The Beating Heart is a god worshiped by many peoples of the Wounds, a deified form of the planet Kishar. This living earth-god affects all, for all mortals live on its body and are subject to its movements, sometimes in very direct ways, as the many active volcanoes of the Wounds are thought to be the injuries in the skin of the deity. While it suffers it simultaneously brings forth new land and new life, from which its adherents have learned that all struggles and pain ultimately bring forth new hope and opportunity.
Edicts and anathema
- Edicts
- Be willing to suffer hardship and pain for a better world even if you may not see it, push yourself against ever-greater challenges, honor those who sacrifice for you
- Anathema
- Act selfishly, interfere with a volcano or with flowing lava, live away from an island, the sea, or a source of volcanic activity, rest when there is important work to be done
History
The religion of the Beating Heart has changed greatly over time. The faith emerged in the early ninth millennium after the legendary founder of the Silakara dynasty and the nation of Rashareka, Silakara-Vuriwai-Ne-Ta, was spared from the devastation of a volcanic eruption on the Old Twins. As the stories spread by the dynasty recount, the other survivors of the eruption flocked to him, recognizing he was chosen by the volcano due to his long-standing devotion and respect for it. Silakara-Vuriwai and his descendants quickly become a holy dynasty who led this new volcano-worshiping faith for centuries.
By the time of the first demonic incursion of the Old Twins in Y9266*, the position of this holy family had already begun to erode, yet it was not until the ensuing rapid collapse of Rashareka that it entirely vanished. Without their central leadership the faith did not stall in the slightest, but merely shifted to local clerics who could each interpret the tenets of the Beating Heart on their own. Since then this same understanding has broadly held, with a great many spiritual leaders who all speak to their people on behalf of the earth-god.