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== History == | == History == | ||
Worship of the Weaver of Eighty Thousand Threads is a relatively new phenomenon that first appeared in [[Pela Huban]] around {{Year|6620}}. From the Kea Rachan mega-city, the faith spread out to the rest of the island, rapidly finding adherents in [[Langkha]], [[Kintaka]], and [[Lelwani]]. | Worship of the Weaver of Eighty Thousand Threads is a relatively new phenomenon that first appeared in [[Pela Huban]] around {{Year|6620}}. From the Kea Rachan mega-city, the faith spread out to the rest of the island, rapidly finding adherents in [[Langkha]], [[Kintaka]], and [[Lelwani]]. Today the religion is rather strong in Langkha in particular, especially amongst the migratory labor force that works the vast farms. | ||
== Depiction == | == Depiction == | ||
Revision as of 00:37, 20 April 2023
The Weaver of Eighty Thousand Threads is a monolatrist post-Suzerain deity worshiped in Kea Racha. The name of the deity refers to the idea, widely held amongst the religion's devotees, that there are eighty thousand different types of souls, and therefore an equal number of outcomes in life. These outcomes are chosen by the Weaver even before birth, and it is the responsibility of each of her worshipers to find and follow their Thread.
Edicts and anathema
- Edicts
- Find your Thread, undertake a Thread-Seeking, plant mulberry trees
- Anathema
- Convince others to abandon their Thread
History
Worship of the Weaver of Eighty Thousand Threads is a relatively new phenomenon that first appeared in Pela Huban around Y9620*. From the Kea Rachan mega-city, the faith spread out to the rest of the island, rapidly finding adherents in Langkha, Kintaka, and Lelwani. Today the religion is rather strong in Langkha in particular, especially amongst the migratory labor force that works the vast farms.
Depiction
Almost all depictions of the Weaver of Eighty Thousand Threads focus on her ceaseless activity as she uses her loom to weave an endless fate-tapestry from the silk produced by her worms-of-kismet. In some pictures and descriptions the Weaver takes a human-like form, but she is more typically seen as a white and gray silkmoth. The worms-of-kismet continually gather the strands of fate and refine them into their silk, providing the Weaver with the material she requires to continue her work.
Beliefs and followers
Followers of the Weaver of Eighty Thousand Threads are strongly monolatrist. While they acknowledge the existence of other gods, they consider the Weaver to be the only worth worshiping. Some adherents to her faith even verge on holding monotheistic beliefs.
Though she is a goddess of fate and predestination, worshipers of the Weaver simultaneously believe they have full free will to make their life what they choose. The Weaver creates a plan for every mortal, yet they are not beholden to it. It is on every individual to find this plan, or Thread, and follow it to the best of their ability. Failure to do so invites hardship and discord into one's life, while successfully remaining with one's Thread conversely brings repose and harmony.
All Threads are cyclical and interconnected - with only eighty thousand types of souls, or outcomes in life, a great many individuals end up following the same Threads. Followers of the Weaver believe these shared Threads connect people across distance and time, and that they are the cause of both similar struggles between individuals and repeating stories across history.
Perhaps the most important religious observation to those that worship the Weaver is the Thread-Seeking. Part philosophical exercise and part pilgrimage, the Thread-Seeking is an opportunity for all to attempt to find their own Thread. Those that undertake the Thread-Seeking travel widely, talking to other followers of the Weaver and learning their paths in life thus far. In doing so, they examine the events and decisions that have brought them to that point in their own life, carefully considering which have brought harmony and which have done the reverse. By fusing what one learns from self-examination with the additional knowledge gained from both history and other worshipers, it is believed that one can reach an understanding of their guiding Thread. There is no fixed duration for a Thread-Seeking, nor a particular time in life when it is typically begun. Rather, it is undertaken when ready and concluded when a satisfactory answer has been attained.
Worm-priests, those who dedicate their entire lives to the Weaver, are not particularly widespread. Temples to the goddess, few in number, are found almost entirely in Langkha. Instead of grand edifices, these temples are typically groves of mulberry trees, walled off from the broader world. Inside these groves the worm-priests ritually care for their silkworms, aiding in their lifecycles until they are ready to be harvested for silk. This silk is then used by the priests to weave fate-tapestries of their own, believed to be replicas of infinitesimally small sections of the Weaver's grand fate-tapestry.
Some theologians believe the Weaver to be an aspect or interpretation of Taliash, perhaps introduced to Kea Racha by way of the Cosmic River faith followed by the giants of Matarsah. Certainly there are many similarities between the Weaver and Taliash, particularly the focus on stories and history, but the heavy emphasis on predestination is quite unique to the Weaver's faithful. For their part, the worshipers of both the Cosmic River and those of the Weaver maintain the two religions to be wholly separate.