Arcana: Threads of Religions
Arcana has five fundamental religion groups, each associated with one Essence and one aspect of divinity. It is important to remember these are (mostly) religious classes rather than discrete religions themselves. A southern human worshipping the old gods might find the pantheon of a northern orc utterly incomprehensible. If they both follow the old gods however, the basic philosophy of their worship will be comparable.
Religions
Ether: The Old Gods
The worship of the Old Gods is a set of very old religious practices centered around the worship of a pantheon of gods and goddesses both major and minor. It greatly predates the Dragarian Empire (for which it was and still is the state religion) and has left numerous pyramids, temples, and archaeological relict across all continents since time immemorial. Though still one of the five great religion groups, it has been losing faithshare steadily throughout recorded history, most notably with many dwarven civilizations loosening into Uristism and many of its most sacred sites have undergone conversion. The fact that many adherents now refer to the practice as Elder Polytheism and the deities as Old Gods is telling in itself. It is far from being a single religion, with each culture, country, and even region having its own local flavors. Most civilizations however, realize they all essentially worship the same beings, giving everyone some common ground. Many religious sites, entities, or oracles also have a shared importance over a large area, giving some level of unity.
Though it has countless variations, there are a few basic tenets that are common throughout: there are about a dozen major gods and goddesses and about fifty minor ones, each with a sphere or series of spheres over which they hold dominion. They are either the deities who created the world and the races to begin with, or else the ones who smashed the evil titans and sowed the seeds of the new era. That the gods granted the basic knowledges to civilization – fire, agriculture, metal working, and written language – is a very common theme. Some treat the gods as the font of all knowledge, taking work and study hand in hand with worship. Though these gods are thought to have vices, quirks and may occasionally be an approachable lot to the superlatively worthy, their knowledge and power is insuperable to mortals in their respective fields.
Since prehistory, the old gods have been absorbed into thousands of different cultures, the same deities taking on countless names and aspects, with different cultures ascribing somewhat different roles and overlaps, omitting some members of the pantheon while adding or promoting others. Some cultures treat their gods as fickle deities, incomprehensible in their wisdom, and supreme in their power. They must be sacrificed to regularly to retain their interest and must be invoked for the workings of magic. Their blessings are necessary and their displeasure fatal to any pursuit of significance. A growing number in the modern age see them as more benign, rewarding work and study by revealing divine knowledge and being even-handed in their intercessions. Others concern themselves with existential and eschatological concerns, as well the nature and reason of divinity. The gods themselves also prove resilient cultural figures, often persisting long after their guiding philosophies and nature has changed, most dwarven Uristism being an example. A majority of Soreistic religions still take a polytheistic approach, placing the old gods as guides and governors of the great cycle. Even the Orthodoxy has had to canonize the most stubborn of these deities as archangels.
Force: Uristism
Named for the ancient dwarven philosopher, Urist Koganusân, who first articulated its tenets, Uristism is a family of philosophies whose unifying feature is the de-emphasis of divine intercession and influence and the importance of sentients' own actions in affecting the world at large. It is the nearest thing Arcana has to secular humanism. Uristism has spread steadily since its foundation throughout much of dwarven civilization and has more recently been taken up by the iron dryads who took part in developing it even further in the dour years during and after the Necromantic War. Today, Uristic philosophies and branch groups are generally grouped according to the major philosopher who founded that particular variant, with most inter-tradition interaction in the form of unending scholarly debate.
Uristic philosophies differ in their extremity. Many order-driven dwarven cultures, fully acknowledge God, or gods, as supreme, creational, but minimally interventionalist entities who laid down a few guidelines in ancient times and then left choice to the mortals. Others are the numerous schismatic sects and cults derived from Elder Polytheism and the Orthodoxy who proclaim that the gods or God is dead or has forsaken the world, leaving mortals to their own devices. Others question the quality of divinity, treating the supreme being(s) more akin to irresistable elemental or spiritual forces or truths that can nevertheless be observed and studied through reason. In most cases, day to day principles are emphasized over ritual, orthodox laws, or scripture.
Uristic philosophy proves highly adaptable and quickly finds its way into other religions, stereotypically into areas where zeal is insufficient. The Orthodoxy is never amused with its progress and is always moving to stamp it out. In most other cases, Uristism dillutes traditions but often fails to take over entirely. Even dwarves well remember their own old gods and throw up statues in their image from time to time.
Life: Kamyu-To
The religions of Life Essence invokes the myriad spirits of nature, from the small god of a lake to the great celestials of the moons. They are all important in the greater scheme of things and as such, all are worthy of respect.
Matter: The Orthodoxy
"For every thing there is a season and a time for every purpose under Heaven."
The Orthodoxy is a faith that epitomises law and order. Unlike the other four groups, it is a single religion unified by a vast, all-encompassing organization reaching through multiple levels of society in a multitude of countries and empires. A strict and highly organised heirarchical flows from the Apostle, passing down laws, decrees, edicts, and the collection of tithes that fund everything from a standing templar army, to schools, hospitals and aid for the urban poor.
The youngest of the major religions of Arcana, the Orthodoxy was founded atop an earlier existing cult just before the Necromantic War by Kan of Wendel, the first Apostle. Its theocratic organisation, view of military, political and religious power as a unified whole, and aggressive evangelism enabled it to rally and function during the darkest days of the world. The Orthodoxy continued to grow in strength and popularity during the war thanks to their tireless crusades and subsequently finished it as a major force in the liberated and repopulating world.
At the heart of the Orthodoxy's faith is the One God/Goddess, Monad. Much like the swelling ranks of the church Monad has his/her own vast host of angels, celestials, saints, prophets, divine powers and holy spirits all arranged a similar organisation located in Heaven; an almighty deity with a bureaucracy to handle every little menial task required in the operation of the world. The Orthodoxy and its offshoots are notorious for having enough commandments, exceptions, and contradictions to make study of religious law and procedure a full academic subject in itself.
Despite its overall unity and extensive efforts on their part to keep it that way, the Orthodoxy is ever riven with bickering over issues of such great import as what can and cannot be eaten on which day of the week, month, or year; whether the platypus is a fish, beast, or bird for the purposes of dietary law; and the precise level of sainthood conferred to Rychaelis the Rabite. Inevitably, the church has its persecuted heretical offshoots as well, often with either a large body of religious law or the concept of a single deity as the central concept mixed with one of the other traditions.
Void: Soreism
A term of obscure origin, Soreism covers a spectrum of religions who's definition factors are ancestor worship and/or reincarnation. Philosophies of Soreism tend to center around concepts of cyclical approaches to souls, spirits and time.