Elemental religion

The Poorters worship four gods: Gräins, Phyarx, Vindel and Aaser. Each of these gods represents an element: earth, fire, air and water. Every aspect of life is devoted to one or more of the four gods. Most people worship only one of these gods, but it is also possible to worship two or more gods at the same time.

The vision towards the world

Like the Naglani, the Poorters believe in one god exploding into many pieces when colliding with something evil. This explosion resulted in many sparks that form the life in every living being (most Poorters exclude plants, some exclude animals from this vision). If a creature dies, the spark will show in the nightly sky as a star. There is an endless amount of sparks, like fire is endless.
Poorters will try to keep the sparks alive and content. The better ones life, the brighter the star will be. Unhappy sparks will end up as restless stars or even veiled stars. It is known that angry stars can fall back on the world and cause big disasters.

Temples and priests

There are many temples devoted to one or more gods in Daleth. Settlements have at least one temple. Some temples are built outside settlements, on special places or to serve travellers.
Temples devoted to two or three gods are rare, but those devoted to all four gods are regular in bigger settlements. In Overveer all temples are devoted to all four gods after the hanze was founded.
Temples are buildings with at least an altar, how small it may be. Each temple has at least one priest. It is not necessary for the priest to live in the temple, but it is handy when (s)he lives nearby. The priest is the intermediair between the god and the people and (s)he should study a lot to do this job in an acceptable manner. Therefore, temples are usually a place of (sharing) knowledge, with libraries and the occasional wise elder who teaches about life.
Priests of bigger temples (4-gods-tempels) have to have more knowledge than others and are usually older than regular priests. Some people regard to those priests as high priests. They haven’t got more rights than normal priests, but lots of people relay on their advice because of their wisdom and knowledge.

Everybody can decide to become a priest. Bigger temples provide activities and lessons for newbies, in smaller temples newbies can learn and work at the same time (priests are usually happy to have some help around). If the teachers are content, the newbie can become a fellow-priest and work with other priests to learn more about the job and do some special assignments. If this works out well, a new priest is born. This is celebrated with close relatives, the teachers and -of course- the gods.
A priest stays a priest for life, unless it is proved the priest has turned into a disbeliever. In that case, the disbeliever is -as a priest- banned from all temples in Daleth (and in some extreme cases lynched by the people). If a priest gives up his/her believe as his/her own decision, nobody really bothers, but priests who preach unholy ways might show up as veiled stars in the night sky.

Religious Art



Phyarx
Art in temples is a more folkloristic kind of art than the art in the palaces. The templeart is used to show the people about the acts of the gods and is symbolic in a easily to understand manner.
The images of the gods are art too. The artists asked to make images are well known and talented. They are free to make the image as they like, as long as it is obvious which god it is.

The Gods Manual

As times passed by, priests have written a manual for newbie-priests, known as The Gods Manual. In this books, rites are described in detail and a list of holidays is provided. As the book grew, hints to consulting both believers and gods were included, the “ideal” temple was described, and so on. The Gods Manual is the most popular book in Daleth, though many people only read the parts with the more practical tips (“How to brew your own holy beer”, “How to make a marriage successful even in the darkest stondes”, “How to deal with the ill, the dead and the undead”, “How to raise money for a festivity”, and so on).

The four gods

There are, as mentioned before, four gods: Gräins, Phyarx, Vindel and Aaser. The following tables show the attributes and elements of the gods. The Poorters have a tendency to split everything in four parts and associate each part with a different god. Unsplittable things are very holy, and things that split in more or less than four parts (like a flower with five petals) is suspicious - it can be a sign of Evil.

Gräins Phyarx Vindel Aaser
earth fire air water
fertility passion weather life
agriculture death fate wealth
spring summer autumn winter
east south west north
marriage sex childhood faith
wisdom charisma strength dexterity
green red white blue
worms mammals birds fishes
sculptures script secrets messages
architecture theatre music paintings

Sparks of life and death

The sparks mentioned before are know as “Splinters” to the Poorters. Splinters are divine parts in the human body (or: the living body). Scientists have tried to get the splinters out of the body, but couldn’t find a touchable splinter. They think it is made of air or another undetectable gas.
When someone dies, the splinter will rise in the sky and will be visible as a star. It is possible that the splinter has disappeared from the body and the body continues to live. Those people are called “undead”, and are closely related to Evil in most cases.

Evil

There is no personification of evil, evil has no image, at least not since the Evil Gods were defeated (see Myths). Evil are bad things that happen. Evil is the dark side of light. It is also dualistic: most good things have a bad side. Some small groups worship “Evil”, but their rites are based on the elemental religion (such as “Evil has four elements: hunger, plague, war, illness”).
These groups operate in secrecy and therefore not a lot is known about these people or their religion.

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