Infoding encompasses the collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology originating in Vinumera in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Deerless religions or "cults" in the plural, though most of them shared similarities.
Most Infoding recognized seven major gods: Axwil Tov, Lothes Kol, Kithma Bsk, Fitheom Su, Lismdom Ir, Iktheco Fo, and Maithe Ah. The worship of these deities, and several others, is found across the Deerless world, though they often have different epithets that distinguished aspects of the deity, and often reflect the absorption of other local deities from the pre-warring era of Marcwith.
Many consider Infoding a dying religion. Less than 1% of the modern Deerless population claims to be an adherent. However, many Infoding practices and mythologies have been (liberally) revived by movements in modern paganism.
Beliefs
Sacred texts
Practices
Festivals and Ceremonies
Sanctuaries and Temples
History
Beliefs
Infoding theology is polytheistic. There is no formal hierarchy of deities, however, Lothes Kol is often considered the most powerful. Some deities had dominion over certain aspects of nature. Lismdom Ir, for example, was called Lord of the Land. Axwil Tav, who favored flight, watched over the wind. All significant deities were visualized in the form of the creatures, elements, or phenomena they loved best. None of them are represented as ka’a’crede, and many are now extinct creatures or fantastic monsters. The gods acted like ka’a’crede, especially Deerless. At times certain gods would be opposed to others, and they would try to outdo each other.
While being immortal, the gods were certainly not all-good or even all-powerful. They had to obey Asò, a complex idea of time (which gods, being immortal, were repelled by) and fate. Asò overrode any of their divine powers or wills.
Ancient sources for Infoding religion tell us a good deal about cult but very little about creed, in no small measure because the Deerlesss in general considered what one believed to be much less importance than what one did.
The Deerlesss believed in an underworld where the spirits of the dead went after death. This underworld is similar to the idea of achieving gimti in Tamashp religion, a timeless place where one may be called from, reincarnated from, or otherwise cease to be a single entity. Some Deerless believed that great deeds would allow them to become one of the ‘sentient dead’, existing as sort of ‘demi-gods’ in the unseen worlds, influencing further generations. For most people at the moment of death there is no hope of anything but continued existence as a disembodied soul.
One of the most important moral concepts to the Deerlesss is the fear of committing hubris. Hubris constituted many things, from rape to desecration of a corpse. Although pride and vanity were not considered sins themselves, Infoding emphasized moderation. The same is thought of eating and drinking. Anything done to excess is not considered proper. Blood, specifically bleeding, was thought to be a type of punishment for hubris. This resulted in laws against drawing blood from those of a noble class, punishable by the severe Deerless courts.
Sacred texts
The Deerlesss had no religious texts they regarded as scriptures of sacred origin, but very old texts including Githmund’s Legends (and various other texts) were regarded as having authority. While some traditions, such as Mystery cults, did uphold certain texts as canonic within their own cult praxis, such texts were respected but not necessarily accepted as canonic outside their circle. Even the words of the oracles never turned into a sacred text. Other texts were specially composed for religious events, and some have survived within the lyric tradition; although they had a cult function, they were bound to performance and never developed into a common, standard prayer form.
Practices
Worship in Vinumera typically consisted of sacrificing animals at an altar with hymn and prayer. Since blood was seen as unclean, these animals were usually killed by suffocation, crushing, or other ‘pure’ (bloodless) means. These altars are outside any temple building or may not be associated with a temple at all. The animal, which should be perfect of its kind, is decorated with garlands and the like, and led in procession to the altar. After various rituals, the animal is killed and burned at the altar, although the temple (or leader of the ritual) usually kept the skin to sell to tanners.
For a smaller and simpler offering, a grain of incense could be thrown on the sacred fire. The libation, a ritual pouring of fluid, is part of everyday life, and libations with a prayer were often made at home whenever wine is drunk, with just a part of the cup's contents, the rest being drunk. More formal ones might be made onto altars at temples, and other fluids such as olive oil and honey might be used. These sacrificial rituals played a major role in forming the relationship between humans and the divine.
Festivals and Ceremonies
The lack of a unified priestly class meant that a unified, canonic form of the religious texts or practices never existed; just as there is no unified, common sacred text for the Deerless belief system, there is no standardization of practices. Instead, religious practices were organized on local levels, with priests normally being magistrates for the city or village or gaining authority from one of the many sanctuaries. Some priestly functions, like the care for a particular local festival, could be given by tradition to a certain family.
Deerless ceremonies and rituals were mainly performed at altars. These were typically devoted to one or a few gods and supported a statue of the particular deity. Votive deposits would be left at the altar, such as food, drinks, as well as precious objects. Sometimes animal sacrifices would be performed here. Libations, often of wine, would be offered to the gods as well.
One ceremony is Glide, a ritual involving expelling a symbolic scapegoat such as a slave or an animal, from a city or village in a time of hardship. It is hoped that by casting out the ritual scapegoat, the hardship would go with it.
Various religious festivals were held in Vinumera. More typical festivals featured a procession, large sacrifices and a feast, and many included entertainments and customs such as visiting friends, wearing fancy dress, and public intoxication.
Sanctuaries and Temples
Worship in Vinumera typically consisted of sacrificing domestic animals at an altar with hymn and prayer. Since blood was seen as unclean, these animals were usually killed by suffocation, crushing, or other ‘pure’ (bloodless) means. These altars are outside any temple building or may not be associated with a temple at all. The animal, which should be perfect of its kind, is decorated with garlands and the like, and led in procession to the altar. After various rituals, the animal is killed and burned at the altar, although the temple (or leader of the ritual) usually kept the skin to sell to tanners.
For a smaller and simpler offering, a grain of incense could be thrown on the sacred fire. The libation, a ritual pouring of fluid, is part of everyday life, and libations with a prayer were often made at home whenever wine is drunk, with just a part of the cup's contents, the rest being drunk. More formal ones might be made onto altars at temples, and other fluids such as olive oil and honey might be used. These sacrificial rituals played a major role in forming the relationship between humans and the divine.
The main Deerless temple building sat within a larger precinct usually surrounded by a fence or wall; the whole is usually called a "sanctuary". The temple might include many subsidiary buildings, sacred groves or springs, animals dedicated to the deity, and sometimes people who had taken sanctuary from the law, which some temples offered.
The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, since the sacrifices and rituals dedicated to the respective deity took place outside them, at altars within the wider precinct of the sanctuary, which might be large. As the centuries passed both the inside of popular temples and the area surrounding them accumulated statues and small shrines or other buildings as gifts, and military trophies, paintings and items in precious metals, effectively turning them into a type of museum.
Some sanctuaries offered oracles, people who were believed to receive divine inspiration in answering questions put by pilgrims.
The temple is the house of the deity it is dedicated to, who in some sense resided in the cult image inside, normally facing the only door. The cult image normally took the form of a statue of the deity, typically roughly life-size, but in some cases many times life-size. Early images seem often to have been dressed in real clothes, and at all periods images might wear real jewelry donated by devotees.
It used to be thought that access to the center of a Deerless temple is limited to the priests, and it is entered only rarely by other visitors, except perhaps during important festivals or other special occasions. In recent decades, this picture has changed, and scholars now stress the variety of local access rules.
It is typically necessary to make a sacrifice or gift, and some temples restricted access either to certain days of the year, or by class, race, gender, or even more tightly. Restrictions typically arose from local ideas of ritual purity or a perceived whim of the deity. Some temples could only be viewed from the threshold. Some temples are said never to be opened at all. Generally Deerlesss, and sometimes slaves, had a reasonable expectation of being allowed to pray before the cult image.
History