In Anrel, religious philosophy has been strongly influenced by the Hexact Doctrine . Unlike most world religions, faith in Anrel is a personal responsibility: it is a contract between an individual and a god. Individuals dedicate their service and worship to a particular deity, in return for protection and patronage.

There is no necessity for any individual to follow a god, but Anrelians believe that in a world of gods, it is foolish not to gain the patronage of at least one. Children are often blessed and encouraged in the tradition of their parents, but choose to follow the path of a deity some time in their late teens. In former times tribe and nation often determined their choice of god. Today occupation and class, as well as location and nationality are important factors. Not everyone joins a formal cult, and some people change the god they worship during the course of their life. Some honour several gods (if they are compatible), or even none, but godless people cannot expect the protection or aid of a deity in times of need, and their spirit dies with them rather than living on with the god.

Some worship a primary god but pray to other gods at certain times. Some have no primary god, but make compacts at temples when the need arises. Belief, in Anrel, is a very personal thing. Harmonious living is encouraged, although the Hexact tries to be non-sectarian in its approach.

Belief in Anrel is expressed through thoughts, deeds and actions in service to a deity. All gods revel in certain types of human behaviour, and gods encourage their followers to follow a lifestyle compatible with their needs. The spiritual contract with the deity requires that worshippers maintain a certain state of mind through thought, prayer and action, according to the nature of the god, on a spectrum of human behaviour from positive to negative. In return for service, the deity listens to the prayers of the worshipper, bestowing good will and aid as needed.

Positive gods require altruistic acts of self-sacrifice, good works, non-violence, healing, helping others, charity and self-denial. Negatives revel in negative human behaviour: anger, violence, hatred, fear and destruction. Neutrals are essentially the gods of states, requiring a balance of behaviour between the two: contentment, arbitration, harmony, fairness, law, justice, honour and balance.

Worship of the negative natural gods is frowned on by the Hexact, but it is not outlawed. Negativity is part of the human balance, but followers of a negative path ultimately reap a terrible fate, consumed by their self-destructiveness. Negative cults re-emerge occasionally, but they are mercifully short-lived as their gods inevitably devour them.

There are a various deities throughout Anrel. Many of these were originally local or tribal gods, and it is still true that certain classes and types of people are likely to worship certain gods. For example, farmers commonly worship Cornelen , the ruling classes commonly honour Ketrorl .

Gods vary in their ritual needs; some worshipped solitarily or in small private groups, others in large public ceremonies. There is no great tradition of iconography in Anrel, because people believe the gods are astral beings, without human form. But most gods have a mythic form of manifestation, and paintings and sculptures of the gods do adorn public buildings and shrines.

Creation Myths

The various islands, tribes and kingdoms of the north share a common creation myth. There are several different versions, great sagas telling of times before and after the Creation, but they are all based around variations of the following:

In ancient times, the Earth was dark and foul, the bottom of a sea of stars. Unclean creatures were vomited up from the sea, crawling on the land in an eternity of darkness. But then The One, the hermaphrodite god, lit up the sky and descended to earth on a pillar of flame, burning clean the earth around It. The One spawned Mankind from its own belly [inseminating itself], and set them to bring light, order and structure to the world. From Its flesh The One created all the clean creatures, the plants and the animals, to be the servants of Man, to feed him, carry him, aid him and clothe him. The One gave Man the gifts of speech and thought, gave him fire and tools, and ascended into the heavens to burn in the sky as the sun.

As a result of this myth, Anrelians have a great prejudice against these "unclean", non-red-blooded, native creatures and plants.

Eating, using or even touching these yabber things is taboo, because they are foul, poisonous, and a corrupting influence, as described in the tale. This has some basis in fact- all of the poisonous and most predatory creatures are native, and few of them make good food. Anrelians, even worshippers of the darker gods, only eat the krim or clean, red-blooded animals, and the green plants seeded by the Ancients. (Red and Green are the colours of the One.)

Unlike most of the world, the Anrel Isles were scoured of yabber creatures in ancient times, partly because of the relatively high human population density. Millennia ago the native ecology was burned and driven back. Native species are now only found in remote forests and mountains.]

These dietary laws are still very strictly carried out, not by law but by custom. Before contact with southerners this was never a problem, but foreigners, eating imported yabber spices and foods, suffer prejudice because of it.

The Tirennion

The greatest Creation tale is the Saga of Tire-Ohn , otherwise called the Tirennion . This is a collection of ancient tales compiled into a single narrative, probably in the time of Ferokian, around 1800 years ago (c.2400 HM). It ends with a series of prophecies, histories and moral tales. In the Tirennion, The One descended to earth after a great war in heaven, carrying the seeds of all the clean creatures in its belly after eating them up from the floor of a great victory feast in the ruins of heaven.

The King-Father of Eternity and the Queen-Mother of Night, whose cloak is the stars, had ruled since they had thought themselves into being at the beginning of time. They had children, but these titan-gods, the planets, became jealous of each other. They vied for favour and power, and even attempted to usurp the thrones of their parents, in many tales of intrigue and betrayal that are the basis of moral fables in Anrel.

These titans created the first god-men, to worship them and to serve as soldiers in their terrible wars. They fed them on their god-food to make them strong, huge and powerful; so powerful that they glowed with fire and could step between the stars.

The One was the last child of the Mother and Father. It was the runt of the litter, born neither male nor female, weak but gifted with wisdom. He was made as an ambassador, a non-threatening peacemaker; a last attempt by the Parents to bring peace and harmony to the universe. But the titan-gods laughed at and scorned The One, and continued their destruction for aeons until their armies were all but destroyed. As the Titans recovered from the efforts of their vast battles, The One swam the heavens, amongst the embers of their conflict that are the stars, eating up all the scattered seeds of creation. At long last, the One descended to the dark earth far beneath, to plant these seeds, far from the destruction that raged above.

Another myth, central to the saga, tells the story of the hero, Tire-Ohn. He was one of the first offspring of the seeds of The One. Though weaker than the god-men who had been raised on immortal food, he was still huge and powerful, and became leader of a great race of men who lived in peace and plenty.

These first were strong and powerful, wielding incredible powers. Supreme amongst them were the Boghrema, who studied the stars and discovered all the secrets of creation.

Tire-Ohn and his people daily saw the battles that still raged above them in the burning battlefield of the heavens, and despaired that one day the Titans would come and undo the whole of Creation. So one day, after the climax of a dreadful battle sent the Titans swooning to their tents, he climbed into the heavens and picked his way onto the battlefield, strewn with the god-men dead. He sneaked into the camps, and while the gods slept, weary and wounded, he stole their spears and shields. He piled them all into a great chariot and returned to earth.

With the sword of the Iron God, Nomes, he cut a great doorway into a mountainside and piled the weapons within. But once the sword had left his hand, the door closed, trapping him inside the mountain, for ever.

With their power taken and their armies slaughtered, the titan-gods slept. The saga tells that they will remain asleep until the gate opens at the end of days, and their weapons are returned. Then, Tire-Ohn will awaken to leads the armies of men, against the gods who will return to destroy the world.

[NB There is truth in this story. Helevos was seeded as a colony of refugees from a vast ancient war, whose survivors had seen suns sucked into nothingness, turning whole galaxies dark. Helevos was the product of an ancient peace treaty. The survivors of the war, on all sides, sick of the mass destruction they had wreaked upon each other, agreed to forever hide their technologies in a hyper spatial portal, secretly located on this world. The one device to open the door was broken into eight pieces, embedded in a crystal material to protect and preserve it. These eight vari-coloured crystals were given, one to each treaty world.

The cultures who created them then detonated their shining cities and went into a deliberate technological retreat. Helevos was seeded with a number of engineered species that would make life acceptable, without the need for hard technologies.]

The Gods of Anrel

All of the gods in Anrel mythology have their own origin myths. Some claim to have always existed, others are the shades of great spirits, or the gods of tribal ancestors. But all of them are "imminent gods", who closely interest themselves in the lives of man. The One, and the Titan gods of the heavens, are far above and care nothing for petty mortal affairs.

However, the Lesser Gods deal with Mankind on a daily basis.

The Titan-Lords

These are the gods of the heavens, the sun, stars, moons and planets. They circle far above earth, asleep in their endless dreams, and they have little or no interest in the affairs of mankind. The majority of uneducated Anrelians have probably never heard of them.

Eternity and Night - these are the first two supreme beings, the Father and the Mother. The Father is the small star, called the Son in southern lands. The Mother is the veil of night, the vault of the heavens.

These gods are essentially the fabric of reality, time and darkness. They are not worshipped, but respected, although in the past there have been minor cults of the Goddess of the Night Sky.

Nom'es, Katr'es, Ahtr'es - the who fought to overthrow their parents, corresponding to the planets called (in the south): Nomes, Kwato'or and Atrey

Kondr'es, Rart'es and Doh'es - the three defenders, corresponding to the planets Condre, Rater and Doah.

The One - the sun god, who circles the earth.

(Mythologies about the moons vary. In the north they are commonly called the Eye and the Discus, from tales in the Tirennion.)

The God-Men - children of The One. These were the earliest humans, raised on god-food and so having powers to walk the stars and skies, and to create beasts and lesser gods.

The High Gods

These are the Anrelian deities of state, invoked in public ceremonies. In myth, the High Gods were petitioned by the ancient Heroes, and became the defenders of the early nations, promoters of virtue and good order. All the gods of state are called "High Gods".

Ketrorl

The Eagle-Headed, Lord of Honourable Accord, he represents the principles of truth, courage, honour and justice. He is the god of state, particularly in Trésard where his worship is very popular amongst the nobility and ruling classes. State ceremonies often call for his blessings, and civic buildings contain shrines dedicated to Him. There is also a limited personal ritual tradition amongst the nobility, though dedication to the cult has declined. He manifests as a warrior with the head of a predatory bird. [N, Air]

Minasaia

Mother goddess of Anrel and the Minasili Cult, with a cabalistic tradition used by many of the Hexact Orders to a greater or lesser extent, such as for healing by the Senasi. She is the Lady of Serenity and of Healing, both physically and spirituality, and appears in various manifestations, most famously as a hairless, flawlessly beautiful woman. There are legends that she sometimes appears as a mother or an old woman, to test the hearts of men. [G]

Nestaia

The Shield Bearer, he is the twin of Minasai. Statues, particularly old ones, often shown them standing back to back. He is the Defender, god of good order, and his insignia appear in the royal coats of arms of Northland and Trésard. In fact he is merely a masculine manifestation of Minasaia, although he almost never makes manifestations except when called upon in times of defence of the isles. [G]

The Lower Gods

These are called "Lower Gods", but they are no less powerful. In mythology they are the spirits of the early earth, more properly called "wild gods" because peoples in early times called on them for power and favour. They are the gods of passion, for god or ill, who feed on the extremes of human emotion. There are many minor gods and Heroic demi-gods from ancient myth, but these are some of the notable ones:

Besech

Or Besechai, he is the fierce fire god of the ancient Anretian desert tribes, ancestors of the builders of the first great city of Oracil, destroyed in the Dragon War. In the early days of the modern kingdom of Anret, the state worshipped all the High Gods, but resurgent nationalism led to state worship of Besech been enshrined in royal tradition. Today the cult still evokes difficult feelings of Anretian nationalism, and today all the High Gods, plus Besech, are invoked in Anretian state rituals. (The tradition of Anretian kings to visit the ancient shrines at Oracil have been viewed as worrying renewal of hatred of the north.) [N, Fi]

Cornelen

(Perhaps from krim-alem , "the spirit of clean food") She is goddess of the harvest and all 'good fruits' of nature (ie. not the native or 'yabber' vegetation). She is worshipped in regular rural festivals, but has no high ritual tradition. In myth She manifests as an ambience rather than physical form, a sense of drowsy summer warmth and scent, and most rarely as a beautiful woman seen through a haze of summer warmth. She is an ancient natural deity, much older than Minasaia, and is often called upon by women in childbirth, and in rural fertility rites. [N, Ea]

Bremahk

Minor deity, god of the indigenous tribes of Northland. He has been embraced as a god of the hunt, of passionate intensity, keen-sightedness, and the winter snow. He is respected rather than worshipped today, although many towns and villages in the north still have shrines to him, most notably in the Northland town of Sareta. [N, Fi]

Natrawl (Natrawul)

God of the Angry Sea, he is respected particularly by seamen. In ancient times there was a formal cult, and some villages on the rough east coast still worship him. He is the god of floods, storms and crashing seas, and seamen sometimes make blood sacrifices to him before setting sail, to appease or avert his anger. He is the ancient lord of rage, and the most serious vendettas and blood oaths are sworn in his name. The god manifests as a cloud of dense sea-mist, or a swirling storm. [E, Wa]