Akiemism

Akiemism, known by its believers under the name of Parovidexa (Anglic: "Holy Path") is a religion originally followed by the Veikan peoples up until the early 16th century where it eventually became extinct. The Akiemist faith traces its origins to the ancient Pre-Indo Artemian era and was one of the oldest religions to have continually existed until its extinction. Modern Akiemism is an attempt at reconstructing the faith based off the mostly complete writings on ritual and theology left behind by believers through the centuries. Believers in Akiemism stress the need for historical accuracy and shun the introduction of new rituals or theology into the religion. The pre-extinction variant of the faith is known by historiographers as Old Akiemism, while the modern reconstructed variation is known as Reconstructed Akiemism.

The first attempts at reconstructing the Akiemism faith trace their origins to Veikan nationalists in the mid-19th century, who desired to worship the faith of their ancestors. It was not until the early 1910s that the religion became organized and officially recognized as such by the Veikan monarchist government. In the modern day Akiemism is a small but growing religion that composes 1% of the Veikan population. Due to its origin as a nationalist reconstructed religion, Akiemism has been faced with skepticism by the Veikan communist government, who while recognizing it have not given the religion the same attention and rights as the larger Triuvist Church.

The religion is heavily decentralized and organized in a regional basis, with no central church-like organization. Each regional Akiemist council may have their own practices and rituals separate from those of other Akiemist regions. This has led to a heavily varied religion where two followers may have two different beliefs while maintaining the same core belief system.

Textual records
A large number of textual historical records both from Triuvist sources and Akiemists themselves have survived through the centuries, albeit most of the written sources from Akiemists date to the post-Triuvist era due to the introduction of proper religious bookkeeping to the Veikan peoples. A number of inscriptions on rock across the country and stones carved to represent gods known as Keparico have also survived and have been subject of ample research. Most inscriptions are requests to the gods, or specific a god, for protection or good luck, and they are believed to have been used as spots for ritual sacrifice or offerings.

With the introduction of proper written script by the Triuvist church in the late 10th or early 11th century a large body of literature began to be written down by Akiemists, who desired to rival the successful Triuvists and keep their fellow believers from converting to gnostic messianism through the proper codification of their beliefs. Several poems and epics were written down in paper and survived to the modern age. Other writings detail the religious obligations of believers during rituals and their proper process. Most of the Akiemist original written work that survives to the modern day has been written by Keveni of Estroiba, an Akiemist priest of the 12th century AD.

Beliefs
Akiemism is a polytheistic religion with immanent characteristics, meaning believers believe in a wide range of gods and spiritual figures and consider natural phenomena to be manifestations of their will. An important part of this belief is the idea that the gods can be persuaded by mortals through ritual and sacrifice. The idea that all natural phenomena are manifestations of the will of the gods has led to a long tradition of many kinds of divination, with the most common forms of divination being the inspection of bird migration patterns and the analyzes of the liver of ritually killed animals. Many other forms of divination were and still are common, with some Reconstructionist Akiemists analyzing the pattern of lightning or fire and the smoke it produces.

Deities
The religion is dualistic, dividing reality into two worlds: The Metaphysical (Known as "Tuxami") and the Physical (Known as "Akiemo") these two worlds are ruled each by a different creator god figure known as Itiao and Nitia, with Itiao being a fatherly figure ruling over the world of the metaphysical and Nitia being a motherly figure ruling over the physical world. In most Akiemist traditions Itiao is seen as a naturally good god while Nitia is seen as evil, although their ultimate goals and alignments are believed to be ultimately incomprehensible to humans. Tuxami and Akiemo have their own set of different gods, with the gods of Tuxami being represented in humanoid forms while the gods of Akiemo are represented as animals. This difference is believed to relate to the Akiemist belief that animals are inherently physical creatures while humans have a connection to the metaphysical. The gods directly subservient to Nitia and Itiao are known as "Lower" or "Lesser" gods.

Each Lower God rules over a set number of topics, with some examples being Paitos the god of warfare and honorable death and Marvis the god of birth and fertility. Complex relation systems developed over the centuries connecting the gods with each other, with much of the written record left behind by the ancient veikan peoples being about the complex shared histories the gods had. It is believed that knowledge of these stories and tales was believed to give one the favor of the gods, who appreciated humans paying respect to their history. Akiemist Tuxami gods can be depicted as any gender according to tradition, as they are seen as genderless beings while Akiemo gods have specific genders associated with them. Many other spirits exist at the lowest layer of Akiemism, for example the spirits of the dead which are known as Kehintali and may be good or evil, or a number of nature spirits which are sometimes also worshiped albeit rarely. Several spirits have been borrowed from the local Veigeudic pagan faith after their initial conquest by the Kingdom of Vipuski.

Cults of specific gods were common, with many households dedicating themselves to specific gods and building shrines dedicated to them. The worship of Akiemo gods was extremely rare, but is reported as happening in Triuvist sources albeit it is seen as controversial by most believers. It's believed that specific social classes or castes might have venerated specific gods, with Itiao being seen as a sort of patron deity of the nobility. The veneration of specific gods was based around the construction of large shrines which were generally located in the back of village homes or sometimes menhir-like sculptures called "Keparico" were sculpted and put in the middle of fields for public worship. Specific Keparico designs were linked to specific gods, with very little variation between each individual god's many Keparico.

Cosmology
Akiemist cosmology states that the physical world that humans inhabit was created through the eternal struggle of Itiao and Nitia, two beings that used to exist as one united in marriage but were separated (The reason for this separation is debated, with many explanations existing within Akiemism). Itiao and Nitia's eternal struggle led to the creation of physical reality as a way for Nitia to spite Itiao, who after their separation took control of metaphysical reality. Physical reality however is imperfect, so Nitia requires to use pieces of metaphysical reality to keep it stable and maintain control over it. The creation of physical reality led to Itiao forming a court of figures similar to knights from his own essence, the lesser gods of Tuxami, to protect metaphysical reality from Nitia. Nitia in the other hand created the gods of Akiemo as protectors of physical reality, but they did not achieve the same amount of power and perfection as the gods of Tuxami, coming out instead as animals lacking a refined physical form. In her anger, Nitia decided to steal parts of the life essence of Itiao and trap it within a physical body to achieve beings closer to perfection to serve her, this was humanity. Humanity however, following their innate and latent metaphysical powers, decided to go against the power of Nitia and with the help of the gods of Tuxami worshiped Itiao instead. This angered Nitia even more, who cursed humanity with mortality and reincarnation, trapping them in a cycle of suffering, death and rebirth.

Eschatology
There is no true afterlife as is commonly seen in most religions for Akiemists, life and death are a cycle that repeats itself for eternity until the godly struggle of Itiao and Nitia is finished in a large scale eschatological event, and the human "soul" is liberated from the physical realm. The event that ends in the liberation of the human soul from its physical prison is known as the Itkriga, or "God War". The Itkriga is a world ending event where the physical world will be destroyed by Itiao and the lesser gods of Tuxami and Nitia will be finally defeated. Once free from the shackles of reality, the human soul is believed to return into the essence of Itiao where it ultimately belongs. Due to the lack of inherent value that human bodies have in Akiemism, there are not any special funeral rites in Akiemism and the bodies of the dead are generally burned or disposed of in other ways available without any special ritual. It has been documented by later Triuvist sources that Akiemists might have fed the bodies of their family members to their pets and farm animals, although the veracity of this claim is highly disputed.

Specific descriptions of how the end of the physical world will occur are scarce, but most descriptions agree on several points. Akiemists believe that the end of physical reality will be heralded directly by the stop of all bird migrations for several years, which will be a sign to humanity that the liberation of the soul is near. Hundreds of years of warfare will then be unleashed between the gods of Akiemo and Tuxami, who will be seen in the skies in the form of moving stars. The earth will be shaken by the godly combat, and many disasters will occur due to the loosening grip of Nitia over her realm. The sun and the moon will go dark as their respective gods perish in the war, and an eternal darkness and harsh winter will envelop the earth. The death of the god of fertility will lead to no more children being born of human wombs, and all those who die afterwards will be forced to wander the earth as Hintali, spirits of the undead. Finally after a thousand years the earth will be cracked in half and all physicality will cease to exist with the death of Nitia, freeing the human soul from its human body (Including the Hintali which had died before the end of physicality).

Sacrifice
There is large amounts of evidence of ritual animal sacrifice being practiced by old Akiemism followers prior and early into to the arrival of Triuvism to the region. Livestock, sheep and chickens were sacrificed in large public rituals, with the sacrifice generally being in honor to a god. Boars captured live during hunts were also sacrificed, specifically in honor of the god of warfare Paitos. The specific method of sacrifice varied between groups of believers, but the most common method was the complete exsanguination of the animal with a cut to the neck, with the blood being later used in various rituals. The body of the animal or animals was dedicated to one or several gods and then a feast was held where the remains were consumed and large amounts of alcohol were consumed. Food and drink is also offered to a god or gods and then consumed by a priest in their name after the ritual burning of hemp.

Human sacrifice was reported by early Triuvist sources but their veracity is disputed by modern experts and Reconstructionist Akiemists. According to these sources, criminals were sacrificially executed, generally by beheading but historical reports of criminals being burned alive in pyres also exist. These ritual killings, according to the Triuvists, were an attempt to appease the gods by bringing their justice into the physical world. Most modern academics dispute these claims due to the lack of evidence of such rituals, with the general consensus believing these are misreported executions with no true ritual meaning being described as human sacrifice as a way to discredit the Akiemist faith.

Reconstructionist Akiemists for the most part do not commit ritual sacrifice, specifically because of its legal status as a form of animal abuse in Veikaia and other countries in Anterra.

Bird Worship
A large portion of Akiemist rituals revolve around birds in some way. Not all birds are seen equally, with only birds capable of sustained flight being seen as holy and revered. Flightless birds such as chicken are not seen as holy or given any sort of special respect above other animals. It's generally agreed that the ability to fly is seen as important to Akiemists due to their very common use of ornithomancy (The ritual reading of omens from the flight patterns of birds) as a form of divination, being the most popular form of divination by a large margin. Many birds were ritually worshiped by Akiemists for their future reading abilities, but the bird most commonly associated with good omens was the dove with many pre-Triuvist Veikan bronzes and sculptures depicting doves in flight.

Each bird had its own tendency towards good or bad omens. The omens granted by the flight patterns of doves were generally seen positively, where those of ravens had negative connotations. Magpies were also used for divination but instead of their flight patterns, the number of magpies perched in tree branches was believed to convey messages of the future or of good or bad luck. When desiring to do a consultation, seers generally face to the north on the highest hill available and then analyze the flying patterns and directions of birds alongside the type of birds seen. The singing of the birds was also deeply studied. Only wild birds were used for divination purposes, with the rare caged birds not being used for those purposes and the confinement of flying birds being generally seen as a form of disrespect to the gods