South Eresian (T'ant'an) religion shares some elements with the religions of ethnic groups on the eastern coast of Norua, especially with that of the Darau, but it has developed in relative isolation from it and features some beliefs that are completely foreign to anyone from Norua. It influences and is influenced by the long tradition of philosophical thought in the area. There are some widespread regional differences, but classical South Eresian religion is generally considered to be centered in Tlaqoya and the surrounding areas. North Eresia (Tsepai) is a different cultural zone entirely and, although in many ways their religion is similar, there are some key differences that make them very different.
Nohos, in South Eresian religion, is considered to be the force that drives the multiverse. The idea is that at the beginning of time, something shattered the complete, shapeless peace that was the only thing there was, and since then everything has been trying to reassemble itself so that it can return to this completely calm state of existence. This act of reconstruction is nohos. The term for the complete peace before the shattering is known as aunaxos.
All of the countless universes are considered to have four aspects: physical, spiritual, mental and the core. The physical aspect is the most self-evident of the four: it comprises all things that can be directly observed. The spiritual aspect is, basically, emotion. The mental aspect is ideas and thoughts. The core is what makes all of these a coherent whole that is separate from other universes and is usually associated with the concept of awareness. The first three aspects, physical, spiritual and mental, all crumbled at the beginning of time and became mixed with the pieces of other universes. The physical aspect returned to the core right away, but it cannot return to aunaxos before the other two aspects have also returned.
What humans are, then, in this religion, are broken pieces of the mental and spiritual aspects of different universes that go around temporarily binding themselves to the still broken bits of the physical aspect within any given universe in order to check if it is their own world. If it is not, they die and go on to another universe until they find the one they are looking for. Note that the spiritual aspect and the mental aspect separate themselves at death; a spirit does not retain the same mind as it crosses into the next universe. The exception to this is if a piece of spirit and a piece of mind are originally from the same universe; they then stay stuck together and find their home world at the same time.
What happens when one does find one's world? Whichever aspect, spiritual or mental, that belongs to the world stays with it. When a person with only one aspect belonging to the current world dies, that part is now reattached to the world, but it is still not whole. Let's pretend that a person whose spirit belongs to the world dies. This spirit will be repeatedly reincarnated in the same world with new minds until it find a mind that also belongs. Upon all the pieces being assembled, this person becomes known as an ahaxan. An ahaxan is no longer subject to aging, death (usually) or illness and is perfectly integrated into the world. These people are born as normal humans, but they soon realize what they are and separate themselves from other people upon reaching maturity. An ahaxan is considered to be one of the real owners of the world in question, and is to be treated with extremely high respect if you ever meet one, but that's not likely; they are generally isolated and avoid human contact, and the ones that don't avoid other people almost never let on to what they are. It is possible to kill an ahaxan, but it is extraordinarily difficult to do so (because their connection with the world is so much stronger) and upon their death they are reborn from the ocean as adults, with all their memories and emotions completely intact. Some ahahaxan (yes, that is the plural
), especially the oldest ones, are extremely hostile to non-ahaxan humans and will kill any that they encounter on sight. They are capable of magic, which they can perform by instinct.
Then there are the yeyehan, which can reasonably be called gods. Where the ahahaxan are reconstructed pieces of the original equilibrium, the yeyehan are pieces that never broke away. A yehan has an enormous amount of influence over the world, and most worlds have very few. The world in which the South Eresians live is generally accepted to have two: Atlatsi and Alalua, which usually manifest themselves as the sun and the moon. Although these don't seem like they'd theoretically be particularly important, in practice the yeyehan absolutely dominate the religious life of the average South Eresian. These exert the most control over the world, and them causing things to happen is often compared to the process of moving one's body. They are generally good-natured toward humans provided they show the necessary respect towards them and their world. As such, temples are built for them and people are expected to partake in numerous rituals in order to honor them, which will be covered later.
More on this tomorrow, I'm going to go pass out now.