Thabinite Religion in the Sundara
The Thabinite Religion is one of the three major religions in the Ignis Desert. It originated in the Sundara province when it was adopted by the Sundaran royal family. It started as a hodge podge of religions, seemingly in an attempt to unite their vast and diverse empire.
While the religion would grow and expand along with the Sundaran Empire, the main deities are as follows:
1. Adalet-Snake god, king of the gods, and protector of the royal family. Husband of Cesri and brother of Nezaket, Adalet was once a minor deity that the Sundarans took and reworked to being the protector of all. By the 1200s, Adalet was impregnating queens and princesses with the future heirs. However, Adalet was also know for abandoning his children on a whim. Adalet also has a holy guard of assassins known as the Vrasis. They were hand selected by Adalet’s high priests (who decided based on drug induced conversations with Adalet) and they were bond to protecting the Sundaran Throne. Their size and power would expand and contract, depending on much the royal family trusted them and the priests.
2. Nezaket-arachnid god that was worked into the mythos after the Sundarans conquered the Iraicci. He became Adalet’s brother in the 1200s and is alternately Adalet’s ally and enemy, depending on the royal family’s relationship with the elite of the Iraicci province. In the 1300s, it become gospel that Nezaket also impregnated queens and princesses with future leaders of the Sundara. Worshippers of Adalet and Nezaket were known for kidnapping the children of the gods and either enslaving them or killing them, depending on their mood.
3. Cesri- Cersi was a warrior goddess who may have been a Koren deity before being taken by the Sundaran royalty. Ancient fragments dated as being from 400, show her drawn with fur on her face and hands, suggesting she was once a Koren/Indairum hybrid. Myth has it that she was responsible for driving the Stone Dragons into the Kanas Mountains and wore a baby Stone Dragon’s skull on her head. She was the protector of mothers and children and protect the fiercest of warriors. She also is the one who accepts the warrior spirits and the spirits of their wives into Vishuv, warrior Heaven. Cersi’s priestesses were the protects of the throne and the various governmental officers, until the Shadows distrusted their power and banished them to their temples.
4. Huzur and Kezlu- Huzur was the god of war. He was a great human with a serpent’s head, six arms, and a three-pronged tail. He was a wild animal that could only be controlled by Kezlu, his wife, playing the flute. If she ever stopped playing the flute, Huzur would lose controlled and destroy the entire world. The small sect who worshipped him performed human sacrifices before going to war in order to win his favor. They were also practitioners of ‘voodoo/spirit magic’ believing that if they carved figures out of the bones of someone, they could call back his skeleton and send him into battle for them. They also performed blood rituals in which they kidnapped Indariums and wrote symbols on their forehead with their blood to control them.
5. Sadaket- an ocean god and was worshipped by the Kacharias and other coastal Indariums. He was a fickle god who demanded that his children (the seas creatures) be respected and, when eaten, honored. Every Indarium performed a ceremony before they prepared their fish. It was also said that one day Sadaket fell in love with an Indarium and wanted her to live with him, but knew she couldn’t as an Indarium, so he turned her into a mermaid. They now live in the ocean together, causing storms whenever the Indariums have angered them, and protecting their favorite Indariums.
6. Namus- Goddess of the Saya Gardens and the original protector of the Sundaran royal family. She is the only true Sundara goddess and was replaced by Adalet because of royal family disputes and jealousies. She was a two-faced goddess, changing faces depending on her mood. Scholars believe this is because the desert itself would have years of great rains and the rivers would flood and the Indariums would have plenty of food and then next year there would be a drought and the Indariums would be starving. She is another goddess who often receives human sacrifices, but it seems to have little effect. The only goddess said to give birth to Sundaran heirs, taking over during conception and during birth. Her children are often murdered because they are unpredictable and live stormy lives.
7. Kadro and Karar- A gift from early Barisianity, it seems. The Indairums who live on the Atamik took the twin disciples of Amal Baris and turned them into the male twins-Kadro and Karar. Kadro is dark and Karar is light, Kadro rules the night and Karar rules the day, and Kadro is the bringer of Death and Karar brings gift of Life. They are more forgiving gods than the others and there are hints of the twins returning to Barisianity. Karar is slowly taking the form of a resurrected martyr and a narrative is forming where the twins were drawn away from Adalet and the other gods by Wahead (the Indarium Amal Baris) the great Deceiver and the twins betrayed the Great Serpent. Karar died in the process only to be resurrected by Wahead as a reward for his help. The Indariums who worship these gods are not liked by the royal family and are often sacrificed by his followers.
8. Durzu and Saygi- Durzu and Saygi are sisters who guard the dead. They were female warriors and are the chosen goddesses of Manyara. While Cersi welcomes warriors into Heaven, Durzu and Saygi protect their bodies on Terra and any ghouls and demons in the afterlife. They are often portrayed as jackal headed goddesses with shadowy armor. It is said that they are the daughters of Huzur, the god of war, and burst from his chest after he claimed Sundara from the Korens and dragons. They are often seen at his feet, marking the souls of the soldiers about to die, as he marches off to war.
Although the Thanbinite religion existed as its own entity before 1200, after the Sundarans and Alkahoon empires fell into war, the religion created its own mythos in response to Ahshralism, the belief in Wahead and his twelve brothers and sisters. Wahead replaced Nezaket as Adalet’s great rival and became known as Wahead the Deceiver.
They believe that when the lesser gods created the Sundara Empire, Adalet made himself king and took Cesri as his wife, giving birth to eight serpentine children and various Arifundi. Adalet chose his favorite Indariums and tasked them with feeding his children and taking care of them. This is why Thabinites still practice human sacrifices-often Ahsralists, but they also make do with Indariums who worship the Arachnids if they have to- and feed the flesh to the Arifundi.
They also believe that Wahead and Adalet fought each other in what is known as Shardith’s Anvil. Unlike the Ahsralists, the Thabinites do not believe their god was destroyed by Wahead. They believe he is still out there, fighting an eternal battle with Wahead and it is up to them to slaughter his believers in service to Adalet. After Adalet disappeared to fight Wahead, the other gods-without a leader-scattered, but still visit their favorite Indariums and there are tales of female Indariums being impregnated with their children.
These children are known as Arachnid brides and husbands (those that only Nezaket and his half-children and children can mate with) or Adalet’s children.
Another narrative developed after the Shadows conquered the Sundara. Many believed that the Shadow goddess, Death, tricked both Wahead and Adalet into Shardith’s Anvil and trapped them so they could watch as she and her husband, Mordred, destroyed the Sundara Empire and ruled over the Ignis. Now that the Shadows have lost control over the desert, it is only a matter of time before Wahead and Adalet break free and the final battle can be fought between the two great enemies.
The Thabinite priests are called Beknez so Beknez Jafaa and Beknez Zepharim. They are more like the Catholic church then the Islamic Arshralists because they have a stricter hierarchy and rely on temples whereas the Arshralists do not. This came out of the Shadow influence who like things nice and organized as well as the Gargainian influence. Many Sundarans watched the Gargainians eat their southern territories and created a cadre of Beknez to combat the Church. Thus, they have a strong network of temples throughout the Sundara and Iraicci and each temple is dedicated to one specific god. The Beknez also have a special group of warriors and assassins they use to do the will of the gods. They are called the Vrasis and they are a secret society that have murdered Shadow officials, Shivians, Indariums, and Gargainians at the will of the Beknez. They are both beloved and feared.
Their religion is a brutal, warriorlike religion, absorbing some of the Koren beliefs after living with them for so long. They believe the Arifundi are the Great Serpent’s vessels to the afterlife in the great sky. They also believe in a heaven for their warriors and believed that their greatest accomplishment in life is dying in battle.
The Thabinites and Orumstists are the only people in the desert who believe they can communicate with their gods. This honor is reserved for high priests and the children of the gods i.e. the royal family. To do this, one must use a combination of edible and inhalant drugs and to enter the world of the gods and listen to their wisdom. There is a high danger of overdosing, so they mostly force kidnapped children of Nezaket and Namus to speak to the gods as oppose to the royal children.
While the religion would grow and expand along with the Sundaran Empire, the main deities are as follows:
1. Adalet-Snake god, king of the gods, and protector of the royal family. Husband of Cesri and brother of Nezaket, Adalet was once a minor deity that the Sundarans took and reworked to being the protector of all. By the 1200s, Adalet was impregnating queens and princesses with the future heirs. However, Adalet was also know for abandoning his children on a whim. Adalet also has a holy guard of assassins known as the Vrasis. They were hand selected by Adalet’s high priests (who decided based on drug induced conversations with Adalet) and they were bond to protecting the Sundaran Throne. Their size and power would expand and contract, depending on much the royal family trusted them and the priests.
2. Nezaket-arachnid god that was worked into the mythos after the Sundarans conquered the Iraicci. He became Adalet’s brother in the 1200s and is alternately Adalet’s ally and enemy, depending on the royal family’s relationship with the elite of the Iraicci province. In the 1300s, it become gospel that Nezaket also impregnated queens and princesses with future leaders of the Sundara. Worshippers of Adalet and Nezaket were known for kidnapping the children of the gods and either enslaving them or killing them, depending on their mood.
3. Cesri- Cersi was a warrior goddess who may have been a Koren deity before being taken by the Sundaran royalty. Ancient fragments dated as being from 400, show her drawn with fur on her face and hands, suggesting she was once a Koren/Indairum hybrid. Myth has it that she was responsible for driving the Stone Dragons into the Kanas Mountains and wore a baby Stone Dragon’s skull on her head. She was the protector of mothers and children and protect the fiercest of warriors. She also is the one who accepts the warrior spirits and the spirits of their wives into Vishuv, warrior Heaven. Cersi’s priestesses were the protects of the throne and the various governmental officers, until the Shadows distrusted their power and banished them to their temples.
4. Huzur and Kezlu- Huzur was the god of war. He was a great human with a serpent’s head, six arms, and a three-pronged tail. He was a wild animal that could only be controlled by Kezlu, his wife, playing the flute. If she ever stopped playing the flute, Huzur would lose controlled and destroy the entire world. The small sect who worshipped him performed human sacrifices before going to war in order to win his favor. They were also practitioners of ‘voodoo/spirit magic’ believing that if they carved figures out of the bones of someone, they could call back his skeleton and send him into battle for them. They also performed blood rituals in which they kidnapped Indariums and wrote symbols on their forehead with their blood to control them.
5. Sadaket- an ocean god and was worshipped by the Kacharias and other coastal Indariums. He was a fickle god who demanded that his children (the seas creatures) be respected and, when eaten, honored. Every Indarium performed a ceremony before they prepared their fish. It was also said that one day Sadaket fell in love with an Indarium and wanted her to live with him, but knew she couldn’t as an Indarium, so he turned her into a mermaid. They now live in the ocean together, causing storms whenever the Indariums have angered them, and protecting their favorite Indariums.
6. Namus- Goddess of the Saya Gardens and the original protector of the Sundaran royal family. She is the only true Sundara goddess and was replaced by Adalet because of royal family disputes and jealousies. She was a two-faced goddess, changing faces depending on her mood. Scholars believe this is because the desert itself would have years of great rains and the rivers would flood and the Indariums would have plenty of food and then next year there would be a drought and the Indariums would be starving. She is another goddess who often receives human sacrifices, but it seems to have little effect. The only goddess said to give birth to Sundaran heirs, taking over during conception and during birth. Her children are often murdered because they are unpredictable and live stormy lives.
7. Kadro and Karar- A gift from early Barisianity, it seems. The Indairums who live on the Atamik took the twin disciples of Amal Baris and turned them into the male twins-Kadro and Karar. Kadro is dark and Karar is light, Kadro rules the night and Karar rules the day, and Kadro is the bringer of Death and Karar brings gift of Life. They are more forgiving gods than the others and there are hints of the twins returning to Barisianity. Karar is slowly taking the form of a resurrected martyr and a narrative is forming where the twins were drawn away from Adalet and the other gods by Wahead (the Indarium Amal Baris) the great Deceiver and the twins betrayed the Great Serpent. Karar died in the process only to be resurrected by Wahead as a reward for his help. The Indariums who worship these gods are not liked by the royal family and are often sacrificed by his followers.
8. Durzu and Saygi- Durzu and Saygi are sisters who guard the dead. They were female warriors and are the chosen goddesses of Manyara. While Cersi welcomes warriors into Heaven, Durzu and Saygi protect their bodies on Terra and any ghouls and demons in the afterlife. They are often portrayed as jackal headed goddesses with shadowy armor. It is said that they are the daughters of Huzur, the god of war, and burst from his chest after he claimed Sundara from the Korens and dragons. They are often seen at his feet, marking the souls of the soldiers about to die, as he marches off to war.
Although the Thanbinite religion existed as its own entity before 1200, after the Sundarans and Alkahoon empires fell into war, the religion created its own mythos in response to Ahshralism, the belief in Wahead and his twelve brothers and sisters. Wahead replaced Nezaket as Adalet’s great rival and became known as Wahead the Deceiver.
They believe that when the lesser gods created the Sundara Empire, Adalet made himself king and took Cesri as his wife, giving birth to eight serpentine children and various Arifundi. Adalet chose his favorite Indariums and tasked them with feeding his children and taking care of them. This is why Thabinites still practice human sacrifices-often Ahsralists, but they also make do with Indariums who worship the Arachnids if they have to- and feed the flesh to the Arifundi.
They also believe that Wahead and Adalet fought each other in what is known as Shardith’s Anvil. Unlike the Ahsralists, the Thabinites do not believe their god was destroyed by Wahead. They believe he is still out there, fighting an eternal battle with Wahead and it is up to them to slaughter his believers in service to Adalet. After Adalet disappeared to fight Wahead, the other gods-without a leader-scattered, but still visit their favorite Indariums and there are tales of female Indariums being impregnated with their children.
These children are known as Arachnid brides and husbands (those that only Nezaket and his half-children and children can mate with) or Adalet’s children.
Another narrative developed after the Shadows conquered the Sundara. Many believed that the Shadow goddess, Death, tricked both Wahead and Adalet into Shardith’s Anvil and trapped them so they could watch as she and her husband, Mordred, destroyed the Sundara Empire and ruled over the Ignis. Now that the Shadows have lost control over the desert, it is only a matter of time before Wahead and Adalet break free and the final battle can be fought between the two great enemies.
The Thabinite priests are called Beknez so Beknez Jafaa and Beknez Zepharim. They are more like the Catholic church then the Islamic Arshralists because they have a stricter hierarchy and rely on temples whereas the Arshralists do not. This came out of the Shadow influence who like things nice and organized as well as the Gargainian influence. Many Sundarans watched the Gargainians eat their southern territories and created a cadre of Beknez to combat the Church. Thus, they have a strong network of temples throughout the Sundara and Iraicci and each temple is dedicated to one specific god. The Beknez also have a special group of warriors and assassins they use to do the will of the gods. They are called the Vrasis and they are a secret society that have murdered Shadow officials, Shivians, Indariums, and Gargainians at the will of the Beknez. They are both beloved and feared.
Their religion is a brutal, warriorlike religion, absorbing some of the Koren beliefs after living with them for so long. They believe the Arifundi are the Great Serpent’s vessels to the afterlife in the great sky. They also believe in a heaven for their warriors and believed that their greatest accomplishment in life is dying in battle.
The Thabinites and Orumstists are the only people in the desert who believe they can communicate with their gods. This honor is reserved for high priests and the children of the gods i.e. the royal family. To do this, one must use a combination of edible and inhalant drugs and to enter the world of the gods and listen to their wisdom. There is a high danger of overdosing, so they mostly force kidnapped children of Nezaket and Namus to speak to the gods as oppose to the royal children.
