N'nhivara

N'nhivara
Type	Dharmic
Orientation	Pantheistic
Scripture	Various
Theology	Animist
Polity	Congregational
Upasamda	Voroami Songdhammakalyani
Headquarters	Grand Gereja Of Nhivaran
Founder	Chaumai Boodsabaan
Origin	805 BCE Orang Uslia
Other name(s)	ꦥꦱꦪꦕꦲꦼꦢꦼꦭꦶꦕ

N’Nhivara (Raji:ꦥꦱꦪꦕꦲꦼꦢꦼꦭꦶꦕ) is a form of Animist religious belief traditionally practiced by the Matara and Rajosian peoples. It proposes that life exists in all things on all levels of coherence and clarity and that perceiving reality on a greater scale is the sole purpose of life. N’nhivara was the state religion for the Ayuhaya Empire with the declaration of the Rahmkhe Dynasty, and led to the establishment of the N’nhivaran Order in 389 BCE, which still exists to this day. Followers of N’nhivara refer to themselves formally as N’nhivaran.

N’Nhivara is currently practiced by the various ethnic groups in Kopiona Poi, Orang Uslia and Birhanu, with a substantial following in Nahkarain and the Solustheris. The faith is polytheistic and pantheistic and is practiced within a traditional hierarchy of monks, with a singular matriarchal authority, monikered as the Upasamada, who dictates the necessities for the preservation and success of the faith itself. The N’nhivaran faith dictates a very intricate funeral ceremony, called ‘Pembakaran’, which is a weeklong ceremonial cremation ritual, before having the ashes spread over lakes or other bodies of water, to facilitate giving the body back to the source of the Melangkah.

All houses of N’Nhivara see commonly observed practices of meditation, the practitioning of Nusant Silat as a ceremonial martial arts, daily offerings to shrines in both the house and at temple, and most notably, a regular indulgence with psychedelic and euphoria-inducing substances, in a practice known as Melangkah.

History

Pre-Ayuhaya Period

First recorded by the Zip Koa Kong in the Grand Library of the Solustheris, the first cult of the N’nhivara(Iit. Transcendence) was based around the Nhivaran Lake in Western Orang Uslia, which is renowned for the prevalence of a native freshwater Ascidian Tunicate species, the Nhivara Aurata, which naturally produces N-dimethyltryptamine, and was thus far the first example of a psychedelic drug of marine origin, called Asci’diana. The practice of harvesting, cultivating, and using the Tunicate was reported to be in occurrence as early as 950 BCE.

The first Upasamada, Chaumai Boodsabaan, had her speeches collected into a manuscript known as the Tuntutan Roh, which praised the tradition as necessary to transcend beyond the first plane of coherence, in order to begin to fulfill the calling of life, in escaping one sight of the mortal world. Under Boodsabaan, the religion expanded enormously, at some point introducing Mulut Darah as another substance held sacred to the N’nhivaran faith. The Grand Gereja of Nhivaran was built in 805 BCE, funded by the remnants of the Subothi-Chiran family who had joined the order as to escape the Sulumat Wars, with many seeking to eliminate any Chiran claimant to the throne. In the following years of the 9th century BCE, Gereja would be constructed across Orang Uslia, and reaching Birhanu as early as 846 BCE.

The First Doctrine of N’nhivara, titled as the Tuntutan Kuasa, written in 850 BCE, records the traditions, practices, and structures of the N’nhivara faith, with the introduction of the Bhikkuni monk order, the role of the Upasamada, and the rituals for each form of Melangkah, with details written unto the preparation, collection, storage, and usage of various psychedelic substances. In each Melangkah, there were detailed descriptions on the experience of ‘ascension’ to each drug, and restrictions decreed upon the threat of overdose, known as ‘Runtuh’ (Rajosi:ꦕꦺꦴꦭꦭꦄꦥꦱꦼ), which is seen as a fall from a higher plane of coherence, and thus both a disgrace and transgression to the practitioners of N’nhivara. The emergence of the disgrace of ‘Runtuh’ seems to derive from a growing commoner access to the psychedelic and euphoric substances used the N’nhivaran due to increased production, with hatcheries for Nhivara Aurata being constructed at every Gereja, and thus a more widespread introduction of the psychedelic substance to other groups in Orang Uslia. As more commoners would be granted access to the Gereja, and thus provided with Asci’diana and Mulut Darah, widespread addiction and overdose habits would break out beginning in the early 7th century BCE.

N’nhivara is, according to the Tuntunan Kuasa, deeply tied to a proper state of both physical and mental ascension, with multiple ceremonies detailing the ways in which both the mind and body are influenced.Starting in 600 BCE, the Grand Gereja of Tau Turihuma was built by the order of Upasamada Dhammanada Bulhkuri, and began serving as an epicenter for the training and performance exhibitions of the ceremonial martial arts, Nusant Silat, which had been formed by the N’nhivaran persons in the early 8th Century BCE. These ceremonies, known at the Pameran Nusant Silat, became an annual affair, and had been performed near consistently until the end of the Tahamaja Empire, at which the Age of Fire led to a lack of willingness to engage in the Pameran.

Ayuhaya Period

It is under the authority of the Ayuhaya Kingdom that the N’nhivaran faith grew to retain power above the political realm itself. Under Pho Khun Ban Rauamanheng, the first Pho Khun of the Rahmkhe Dynasty, the N’nhivaran Order was ordained and established at the end of the 4th century BCE, serving as those responsible for facilitating, maintaining, and enforcing the practice of N’nhivara as the official religion of the Ayuhaya Kingdom. It was at this point that Nusant Silat was seen as inefficient for urban combat, and thus a new form of martial arts was developed as Hancur Silat, which relied less on ceremonial movement and in trandem movements with the Melangkah but as a push towards militarization.

A particularly specialized order of Bhikkuni, called Nakkha, was trained heavily in the new Hancur Silat, with the missive to ensure that all sources for the Melangkah were completely under the control of the N’nhivaran Order, with the declaration that it was only through the control and organization of the Order could the Melangkah be truly successful without the threat of Runtuh. The Nakkha themselves were tiered, with only the most elite, the Nakkha Sura, taking Asci’diana, as they are trusted in the capacities to bring both body and mind to balance whilst under Melangkah, whereas the larger Nakkha Uhlam traditionally take Mulut Darah, garnering the order a colloquial identity as the ‘Marah Rahang’(Rajosi:ꦫꦼꦢ ꦗꦄꦮ, lit. Red Jaw)

By the end of the Rahmkhe Dynasty, production of the Mulut Darah and Asci’diana were completely under the jurisdiction of the N’nhivaran Order, and thus distribution was still extensive, yet regulated by the Bhikkuni. The N’nhivaran Order gradually began to expand in influence from here, due to their influence over the trade of the psychedelic and euphoric substances both within the islands and outwards, and the sheer size of followers to the faith. This eventually drew the ire of the Ayuttah Dynasty, and Pho Khun Simaat Pegnang ordered for the storage and trade of both Asci’diana and Mulut Darah to be regulated by the empirical council. This led to heavily internalized conflicts between the N’nhivaran Order and the Ayuttah, to the point where the Upasamada, Munissara Arahma, began to conspire against the royal family. In 804, the Coup of Ratchathan took place, as the Nakkha Sura stormed the Phra Chuthathut Ratchathan, the current palace to the royal family, and killed the Pho Khun Vajiravudh Sakdidej, thus ending the Ayuttah dynasty as he had no eligible heirs, and Phaiya Kun Rambi Barnaha had ceded her authority. Not soon afterwards, the Tahamaja Empire of the Solustheris took power in both Birhanu and Orang Uslia, thus unifying the Archipelago, with the N’nhivaran Order finding itself struggling to retain independence under the Tahamaja, and in 847 CE, was constrained to the three Grand Gereja- until the Tahamaja commissioned them for aid in enforcing overseas forts-illeciting a further expansion of N'nhivara once more.

Age of Fire

Throughout the Age of Fire, the followers of N’nhivara tended to stay close to the Grand Gereja, and detached themselves from the pattern of war and the uprisings of kingdoms throughout the centuries, instead taking to efforts to sustain the faith by relaxing restrictions on the access of the Melangkah substances, allowing some fisheries and farmers to respectively raise Ascidian Tunicates and grow both Mulut Leaf and Darah Nut. Eventually, near the end of the 16th century, the N’nhivaran faith was once again popular amongst the people, however the emerging kingdoms feared a repetition of the Coup of Ratchathan, and took to placing restrictions on any claimant for the N’nhivaran Order to hold over the production and growth over any of the substances as a whole. In addition, the spreading popularity of Sadhana began to detract from the widespread worship of other indigenous faiths, as well as the syncretism of practices from the Order of the Four Paths into mainstream N’nhivara, such as the habits of reciting mantras whilst performing the Melangkah, or the presence of prayer wheels in newer Gereja, like the fourth Grand Gereja built in Samuii, the capital of the Solustheris Isles.

Nusataran Period

At the end of the Age of Fire, in what became known as the Nusataran Period the N’nhivaran Order began to experiment and experience new substances, specifically with heightened trade by Mutul and Southern Ochran. The Upasamada at the time, Inyang Macarerang, wrote the Tuntutan Kalakalan in 1654 CE, a declaration on the necessity to begin to provide the gifts of the Melangkah to the outside world, but to do so with the best interests of the archipelago at heart, with the proto-xenophobic attitude still prevalent in much of the population.

The Kalakalan details rules on the usage and distribution of ‘Dayuhan’ substances, which could still be used in Melangkah but were much more heavily restricted, and provided in much fewer doses, with all operations being dealt with by the N’nhivaran Order. This was met with approval by the various kingdoms of the Pulau Archipelago, due to an admittance that to allow the flow of addictive substances throughout the region uninhibited would lead to another epidemic of addicts, and to allow the order to facilitate its role in society would also appease the larger followings of the faith. The Kalakalan also details rules and motives for distributions of the Mulut Darah and Asci’diana to other nations, most notably explaining a desire to allow others to experience the growth of the Melangkah of their own accords, whilst also ensuring the survival of the N’nhivaran faith.

These habits continued into the modern day, and under the Pulau Keramat Confederacy, the N’nhivaran Order began to modernize, bolstering its internal structure amongst the Gereja as to work as a bulwark and institution to blockade the entrance of other drug triads or pushers without their own consent.

Psychedelics & Melangkah

In traditional N’nhivaran faith, two substances are seen as being sacred tools for the process of Melangkah, being that of Asci’diana and Mulut Darah. Melangkah itself infers to the practice of using either of the substances in a manner fitting with N’nhivara, which includes various restrictions on dosage, the environment of which the substance is consumed, and what activities are committed upon during the time whilst under influence. There are numerous rituals written in the constraints of Melangkah, with many detailing different secondary ingredients for consumption, meditation practices, Nusant Silat forms, and innumerable other specifications. A majority of these rituals are detailed within the various Tuntutuan, albeit some more obscure or localized Melangkah rituals have been discovered as having recently being recorded by the Zoa Kip Kong in the Grand Library of Birhanu. Traditionally, each Grand Gereja sticks with a certain number of Melangkah rituals as being in common usage for their region, with only the Grand Gereja of Kopiona Poi, being the largest concentration of N’nhivaran followers outside of the original Nhivaran Gereja, taking to embracing independent efforts on each Bhikkuni for which Melangkah ritual they wish to participate in.

Asci’diana

Asci’diana is a psychedelic substance, derived from the lineage of Ascidian Tunicates, and first discovered in the freshwater/brackish species, the Nhivara Aurata. Tunicates are cultured on a large scale in aquaculture systems, and when a Tunicate is fully grown, it is usually dried, and then finely minced. This product is then either used dry and smoked, labeled as Kolezhuthu, which has lasting influences on the subject for at least an hour, or the tunicate is pulpified and brewed for several hours, making Kalidasa, which has lasting influences ranging anywhere from 8 to 10 hours on the subject. Common reception to the usage of Asci’diana follows as visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations and specific physical sensation progressing to a sense of bodily dissociation, as well as experiences of euphoria, calm, fear, and anxiety.

The usage of Asci’diana is limited heavily, with the normal N’nhivaran population being allocated a singular dosage for a month, and even most Bhikkuni only receiving two doses a month. The Nakkha Sura however participate in the consumption of Kalidasa on a biweekly basis, citing a necessity for allowing it to become a part of their normal lives in order to truly move both their body and mind to an elevated position worthy of their title. As such, the process of becoming a Nakkha Sura is entirely dependent on the capacity of the candidate to function with such a normal consumption of Asci’diana, either as Kolezhuthu or Kalidasa.

Modern research into the usage of Asci’diana has found that there is little risk of the compound itself being toxic or addictive, however there lies a threat of participants becoming too accustomed to the imagery and hallucinations that come with usage, and thus taking to a reliancy due to skewed perceptions of reality and overwhelming desires to exist within the frame of the psychedelic imagery. There is currently testing for endogenous effects of the usage of the substance, with some concern that there are connections to visual dream phenomena. However, in most research committed by health organizations, it seems that there are no permanent impacts by the usage of Asci’diana, with unaffected melatonin levels, and only mild increases in blood concentration of beta-endorphin and prolactin.

Mulut Darah

Mulut Darah is a euphoric drug, made by the combination of Mulut Leaf and Darah Nut, with Mulut being using as a wrapping agent to the minced Darah nut, comparable to chewing tobacco, releasing a mild euphoric experience to those who indulge for the next hour. Mulut Darah has a reputation of staining the teeth, mouth, and lips red, leading to it’s common moniker as the ‘Bloody Mouth’ Drug. Mulut Darah is used on a much more regular basis than Asci’diana, with the Tuntutan Kuasa advocating for usage every five days.

The Nakkha Uhlam have been conditioned to regular usage on a daily basis, as to fully be capable of practicing and displaying Hancur Silat whilst under the influence of the euphoric substance. This had led to many of the order being seen with a near permanent red stain in their mouth, and thus a common title to the Nakkha Uhlam being given as the ‘Marah Rehang’ (lit. Red Jaw). Many of the Nakkha Uhlam have embraced this reputation, with some dyeing their entire lower face red with powdered Darah, as an indicator of their position.

Modern research into health developments reveal that there is correlation between the usage of Mulut Darah and Oral Submucosal Fibrosis, along with dangers of hypertension and asthma exacerbation. In addition, both Health Organizations and the N’nhivaran Order suggest against the usage of Mulut Darah whilst pregnant, or for at least a year before planning pregnancy, in recognition of adverse effects that the consumption of Mulut Darah has on the fetus. However, current research also indicates no correlation between the development of oral cancer and the usage of Mulut Darah, which was a significant issue in the early 2000s among many groups within the Pulau Archipelago.

Kaavia

Kaavia, or Kava is a euphoric and anesthetic crop traditionally located and grown within Onekawa-Nukanoa, and a hallmark substance attributed to the N'nhivaran Melangkah as a 'first step' in colloquial connotation and role, given it's relatively minor impact upon the mind, yet due to the difficulty in overdosage attributed to consumption of the substance, it is seen as a safer substance to provide during outreach, and to younger, newer members of the faith during their first days. ((ADD WAY MORE))

Other Substances

The usage of other substances by the N’nhivaran Order is a relatively new experience, and one that is rarely explored by the more conservative Gereja, believing the substances to not be worth the experience. However, the Grand Gereja of Kopiona Poi has been the most forward proponent to the distribution and practice of ‘Dayuhan Melangkah’, which is to recognize that the capacity to find transcendence is a universal goal, and as such the remainder of the world may have substances that would allow for people to begin to find a higher level of reality.

Sects & Presence

Onekawa-Nukanoa & The Sumana Besa

The Sumana Besa sect traces its origins to the early days of exploration and incorporation through the Tahamaja Empire. A unique fusion of Onekawan Hahī and Pulaui N'nhivaran beliefs to better fit an Onekawan cultural context, it views and personifies N'nhivara as the "Great Spirit" and the 'Parent of Creation' alongside a number of other distinctions from traditional N'nhivaran beliefs

The first and most prominent difference is the personification of N'nhivara as the Great Spirit who upon its birth from the void formed the entirety of creation. The goal of adherents of this sect is through the completion and contemplation of spiritual journeys they will get a greater understanding of the Great Spirit. These journeys are viewed as the adherent spiritually going back to these early days of creation and asking the why, who, what, where and how to try and understand the Great Spirit.

These spiritual journeys draw parallels to the Hahī labours to try and better understand the deity. Usually each journey is small and scope, and is intended to better understand only a small aspect, thought or goal of the Great Spirit. Upon completion of the journey the adherent will have discussion with a tohunga to determine if the adherent was able to understand and as a result move further along the Path.

The Path is also another aspect of Sumana Besa which highlights the fusion of Hahī and N'nhivara beliefs. As adherents proceed along the Path and their understanding of the Great Spirit deepens, there will be a point where they total understanding of the Great Spirit and by definition all creation and as a result they will mantle the Great Spirit and replace it This is very similar to the multitude of labours Hahī believers complete in an ultimate attempt to better understand and eventually replace their deity.

The Sumana Besa sect also has a different view of the Upasamada, in which as they are seen as the tohunga who has most progressed along the path and as a result closest of all adherents to the Great Spirit. As a result they are viewed as a semi-divine being, closest to mantling the Great Spirit and most able to guide adherents along the path. As mentioned below this also means the the current Upasamada is the closest anyone has ever been along the path. That is why they are often referred to as the Metarahikaiwhakaatu, or the Great Guide.

Another important aspect is the view of death. When ashes of adherents are spread along bodies of water, its viewed that the essence of that adherent and their progress along the Path isn't lost but has simply moved into another form. This essence is then absorbed by Asci’diana, or nearby hallucinogenic plants. And on consumption the deceaseds understanding they have acquired is passed on to the next generation and thus as time goes on all adherents advance further along the Path then those who came before.

Population

Distribution of N'nhivara by nation

Nation	Total Population	N'nhivaran Population	% of Population
Ankat	63,895,000	13,417,950	21%
Bemiritra	14,893,239	4,914,769	33%
Fahran	35,084,331	434,070	0.7%
Kajera	32,010,871	7,362,500	23%
M'biruna	32,000,001	1,600,000	5%
Lion's Rock	5,469,700
Onekawa-Nukanoa	62,010,060	9,921,609	16%
Pulacan	46,442,816	7,430,851	16%
Pulau Keramat	83,452,600	36,719,144	44%
Sante Reze	115,500,000	10,005,000	8.7%
Talahara	52,314,445	836,023	1.6%
Tyreseia	33,275,404	1,663,770	5%
Vardana	64,202,572	1,284,051	2%
Zanzali	44,009,280	17,163,619	39%
Total		112,753,356