Glossary
Anahitanism
Prologue
The main religion on Neon, centered around the worship of Anahita, recognized as an Angel of Beond, as well as Beond himself. Such a large and well-maintained religion is a difficult practice to create and sustain, yet it has survived for over three thousand years of increasing prosperity. Anything with such a rich and vivid history deserves to be kept unchanged, yet Anahitanism survives by listening to the worshippers, who stay true to the spirit yet adapt to the ever-changing world of Neon.
Philosophy
"In the beginning, there was only darkness. But there is no darkness without light, and no light without Beond. So light filled the darkness, and the darkness fled from the light. The light and darkness were as one, two opposites with one balance. Just as light has darkness, so everything has it’s opposite, with balance in between. This balance is what is, and it is the spirit craves. To be is to achieve balance, otherwise we are only spirit." This passage, which marks the first words of Celestia, sums up the essence of Anahitian philosophy. Since the end of War of Mages, philosophers have struggled to record the history of the world as told by Anahita, and argued by the priests. The belief is that there exists two worlds, one of light and darkness, often represented by Good and Evil, or Order and Chaos, and personified by Beond the Creator, and Apollyon the Destroyer. These two personifications, whilst non-sentient, are feared within Anahitian philosophy as being responsible for the physical realm. Whilst they exist in the eternal realm of extremes, the balance between them creates the limited universe, in which Neon resides. From this, life and ultimately sentience arises.
However, unlike most religions there are few ego-centric ideals about man being created specifically by God, pointing to an older history behind the religion, one of false practices that were rubbished by the appearance of Angels and Nephalim. However, in Sophorous, Federica writes "Man is aloof from the animals, protected by these creations of Angels, the Faeries. Man is separate from the animals, able to reject instinct for a new approach. Man can change in a lifetime, the animals cannot change between generations. Man thinks, so he has a greater being than the animals. He is not just physical, his thoughts can impinge on the spiritual, akin to the Angels themselves. Our very thoughts are memorized within us, and they must carry on beyond this physical world, to the spiritual realm". In fact, it is main tenet of Anahitanism that the soul carries on after the death of the body. It is the hope that has made Anahitanism the main religion for three millennia, that "the souls blessed of light shall rise to the arms of Anahita, whilst those darkened by sin shall fall to Apollyon’s destructive hands."
History.
The history and laws of Anahitanism is recorded within three main books, the Holy Texts which detail all of what is and is not. From Angels to the obscurest laws, they are recorded here. A brief summary follows.
- Celestia, accounting the history of the spiritual realm, the creation of the Angels and their lust for balance, of Lucifer’s rebellion and the fall of Anahita to Neon, and of her redemption as she banishes the Nephalim to Apollyon’s dark realm. Much is made of how important balance is to the physical realm, otherwise it would collapse to an unsustainable extreme.
- Sophorous deals with the knowledge of what is past, and what is to come. Working in time with Chronologica, it details the arguments of the philosophers on what is, and the warnings of the Grand Prophets of what is to come. Usually, grand events are not recorded until the shift has occurred, so that prophesying of the future is recorded after the event, as it is detailed in Chronologica.
- Chronologica itself deals with the history of Theon itself, as it expanded North, and then split into the various countries of Barbaria. It is one of the most detailed history of Neon since the death of Anahita, second only to the less biased archives in the Celestial City of the Faeries. Chronologica also details what laws have been proscribed during the events which a Grand Prophet heralds.
Epilogue
Since it’s birth as a reaction to the appearance of Angels upon a primitive landscape, Anahitanism has blossomed into a worldwide phenomenon of one-and-a-half million followers across several countries. It has single-handedly created what humanity of Neon is today, implanting it’s eternal knowledge upon even the non-believers. From the sanctuary of Barbaria, it has let the grand nations of Ter’Ciel and Tanor spawn, safe in the knowledge that they would hold alliances with them for millennia. Whilst other countries wilted in it’s shadow, Theon has become a grand player which shall carry humanity forward for millennia to come.