Religion in ancient Caphiria

A tomb excavated near Soleramo. Suspected to be the resting place of a visas.

Religion in ancient Caphiria refers to both the religious beliefs and practices of the pre-Christianized Caphirian civilization, including the polytheistic pre-Three Sisters era dating far back to Caphiric prehistory, and the Three Sisters era between 300 BC and the 6th century AD, after which the local populations started abandoning domestic faiths in place of Catholicism, which is still practiced by Caphirians today. Caphiric religious development was heavily influenced by both the region and the native inhabitants of the Caphiria region. The seafaring nature of the Adonerii meant that their beliefs were influenced by foreign religions as a result of trade and cultural exchange with various foreign peoples.

For ancient Caphirians, all aspects of their life were governed by their religion. The religion was not only a religion but a way of life and a philosophy, which provided guidance in how to behave and live. Due to the religion reaching all aspects of life, Caphirians were fanatical of their religion and seldom converted to other religions. Each tribe, and later estate, had their own shrines and sacred places, where priests known as visas provided guidance in matters both secular and spiritual. Men, women and children alike took part in the various rituals of the religion, and some could even be conducted only by women or children, with the latter guided by the visas.

With few surviving written sources, three major deities have been identified: Nacia, Coscia and Mietia. Estates and regions had different interpretations of the deities, and some sects often saw them and other deities as omnipresent, influencing everything. All sects however agreed that while separate identities, the three could come together as one.

Ancient Caphiric religion was the dominant religious institution in Caphiria during the Kingdom, Republic, and First Imperium period. It remained the state religion for most of the Second Imperium, but the Second Imperium was religiously pluralist and for much of its existence it had a Christian majority. By the 10th century, Christianity became dominant in Caphiric society as the ancient religious establishment gradually gave way to the ascendant Catholic Church. By the end of the Second Imperium, practice of the ancient religion was banned. Some institutions and cultural artifacts of the old religion survived until the creation of the Third Imperium, whose Christian Slavic founders totally wiped away any traces of the ancient religion.

Overview

Influence of the religion applied to a child even before the child was born. The Caphirian religion encouraged selective breeding to encourage their societal roles, such as a warrior is very likely to be from a line of strong fighters, which then guaranteed the traits fitting of a great warrior were passed on. The focus on selective breeding didn't necessarily mean that their place on society was determined before birth, as someone showing signs of a visas were quickly adopted by the visas class, or those showing intelligence were adopted by the scribe class. Wasting resources was seen almost as a sin by society, and someone with intellectual traits in the warrior class was a wasted tool in society.

Priesthood was reserved to the visas class. The visas class was originally born from those that were seen as the embodiment of the trinity of Nacia, Coscia, Mietia, and their unified form, the supreme being Taia. This was characterized as someone who seemed to embody multiple people in one body. After the inception of the visas class, the members of the visas class were forbidden from procreating with members outside of the visas class, with their children also joining the visas class. If a child born to a couple outside of the visas class showed signs of the trinity and the supreme being, he was adopted into the visas class, which was seen as a great honour to the parents.

Following the Triumvirate of the Three Sisters and founding of the Caphiric state, the de facto spiritual capital of the region became Venceia, with people from all classes making a pilgrimage to see the sisters or their crypt. The Three Sisters also organized the religion, with the capital being in Venceia and granting Holy City status to multiple cities in their area of influence, with a more distinct and organized priest class heading the religion. The triumvirate also expanded the trade network due to being a centralized authority in the area for the first time in history, with the traders bringing luxury goods, cultural and religious influence into the religion from both regions near and far.

Deities

The Caphirians were polytheistic, with beliefs in various different deities, but the limited literacy caused many names and duties of the deities to be lost to time. The deities and the jurisdiction of said deities varied from estate to estate, the pan-Caphirian deities Nacia, Coscia, Mietia and Taia being the unified form of the three. Prior to the organization of the religion by the Three Sisters, the estates used many natural formations as shrines, such as cliffs, trees or rivers. Some remote sects prayed to the natural formations themselves, seeing them as extensions of the gods and believed them to be present everywhere in the world.

Major Deities

• The supreme being over all the gods was Taia. Taia was thought to come into existence once Nacia, Coscia and Mietia would eventually come together with understanding, and bring the end of the world that restarts the time cycle of the world.
• Nacia was known as the seer. Their duty was to observe and note their acts, both good and evil, and during the passing of a human, give their notes to Mietia to aid in the judgment process.
• Coscia was the only of the three known to influence the material world. They were thought to be responsible for all things that affected the living; things such as birth, death, illness, crops and draught. Due to Coscia's influence on the world of the living, some sects, and eventually cults, prayed to Coscia for revenge against those who had done them wrong.
• Mietia was known as the judge, responsible for judging those who had passed. Using the notes from Nacia, they judged whether or not to send the passed into Nitta or Daica.

Minor Deities

• Cepa was known as the god of fire, sometimes also associated with smithing. Little is known about Cepa other than his part in Tazi ris me Rai, the Glaistic epic.
• Orica was known as the god of vengeance. He also had a reputation of trickery. Orica also had an important part in the Glaistic epic.
• Teis was the god of retribution. Brother of Orica.

Heroes

• Comia, the protagonist of the Glaistic epic Tazi ris me Rai, the son of Cepa and the saviour of the Golden City.

Founding myths

Much of the mythology surrounding the ancient Caphirian religion was gathered only in the 17th century by various scholars. Due to the large gap in time between the paganistic period and the 17th century, many scholars suspect the mythology to be tainted with Christian mythology over the millennia. However, many bits and pieces have been able to have been confirmed due to the written sources from the First Imperium era.

A wooden head discovered in a tomb. Thought to represent Ucas.

The founding myth - part of the Latin Heroic Age mythology - tells of the first Caphirian settlers that settled in the Venceia area met an old hermit named Ucas. A frail, old man, he presented himself as the corporeal form of the gods: he offered to bless both the people and their descendants alongside and the lands they were about to settle, as long as they'd follow the tenets he gave them. The most important ones of those tenets was not wasting resources and equal treatment. The settlers accepted the offer, and Ucas followed up on his promise.

The settlers were then guided by Ucas, with the first visas being personally appointed by Ucas and gave the visas the characteristics needed to become a visas. Ucas also explained them the importance of even humans as resources and tools, marrying the strongest warriors to one another and blessed them with a child whose strength would be enough to move mountains. TBA

Cults

Cults were organized sects of the paganistic religion dedicated to specific deities of the religion. Commonly referred to as sects before the Three Sisters era, the only difference is the organization and the number of cults. Following the schism in 220 BC, cults began sprouting up quickly after the fragmentation of the former Triumvirate kingdom. Due to the lack of a strong, centralized religious authority like the Three Sisters, the King was unable to stop the formation of cults even if they were declared as heresy. Largest of those was the Cult of Iodes, which many believed to be the reborn Ucas and thought he would usher in a new era of prosperity like the Three Sisters.