Badi
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Badi is a religion originating in ancient Dezevau, which holds that the material world is the result of the interplay of theological elements, which are each the manifestation of a semi-sapient deity known as a badimua. Followers of the religion believe in the sanctity of the elements, and understanding and interacting with them. Badi is characterised by a high level of doctrinal and practical heterogeneity, to the extent that it has been considered a group of religions rather than a religion itself at times; however, internal collegiality and cooperation link the many varieties. It is also characterised by a focus on interactions between humans and both other humans and nature. The Association of Badi Churches estimates there are around 100 million Badists worldwide, concentrated in and around Southeast Coius, but also found all around the world.
The elemental theory of Badi is broadly agreed upon by Badists today (as there are fifteen theological elements), as is the general nature of sacraments which are based on the idea of communion with the material manifestations of the badimua: religious activities include experimentation, craft, sensory experience, reflection, education, documentation and artistry. The actual practice in Badi of these is, however, extremely varied; devotion to different theological elements takes very different forms, and people are frequently involved with multiple sects, which may perform different roles in the community. There tends to be intimate interaction between the activities of daily life and religious tenets, though there are also hierarchies and relatively abstract doctrinal texts. These features characterise Badi, leading it to be described variously as pluralist, decentralised, informal, materialist and/or syncretic in analyses.
Badi originated in the first millennium BCE, amongst the early Dezevauni city-states, from formalised consensus of cultural knowledge and civil customs. It spread from there via various means including trade, cultural contact and emigration, though maintaining a degree of continuity because of its flexibility. Accompanied by the influence of the rich, urbanised and densely populated Dezevauni civilisation, it had a substantial impact on the places it reached, though often finding itself in competition with Irfan. In the 20th century, Badi went through changes called the Crisis of Faith, which challenged its validity as a body of thought and belief; this resulted in a decline in its societal importance in some places, and saw realignment often in favour of mysticism, reinterpretation of its traditions as symbolic, and a focus on community.
Today, Badi is followed by over a hundred million people, and it is the most practiced religion in Dezevau and Terangau, and a notable minority religion across the Great Steppe and Satria, where it had historical significance; smaller numbers of Badists exist around the world, such as in the gowsa diaspora. The Association of Badist Churches is a body with very loose authority, but generally taken to represent the religion's practitioners, including for the authority of these figures. It is difficult to measure the sects of Badi, because of their frequent overlap, variety and informality, but some of the most notable include Pure Water Badi, the Cult of the Sun and Time.
Etymology
In Ziba, badi means "element", or "essence"; the term is typically translated to Estmerish as "theological element" for clarity. Metonymically, this has become the common name for the religion in most Euclean languages, as the elements are arguably the clearest and most basic doctrinal point. In Ziba, other terms are common, but badi and badiba ("badis") are not uncommon for referring to the religion; the latter usage has also found some usage outside Ziba.
Beliefs
Creation myth and planes of existence
In Badi, the world is thought to have begun with an undifferentiated mass comprising all existence. This mass slowly precipitated, with badimua, semi-sapient beings with unique characteristics separating out. Over aeons, the identities and powers of the badimua stabilised. As a result of this process, while the badimua exist primarily in the most fundamental, primordial and powerful dimension, lower planes precipitated out. Often metaphorised as echoes or effluent of the realm of the badimua, these planes are below the sustained or close attention of the badimua, who in turn may be incapable of being fully comprehended by lower beings. The material world is one of these lesser dimensions; while in it, the existence of badimua can be gleaned, they are less distinct and less animate in this place. There are generally thought to be other dimensions, of more and less distance to the badimua than the material world, and with varying levels of permeability between them.
The beliefs in the way that creation took place on a scale far beyond the human one and that the material world is veiled or distant to other planes help explain Badi's focus on presence in the material world. The creation of humans, nothing more than an unusually complex combination of theological elements, is a relatively minor, recent and unclear point in Badist lore, and in fact, the theory of evolution is widely (though not universally) accepted as a part of religious thought. Interestingly, the manner in which badimua are said to have come into existence resembles the way in which they became part of Badi thought, as religious science and philosophy posited new ideas, and these gained acceptance through demonstration and propagation, or fell out of currency.
Elemental theory
Badi holds that everything in the material world is composed of theological elements, which are indivisible component parts, each the manifest of a badimua in this dimension. Historically, this was a literally held belief, but its interpretation as metaphor is more common since the Crisis of Faith and the advent of modern science such as chemistry and atomic theory. Humans are often conceived of as the most complex combination of elements in the material world.
Theological elements' characteristics are representative of the badimua they are related to; for example, the badimua of heat is thought to be energetic and reductive or transformative in its activity.
The conceptualisation of the elements developed over time, and varied in different regions which had different exposures to different schools of thought, technologies, environments, culture, and so on. Generally speaking, over time, more elements were discovered. Theological experimentation and research were conducted by religious practitioners to elucidate the elemental nature of the world, though changes in the widely held doctrine tended to be slow and rare. Today, most agree on the set of elements that had been arrived at as consensus by the early modern period; the identity of the theological elements is one of the few doctrines the Association of Badist Churches holds.
Conventionally, the elements are given in Estmerish as:
- Air
- Animal
- Earth
- Electricity
- Gas
- Heat
- Light
- Metal
- Movement
- Oil
- Plant
- Salt
- Sound
- Time
- Water
Afterlife
The afterlife is not emphasised in Badi philosophy, but has been a point of theological contention with exposure to other religions which do emphasise it. Traditionally, it was regarded as either nonexistent, or obscure, dull and empty.
Mhuoganga Dibegaune, a social theorist, author and politician who was an agnostic, wrote the essay The Afterlife in Badi in 1927. However, despite their not being a follower of Badi, the description of Badist beliefs set out in their essay have been taken as a prescriptive scripture by many modern Badist laypeople and priests, though it has not been officially adopted by the Association of Badist Churches. The afterlife in the essay is said to be between the material and the elemental spirits' realms; it is largely featureless, without anything capable of significantly enlivening or stimulating the senses. All dead people go there after death, as their consciousness' complexity unravels from the simpler elemental composition of their earthly body. Perhaps the consciousnesses of the dead linger for a time as they unravel, and final farewells are made. After some indefinite period of time, being unravels entirely into basic elements, with the more material parts becoming reattached to the material plane and the spiritual essence which collects in people through life dissipating into the spiritual realm. It was also in this essay that it was said "existence is the scripture of Badi", in reference to its focus on the social and material world as opposed to metaphysical concerns such as the afterlife.
Some sects of Badi believe in reincarnation, with the usual explanation that one's essence of being is too complex to unravel entirely and too complex to create quickly; the essence goes into the world until it enters another body at birth. This belief, though it differs in that it believes reincarnation takes a long period of time, is largely as a result of syncretism with Satyism. Some varieties of Badi also believe in a Sotirian-style heaven, also as a result of syncretism, but these varieties are much rarer and more obscure.
History
The origins of Badi lie in the traditions and customs of the Dhebinhejo Culture, which formed city-states and petty kingdoms in central Dezevau in the first millennium BCE. It is believed that beliefs, similar to fetishism, acquired cultural and political significance as groups inside the societies of the time used them to make or justify practical power arrangements, and linked them to civil duties and responsibilities which took on religious flavour. Badi was the formalisation of a way of relating to others socially as well to nature. As the early Dezevauni city-states grew prominent as the most urbanised, populated and wealthiest polities in the region, Badi spread through their influence and contacts. Temples, organised on the lines of typical activities with which they retained relevance to the community, became the primary unit of organisation. While decentralisation between groups associated with different theological elements largely prevented any centralised forms of religious governance at state-level, politically powerful hierarchies, with priests and followings, within and between polities, emerged.
The practical, cultural and pervasive nature of Badi has been linked with its role in social and economic life, as well as with the relatively egalitarian culture that prevailed in the Dezevauni city-states. Formalisation tended to be based on power structures, cultural and economic activities, and lore kept as mystery, rather than dogma or law. Some commentators in fact suggest that this characteristic inhibited the development of the rule of law in Badist societies, while others consider this to be a view overly predicated on Euclean positivism. Often, local rulers allowed or encouraged Badist activities because they seemed to tend to have a stabilising and productive effect, though conflicts between sects over boundaries and superiority were not uncommon. Religious specialisation went hand in hand with economic specialisation, in many cases. The religion spread from Dezevau to Terangau, and to the Great Steppe, where its practitioners formed local civil societies.
Incursions by Irfanic Ndjarendie from the north in the medieval era hemmed the religion's spread in. Later, Gaullica aggressively attempted to convert colonial Dezevau to the Sotirian Catholic Church. However, it remained a dominant religion, losing ground especially during the centralised Bureau for Southeast Coius rule until it became a symbol of anti-imperialist resistance.
During the 20th century, around the time of Dezevauni independence and afterwards, Badi went through the Crisis of Faith. The introduction of modern science and ideologies, ranging from socialism to the periodic table, and their permeation throughout the masses, destabilised the social fabric and delegitimised the material realities Badi based its existence on. Some saw this as the doom of the religion, though this was by no means a widespread opinion. However, there was a reorientation towards community and non-literal approaches to old beliefs. The establishment of the Association of Badi Churches saw a greater level of institutional control and organisation, and helped coordinate these communitarian, practical changes. Some argue that the reformation of Badi in the aftermath of the Crisis of Faith was essentially on a postmodernist basis.
Though Badi saw a decline in many areas in the modern period, it recovered from the Crisis of Faith and is today a world religion, though focused in Southeast Coius. The government of Dezevau greatly loosened anti-religious restrictions in the latter half of the 20th century, which helped. Internationally, the gowsa diaspora is in large part Badist, and in the Eastern world, there are some converts to Badi of those who seek new religious approaches. In Narozalica, it was associated with the socialist Zalyk independence movement, with such figures as Tagai Chulgetei who led in the Sostava War being Badist. There are around 100 million Badists worldwide.
Practices
Badist churches in the modern day tend to have weekly gatherings; because the seven-day week was not native to the region where Badi originated, the traditional day of gathering varies geographically and by sect. These gatherings involve study of doctrine, socialisation with members of the community, doing good deeds in the community and other activities organised by priests. While historically they were more structured, they today tend to begin with a single service before rituals and activities are conducted in smaller, variable groups.
Some of the activities traditionally part of gatherings or outside of them include experimentation, the writing of texts, the reading of texts, discussion and doing work in the community. Experimentation was much more common before modern science, as it was seen to be familiarising adherents with the divine nature of the world; it was not conducted in the way familiar to the modern scientific method. The writing and reading of texts is seen in a similar light, but also often incorporates fiction or mystic texts, which are seen to relate to the unveiling of the unknown parts of the world; dreams are considered holy for this same reason. Discussion tends to be of texts or religiously relevant matters, such as dreams or experiences.
While not necessarily based in a secure or traditional theoretical doctrine, religious organisations and gatherings today tend to place emphasis on doing good in the world; in the past, this may have been more directly relevant to religious matters, such as preaching, helping other adherents or the church, or spreading education, today this has broadened to community service more generally, in accordance with the communitarian realignment of Badi after its crisis of modernity and collapse in the mid 20th century.
Temples and sects often have their own variant practices and keep esoteric lore and mysteries which are only revealed to those who undergo certain rituals or rise in the ranks. These tend to vary very widely.
Demographics
Badists comprise 32.2% of the Dezevauni population according to the 2020 census, or about 42 million making them the largest religious group in the country, behind a larger irreligious group. They also have significant minorities in Ajahadya and Zorasan.
Varieties
Badi has a strong and long history of cults, sects and variants; it has been at times considered a collection of religions rather than a coherent one itself by some. However, even members of the most extreme varieties of Badi generally still recognise the holiness and power of all the elementals.
Typically cults arise with regards to particular elemental spirits, or particular combinations or aspects or manifestations of them; examples include the Cult of the Sun, Pure Water Badi.