Religions of Kerebra: Pisteis

Like so many aspects of human culture in Kerebra, the origins of the Pisteis religion is shrouded in mystery. Perhaps the Pisteic faith was an inevitability in a world as calm and peaceful as Kerebra once was. It is the oldest religion in Kerebra, that much is certain, and Pisteis temples, shrines and monasteries are found all over the plainslands in every hamlet, village and town. Pisteic monks provide education to the faithful, minister to the sick and dying and preach to the public, and are often the pillars entire communities rest upon.


The core tenets of Pisteis are contentment, detachment from material things and pacifism. It is as much a philosophy as a religion, and Pisteic monks love debating the more esoteric aspects of the faith, especially in regards to the relationship between humanity and the Worldmind. To the common practitioners of the faith, Pisteis provides a set of guidelines for living a good life of virtue and happiness. It is also a source of consolation and comfort when life turns difficult, especially in dealing with death and grief. Followers of Pisteis do not believe in an afterlife or reincarnation, but instead a process they refer to as sublimation, in which the consciousness of the deceased dissolves and becomes a part of the Worldmind, in essence becoming a part of the consciousnesses of every other living being.


Pisteis teaches that all living things are connected through their own natural psionic power. Emotions are not simply expressions of ones own state of mind, Pisteics say, but a reflection of all emotions felt by all creatures in Kerebra. This means that negative emotions such as grief and anger don't just belong to the individual, but are symptoms of communal pain; likewise, an individuals strong negative emotions will influence all things, and a community will suffer.
This is why Pisteis teaches contentment. By distancing yourself from your negative emotions and instead embracing your life as it is now, you are not only helping yourself but everyone around you. To a Pisteic, there is no greater act of love and charity than to simply be content.
When Pisteics preach detachment, it is an extension of the tenet of contentment. The faithful recognize that attachment to the material world means attaching oneself to impermanent, transient things. Things will break and people will die, and the pain and grief this causes reverberates throught the Worldmind affecting every living thing. Instead, Pisteis suggests acceptance of the inevitable end of things. Once you accept that nothing material lasts forever, you can embrace contentment and contribute to the health and happiness of your community.
The tenet of pacifism follows naturally from the first two tenets. Commiting and act of violence means hurting yourself and everyone around you after all, and such acts will spread pain through the Worldmind to every other being in Kerebra. This pain will infect everyone, causing more damage than the act of violence in itself ever could. The only way to be truly content is to be non-violent.


The clergy of the Pisteic faith is made up of priests, who usually maintain temples or shrines and tend to a community, and monks who belong to one of several monastic orders and work out of monasteries dedicated to contemplation and worship of the Pisteic philosophy and ideals.
A Pisteic priest is responsible for the spiritual wellbeing of a congregation of faithful, as well as tending to a temple or shrine. They serve as confessors, spiritual guides and councillors to a community of worshippers, and are usually looked up to as figures of authority who have a lot of influence not just spiritually but also judicially. Many priests, especially in smaller villages and towns who don't have a large council of elders, often serve as impromptu judges whenever there is a civil dispute to settle. Since most communities in Kerebra don't have proper laws or legal officials, whenever people have grievances or problems that require mediation a priest usually steps in to offer their opinion. In most communities Pisteis is the dominant faith, which means that Pisteic priests usually gain a good deal of experience in legal matters. It's not unusual for a temple to maintain a written record of rulings made by priests going back decades or even centuries. This means that different communities may have wildly differing legal practices. The Exceutores Justitia have on numerous occasions attempted to implement a codified set of official laws, but so far their efforts have only borne fruit in the larger towns where they maintain a permanent presence. Executor Knights still enforce these laws all over Kerebra, which can sometimes lead to conflicts with the Pisteic priesthood.
The monastic orders of Pisteis are not official organizations in any real sense, but have arisen organically around the various monasteries of Kerebra. Over the years particularly large monasteries have formed sister communities, and today a number of these orders maintain monasteries all over Kerebra.
The life of a Pisteic monk revolves around meditation and the reading and writing of religious texts. Pisteis has no saints or prophets, but a number of respected monks have penned religious literature that is regarded as holy by the monastic orders. Such texts are often meditations on specific topics of the faith, including the three tenets, the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind and the nature of the Worldmind. Dreamdiving is another treasured topic among monks, and many great works have been written over the religions history which are now the prized possessions of monastic libraries across Kerebra.
Monastic life is usually very structured, and based on routine and ritual. The details vary from order to order, but usually the day is divided into hours devoted to sleep, meditation, eating, reading, copying and illuminating religious literature and a few hours dedicated to private activities such as calligraphy, martial arts or a craft of personal significance to the monk. This structured life allow the monks to forget the concerns of their physical existence and focus on achieving contentment and enlightenment.
Many of Kerebras greatest Dreamdivers come from the Pisteic monastic orders. These Dreamdivers are highly usually respected individuals both in their order and monastic culture as a whole, and their names invoke respect and admiration among all pisteic clergy all over Kerebra. Dreamdiving as practiced among Pisteic monks involves deep meditation and huge mental effort, and the secrets of this esoteric craft are detailed in cryptic manuscripts and philosophical koans that an initiate must meditate on in order to unlock their true potential as Dreamdivers. Those initiates who never manage to master this art are never shamed for their failure, but many monks have left the monastic life after realising they will never be counted among the orders great Dreamdivers.
Some monks choose not to devote their life to a monastery, but instead live as itinerant monks travelling on foot from village to village, living off alms and the hospitality of the people. These monks have dedicated their lives to the tenet of detachment, forsaking worldly goods and property to live a simpler life of introspection and travel. Such monks are almost universally welcomed by Kerebran communities, and can expect to find a roof and food wherever they go. In return these monks offer blessings and sagely advice, but most of them also wish to contribute by taking on physical labour for the duration of their visit. Many a barn has been raised with the help of an itinerant Pisteic monk.


Among common folk, Pisteis is treated less like a philosophy and more as a personal faith. There are holy days when the community arranges festivals and celebrations, some of which are large and festive affaires while others are more solemn and personal rituals. The relationship between the faithful and the Worldmind is to a large extent what defines common religious Pisteic faith. Sublimation, the process by which the consciousness of the departed dissolves and melds into the Worldmind is afforded a special place in religious celebrations. Most communities celebrate a day of the dead, which goes by many names in different communities. Some towns call this celebration the Rememberance, while other communities use different names such as Spiritsnight or Kinsnight. This celebration is a lively and festive occasion where the departed are remembered, and usually involves the ritual consumption of holy water or blessed items of food to represent the sublimation of the departed into the shared subconscious of their family and friends.
Another important celebration is the harvest festival, which occurs several times a year following the harvest cycles. This is usually a private celebration with friends and family, often involving a large shared meal.
The holiest days of the year are birthdays, which means that religious gatherings take place fairly often. On a birthday, the community will gather at their temple or shrine, and the priest will hold a special sermon and bless the celebrant and their family. These birthday celebrations are closely tied to the harvest cycles, and a family with a birthday before a harvest cycle will often plant their most desired or valuable crop so that it coincides with the highest number of birthdays. A harvest blessed by multiple birthday celebrations is said to be especially fortunate and to produce especially good produce.
Other minor celebrations include a day of animals, where communities give thanks and gifts of special food to their livestock and draft animals, the blessing of the household which is a small celebration that blesses a family residence to ward off evil thoughts and emotions, and the Fourteenthnight which takes place every two weeks and is a nightly gathering of drinking and merriment to bolster the spirit and open the mind to positive thoughts and feelings. Many children are concieved at Fourteenthnight celebrations, and most such unions are blessed by the local priest before they sneak away into the night to make love in the grass beneath the stars.