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THE
CIOSAN
CULT |
The Ciosans are a cult of Avennorian traditionalists who still worship the ancient Glandorian God Hanranns and Goddess Meanra, as well as venerating almost to a state of being a demigod Ciosa himself, the founder of Avennoria from whom they take their names. They are separatist, desiring to split Avennoria from Santharia, and believe that Ciosa is not dead but sleeping, and will rise to lead them in accomplishing this goal. While their beliefs are to a large extent twisted from those which would have been held by Ciosa himself, they insist that only they worship the true Gods - in which at least they sound like followers of the Twelve or the Northern Gods. Indeed, it is hard to understand how the beliefs they hold could not differ from those of Ciosa, with thirteen thousand intervening years for them to change in.
Prevalence.
The Ciosans, as Avennorians,
inhabit the area of old Avennoria,
and are particularly highly concentrated around Gebl's Nose Cap and other areas
where Glandorian descent is most marked, in particular because those Glandorians
who remained in the area were more frequently of the conservative disposition
displayed by cult members, but also because when families following the old
beliefs saw them begin to die out, they returned to what they saw as their
spiritual home in an effort to keep away from the loss of belief. Some Ciosans
live further afield, but they are a rare breed, and usually out of touch with
the cult. These families are usually tied to where they live, and take the form
of a family, or perhaps two, with an even more twisted version of the Ciosan
faith.
Belief
Outlines. The Ciosans worship Hanranns and Meanra, God and
Goddess of the ancient Glandorians, as their deities, and have also practically
deified Ciosa. Hanranns is worshipped as the masculine God, of war and other
manly pursuits, while Meanra is worshipped as a sort of mother Goddess, but also
as a capricious and dangerous mistress of the seas and the weather.
In relation to the ancient Glandorian religion, there have been many changes
through the millennia. The most major of these is the removal of Fate, a
sexless, sometimes faceless, being whom the ancient Glandorians rationalised as
a shipwright, older and wiser than the deities, and far more powerful. The
rather militaristic take of the Ciosans on the faith is probably the reason for
the removal of a being who in its utter incomprehensibility seems to disdain
such pursuits; the Ciosan mindset also does not accept the idea of a creator of
deities, holding that both Hanranns and Meanra are eternal as land and sea.
In full, with all their honorifics and epithets, the pair are known as "Meanra,
Goddess of the Sea, and of the Gift of the Sea, which is Life, and the Breath of
the Sea which is Wind"; and "Hanranns, God of the Land, and of the Gift of the
Land, which is Strength, and the Breath of the Land, which is Language". Both
are seen as very primal deities, with strong overtones of power and even
violence - storms, wars, earthquakes and the like. Hence, the cult's members
tend to be very much in that vein - loud, brash, not mild like worshippers of
Nehtor, for example.
The central tenet of Ciosan belief, beyond their belief in their deities, is
that
Ciosa is asleep,
not dead as people say, and that one day he will rise and lead Avennoria to
glory her darkest hour. Since the unification of
Santharia, they have believed that this
means he will rise to lead them in secession, as the destruction of the
Kingdom of Avennoria - as they
see it - is truly her darkest, most dismal hour.
Organization.
The cult is split into two groups, the Priests
of Meanra and the Soldiers of Hanranns, each of which has its own hierarchy. The
cult is led ultimately by the High Priest of the Order of Meanra and the
Captain-General of the Soldiers of Hanranns, working in what it referred to as a
"tokonigmerk", a Glandorian word meaning duumvirate, or two leaders ruling side
by side; however, most day-to-day affairs in each of the divisions is overseen
by the relevant leader - the High Priest or the Supreme Captain, as the case may
be.
The Priests are a fairly simple body, with a small number of senior priests who
run the group as a whole, while the Soldiers have a series of Captain ranks
above the simple "Soldier of Hanranns". The elite soldiers of the branch,
however, make up Ciosa's Guard, a
significant minority of the Soldiers, whose members in effect are a rank above
their given rank - for example, an Undercaptain of
Ciosa's Guard would be more
important than an ordinary Undercaptain, and the equal of an ordinary Captain.
Only members of Ciosa's Guard may
bear arms within a temple of the cult - even the Captain-General has to leave
his weapons outside unless he is also a member of the Guard.
Both men and women can be members of the cult, though the Soldiers are
exclusively male; women join the Priests if they join at all. While the cult has
a fairly male dominant worldview, it is more concerned with the purity of
someone's racial background than their sex.
Soldier Ranks. Listed in order of most to least
senior. The ranks are roughly divided into the "lower" ranks - ordinary Soldiers
and Undercaptains - the "middle" ranks - Captains and Overcaptains - and the
"senior" ranks - Commanding Captain and Leading Captain, as well as the
Captain-General:
Captain-General - The most senior member of the Soldiers, and joint leader of the cult
Commanding Captain - Next most senior, with great authority over the Soldiers
Leading Captain - The lowest-ranking of the senior Soldiers
Overcaptain - The more senior of the middle-ranking Soldiers
Captain - The lower of the middle-ranking Soldiers
Undercaptain
- The first rank above an ordinary Soldier
Coat of Arms. If there is a coat of arms
for the cult as a whole, it is unknown; more common are the emblems of the
Priests and the Soldiers individually. The Priests' coat of arms is set on a
blue field and consists of a cutlass blade suspended, point down, over a ship.
The Soldiers' emblem is a bare hand clutching a naked cutlass by the blade, set
on a red field. The hand enters from the right of the field - the left for an
observer - and the blade points up.
People. Appearance. The Priests tend
to wear robes, dyed either blue - the colour of the seas - or white, while the
Soldiers wear armour - sometimes just of padded cloth - and carry weapons with
an air of competence. Soldiers wear a leather
thong around their neck that holds insignia of authority - Soldiers of higher
rank have wooden strips attached to the thong as a symbol of their rank, and
members of Ciosa's Guard have an
additional circular amulet strung on theirs, stained with the blood of a
sacrificial animal.
There is nothing in the way of compulsory ritual scarring in the cult, but some
more fanatical members of the Priests practise such things as tattooing -
usually on the shoulder or the back of the hand - or blood sacrifice. The blood
sacrifice is a one-time act of dedication as a general rule, and leaves the
Priest with a scar of approximately a handspan's width across over his or her
heart. Those priests who carry out the sacrifice more than once, in extreme
fanaticism or a desire for greater favour with the Gods, will cut the other
breast so that the number of scars on each side is equal, and any further
scarring returns to the left and begins again. The most scars ever recorded was
an astounding total of nine - five on the left, four on the right - and,
unsurprisingly, the perpetrator died of blood loss trying to make a tenth scar.
We can only wonder at his dedication.
Personality. In general, members of the cult are
highly arrogant and very prejudiced against those of non-Glandorian descent -
some are utterly obsessed with bloodlines, and spend long days or weeks tracing
their own or others'. A burning hatred of the Twelvern pantheon and their
worshippers is also evident, as the Ciosans blame the worship of the Twelve for
turning so many of Glandorian ancestry away from their ancestral God and
Goddess, and this loathing is particularly intense with regard to those of the
Twelve, and their worshippers, who are viewed as specific rivals to Meanra and
Hanranns - Grothar and Baveras
for Meanra, and Armeros for Hanranns.
The other defining characteristic of the Ciosans is their steadfast opposition
to the United Kingdoms of Santharia. The
cult's origins, and their belief in the superiority of their bloodlines and
practices, preclude any acceptance of another nation ruling
Avennoria, and the cult is,
fundamentally, in favour of a split with
Santharia and the reinstatement of
Avennoria as a sovereign nation.
Worshipping Practices. The
practices of this cult are to a large extent secretive, but seem for the Priests
to involves fairly routine sacrifices of livestock, involving the cutting of an
animal's throat with a single swift cut and the pouring out of the blood on a
wooden altar. Sometimes this is done in order to bless objects - a weapon, or an
amulet - and all of the Ciosa's
Guard pendants are dedicated in this way. An object blessed like this must be
left untouched, in the open, on a white linen cloth until the blood has washed
or worn off; the cloth must then be burned in order to complete the dedication
of the item.
The Soldiers have no worshipping ceremonies of their own, but rather worship in
drill and battle - they see their prowess and dedication as their sacrifice, and
serve their God in training for and the act of war.
Temples. Ciosan temples are wooden, and relatively low key,
though it is common for the altar itself to be outside - animals are always
sacrificed outside. There are no grand, soaring temples, and the buildings of
the Ciosans are never made of stone. They can only be where there is no
objection to their presence, naturally, and so tend to be in the countryside, as
city folk either object to animal sacrifices in the street or - in areas where
sacrifices are thought of as normal - are priests or devout followers of the
Twelve.
Festivals/Celebrations. Both of
the important celebrations of the Ciosans take place in the month of
Singing Bird, as it is believe
by the cult that both of the significant events in
Ciosa's life took place in that
month.
On the third day of Singing Bird,
the cult celebrates the supposed anniversary of
Ciosa's birth with singing and
dancing by all, displays of military prowess by the Soldiers, and the induction
of new members by the Priests, as well as several sacrifices. The new Priests
are daubed in the blood of the sacrificial animal, and must leave the mark alone
for the next week.
The Soldiers induct new members on the twentieth day of the month, which they
believe to be the anniversary of
Ciosa's arrival at Gebl's Nose Cape. They also formally announce membership
of Ciosa's Guard on this date,
and the schedule is filled with displays of physical and military ability -
sword demonstrations, wrestling, even staged battles with blunt swords - and
sometimes races and other competitions of athleticism.
These festivals take place near the temples of the cult, and the open space
required by this is another reason why those temples tend to be in the country
or in small villages rather than bustling hubs such as
Ciosa itself. Due to general
opposition - after all, the cult is a significant minority - the ceremonies also
tend to be fairly secretive, kept well out of the way of prying, hostile eyes.
History.
The cult is believed to have formed not, as legend has it, from the words and
actions of one man, but from a gradual and natural grouping together of
like-minded traditionalists. Originally a solely religious grouping, dedicated
to worship, the followers of Hanranns became more and more militaristic, until
by around the time of the unification of
Santharia it is believed that the divide between the Soldiers and the
Priests was finalised into more or less its present form. The Ciosans have
opposed all deviations from
Avennorian tradition, and were bitterly opposed to the establishment of
Santharia.
In recent centuries, the cult has become less and less prominent, as its
militaristic and extreme approach appeals to fewer and fewer people, and the
prowess of the Soldiers is no longer needed in war. However, there are still
those for whom the Twelvern do not hold the allure of these two old Gods, and
the cult seems to be far from dying out.
Myth/Lore. The Ciosans believe that their faith was founded by a
man named Fjorkolf Nikskun as faith in the old Gods was fading to be replaced by
the Twelvern. It is claimed that Meanra's hiveling appeared to him, as it did to
Ciosa when he landed in
Avennoria, and, overcome with
religious ecstasy, he swore to keep the old faith alive, forming a cult of
devout people and attracting many because the Gods themselves spoke to him.
Other tales include miraculous stories of warriors gaining a desperate strength
as they pray to Hanranns and barren women bearing twins after sacrifices to
Meanra - but these are fairly standard tales, applicable to any Gods of
appropriate areas with only a minor changing on names.
Importance.
The cult is noteworthy for its determined opposition to
Santharia, both before, during and after
unification, and its status as a vocal and extremely conservative faction of
Avennorian society through its
history, though it has lost influence in recent times. The Soldiers often fought
in Avennorian battles as the
highly-trained and well-disciplined core of professional soldiers in armies
formed for the most part of peasant levies - provided they were willing. The
Ciosans have always been very difficult to coerce into anything, due to their
fanatical devotion to their ideals.
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