of the hybrid religion began interpretating Tīks, Qlīn, and Qlaps as three generations of one lineage, expressed in two schemata, the simultaneous and the linear. In the simultaneous schema, Tīks was equated with the grandfather, Qlīn with the father, and Qlaps with the son; in the linear sequence, Tīks was regarded as the predecessor, Qlīn with the ego, and Qlaps with the progeny. From the second schema, Tīks was associated with the past and birth, Qlīn with the present and living, and Qlaps with the future and death. This "trinitarian metaphor" implied that these three gods shared basic similarities and represented the roles that a human being had before, during, and after life, and in three separate stages in life.

The trinitarian interpretation is further elaborated in 14th-century writings, wherein it is asserted that Qlaps and Tīks as similar if not identical beings, more similar to each other than to Qlīn. This seems to be based on a dialogue between the two schemata of the trinity: Tīks is associated with beginnings, foundations, and creation and yet is clearly in the past, which no longer exists and thus may be seen as having died, and Qlaps, associated with the newborn or unborn future, is also associated with the inevitable future of all life—death. This highly abstract theology was given practical buttressing by the arcane notion that generations alternated in place with each other, so that the ego represented the grandfather in sacrificial proceedings, and the father represented the great-grandfather, etc. In this branch of the interpretation, birth and death are considered complimentary processes: a birth creates a future death.

The source of the trinitarian interpretation is not conclusively known. While Christianity is a potential source, and even the more likely in the case of the simultaneous schema, the Maverican religion seems the more likely radix of the idea that a set of three gods encompassed the past, present, and future and yet exist simultaneously. The trinitarian interpretation is one aspect of the three gods that has widespread currency, though it is not the only interpretation of their relationship.

Tīks

Tīks (帝), called Tīks-Progenitor (帝始) or Tīks-on-High (上帝), retains many of the attributes ascribed to him in the era of the Ur-cult. He has the character of a god that resigns from the created world in modern theology, but in an older perspective, he functioned as a god of the fate, particularly of kings and states.  Only Tīks was thought to have the power to "end cities" in the oracles, while other deities could only work adversity of more limited scope, but this theology markedly declined after the Themiclesian Republic.

The abode of Tīks is thought to be above the heavenly firmament or dome of the sky, and the star Kochab the portal to him. It is thought to lack ordinary substance and composed purely of the magical power of Tīks. Furthermore, it is shrouded in complete darkness as light is a created effect of the heavenly bodies and therefore absent in Tīks's realm. Not much literature has described this realm high above the visible sky since Tīks has no prominent function in popular mythology. Conserving the Ur-cult's view of Tīks, he is not considered to have a physical shape or restrincted to human forms of perception.

Qlīn

Qlīn (子天 or 示天), or Bright Qlīn (皇天) and Broad Qlīn (昊天), is considered the chief god of the hybrid religion's pantheon. Qlīn originated as the mythical progenitor of Tsins people and the founder of the city of Tsins, where it is supposed that Themiclesians settled after living as a roving band and participating in divine wars against other gods and their human followers (who represented other cities); however, after the unification of Themiclesia in the 3rd to 5th centuries, his role as the chief god and god of the sky is more emphasized. In this role he has displaced the earlier ouranic aspect of Tīks.

Qlīn also possesses the aspect of a warrior, which may chronologically be the earliest aspect. Qlīn is often called Qlīn of the Chariots, referring to the chariot as a military vehicle.

In trinitarian theology of the triple deity, Qlīn is often regarded as the son of Tīks, though this identification is not true of all his aspects. While it is agreed that Qlīn only appeared after Tīks created the world, no ancient text states that Tīks created Qlīn or begot him through a union with another goddess. In the 5th century, the inalterable will of Tīks was increasingly associated with fate, death, and inevitabilities, while Qlīn was regarded as a god that protected his followers, often from fate and inevitabilities. This contrast is even more revealing in the context of war, as Qlīn is the god which appears with his heavenly host to assist the Themiclesians, while Tīks decides the result of the battle. This philosophical opposition gave rise to an eschatology of the two gods doing battle with each other, and this scenario excludes a parental relationship between them.

Prince Qlaps

Prince Qlaps (王世) or Patriarch Qlaps (伯世) is portrayed as the divine son of Qlīn and the ruler of the afterlife, the City of Generations.

Two Ladies

The East Mother (東母) West Mother (西母) are collectively called the Two Ladies (二君). The tradition regarding the Two Ladies is varied and not as firmly established in canon. On the one hand, the Two Ladies have a strong chthonic connotation, regarded as the mistresses of the land. In this aspect, they reign over the natural world divided at its navel. On the other hand, they also function as consorts in the trinitarian interpretation of the three gods, in which case they have ouranic connotation. It is possible the goddesses have arisen from a conflation of several former deities, who may not have been female. The chthonic connotation is broadly thought to have come from the worship of land-gods during the era of the Ur-cult, but since land-gods are ungendered, it is thought that the Two Ladies may also have roots in an unknown, prehistoric Mother goddess.

Mortuary practice

Mortuary practice relates to the treatment of the physical remains of the deceased and perception by those participating in the treatment indirectly or directly by physically interacting with the body. The standard mortuary practice is directly inherited from the Ur-cult and arguably the most conservative aspect of the hybrid religion relative thereto, though modern demands of sanitation and lifestyle have effected considerable alterations to the practice.

Death

In the period of the Ur-cult, death as understood by the living was not instantaneous and instead occurred in stages, whereby the deceased incrementally lost the attribute of a human being and gained those of a spirit. The social function of some of arcane ceremonies, however, discouraged their reform long after their intended meanings were either lost or altered.

On the day of death, an article of clothing of the deceased should be suspended near the place of death. On the second, third, and fourth days, food is laid out before the body in the morning and removed after dark; this food cannot be consumed by human beings and must be buried. On the third day, a member of the family or an undertaker in case the deceased is unidentified, takes the clothes of the deceased and, facing north, exclaims the name of the deceased. All these ceremonies are likely to be carried out in a funeral home in modern times. These ceremonies are interpreted by anthropologists as an attempt to lure the spirit of the deceased back to the body.

Fourth Night

On the fourth night, the first major ceremony occurs in the presence of the family and other invitees. A trained priest chants incantations to ward off the evil spirits thought to be responsible for corporeal decay and sounds the mortuary chime, which continues throughout the duration of the ceremony. Incense is thrown around the body. In an elaborate funerals, music groups are likely to attend the ceremonies playing the Forty Recovery Hymns, but in more modest ones the priest would perform them, interspersed with the spells. Traditionally, this is because the spirit cannot return to a heavily decayed body, which the ceremony is meant to arrest. In the period of the Ur-cult, the ceremony of the fourth night often lasted until the decay of the body's decay was considered irrevocable, though it is now limited to one night for most.

As the priest continues to read spells and perform exorcisms, a second ceremony occurs. A member of the bereaved family dons the clothing of the deceased and begins to walk clockwise around the deceased, while the other members of the family walk counter-clockwise in a larger circle. The first member claps their hands, while the others chant the word "return". After the family completes the first circle, the other invitees form a third circle around them and walk in the same direction. Around midnight, the family consumes food brought by the invitees, before the ceremonies continue until daybreak.

Encoffinment

In the morning of the fifth day, the body is placed in a wooden coffin by the family. The body is first washed and changed into the costume the body will be buried in. During this process the family cannot face away from the deceased. After encoffinment, the family assumes mourning attire and symbolically display their own clothing in the funeral home along with those of that of the deceased. Before they leave the body, they customarily kneel down towards it and weep (or pretend to) as they leave it. The rest of the fifth day is considered a day of respite for the family due to the long ceremony beforehand.

The sixth day is usually devoted to a funerary feast to repay those who hand appeared in the fourth night, assisting the family's effort to revive the dead by bringing imbibements and comestibles.

Interrelation

The interrelation or prin ceremony occurs on the seventh day. The purpose of the interrelation ceremony is to inform the family's other spirits, the host spirit, of the recent death of a family member, the guest spirit. The spirit to whom the news is relayed depends heavily on preference (and the cost of hiring a priest's services), but normally includes parents and grandparents if they are deceased. For this ceremony, food and wine offerings are made Qlaps and the host spirits, and a member of the family transitions and re-animates the host spirit, while the priest reads formulae that inform the re-animated spirit. The ceremony is repeated as many times as there are host spirits; when grandparents are re-animated, the re-animators of the parents remain in animation.

If a large number of spirits are to be informed, the interrelation ceremonies could span many days. In the case of a deceased emperor, all male-line ancestors and their spouses are so informed and Tīks at the end. The preceding Themiclesian emperor's death was announced to male-line ancestors in 83 generations.

Primary burial

The Ur-cult probably practiced secondary burial after the flesh of the deceased has completely decomposed, thus losing its vestigial physical resemblance to a human being and completing its transition from life to death. This process was recorded in Antiquity to last many months or even years but has subsequently been truncated roughly during the middle of the Mrangh dynasty or roughly the transition from the late Ur-cult to the later religion, though in non-elite situations the change in funerary attitudes "to serve the dead as living" may have occurred earlier.

In the primary burial, the coffin containing the body is enclosed in a second coffin, often called a shrine, which is decorated in contrast to the inner, plain one. The decorations on the coffin can range from a few lines of text to elaborate artwork and even jewellery. The primary burial typically takes place just before the public viewing of the coffin.

Afterlife

Death

The concept of the undying soul is directly inherited from the ancestral cults, which assume that a person's soul—retaining their memories and personality—persists forever after death of the physical body.

Post-mortem judgement

While the hybrid religion's concept of post-mortem judgement is clearly influenced by other faiths, having emerged by the 8th century is a unique repertoire of concepts that describe the experience and destination of a person's soul as it leaves the body upon death. The original ancestral cult knows no post-mortem judgement and posits that a person's spirit continues to exist in the same mortal realm but can only interact with the living through ceremonies, media, oracles, and dreams. By the 1st century, the cult of Qlīn believed that his favoured followers would form part of his divine host, which implies a selection process based on the worthiness of the deceased, whose criteria have not survived.

Under the influence of Buddhism in the 4th and 5th and then Sindoism in the 6th century, the idea that a post-mortem judgement gained more widespread acceptance. This accompanied the appearance of a "realm of the dead" separate from the world of the living, in which spirits were previously supposed to continue living, and this realm acquired the name of City of Generations in the 8th century. In obscure, early texts, the role of the post-mortem judge was ascribed to Tīks, the mysterious High God without a popular cult. By extension, the world of the dead was said to be located in the north, probably because the visible symbol of Tīks, the Polaris star, was in the northern sky. The mortuary aspects of Tīks seems to be connected to his role as the god of the fate of cities, projected onto that of individuals.

By the 7th century, however, it seems that Tīks's involvement with the human dead fell out of favour, and instead Qlīn's divine son, Prince Qlaps (王世) was regarded as the ruler of the realm of the dead, having been known as the divine messenger. It seems possible, if not likely, that his role as medium between divine and mortal was extended to that between dead and living, as ancestral spirits (the dead) and gods are considered close to each other in nature, or at least by those who adhere to a stricter belief in the divine power of ancestors. His name literally means "generations", and death was often euphemistically called "gone to the generations". Scholars have also formulated a "nebulous but obvious" connection between death and the perpetuation of the Canon of Generations, found as early as the Ur-cult.

Qlaps's role as prince of the dead is strongly reminiscent of that of royal government in Themiclesia, adding to the comparison of the "realm of the dead" as a "state of the dead"—not only a place but a country with a functional government. As the soul arrives at the realm of the dead, they are identified by their dead relatives. Before being admitted, however, other denizens of the realm have the opportunity to accuse the new arrival of crimes that have not been atoned for. If found guilty, Qlaps punishes the arrival before re-uniting them with their families. The content of this punishment is variegated and heavily depends on the narrative needs of the myth describing it; in some, the post-mortem trial imposes those applied in Themiclesia, and in others the punishments are grossly tortuous and incommensurate with contemporary conceptions of justice.

Deceased emperors and nobles, however, are typically excluded from post-mortem judgement as they do not travel to the realm of the dead but live at dedicated temples maintained by their distinguished successors. In this way, their post-mortem experience are conservative, in keeping with the older idea that the dead remained in the world of the living and continued to interact through oracles and temple sacrifices. Religious authors post hoc reasoned that sacrifies re-animate the dead in limited ways, and in the 7th century these were carried out continuously; thus, royal progenitors are continually animated and therefore never travel to the realm of the dead, where the ordinary dead go after their families stop providing for them at their homes. Another reason given is that the royal houses of Themiclesia are direct descendants of Qlīn himself and are therefore exempt from his son's judgement.

Realm of the dead

The attributes of the realm of the dead are not treated in a systematic manner in the most circulated texts, but it seems a basic imagery of the Themiclesian state underlies most descriptions. The most complete descriptions of the realm of the dead is found not in religious manuals but in literary works that transcend the realms of the living and dead. It is common to idealize the City of Generations (世邑), where the ruler is tender and his counsellors always wise, though it is not a world without concerns. Negative actions and emotions exist, but as spirits cannot die or suffer from hunger, they are less vulnerable and perceived wrongs with a subjective intensity lower than that of the living. On the other hand, equally owing to eternal life, grudges incurred can also continue ad infinitum and serve as powerful devices in literature.

The City of Generations is often pictured as very cold. This may be an extension from the idea that it is located in the distant north or because corpses characteristically lack body heat, and its absence is associated with the dead. For this and other reasons, the realm is considered repugnant to the living, and consequences for visiting it may be so dire as to prevent return to the mortal realm. However, this coldness is not a negative thing from the perspective of the spirits, who, because they are not living, do not require warmth.

The position of the City of Generations has been given much philosophical exposition throughout the ages. In Antiquity, it is often said to be underground and connected somehow with underground water. In later ages, its boreal climate and identification with the Pole Star parallels attributes of the High God, Tīks. Tīks's realm above the celestial bodies and air, even the firmament itself, is also said to be extremely cold, where no mortal could hope to survive. As Tīks created the a pocket of life and warmth from the coldness of the world above, the spirits of the City of Generations has also given rise to new human life in the realm of the living. In a sense, therefore, a spirit is in the same state of the world as it existed prior to or outside of life but is intimately connected with life.

The Brak school, which proposes that all living things acquire their life through Tīks's divine magical substance, asserts that spirits only live temporarily in the City of Generations and will, at some point in the future, be re-united with Tīks. This eschatology, however, is not widely accepted.

See also

• Themiclesia
• Ancient cult of Themiclesia