Ferrata - Worship
Tier of
AWARENESS
and WORSHIP
Rector d'ikhlaas Thom Ehrhardt
"Caring for sky, self and soul"
The tier itself, first formed 76 yahrs ago, was created to address the growing concern of religious and spiritual awareness. The Ferratu, with the history of Udias blood behind them, were receptive to religious principles but had no sense of where to direct their energies or how to express their teachings in an efficient manner. He then organized the tier you now see.
The Horn reverred by most Ferratu is L'Shayd Gambyt, who fell on the Honor Blade of his nemesis, the war lord Montgurai, in protest to massing war cries while in the Udias. Her final act, striding impaled out of the Udias and into open desert, would later rally the Ferratu to reemerge to topsoil a century later.
The major philosophy behind Ferratu religion is the worship of self, and the study of the inner soul. Deities are honored and reverred, but primarily as symbols of purity the mortal can only hope to attain. L'Shayd monks teach Ferratus to learn about themselves, their "light", before learning to worship an icon or person. This lesson also helps control any leanings towards considering Him (the Valleh) a Horn in his own right.
This is why the tier is named both "awareness' and "worship". Both are equally important to the religious Ferratu. L'Shayd said in one of the few passages preserved before his death, "how can one worship another without worshipping the self, first. The self is the gift, to ignore the gift insults the giver."
POWER OF THE CHURCH
Since the formation of the tier, the power of the religious caste has grown vastly. The Ferrata desire to leave their bloody history behind them fostered a deep desire for religious enlightenment, and rectors of other tiers who once shrugged off their wishes now consider the constant demands of, and great rewards given by, the religious front as normal.
This is also why much concern is being given to the strife within the church now and why efforts to appease both sides, while simultaneously keeping them from ripping the other's throat out, are being given top priority. The massive trek to the lands south and east by the hornblowers is one example. As part of their effort to increase active participation in church interests, high ranking church officials said they would continue their never ending search for the book of L'Shayd. The military was put on alert, since those lands were occupied by the friendly nation of Merite and nothing apparently could stop the exodus.
In 298, events saw the peaceable transfer of a part of those lands into Ferratu control, and religious attentions have now shifted to land east. HE has declared that no military backing will be given to the religious caste if they attempt to venture into alien lands without authorization.
WORSHIP:
Religious worship centers primarily around the "Fables of Ferratus'Udias". The horn of each trybe is more than just a forefather, ancestor, idol or icon. He or she is the core of each person. To a trybe, their horn is almost a god, in that each is signified as the greatest example of a Ferratu. The horn, however, is still regarded as mortal, albeit somewhat exaggerated in the fables of the Udias.
In recent times, however, - the last 60 yahrs or so - worship of the elements (sea, sky, earth) has taken hold in many of the trybes as sort of pseudo religions. This has caused much strife within Worship between the traditional self worshipers (labeled "soulers"), and their younger counterparts, called "elementalists").
At the core of Ferratu religion is, of course, a belief in a sort of afterlife. Variations on what happens after death vary from trybe to trybe. Some believe one goes before the Horns themselves who, if satisfied with you, let you join them in their epic campaign. Others trust their after presence to their horn alone. There is no word for the "dominion of the accepted." The closest reference would be the Eternal Portal, which is merely the first step into the ?.
A HISTORY BRIEF
L'Shayd Gambyt is one of the most important of Horns, leaving a greater historical impact than all other Horns except Garande, Montgurai and Ulimpi'ades. She crafted a central order of religions, based on a principle developed around the thought on all religious orders of the Ferratu. During her time in the Udias, she taught that all the various religious communities around Ferrata had, for centuries, been working to break down barriers of prejudice between peoples. She was successful in that she collaborated with other like-minded groups to promote the model of a national society. At the heart of her belief was the conviction that humanity is a single people with a common destiny.
In 192, there was some concern that the trybes were once again striving to be in great contrast to one another, and were purposely crafting their faiths this way to promote trybal uniqueness and, unfortunately, isolationism. Almost 130 yahrs after her death, L'Shayd's monks invited religious leaders of the eight other trybes to come together and hold a mass march to "holy lands" located to the south and east (until recently, within Merite's control). Despite heated initial objections from the various head ministers and medicine men, what was expected to draw a hopeful handful of representatives turned into an event of tens of thousands.
During that procession, the various religious leaders, once bitter opponents, discovered that most of their religious followings were those of the Enlightened Horn. The march stopped and, for three weeks, thousands of trybal leaders of the faith worked, sweated, starved, even died in the high deserts in the shadows of Mount Krown, the alleged death place of L'Shayd herself.
When the first central temple was formed almost a yahr later in 193, inter-provyncial conflicts broke out as Ferratuus feared they would have to share their faiths with other trybes. When He suggested a change in name, to the Holy Church of L'Shayd, the affects of the gathering took hold (the inclusion of L'Shayd's name was key).
The faith of the Ferratu is not complex, but does have several interpretations depending on the trybe. The L'Shayd trybe has a structured hierarchy few others would dare attempt to emulate. They, also being ancestors of L'Shayd and organizers of the March, hold the strictest codes of the faith.
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