<!>Post your goddess/god! (2014-05-29 16:42:31)
Post your goddess/god!
Anthologica Universe Atlas / Forums / Department of Creativity / Post your goddess/god! / <!>Post your goddess/god! (2014-05-29 16:42:31)

? Matrix Chronicler of the Myriad
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Kaliana, the Sublime Goddess, is the only deity worshipped in the Sublimist religion of southern Salenzis. The religion's homeland is Igion, the largest state in southern Salenzis if you don't count Zarcos. In Igion, Sublimism is the majority belief system, however, it is a minority belief system if you take southern Salenzis as a whole, being beaten by Traditional Salenzianism, to which Sublimism has a few similarities, the two having emerged around the same time, during the Pax Prophana.

The short version of what the Sublime Goddess teaches is equality, especially equality of the sexes. She also hates necromancy, primarily because necromancers can open portals into the underworld (which she refers to as the Shadow), from which demons can emerge into Maikros (the world). One thing Sublimism shares with Salenzianism is the idea of Collective Self-Reliance, the idea that the group should be able to deal with its own problems. The group can be defined at any level, from a small group of friends all the way up to all people. The individual, however, is not considered to be a group. Sublimism comes at the idea differently from Salenzianism, however. In Sublimism, it is inspired by the Goddess' ideals of equality.

The long version would take up a whole book - the Codex Sublimis. Here are some quotes:

"I am thy Lady the Sublime Goddess. I am the One, and under Me thou shalt have no Other. All such are of the Ancient Fathers; scornest them, as thine have scorned thee."

"Suffer not the Violator, the Ravisher. Under thy watch and Mine, he shall be consigned unto Shadow."

"The Shadow presenteth the most danger to thee. It is so for all. To present one to it shall thus be regarded with utmost care and foresight."

"Takest thou My hand. It beareth great power; thus shall thine."
This above quote is a rather well known line, and is the inspiration for the identifying symbol of Sublimism, a hand with the palm facing forward and the fingers pointing down.

"The Necromancer draweth his power from Shadow. He bringeth forth Demons from it into Mind and Maikros. Let him not into thy lands, thy cities, thy towns, thy homes, for in the end, he will have wrought only your destruction. Such is this danger he presenteth that even the Ancient Fathers hath placed their sanctions against him."

"These women are enslaved, beaten, and forced - it is in this way that the Ancient Fathers hath corrupted the arts of pleasure and forged them between hammer and anvil into sin. To them, I say: I offer thou freedom from thy masters, I offer thou the choice of thy profession, and if thou choosest to remain with it, I offer thou the purity of holiness: thy craft shall be tempered and sharpened so: thou shalt be My bed-priests, and thou shalt spread My word without words, and give those who know it already comfort and solace."
Even though this quote talks only about women, men can become bed-priests, too.

This next quote is from the Visions, the last section of the Codex, known for being crazy and making little sense. The Goddess is cagey about the Visions, and there are rumours that even She does not fully understand them.

"Ranachas and Vitu were wedded in coercion; the contracts were written by the Sixty-Eight Eternal Hours, otherworldly scion of the Ancient Fathers, whose true name is terror and heresy; their consummation bed was of four-hundred-and-thirty-two clouds through which they saw a myriad of images as the Hours contained them and forced them to couple. For these hours they did so, and Vitu was made to bear a child. The child was difficult inside her womb, and so she prayed to the Great Bird of Zarcos. She took the shield and sword of Ranachas as offerings and shouted atop the roof of his home, towards the sky: 'I beg that you shall descend from on high, O Kandurinith, and that you shall give me such strength that I need to bring forth this child safe and healthy.' But the Great Bird knew of the influence of the vile Eternal Hours, and so through this conduit she gave him, smote her at once. Ranachas was near her and saw this. He was stricken with such grief to lose his first wife that he quit his roof, and all of him was broken and unrecognizable upon the earth. Even though Vitu was smote, her child could not be - but her death severed its tie to her family, protecting them from its wrath as it emerged from Vitu's corpse in thunder and screams."