The Yonataorins live in an alternate history, where a colony of Greeks in the Crimea grew into large empire. However, they were very different from the other ancient Greeks, as the encountered a group of Hebrews on their way to colonizing their colony around 750 BCE, and based on the Hebrew religion, founded their own religion called Mikhonism . (Based on my own beliefs, this point assumes that the traditional Jewish timeline of Jewish History is true. If you have different beleifs, remember that this is just a conhistory, anyway.)
I have constructed three religions practiced in the Yonataorin Empire, each of which, in history at least, corresponds to the three Major Abrahamic Religions. The state religion, Mikhonism, is the Judaism equivalent.
Mikhonism believes that that when the Yonataorans' ancestors met the Israelite boats, the leader of the Yonataoran fleet, Mikhon, believed in the Israelite G-d and convinced most of his fleet to. When they began their colony, Mikhon received a vision from G-d (Adon Theos or just Theos) that as long as he and his people believed in Theos, they would be the "Chosen from the Unchosen" that is, the Israelite's emissaries to the rest of the Unchosen when the Golon (The Messiah) comes. They believe in this vision Mikhon received a set of instructions on ritual law and sacrifice that would assure their position as "Chosen from the Unchosen". He also was instructed to write 5 books as the "Hagioghafos" The scriptures. These books are: 1. The Life of Mikhon- The story of his life 2. Laws- The above mentioned instructions on ritual law and sacrifice. 3. Odes- 365 songs of praise to Theos written by Mikhon 4.Wisdom- Wise sayings and proverbs Mikhon received from Theos and 5: Apokalifis- a mystical vision of the Future saw by Mikhon. He also was told that when any of his line- who would wear the Yonataorin crown eternally- would receive instructions to write holy books, they too would be included in the Hagioghafos.
A book of the Hagioghafos written around 200 years later "Fotopuros" tells how the evil king, Orikhalkos, eliminated Mikhonism, until it was restored by his nephew Fotopuros. It is, in truth, the time when all previous books of the Hagioghafos were redacted as Fotopuros was really the one who established Mikhonism.
Other books of the Hagioghafos written after this include:
Lusaneros: The life and speeches of Lusaneros, a worthy priest, who attracted the attention of the King.
Tupak Shakor- The story of a convert to Mikhonism and his struggle to find acceptance in Yonataorin society and his "Miraculous" deliverance. (Yes, this named after the rapper, though I'm not a fan. His name is just cool.)
Lukaneros- The story of an evil king named Lukos, and his conversion and name change to Lukaneros.
The Hagioghafos was eventually "sealed" by king Timotheos.
The Sacrificial system was based on that of the Hebrews.
There were three kinds of sacrifices:
1. The Acceptance Sacrifice- brought to join the Mikhonians, as a general accompaniment to prayer, on certain holidays and every day, before any other sacrifices could be offered, two Acceptance Birds had to brought on every altar as an "Opener"
2. The Sin Sacrifice- brought on certain holidays, and whenever a person sinned and confessed it of his own accord to a priest, the priest could tell him to bring this sacrifice.
3. The Feast Sacrifice- accompanied by a libation of wine, and a meal-offering, this was brought on certain holidays, and whenever a person felt thankful. Most of it was eaten by the offerer.
Every town had a temple, with an altar. The only ones who could offer sacrifices (except in "emergencies"- when a person was a certain distance away from "civilization" and had an animal and met certain other requirements ) were the priests. The King was automatically a priest, and he could make priests by pouring "fragrant water" on their heads. These priests could make other priests.
Timotheos reformed it, so that all priests not "made" by the King had to complete a certain course of ecclesiastical study.
Every Mikhonian had to give a head tax to their local temple, which would send a fifth of their tax to the "Central Temple"
One of the Major Holy Days of Mikhonism was "The Day of Cleansing", modeled after the Hebrew Yom Kippur, as it occured ten days after new years.
The story behind it in the Hagioghafos was that Theos was angry at Mikhon for "allowing the people to stray" and told him to preform a ceremony on "The Day of Cleansing" to both atone, and to call to the people to change. He also told him that this ceremony should be preformed every year, just in case a similar situation occurred.
The Ceremony had to be done by the King, at the central Altar. This Altar had a frame built around it, and had to be in the same building as, when Mikhon was alive his "designated tomb" and his actual tomb after he died. It also had to be within "seeing distance" of the spot where the Yonataorans first made landfall.
Mikhon's tomb had to have a wall at its head. The only situation where a person could stand on Mikhon's burial ground was the King during "The Day of Cleansing".
The King had to fast from the night before (even though Yonataoran days began at dawn) and also had to abstain from sex the night before and take a bath just before dawn.
The Ceremony consisted of:
1. The King offering The daily "opening offering"
2. The King Offering a Yearling Lamb as an acceptance sacrifice
3. The King offering a Bull as a Sin Offering, then collecting it's ashes and putting them in a safe space.
4. The king burning Incense on the Altar.
5. The King entering into the burial ground and splashing water mixed with incense on Mikhon's headwall.
6. The King reading passages about "The Day of Cleansing" from the Hagioghafos
7. The King taking the ashes from the Sin Bull and scattering them over Mikhon's burial Ground
8. The King preparing a Feast offering to be eaten that night to celebrate a successful ceremony.
The second religion, Yisaryelism, is the Christianity equivalent, though it must be noted that it really isn't much of a separate religion, but rather a sect of Mikhonism separated from the "Central Temple".
Yisaryelians believed that the "Chosen Nation" spoken about in the Hagioghafos (Yisaryel) was a metaphor for the "Chosen Soul". All the stories of the Nation's history in the Hagioghafos are metaphors for heavenly events, and Mikhon's fleet had a vision of the Chosen Soul that was called "Yisaryelian boats" as a metaphor.
They believed that after The Hagioghafos was "sealed" by king Timotheos, this Chosen Soul came down in child in the Yonataorin Empire that became a Mikhonic priest, but latter had a vision telling him of his "true nature and purpose". He was supposed to also be the Golon, and usher in a Utopian age. However, when he sent emissaries to the Mikhonic king, the King mistook his message as that of him demanding the kingdom, and hounding Yisaryel to his secret temple, and brutally killed him on the altar, after which he calmed down and recognized his mistake, though still saying that Yisaryel was neither Chosen Soul nor Golon.
After his death, Yisaryel's followers claimed to find a note from him explaining that his death was a good thing. If even the "Chosen from the Unchosen" rejected him and killed him, the world was not ready to be a utopia. After such a rejection , the "Mikhonic Covenant" deserved to be abrogated. However, his death on the Altar served as a sin-sacrifice for the Mikhonians, so as long as there were Mikhonians who believed in him as a sacrifice, and paid the care-takers of the Altar yearly, the covenant would endure. Any Mikhonian who didn't do this would not be allowed to enter Paradise until Yisaryel came back. When the Mikhonic king recognized Yisaryel, he would resurrect.
The note also told his followers to turn his notes and some certain texts that they were to write into "The Yisaryelian Part of the Hagioghafos"
Yonataorin Religions
Re: Yonataorin Religions
The third religion, Tasimonism, is supposed to correspond to Islam, at least in the history, but not in theology.
It was founded by an innkeeper named Tasimon, whose inn where a certain Normative Mikhonian priest and a certain Yisaryelian priest would meet for polemic debates, which Tasimon would listen to. It soon became clear to them that all three were unsatisfied with certain aspects of the religions, such as sacrifice. Tasimon eventually claimed prophecy, and founded a new religion called Tasimonism, whose sacred text was one book called the Theoghafos.
The Theoghafos said that there was a chosen soul, who's mission was to make up for Adaman's (Adam) and Nuk's (Noah) failures which allowed the dark angel called "The Prince of Lies" to introduce immorality to mankind. A lot of Tasimonian ideas were based on the Book of the Hagioghafos called the Book of Ta'or, which told of a supposed reason why "Ta'oria" (The Crimea) was chosen as Mikhoism base, based on the idea that Ta'oria and the Ta'orians had had a massive struggle for G-d in the distant past. The Theoghafos told how the Chosen Soul was sent down 4 times before, as Ta'or (legendary ancestor of the Ta'orians), Aslan (Ta'or's great-grandson, who both in the Book of Ta'or and the Theoghafos had an epic struggle wit his evil brother Toshos), Mikhon, and Yisaryel. However, their messages had been corrupted by the Prince of Lies, especially introducing the idea of sacrifice as a divine service. Tasimon was the last incarnation of the Chosen Soul, who would defeat the Prince of Lies. He also said that if he ever died, it was an illusion by the Prince of Lies. He also said whoever wasn't buried in the "essential Ta'oria" could not enter paradise, even if he was righteous, until the Prince of Lies was defeated. He also introduced the idea of "Sabaton" that Saturday should be a day of communal prayer where no non-necessary business dealings could be done. He also prescribed near-total veganism, though he said that followers could eat meat and dairy if they bought it from a non-believer who didn't produce it for the believers' sake, and not from the same dealer for the next year.
It was founded by an innkeeper named Tasimon, whose inn where a certain Normative Mikhonian priest and a certain Yisaryelian priest would meet for polemic debates, which Tasimon would listen to. It soon became clear to them that all three were unsatisfied with certain aspects of the religions, such as sacrifice. Tasimon eventually claimed prophecy, and founded a new religion called Tasimonism, whose sacred text was one book called the Theoghafos.
The Theoghafos said that there was a chosen soul, who's mission was to make up for Adaman's (Adam) and Nuk's (Noah) failures which allowed the dark angel called "The Prince of Lies" to introduce immorality to mankind. A lot of Tasimonian ideas were based on the Book of the Hagioghafos called the Book of Ta'or, which told of a supposed reason why "Ta'oria" (The Crimea) was chosen as Mikhoism base, based on the idea that Ta'oria and the Ta'orians had had a massive struggle for G-d in the distant past. The Theoghafos told how the Chosen Soul was sent down 4 times before, as Ta'or (legendary ancestor of the Ta'orians), Aslan (Ta'or's great-grandson, who both in the Book of Ta'or and the Theoghafos had an epic struggle wit his evil brother Toshos), Mikhon, and Yisaryel. However, their messages had been corrupted by the Prince of Lies, especially introducing the idea of sacrifice as a divine service. Tasimon was the last incarnation of the Chosen Soul, who would defeat the Prince of Lies. He also said that if he ever died, it was an illusion by the Prince of Lies. He also said whoever wasn't buried in the "essential Ta'oria" could not enter paradise, even if he was righteous, until the Prince of Lies was defeated. He also introduced the idea of "Sabaton" that Saturday should be a day of communal prayer where no non-necessary business dealings could be done. He also prescribed near-total veganism, though he said that followers could eat meat and dairy if they bought it from a non-believer who didn't produce it for the believers' sake, and not from the same dealer for the next year.