⛩️ Religion & Politics
Religion and Politics go hand in hand in the world of Fluxterra, all focused around the Great Balance and the very real Deities.
⚖️ The Belief System
The Great Balance
At the center this world's belief system is The Great Balance. All elements in this world needs to be in balance. Love and Despair, Fire and Water, White and Black, Dreams and Reality.
The duty of the divines is to maintain this balance since disturbing it can cause intense ripples in the fabric of space-time and eventually rip apart the universe.
Most beings have accepted this to be true even if most balancing is done hidden to the mortal eye. Fully trusting this process is often hard, however…
The Deities
The nine deities are incredibly powerful entities who watch over the world of Fluxterra. Each of them representing a different aspect of the universe, Flux, and Race.
The concepts of good and evil don't apply to them. Their purpose is to manage Nuak and maintain the Great Balance. They do this by watching over the planet, granting powers to the people, and sometimes even intervene personally as the Nucleus and a variety of mislead entities are doing their best to destabilize the Balance.
Speaking in terms of the greater Fluxverse they are Auxiliary Divines and were specially created for watching over Nuak after The Fracturing. Meaning, there are two groups of higher ranking divines. Keep in mind that all Divines are only quasi-immortal and neither omniscient, omnipotent, nor omnipresent. They are very powerful, but not gods in the classical definition of the word.
After the Flux Nexus exploded and wiped nearly all Life from Earth, the Divine didn't get wind of the monstrous machine early enough to prevent it, so they now had to deal with the fallout of the disaster. Billions of souls suddenly lacked a body. The Soul Resort simply couldn't deal with such an immense sudden influx. Relocating the souls to another habitable planet was an basically impossible task. And then there was all the Exium Energy making this planet inhabitable.
So they called upon the help of Phenom, the Soul of Chaos. They would be happy to help with the cleanup, on the condition that the new Earth would get a Divine of his creation. Reluctantly, the Divine agreed.
So, they rejuvenated the remnants of Earth, as Nuak. The souls were given primitive bodies of animals and Evolution could slowly repopulate the planet. The previous Deity of Earth, Noktura, the Great Dreamer, was basically killed by the explosion as well. His soul was ripped of a form and essentially unrecoverable. Phenom took the soul and reshaped it into Minmas, God of Chaos. The first of the new Deities. The 8 others followed quickly, shaped by the Divines.
🥀 Religion
A core of this world is the relationship between the deities and the people of Nuak. They are trying to work together to keep this planet alive.
Globally there is a fairly uniform religion due to the global interactions with the deities. There are still local variations of course. And not every person has the exact same views nor values.
Rituals and prayers are used to ask the deities for help and to give back to the deities. While this can be done anywhere, sacred places have been constructed to aid in this like temples and shrines. The deities don't care about glory or material worth, they just want everyone to work together to build a functioning world.
The Deities and You
As an inhabitant of Nuak, you choose to share some of your life energy with one of the Deities. Over time this may change if your life or your perspectives have changed.
Your deity will grant you powers and gifts in life to help you with the chaos of the world you life in. You may even hear them answer your prayers, and in rare cases even see them approach you directly.
You and the Deities
In contrast, the people of Nuak work to keep the Great Balance and collect energy to give back to the Deities as thanksgiving.
For this a whole religion system has formed. Temples, small and huge, have been constructed to house rituals. Augurs have taken it upon themselves to lead these rituals and keep the connection between their community and their deities healthy. Systems and hierarchies have formed to support this taking and giving with the Deities.
Death
When people die, the soul leaves the body. It is then collected by Exia and transported to the Soul Resort for cleansing, rejuvenation and prepared for rebirth. The body just becomes an empty vessel and is left back in the Stellar Plane.
On Nuak, it has become tradition to burn the body to ashes, store it in an urn, and place it inside a memorial mound. These are constructed in nature, made to fit in with the environment, as walkable buildings. They often have multiple circular rooms with the urns placed in sockets the walls. The mounds are used to host funerals, but other also to celebrate other gatherings, although that depends on the local culture. Birth and Death
🏛️ Instruments
Religion and Politics
Out of this Religion, Politics have formed. The central temples, also called Nonagons, act as Townhalls, controlling an entire province. The Arch Augurs act as leaders, with High Augurs acting as secretaries. During gatherings, people can participate directly in the decision making of the towns or regions.
Before Year 0
Thousands of years ago the Nucleus was more unstable, the Divines were still unsure how to handle Nuak, and the newly evolved races were territorial and had only primitive knowledge of Flux. The world mainly consisted out of tribes scattered across the isles, with various structures and mindsets.
However, once life on Nuak became a bit more civilized and the Nucleus calmed down a bit, the tribes began to group together against the Exium and cooperate with the Divine. In Year 0, the first Nonagon was built and the first Province founded. More and more of these followed over the next thousands of years.
Today, Nonagonocracy has become the dominant political and religious system. Most of the isles have established Provinces with Nonagons and possibly Sub-Provinces with Sub-Nonagons.
Nonagon Temples
Special temples, called Nonagons, are the central building used to practice religion and politics. They are often constructed in central locations and built from pristine materials and Flux Crystals.
While temples may house lodging and offices for Augurs or even more, the central room is always the gathering room. A nonagon-shaped room with rows of staggered seats around the edges, pointing to the center. (Although in smaller temples the room is often circular.) In the center is an altar, also in the shape of a nonagon.
During gatherings, people will take place in the seats with the Augur standing in the middle leading the gathering. Doing readings of the Deities doings, motivating people to keep Balance, bringing in people to talk about changes in the region, and finally leading the Giving Ritual. A special ritual where every one participates and collectively give energy back to the Deities.
Temples can be specialized for a certain Deity, house multiple, or even all Deities, depending on the size. The deities praised in a temple often relate to the region and town around the temple.
Augurs
These are normal people, who devoted their life to fostering their community and maintain a healthy relationship with the deities. They are basically a combination of priest and politician. They lead gathering in temples, they make policies, they hear the peoples worries and dreams.
The name of Augurs come from the fact that they attempt to comprehend the state of nature, the people and the divines, and predict the best possible path forwards.
The Arch Augurs are the leaders of provinces. High Augurs act as secretaries. Normal Augurs do not need to be associated with a temple or region. They simply live the life of a Augur, but without the political responsibilities.
Every 3 years, the Arch and High Augurs need to reprove themselves. Any person can nominate themselves. Then the region votes on the nominees. Finally, a Novity tournament is carried out. Participants with more votes get an advantage for the games. However, anyone can still beat anyone. The winners of the tournaments are then made the next High Divinators. The High Augurs then appoint the Arch Augur.
Ancient Language
This special language goes back billions of years and most likely originated from the Divine themselves. It features it's own alphabet, words, grammar, and script. There is basically no one who can understand, speak, or write this language besides the Divines. However, Divines can telepathically convey the meaning to the mortals regardless. It seems to be wired into the foundation of the souls somehow.
Novity
Novity, or Ninefold Cards, is an ancient card game. It was conceived the first High Augurs. They needed a way to figure out worthy successors. They created this card game which incorporates the concepts represented by all nine deities and all types of Flux.
It is always played 1v1. To win, you must prove that you have a pure soul capable of leading and dealing with the chaos of the world. It's focus is not to outplay and destroy your opponent, but rather to flourish, despite an opposing force.
This card game has massive cultural importance to all people of Nuak and has been unchanged for thousands of years and is not only played by kids and adults of all ages, but used to settle debates and to select the next High Augurs. Being good at Novity, means being good in life.