Triadism

All the published material on these three deities applies; I have merely made some additions. The Three still have separate clerical orders, as a sort of large-scale division of labor. The two Peonian orders function much like the "lower" monastic orders in medieval Europe, mostly concerning themselves with doing the good work among the population, swearing themselves to poverty and celibacy. The Laranian orders are the "high" clergy, or at least seem to be; they mostly move in noble circles, and are also supposed to be celibate, but may own property (and many are quite wealthy). The Save-K'norian orders seem to be, respectively, an order of itinerant monk-sophist-entertainers (with few European parallells), and another order of monastic scholars who mostly keep their own counsel (but everyone listens when one them speaks); members of these orders are not required to be celibate, although few of them marry.

The official dogma is that Save-K'nor (the Father) was originally instrumental in creating everyting, and that Peoni (the Mother, who existed independently) and he joined together in order to create Larani (the Daughter) and then all mortal beings. Feudal society is divided in three classes, each of which is most closely tied to one of the gods: the peasants have Peoni in their hearts (supposedly); Larani is patron god of the warriors (and therefore most of the noble ruling class); Save-K'nor is patron god of scholars, lawyers, and everyone who considers himself to be educated in esoteric lore -- which is to say most of the guilded class; also, being the true boss of everything, he tends to get extra devotion from secular rulers. However, he is also the most distant of the Three

Official dogma can be taken to state that the Three are omnipotent, but this question is not yet resolved; the most common conception is that they are in fact of finite power, in that they may not directly interfere with the free will of any spirit (mortal or not), and that there even exist other "gods" which are strong enough to resist the Three -- at least for a limited time, to a limited extent. However, the Providentialists have been gaining ground inside the church and among the general population in later years -- these hold that the Three are in fact infinitely powerful, and that everything that happens, does so according to their will; the Providentialists are further subdivided into those who believe that humans have the ability to choose for themselves what to do, and those who believe the opposite.

The absolute head of the Triadic church is located at Berema, in Emelrene. However, the different clerical orders have separate geographical partitioning, with administrative borders which rarely coincide with those of any of the other orders. The Hârnic primacy is currently located at Thay, although it used to be in Cherafir until a century or so ago -- the move was partly a consequence of politics, and partly to bring the primacy closer to the center of Hârn proper.

Triadic Creation Myth

"At the beginning, there was nothing, and everything. Pure chaos reigned, and all things tried to happen at once; this could not be, so nothing happened. All was void from eternity, until the Father drew the Law forth from nothingness, and Kelestia came into being, and within it Kethira, on which we live under the sun and the moon and the stars, which are in the sky so that we may have light to see by.

"Many other spirits fell out of the chaos at the beginning of things. Some of them were good, and bowed to the Father; they were taken into His service and given important things to do. Others were proud and willful, and refused to obey. They were allowed to go off into the outer darkness, where many of them remain even today plotting for revenge against the sunlit world -- they cannot overthrow the Three, but they can lure mortals to evil; do not listen to evil voices that may come to you, just on the edge of hearing, when you sleep or when you wake, for they want you no good. They are the Outcasts, and there are many of them.

"But even the good spirits had no real self, they were only fragments of true souls, and the Father grew lonely. Then, he saw that there was another; beneath the bones of the empty earth lay the Mother, sleeping. He woke her from a slumber that had lasted from eternity, and he was no longer lonely. And they begat a Daughter to help them and to give them joy, much as when your mother and I got you, my darling daughter.

"Wherever the Mother went, life sprouted from the soil which had before been barren. And they all rejoiced in the many growths that came, and they worked together to make more of them, and more different kinds: Big oaks that seem to reach almost to the sky, pretty flowers that decorate the hillsides, green grass, and much more besides. And they made animals to eat some of the grass and flowers so that there would be made room for new grass and new flowers, because it would be a bit boring if everything was the same all the time. And then they made other animals that ate the planteaters, because if nothing ate the planteaters then they would multiply until they ate all the plants. And in the end they made people to live in the world, because they thought it a pity that there were no other souls than their own which could rejoice in all of Creation. So they made the first two humans, a man and a woman, and they named the man Clever and made him a clever thinker who was good with his hands, and they named the woman Caring and made her a good and caring lady. Clever and Caring were married and had many children, the first of them was a boy called Brave who was a brave hunter, but we have forgotten the names of the others. But I'm sure that they must have had many little girls too, just like you.

"And the years passed, and people grew many and spread all across the face of Kethira, and they pleased the Three by doing many clever and caring and brave things. But as time passed, some of the people began to grow jealous of some of the others who were maybe a little bit more clever or caring or brave than themselves. And some of these people heard the voices of the bad spirits, and some of them began to turn to evil, like taking away things they weren't clever enough to make on their own. You mustn't take what isn't yours, my dear, because it will make Peoni cry.

"And more and more people began to do bad things, and there was a lot of pain and sadness because of that, and the Three were almost forgotten, and many of the bad spirits tricked people into thinking that the bad spirits were actually gods to be worshipped. But then, long before you or I or even Grandmother were born, the Three sent us the six prophets to remind us where we came from and to give us another chance to be good. Unfortunately, many people are still bad, and it's worse in foreign lands than it is here, but at least we know how we are supposed to behave, and we have the brave warriors to protect us from bad people.

"After your time on Kethira is over, you will be taken up to the Three, if you have been good, and you will always dwell in the presence of the Mother, who soothes all pain. Some people who haven't been good enough are sent back to Kethira and given a second chance to prove themselves worthy; they are made to forget everything and are born again as new babies. Those who have been really bad are thrown to the Outcasts, be mindful that that doesn't happen to you my dear, because there's no coming back from that place."

Relations with other religions

Agrik

Sarajin

Halea

Ilvir

Morgath

Naveh

Siem

Triadic Symbolism

Triadic Saints

What about...

Magic?

Death?

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