Kiaism

Kiaism (Phadongmen: 極, Semrökvom: ꡀꡞ, Classical Acanic: Gök, Vernacular Acanic: Kia) is a religious and philosophical system that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs, and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the First Thearch, its central deity and founder. Adherents practice the worship at temples, and incorporate ritual sacrifices, technological fetishism, mediation, observance of moral precepts, monasticism, meditation, and the cultivation of the virtues. It is a theologically bizarre faith, with it frequently being argued that it is either polytheistic, monolatristic, or even monothiestic and it is a major academic debate among Acanicologists to this day about its true nature; a matter not helped by the lack of intervention by Akai authorities.

Kiaism is an ancient religion, with some of its oldest texts dating back to the original Acanic conquests of the Aryan peoples in the early 3rd millenium BC. However its present form is was codified during the appearance of the First Thearch who is considered either the or the most important God of the pantheon for the laity. Kiaism is a fusion or synthesis of several Acanic cultures and traditions although thanks to the Thearchy, there has been considerable standardisation of thought. Among the roots of Kiaism are the historical Vedic religion of the Aryan kingdoms, but also the Monic ancestral faiths and arguably Khaturvism through the Min Empire which controlled some of the Northern territories at its peak.

The main denomination of Kiaism, His Most Sacred Majesty’s Universal Temple is extremely secretive and esoteric in its nature, with most of the knowledge about its theology coming from internal sources who have left its ranks. It’s relatively unique nature as an esoteric religion has caused historical schism, most infamously with the Exotericists of the first century during the Kawthaft Thearchy which in turn caused the Akai wars of religion. The Exotericists with their exile and their texts provide some of the best understanding of Kiaist theology although it is clear through the incomplete nature of their own writings they to do not have the full understanding of the faith and merely practice the rites they were able to compile.

The Acanilogists divide known Kiaism into two distinct strands: Esoteric and the Exoteric. The Esoteric Kiaism of the Universal Temple largely represents the official dogma of the Akai theocratic state and while there is official doctrine, many local variants of teachings do exist so long as it does not contradict the formal doctrine of the temple. The Universal Temple also raises the Thearch to possesses Divine infallibility due to his nature as the God of mankind, a concept frequently misunderstood to mean absolute truth. Exoteric Kiaism in turn can be divided into two branches, the consolidators and the cults with the former school seeking to totally compile all evidence they have to create an open vision of the Kiaist faith and frequently form decentralised cells to communicate with one another while the latter tend to be “autistic” groups which practice heterodoxy. These peculiar cults tend to be found in insular communities typically in Akai's more isolated regions, with the followers of such cults being typically poor (if self-reliant), humble, and hostile towards outsiders.

Kiaism is largely contained to Akai although variants regarded as heretical are commonly practised among the population of the Akai diaspora who fled the continent in the Intercernine period and the Exotericist Heresy.

Etymology and typology

The word Kia (Phadongmen: 極, Semrökvom: ꡀꡞ, Classical Acanic: Gök, Vernacular Acanic: Kia) is derived from the Vernacular Akai term Kia. The character was first associated with the religion in the Eastern Lengzun Period, circa 1592 BC.

The term itself has while a similar meaning to the rest of the Monic world, it is imbued with a particular meaning in Akai. In Akai, the character Kia is frequently used to describe an idea which promotes a degree of transcendent finality. In a sense, followers of Kia believe that this is the ultimate of all religions with all others either being false demiurgic conceptions of the universe or misinterpretations of the truth depending on which sect you are talking to.

Another common exonym is the character Lia (Phadongmen: 隸, Semrökvom: ꡙꡞ, Classical Acanic: Rös, Vernacular Acanic: Kia)which is often used by both the practitioners of the faith to describe themselves and foreign scholars who retain the use of the term to describe the faith in question. With often mistranslated as "slave", an entomological mistake deriving from the idea of service contained within. However, Acanicologists have as of late recently begun disputing such a characterisation, instead of translating it as "servant".