Bowism

Bowism (Basaquese: Kevneşopiyên Bow, transl. "Traditions of Bow") is a religion or religious tradition originating in the Basaquastan region of Liberto-Ancapistan. Regarded as the indigenous religion of Basaquastan, it has no central authority and encompasses a variety of practices and beliefs, often delineated into different schools. These may be influenced by prophets and scholars or regional traditions.

Bowism is typically monotheistic and centred around Bow, the creator of the Deryaya Bow ("Sea of Bow"), the world inhabited by humanity, which is characterised by the presence of water. Bow is not eternal or omniscient, and originates in the space outside the Deryaya Bow, called Netem, the nature and contents of which differ between Bowist schools. Bow is incorporeal and does not interact with the Deryaya Bow as a singular, united entity. Instead, individual attributes and parts of Bow's being may materially manifest in the form of lower deities, called Aspects. Bowists believe that the material world and humanity are entirely non-divine and self-sustaining, but may be altered through the divine interaction of Bow, the Aspects of Bow, or semi-divine beings which draw their sustenance from Bow, called spirits. Bowist worship revolves around appeals to attract the attention of Aspects or spirits, in order to elicit favours or create harmony between humans and individual spirits. Rituals typically involve water, especially in appeals to Aspects, and offerings of food or other objects.

According to most scholars, Bowism is a linear development of pre-existing Basaquastanian religion, which differed from Bowism primarily in its polytheism. Between the 2nd century BCE and the 6th century CE, the traditional gods worshipped in Basaquastan were either reinterpreted as Aspects of the greater Bow or demoted to localised worship as spirits. The reasons for this shift have been debated, with some scholars positing that the development of Bowism can be attributed to attempts at religious consolidation by the Emirate of Great Nizmstan and Santian Empire, and others pointing to popular shifts in belief and the influence of prophets. Throughout the history of Bowism and especially during the latter half of the 1st millennium CE, prophets claiming to have had personal interactions with Aspects have had a significant influence on Bowist beliefs and practices, especially in encouraging the religion's monastic tradition. The largest school of Bowism, Kevirozian Bowism, emerged in the 7th century CE based on the teachings of the prophet Shamaqoli ji Zinar, whose sayings and poems were collected posthumously in a book, the Isahd. From the 14th century, Bowism found increasing competition in coastal Basaquastan from the foreign religion of Christianity, but the new religion's suppression by Santian authorities helped it to remain the largest religion in Basaquastan, a status which it continues to hold today.

Bowism is primarily found in Liberto-Ancapistan, among ethnic Basaquastanians and some other groups in the Basaquastan region. Most practitioners outside the country are part of the Basaquastanian diaspora. Numerically, it is the largest religion in Liberto-Ancapistan, followed by Santian Folk Religion and Christianity. Aspects of Bowism have been incorporated into the Basaquastanian Christian tradition Nivin Christianity.

Beliefs

Cosmology and Bow

Bowism is almost exclusively monotheistic, believing in a singular, transcendent creator god known as Bow. Bow is held to be omnipotent, but is neither omniscient nor eternal, and is instead a product of the space outside the Deryaya Bow, Netem. Bow deliberately created the Deryaya Bow in the distant past, which most Bowists hold to have been an act of creativity. Bow does not manifest themself within the Deryaya Bow, either because they are unwilling to do so or because doing so would harm their functions in the divine realm. Instead, different parts of Bow's divine being, which collectively make up the god, may individually manifest and interact with the Deryaya Bow and its inhabitants. These are called aspects, and function similarly to lower gods, being the mechanism through which the inhabitants of the Deryaya Bow can interact with Bow. Though Bow is believed to care for the Deryaya Bow as a whole, and is said to have unparalleled wisdom, their aspects are not necessarily benevolent, and have differing levels of connection to the Deryaya Bow's inhabitants.

Bowists hold the Deryaya Bow (material universe) to be a fundamental creation of Bow, different to Netem, which surrounds the Deryaya Bow and which Bow is a product of. Bowists divide reality into the material, the self-sustaining reality of the Deryaya Bow, and the divine, derived from Bow or Netem. Bow is, ordinarily, wholly divine, while humans are wholly material, and may only interact with the divine through the consent of divine beings. Spirits, sustained by and dependent upon Bow, are wholly divine, but are closely connected to and exist among the material world. According to most Bowists, the most pure material substance, and the primary means through which Bow created the Deryaya Bow, is water. Many Bowists, including those of the Kevirozian school, hold that aspects of reality other than the material and divine could exist within Netem, perhaps created by deities other than Bow. However, most consider the nature of Netem outside its interactions with the Deryaya Bow to be entirely unknowable.

As Bowists consider humans and other non-spirit life in the Deryaya Bow to be entirely material, they make no distinction between the body and a human soul or spirit. Views on the existence of an afterlife or life after death vary between schools and local traditions; most in the Kevirozian school of Bowism hold that humans and animals are made spirits when they die (expressed by the process of decomposition) ,though a variety of other beliefs are common and permitted.

Aspects and spirits

All forms of Bowism involve belief in spirits and the aspects of Bow, which together form the primary focus of Bowist ritual. Aspects are divine manifestations of parts of Bow's being, while spirits are constructions or forms of life created in the Deryaya Bow which are of a divine character, and therefore dependent on Bow for survival. Both are appealed to by Bowists in their worship.

Aspects, as constituents of Bow, hold immense power and wisdom, and are able to grant any wish or favour acceptable to Bow in their entirity. Unlike spirits, they do not permenantly exist in the Deryaya Bow, and can be appealed to from any geographic location. Aspects occupy a similar space to polytheistic gods, and are associated with specific names, appearances, personalities and mythologies, though these are only rarely held to be entirely true. Most Bowist schools do not identify a specific number of aspects, though some are more widely appealed to than others. As aspects have the wisdom of Bow, they are almost the exclusive focus of Bowist divination. The most well-known aspects of Bow are Paleyî (transl. "Harvest"), associated with luck and agriculture, and the Kahînê Zinarê (transl. "Priest of the Rock"), associated with prophecy.

Spirits, unlike aspects, are independent beings created by Bow, with some Bowist schools believing that they are formed from dead material life. They are distinguished by their divine nature and dependence on the presence of Bow for life, being incapable of sustaining themselves on their material surroundings. Like aspects, spirits have no fixed form and may influence the material world, but vary in their actual abilities and lack the wisdom afforded to Bow. They are usually restricted to a single geographic location, and exist in unknowably large numbers. As divine reality can freely influence material reality, but material reality cannot influence divine reality, human interaction with spirits primarily takes the form of appeals. While spirits are less powerful, benevolent and wisdomful than aspects, most Bowists believe that they are much more likely to answer appeals. Many spirits are though to be actively malevolent, and have historically been blamed for natural disasters including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Their danger can be reduced by giving offerings or calling upon a more powerful benevolent spirit to expel them from an area.

Practices

Bowism is generally focused on ritual rather than religious doctrine, to the extent where it is often difficult to distinguish between Bowist customs and wider Basaquastanian customs.

Religious structures

Most Bowist ritual worship is centred around religious structures, subcategorised into shrines and temples. These are separated by the presence of a priest, and typically other religious staff, in a temple, and the lack of such in a shrine. There are up to 60,000 public shrines in Liberto-Ancapistan, ranging from temples with multi-building complexes to small canopied platforms.Traditionally, shrines and temples are dedicated to a single local spirit or aspect of Bow, but larger temples may have a broader dedication or multiple patrons.

All shrines involve a canopy, even if the they do not take the form of full buildings. This is typically made of stone, and supported on at least two sides. On either side of the gate of a shrine or temple are two stone steles, on which the original dedication of the shrine is inscribed. In most shrines, especially those more than two centuries old, this dedication is written in the old Nivin script, which has fallen out of use in most Basaquese writing. The interior of a shrine is centred around a pool of water, beneath a hole in the canopy used to allow rainwater inside. In a small shrine, this may simply be a wooden bowl. The pool is used exclusively for divination, and other messages from divine sources. Around the bowl are raised platforms for the placement of offerings.

Offerings take the form of anything considered to be valuable by Bowists, though food is by far the most common offering and individual spirits are traditionally held to have certain preferences. Most offerings take the form of fruit or prepared meat - historically, animals have been killed and presented on-site in temples and larger shrines, but this has fallen out of common practice. Some Bowists will leave a note or whisper their requests to spirits, but others believe that this is not a requirement.