Zaldrism
Zaldrism is a religion that originated in the Yulia Valley in Arcanstotska around the 10th Century BCE following a period of southward Szlavic migrations. Prior to the rapid global spread of Messianism, Zaldrism was one of the many religions prominent within Szlavic culture. As a growing number of once-Zaldrist Szlavic groups converted to Messianism across Eras, Zaldrism's prominence waned. Today, Zaldrists (the adherents of Zaldrism) are largely concentrated within Arcanstotska (where Zaldrists make up over 40 percent of the population) with various small minority communities abroad. Zaldrism ecompasses a plurality of traditions, beliefs, and spiritual practices centered around the worship of nature, animals, ancestors, and dragons.
Zaldrism is believed by scholars to have been a Szlavic adaptation of the religion of the Yulia Valley's pre-Szlavic inhabitants: the Ylkentic peoples. The Ylkentic tribes are thought to have inhabited central Arcanstotska between at least 2000 BCE up to the 10th Century BCE, when they were subjugated and supplanted by Szlavic groups who had migrated southeast from what is now Maloria. Archaeological findings have unerassed Ylkentic-era artifacts that strongly hint towards dragon-worship. After the Proto-Arcanstotskan Szlavs conquered the Yulia Valley, it is believed that the worship of dragons was progressively incorporated into an already existing Szlavic pagan faith as Szlavic and Ylkentic culture increasingly merged in the region.
Zaldrism is polytheistic, upholding belief in a plethora of gods and goddesses. These deities are organized in a hierarchy of authority, power, and influence. The highest caste of deities, known as the Sovereign Ones, are dragons responsible for ruling over and guarding Eras and its accompanying parallel worlds.