Faith of Presence

"The gods choose such instruments as they require. Their ways are mysterious, but no man may withstand their divine will."

- Hestia

Faith of Divine Presence is the dominant religion in the supernatural world, worshipped by humans, monsters, and gods alike. The religion is old, dated back since antediluvian times when the blood of the First Men still ran strong in humanity.

It is often referred to as just either The Faith or the Old Religion by most followers.

Summary
The faith originated from the beginning of civilization, when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden for committing the original sin. They are said to be the founders of the faith, known in the myths as Edinnu and Havael, as a way for humans to better connect with the Divine Presence and Their Emannations and countless Sacred Aeons.

It grew in size and power in the later centuries, as the Edenith civilization - the center of the faith - began to grow and expanded itself in Tellus Mahte. Soon, it became the dominant religion in the primordial planet, destroying all the opposing religions and declaring those that managed to survive outside of the faith's influence to be heretics. Near the end of the civilization's golden era, it managed to transform the entire capital city, now renamed Edinnu to honor one of the faith's founders, into a theocratic city, with the high priest from one of the thirteen noble houses holding the strongest authority.

However, the reign of the faith didn't last long, as by the middle of the silver era, the thirteen houses and the faith wrestled over the control of the masses, with the former manipulating events to steadily weaken the faith's power and influence. Eventually, in the end of the silver era, the faith was defeated, only practiced by a few colonies within the civilization while the majority of the world falsely believed they had reached into the domains of God through their magical and scientific achievements.

By the bronze era, the Old Religion fell into obscurity and was only practiced by what the Edenim considered the minorities, such as people of the lower classes, exiled, bastards... who found comfort in their religious practices. In the year ████ of the bronze era, the Great Temple of Seti'kha - the largest and central temple of the faith - was destroyed by the Edenith government and actively triggered the end of the world and the wrath of the "gods".

In the final years, countless calamities struck down upon civilization one after another, signaling the world's destruction and the wrath of the "gods", but the leaders refused to listen. And after 666 years of torment, a great rain arrived and drowned everything within Creation beneath the water of repentance of the Deluge.

Only a few survived, either saved by the "gods" for a variety of reasons, or managed to slip through the eyes of said "gods" and saved themselves from absolute destruction. Regardless, thanks to them, the Old Religion survived into the new world, our world, and its influence and power soon rose up again and took roots in the heart of the supernatural once more.

The Gods
Followers of the Old Religion worship the Divine Presence, a single divine entity whose emanations and aspects formed the "gods" of the pantheon, even though they are merely faces of the Divine Presence. Depending on their need, worshippers pray either to the Divine Presence or to Their specific aspects - Emanations and Sacred Aeons. The aspects are:
 * Emanations: The seven entities who represent the seven core aspects of the Presence, the principal pillars that make up the foundations of existence. In certain writings and beliefs, they are rivals and lovers to each other, and everytime they meet, they shall either battle or make love, which regardless of outcome, will ultimately result in the birth of another world. They are only known by the name of the pillar that they represent:
 * Destiny: Primordial embodiment of fate and the most influential and powerful of them all, as none is capable of escaping their predestined fate. He is generally portrayed as a blind man chained with two chains made of gold and silver called "Events" and "Chances".
 * Death: Primordial embodiment of death who reaches and influences all, even those who are immortal and deathless. Her duties as death last until the last living thing dies and she puts existence itself to rest before becoming the entity known as Life.
 * Dream: Primordial embodiment of space, though his interests laid more in songs and stories than his divine duties, thus leading to the uncontrollable nature of dreams themselves. Some myths said existence itself is nothing more than one of his numerous dreams, and everything will be wiped out, himself included, if he ever wakes up.
 * Destruction: Primordial embodiment of destruction in all forms, including the destruction of all of her siblings' divine domains. A myth said that because of a feud she had with Death, she created immortality as a mockery of her sister, but was forced to give birth to mortality soon after by Despair to balance the cosmic order. Because of this myth, many believed she also held dominance over genesis, or formation.
 * Desire: Primordial embodiment of desire of both physical and spiritual senses, he is the most beautiful, yet also the cruelest and heartless of all the "gods". It is said that all the evils, ugliness, pains and sufferings in existence were created by him in order to fulfill his selfish desire to make himself even more beautiful than before.
 * Despair: Primordial embodiment of hopelessness, yet, it is because of him that hope exists. He is said to be the janitor of the Emanations, as many tales contributed to him depicting him fixing up the disasters created by his siblings.
 * Delirium: Primordial embodiment of madness and insanity. He is the trickster, the enigma, and the unknown. In some cults, he is said to be a child born of Destiny and Desire who Despair had tried to kill with his "baneful blood" but was resurrected by Death in wine. Before this so-called resurrection, he is said to be named Delight.
 * Sacred Aeons: The multiple aspects of the Divine Presence and often the "children" and/or "younger siblings" of the Emanations. Most of them are nameless and known only by their titles, not because of their lower rankings, but rather because their names are forbidden to be spoken unless it is by the Presence' will. They are separated into three groups: The White Gods, the Hidden Gods, and the Black Gods.

Priests
When priests and priestesses of the Old Religion take on their vows, they set aside their family name and origins and swear their eternal servitude in the name of the "gods". All priests wear pure white robes with golden lines, a diadem of seven colored-jewels, and carrying a staff of pure gold. They lead worship with incense, censers and songs.

They are also taught prayers and divine markings, and are trained to recognize the divine signs sent out by the "gods" and how to interpret them.

High Priest
The High Priest is the head of the Old Religion, the Vessel of the Faithful, the voice of the Emanations and the Sacred Aeons on Earth. The Most Devout, a council of the highest-ranking priests who are often primordial gods from various mythologies and religions, usually from among their own rank, although there have been notable exceptions where the "gods" personally choose who they want to be chosen. Typically, the High Priest wear loose and flowing white robes and their face is hidden beneath a white veil and a golden crown. Priests and priestesses from the Most Devout wear robes of cloth-of-silver and crystal coronets.

The current High Priest is Aether, the Primordial God of Light from Greco-Roman mythology.

Practices
The Old Religion is the predominant religion of the supernatural world, attracting followers from all corners of existence and not just our world. It is worshipped by humans, by monsters, by fairies and spirits and immortals, and by the pagan gods themselves. The primordial gods, who are the eldest of all pagan gods, are devout members of the faith and are responsible for passing the teachings to their descendants.

Although the laws of the pantheons and the faith are seen as separate, teachings of the Old Religion have a heavy influence over the cultures, religion and mythology of various paagan religions across the world.

Style of Worship
Religious worship is done in great temples, with altars and statues for each of the seven Emanations, three altars each for the White Gods and the Hidden Gods and the Black Gods, and a great ceiling made out of stained glass which is dedicated to the Divine Presence. The altars are sometimes inlaid richly with gold and precious gemstones, with prayers engraved on the sides and bottom. Large windows are placed across the tall walls made from stained glass, depicting scenes and pictures, and which spread light in a rainbow of colors when they catch light.

Prayers are done in silence and before each of the statues or altars of the "gods" that one wishes to ask for aid, though none is required when asking for the Divine Presence as the worshipper just needs belief. While staying at home or in places where there are no available temples or statues or altars, many use colored candles in placement for the statues and pray before them. Animal sacrifices are said to be done in certain temples in certain territory, though they aren't universal.

Trials
Trials can be presided over by a priest to make it a divine trial, by which the priest will begin with a prayer, beseeching the "gods" to guide them towards justice - or rather, what the gods consider justice - and during the trial, the priest will swear a man to honesty before they are to give testimony.

While these are similar to normal trials, any judgement the "gods" may give will triumph over anything the judges made. And unlike regular trials, these divine trials can range somewhere from several hours to several days or just simply several minutes. In one case, the moment the trial officially began, the accused was instantly struck by heavenly lightning and turned into a charcoal corpse, signifying his crimes without even needing to hold a trial.

Another form of trial is a trial by combat, in which the accuser and the accused asked the "gods" to decide the issue between them, and those who are of a royal or noble birth cannot be denied a trial by combat. Since trials by combat entirely depending on the accused's and accuer's strength and less on justice, many call it a coward's trial.

Marriage Customs
A marriage ceremony takes place inside a temple, presided by a priest, where a hearth is created and a small altar is placed with two cups of wine, small pieces of bread and a ceremonial dagger. The bride's father, or the person standing in his place (usually kin or whoever else is closest to living kin), will escort the bride to the marriage altar where the priest and the groom awaits them.

Seven vows are made, seven blessings are invocated and seven promises are exchanged before the burning hearth. The priest then uses the dagger to split open their palms and drop their blood into the wine cups before having the bride and groom drinking the cup containing each other's blood, alongside the pieces of ceremonial bread. After which, a challenge is made to speak against the marriage, and if the challenge goes unanswered, the handfasting ceremony begins, the priest tying their bleeding hands together. When this ceremony is finished, they share a kiss and they are announced by the priest to be officially married.

What follows next is a feast. A wedding pie will be presented during the feast, which is typically filled with living birds (doves, songbirds, bluejays, skylards, mockingbirds, nightingales, sparrows, parrots...). The bride and groom cut open the pie together with a sword, allowing the birds to fly away. After the feast follows the bedding. The bride and groom are escorted to their wedding chamber, which is typically decorated with seasonal flowers.

It must be noted that the term "groom" and "bride" are not gender-specific terms in the Old Religion marriage customs, but rather the position of the people in marriage, as the former term refers to the person marrying someone into the family while the later is marrying into another family. Queer marriages are considered the norms in the religion, and polygamous marriages are uncommon, but still exist.

Death
The Old Religion believes that when someone dies, their souls become free of the body and return to the house of Death where it would live in pure ecstasy for seven-hundreds-and-seventy years, seven months and seven days before being reincarnated. However, their consciousness and characterization shall live on, either in bliss in the high heavens, in torment in the burning hells, or simply live numbly in the seven mountains lying between heavens and hells, and will only be freed when the messianic figure known as Yoshua ben Yoshef come and save them.

Social Rules
The Old Religion holds several basic social rules that uphold the laws of guest right, which hold sacred the good behavior of a guest and host toward each other. They are against slavery, treating it as an abomination and whoever practice it, knowingly or otherwise, will be publicly stoned to death within a temple when caught, the same also goes with kidnappers and human (or rather, sentient being) traffickers.

While kinslaying and oath-breaking are considered great sins, under the right circumstances, they are permitted and those who committed it need to go to a temple and be purified of the sins with prayers and blessed oils. Incest is also frowned upon, though they aren't entirely forbidden.

The faith doesn't look down upon homosexuality or the LGBT+ community and accept it as a normal part of life. They believe that everyone is equal in the eyes of the "gods", not being separated or treated differently from one another based on what gender they identify as. Discriminations based on one's ethnicity, origins or history is also strictly forbidden, and forcing people to abandon their religions to convert to the Old Religion is seen as great disrespect to the Divine Presence Themself.

Other Practices
Some other known practices done by followers of the Old Religion are:
 * Sharing bread and salt to offer someone guest right.
 * Using seven oils when naming a baby or when anointing a new king.
 * Renewing their marriage every seven years, seven months and seven days.
 * Burning small sacrifices like poems, paintings or wooden statues at the end of a week.

Cults
There have been multiple cults that appear throughout the millennia, each dedicated to revere a certain god with their own mythology and history behind their foundation. And while they aren't accepted by the belief of the Old Religion, they are acknowledged as a part of their mythology.

Some of the largest known cults within the Faith of Presence are:


 * Children of Dawn
 * Children of New Emanations
 * Divine Children of Aeons


 * Faith of Stars and Swords
 * Faith of the Many-Faced God
 * Order of the Heavenly Will


 * Principalities of White
 * Right-Hands of Mercy
 * The Thriceborn Faith

Quotes
"The gods have no mercy. That's why they're gods. My mother told that to me when I was young. It wasn't like she didn't believe in them, she did fear and revere and worship them like any proper Vanr would. She just didn't like them very much."

- Freya

Trivia

 * The rainbow is considered sacred in the Old Religion.
 * Pagan gods considered themselves to be created in the "gods"' images.
 * There is a seven-layered cakes often eaten with figs and/or fig jams on holy days.
 * Many groups choose to associate themselves with the holy days of the Old Religion to magically and spiritually empower themselves.
 * Not all "gods" from the old pantheon like being prayed to, comparing it to "celebrities seeing cults dedicated to themselves by crazy teenage fangirls"
 * The fact the "gods" of the Old Religion is God and his angelic creations - angels, fallen angels and demons - takes several billions year for others, mainly supernatural ones, to realize it only after a failed summoning ritual and the revelation of the supernatural world baffled the entirety of Heaven, who don't even care to make it seems like they and the faith isn't associated with one another.
 * Vladimir Trueblood, a human priest of the Old Religion, stated that nearly all humans or former humans are just as baffled as the angels, as the similiarities between the faith and Abrahamic religions are too similar to be conincidences that many believe the Old Religion to be a precursor to all of them.