Tx̣ex̣uq

Tẋeẋuq (also known as Ngunism or Dze Shamanism) is a set of closely related ethnic Dze beliefs and traditions that descend from a common spiritual ancestor centered around the Ŋuŋiq, a term often translated to mean "spirit" and thought to be ethereal representations of concepts and personifications of the universe and all of its aspects.

A polytheistic religion, it has prevailed as one of the main unifying factors of the Dze species and has been a constantly evolving concept since the first recorded traditions, dating to over 40,000 years ago, and has been the prevailing religion of all Dze political entities and, more recently, of a small collection of human groups and states. According to Dze theologians, the nature of the religion shifted throughout the milennia, starting as a monotheistic concept that later evolved into polytheism sometime before the Late Dze Neolithic Collapse; however there is great debate regarding the denomination and true extent of worship of this faith.

The term itself has been equated to religion, but it can just as well mean belief or thought. The Ŋuŋ themselves are viewed more as abstract concepts and entities than personified tangible deities.

Terminology and relationship to shamanism

The word Tẋeẋuq (Old Dze pronounciation: ['tχeχuq]) and related terms are a combination of tẋe "high, holy" and ẋuq "belief". The word has been found in several archaic texts where it refers to the collection of religious traditions followed by the Dze.

The term Ngunism has been coined in recent years, specifically by theologian Divyani Ghoshal from Santi Rasta, as a way to convey the more broad concept of Dze religion, rather than the original term which is both more vague etymologically and harder to pronounce for non-Dze. Although it is usually percieved as decentralized and overtly naturalistic it is thus seen as more akin to diverse shamanistic traditions across sparkalia, thus being called simply Dze Shamanism by many foreign scholars.

It has been noted however that Tẋeẋuq is still highly consistent across the various Dze ethnic groups and that the so-called shamans, for example, gather every five years and discuss matters of faith, among other things, which showcases a surprisingly high level of centralization for the percieved category in which it is placed.

The matter is mostly divided between the santi rastan and the rest of the dzeologist schools of thought, with Divyani Ghoshal often being a proponent of it belonging across more "well-defined and structured" belief systems rather than belonging to decentralized cults of worship.

Historical Tẋeẋuq

Tẋeẋuq traditions have been first and foremost, as Ghoshal described them:

"It appears that during the first written traditions during the Moonblade period were exclusively dedicated to what can be effectively called "Night Worship", evidenced more by what the endonym of the species as a whole is in several of their languages. The earliest named ŋuŋ that have been deciphered are "Ṕyċntǫŋeniq", the protector of souls and equated to the night sky itself, and "Ṗit'tṡiq", the mother of moons which seems to carry a similar connotation, perhaps a deity of dual personality; the names were found at various stelai and dated to over 35,000 years ago at their oldest and these names carry cognates in several descended languages from the Old Liturgicals"

This duo of deities or spirits is still the core foundation of Tẋeẋuq traditions, being most prominent across the mountain dwelling Dze of the Dusk plateau, where the Leaf lance valley and other spiritually significant locations of the Dze are found as well as being the oldest known place of Dze inhabitation.