Aeranid Empire: Difference between revisions

Aeranid religion distinguished broadly between two sets of gods; terrestrial gods and celestial gods.  Of the two, the earthly gods were much more frequently referred to and called upon in daily life and worship.  They are associated mostly with nature, natural phenomena, places, animals, and peoples.  The celestial gods however represented more abstract, cosmic forces, and were generally associated with heavenly bodies.  They were understood to dwell in the stars, and were mostly occupied with cosmic matters.

This split is theorised by some to suggest the syncretism of two or more separate, earlier traditions amongst the ancestors of the [[Aerans]].  As the theory goes, the terrestrial gods descend from the gods worshipped by [[Maro-Ephenian languages|Maro-Ephenians]] migrating into [[Iscaria]] from [[Eubora]], while the celestial gods descend from the religion of the earlier inhabitants of Iscaria.  As the two groups intermingled and merged, so too were their religions combined.  Critics of this theory point out that many of the basic beliefs and deities associated with the celestial gods are found in many other Maro-Ephenian cultures without the terrestrial_celestial distinction, suggesting these elements could not have originated in Iscaria.  Proponents argue that these Early-Iscaric beliefs may have been more widespread than previously assumed, that they may have spread throughout Maro-Ephenian cultures ''after'' initial contact, or that many of the beliefs of the Maro-Ephenians were reanalysed and grafted onto the Early-Iscaric religion.