Religion in Orioni

Religion in Orioni in 2018 (age 18+).

  Amisti (62%)

  Elitism (25%)

  Salam (4%)

  Christianity (2%)

  Other (7%)

Religion in Orioni is dominated by several different main religions. Amisti is the ethnic religion of the Orinese people with 62% followers. And Elitism is the second largest with 25%. There are also the Salamic and Christian minority religions. Orioni differs from other countries on Eurth where Christians or Salamids are the overwhelming majority.

Amisti

Sahini, c. 4th Century BCE.

“Listen to the sound of water. Listen to the water running through chasms and rocks. It is the minor streams that make a loud noise, the great waters flow silently.”

— Sahini (4th Century BCE)

Amisti is the indigenous religion of people on the Orinese islands, a religion as old as the country itself. Amisti is the largest religion in Orioni, practised by circa 62% of the population. In the 4th century BCE, the Classical “father of linguistics” Sahini invented the word Amisti to distinguish the existing but undefined faith in Orioni from foreign influences spreading throughout the Orient. In the 5th century, the Aroman mercenary soldier and historian Ammianus Marcellinus stated that the Orinese had no religion, but this seems unlikely. Amisti is a way of life, rather than a specific set of beliefs. Amisti doesn’t have many of the characteristics associated with religion. Unlike Christianity or Salam, it doesn’t worship a central deity, define an official founder or follow a sacred text. Amisti doesn’t explain the world as right and wrong. There are no Amisti preachers or missionaries. The religion has undergone changes over time, particularly under the influence of neighbouring monotheisms.

Beliefs

A 400-year-old grove with a natural spring between its roots is believed to be home to Amilaki spirits.

Mount $Name is the sacred resting ground of many peoples in the area.

What exactly the early Orinese believed and how exactly they worshipped is unknown. But it is inferred that they were animists. The Amisti religion is generally characterised by the belief that Amilaki (Oharic: spirits, gods) live in everything. While specific legends and traditions may vary slightly from place to place and island to island, the people showed reverence for natural forces and elements of the Eurth, including water, wind, rain, thunder, lightning and others which they believed possessed a spirit. Importantly, Amilaki is both singular and plural, referring not only to the many spirits in the world but also the 'life essence' or mabui that connects all things. This essence of sacred spirits manifests in many eurthly forms: mountains, rocks, trees, rivers, animals, places, in concepts like fertility, and even people can possess the essence of Amilaki.

Early Orinese perceived the origins of these many forces in the sea, worshipping the water below as the font of all creation and using sacrifice and worship in an attempt to control their destiny. Treatment of the environment plays a large part in shaping a culture’s religion. In Amisti, because everything possesses a spiritual component, religion is non-anthropocentric. Humans aren’t at the centre of the universe. In essence, this means that Amisti deals with a lot of peace and love between humans and nature. People are not separate individuals. They exist within the same world and share the interrelated complexity. This interconnectedness is critical to understanding the Amisti religion. In contrast, People of the Book often state that man has “dominion over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” In Book religions, nature has historically been a subject to be used. Whereas someone else might see a giant tree and think, “Wow, that’s a big tree”, a practitioner of Amisti might recognise it as an Amilaki, an object in which a spirit can like. It’s no longer just nature, but part of the divine fabric of reality and deserves respect.

Rituals

Temple of the Dawn in Zuidhaven.

Amisti is also practised in other countries.

Although Amisti is thousands of years old, it still has an active presence in Orinese life. Prayers and offerings to spirits at Amisti shrines and festivals wash away evil spirits and purify a person or object. This process is the lifeblood of the Amisti practice, happening on a daily, weekly, seasonal and annual basis.

Many Orinese people keep a tiny shrine-altar in their homes. The only thing Orioni has more of than vending machines are shrines. Local shrines play a key role in communities. They bring people together for festivals and host weddings and funerals. Whether they identify as religious, everyone in Orioni is, in some sense, a part of Amisti. While Orioni is one of the least religious countries on Eurth, over 80% of its population participates in some Amisti traditions. These rituals include weddings, funerals, worship at a Shrine or at home. Amistism discourages elaborate funeral ceremonies and other wasteful rituals. The only goal of Amisti is to be in touch with spiritual essence through sacred rituals. Taking part in ritualistic worship and purification is the entire faith. Purification is a central tenet of Amisti. For instance, newly constructed buildings are also “purified” by a dinigili (“shrine maiden”). And many Orinese-made cars are purified during the assembly process. Even Orinese-owned businesses built outside the country are often ceremonially blessed. They receive annual visits by a priest to re-purify. This has garnered criticism, as some liken Amisti worship to a performance rather than an act of devotion based on values and beliefs. However, adherents to Amisti think of rituals as a religious experience that binds a community together.

This belief also includes ancestor worship (more accurately termed “ancestor respect”) and the respecting of relationships between the living, the dead, and the gods and spirits of the natural world. Some of its beliefs, such as those concerning genius loci spirits and many other beings classified between gods and humans, are indicative of its ancient animistic roots, as is its concern with mabui, or life essence.

Creation story

The merger of water and wind.

The first man and woman emerge from a tree.

Amisti believes in a philosophical creation story. Imama Ahiri (Oharic: Sea Mother) is the ancient spirit goddess of sea and fish. In some regions of Orioni, people believed she was the goddess of all bodies of water, including lakes, rivers, and even human-made watercourses. Imama Ahiri was more important to people living beside the coastal regions due to nearness and dependence upon the sea. She came to be known as the guardian of sailors and fishermen. When the spirits of water and wind merged into one another, they created the eggs, from which all life came. These eggs burst forth into the light and the heavens. One of these eggs was taken into the sky by a bird. The bird flew to a nearby island to build its nest. When it found a tree and landed, the bird dropped its egg. The egg broke into two equal halves and revealed the first humans: the divine twins Yemo and her husband Manu, the first man. Amisti beliefs in Imama Ahiri and other water deities indicate that the people back then understood the basics of the hydrological cycle. They knew the seawater was replenishing the rain, which then fell over the ground.

Afterlife

A pod of Oriental bottlenose dolphins in the Tethys Sea.

Burial jar depicting a soul journeying to Lelalemi in a boat, c. 800 BCE.

Much like the creation story, old Orinese folk stories also show evidence of a belief in some form of afterlife. In many of these stories, a body of water had to be crossed to allow entrance to an “Otherworld” or Lelalemi in Oharic. This water was thought to wash away sins and memories. This contrasts with other myths that feature wisdom-imparting waters, suggesting that while the memories of the deceased soul are washed away, a drinker of the waters would gain inspiration. The soul would commonly encounter either a whale in the capacity of a guardian of the Otherworld or a dolphin as the wanderer's guide. This story is paralleled in later folk stories from other traditions, such as Sinbad the Sailor and Pinocchio. And it was usually a deceased family member that transported the soul across this water, emphasising the importance of ancestor veneration.

Lelalemi itself is almost always depicted as an archipelago of many small islands to the east. The ruler of Lelalemi was possibly Yemo, the divine twin sister of Manu the first man. These islands were sometimes mentioned in the oral tradition and even on some maps of Orioni during the medieval era. One example of this influence is its appearance in the second Voyage of Azāzhi Uma "the Navigator", renowned for his legendary voyage to the ”Land of the Biruki” (Oharic: Blessed), which he described as “verdant islands covered with tall vegetation that bore many sweet and soft fruits.”

Elitism

Relief of the goddess Al-ette, 7th century CE.

Elitism is the second-largest religion in Orioni by number of worshippers. Elitisim is a monotheistic form of worship.

For those who belong to the church of Elitism, Elit (sometimes called El-et or Al-Lat) is the supreme Goddess, the mother of mankind and all creatures.

Pantheon

• It has been hypothesised that Elit was the consort of Allah, because it is typical of deities in South Europa to have consorts. (WIP. Turn El into a male god again, while making his wife Elit more important. This resembles the -et suffix from the Egyptian Ogdoad.) According to the established thealogy, Elit and her husband El

• El, “the kind, the compassionate”, “the creator of creatures”, was the chief of the Canaanite gods, and he, not Yahweh, was the original “God of Israel” — the word “Israel” is based on the name El rather than Yahweh. He lived in a tent on a mountain, from whose base originated all the fresh waters of the world, with the goddess Asherah as his consort. (Source)

• They had two children: their names are Meda and Satir, and they were the first mortal humans. Meda came to be married to Medeapolis (-polis, “city”). This marriage of the divinity with the city would seem to have religious parallels too with the stories of the link between other ancient cities.

• Nane (goddess) was “an Armenian mother goddess, as well as the goddess of war and wisdom.” Link this to Anahita.

History

Sun Temple, Meda.

Elitism emerged in the 7th Century CE. The socio-cultural landscape at the time was already populated with plenty of complex religious and organised social institutions. Elitism emerged as indirect, intentional opposition to these existing institutions. (WIP. Imported into Orioni via Memopotamian mercenaries hired by the Medanese. The devout believers formed a crusade in order to bring Elitism to all unbelievers of the Eurth or destroy them. The Army consisted of numerous soldiers who firmly believed in the teachings in the Book of Elitism.)

Cultural impact

Elites in prayer.

She is identified as the solar goddess, described as dwelling in the Oriental Ocean, and rising out of the waters in the morning and furnishing mankind with instruction in writing, the arts and the various sciences. This water-deity has a name by which Orinese tribes knew it, and which is also familiar to many modern people - Ēl or Il, a goddess which tribal priestesses would appease with their songs and drums. Several classical sources describe how:

“and that when droughts occurred, they [worshippers] stretched out their hands to heaven towards the sun; for her alone (she says) they regarded as goddess lady of heaven, calling her El, which is in the Meharic language 'mistress of heaven.' For the women since those days had ruled their tribes.”

WIP:

• See this other fusion-religion: Caodaism

Satirism

Satirism is an off-shoot branch of Elitism. The Satirist school of thought was first brought into Orioni during the Orinese Civil War when Loyalists hired Buranian mercenaries; it fully emerged in the 14th century after the failed Akrep uprising against the ruling Orinese monarchs. This uprising set a precedent for further actions against what they considered to be corrupt rulers. Where Elitism was mostly found within high culture, the counter-reaction of Satirism found its roots in low culture. One important opposing view from Elitism, is that Satirism doesn't believe in the infallibility of Elite leaders. Instead, Satirists believe in divine inspiration. This means that anyone, regardless of wealth or class, can receive revelations. Because of this more general application, it might be said that Satirism finds it difficult to remain passive in an unjust world.

(WIP. Make it a funny mix of these elements:

• Greek Soter (saviour), something like !Horus. This can reflect the !Christian Jesus, with El and Elit as parents. Because all edgy kids rebel against their parents.
• Satyrs were characterized by their ribaldry and were known as lovers of wine, music, dancing, and women. This will fit nicely with the Buran.
• Diogenes maintained that all the artificial growths of society were incompatible with happiness and that morality implies a return to the simplicity of nature. He tried to demonstrate that wisdom and happiness belong to the man who is independent of society, and that civilization is regressive. He scorned not only family and socio-political organization, but also property rights and reputation.
• Dionysus is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine, of fertility, orchards and fruit, vegetation, insanity, ritual madness (Berserker?), religious ecstasy, festivity and theatre.
• The Bacchanalia were Roman festivals of Bacchus, the Greco-Roman god of wine, freedom, intoxication and ecstasy.
• Saturnalia was characterized by role reversals and behavioural licence. Slaves were treated to a banquet of the kind usually enjoyed by their masters.
• Yangism has been described as a form of psychological and ethical egoism. The Yangist philosophers believed in the importance of maintaining self-interest through “keeping one's nature intact, protecting one's uniqueness, and not letting the body be tied by other things.”

Other

• 4% Salam.
• 2% Christianity and especially Collyridianism.
• 7% other, including Yehuda, !Buddhism and various smaller religions.

WIP to integrate:

• “As long as there is poverty, there will be Gods.”
• “It was fear that first made the gods” — fear of hidden forces in the earth, rivers, oceans, trees, winds, and sky. Religion became the propitiatory worship of these forces through offerings, sacrifice, incantation, and prayer. Only when priests used these fears and rituals to support morality and law did religion become a force vital and rival to the state. It told the people that the local code of morals and laws had been dictated by the gods.
• “If history supports any theology, this would be a dualism like the Zoroastrian or Manichaean: a good spirit and an evil spirit battling for control of the universe and men’s souls. These faiths and Christianity (which is essentially Manichaean) assured their followers that the good spirit would win in the end; but of this consummation, history offers no guarantee. Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and bad; they define good as that which survives, and bad as that which goes under, and the universe has no prejudice in favour of Christ as against Genghis Khan.”