Here are a few things that occurred to me after my last post. Please note that they are in no particular order and may need a bit of polish to make complete sense. These are not official, necessarily, I'm throwing them out there for opinion & comment. Thankyouverramuch. The Cedonian State Church: -------------------------- Back at the founding of the Cedonian Empire, the First Emperor felt that the best way to ensure the stability of the new empire was to make sure that the State had the backing of the Gods. At the same time, he was concerned about increasing tendencies towards religious strife & intolerance in the empire. Using both sweet reason and brute force, the First Emperor forced the leaders of the major religions in Cedonian territory to attend the Grand Ecumenical Council, which ultimately created the Cedonian State Church. The major dispute between the religions was not really a matter of doctrine or worship, it was financial. All Cedonian religions were, for the most part, dependent on tithing and donations for funding. Their competion was not so much for converts, as it was for wallets. The First Emperor and the GEC's creation of the State Church eliminated that competition with a combination of imperial funding and revenue sharing. The other effect of the creation of the Cedonian State Church was that it increased the access of rural Cedonians to religious facilities and services, by allowing a single temple to serve multiple gods. The official State Pantheon includes the following Gods/Beings(although not necessarily under these names) and assigns them the following areas of concern: Coron (Death, Birth, the Dead) Lucia (Light, Justice, Truth, Knowledge, the Mind) Arrumanthus (Farming, Fertility (always depicted as female in Cedonia)) Cedon (The River God, Patron of the Empire, Commerce, Finance, Money) Mithrak (War, Soldiers, Technology) Torronir (Crafts and Craftsmen) Arlova (the Body, Health & Healing) Kaskasoevin (Love, Food, Wine, the Trickster) Marmdal (the Sky, Weather, Storms, (In Selaria, Horses)) The Lord of the Sea (Sailors, the Sea, Ships) The Orders of these gods in Cedonia in Imperial times were all subsidized by the Imperial Government. There were a few Gods whose existence was acknowledged, but who were not admitted into the official pantheon. Of particular note: Yaga (War, Fear, Hate, Destruction) Demerhaze (Night, Vengeance, Orphans) They were excluded due to certain unpleasant aspects of their rites, and indeed, their worship was actively suppressed. After the fall of the Empire, the various Orders maintained their association, even without state support. The Orders still recognize each other's ecclesiastical ranks, they still share tithes, and they do cooperate in the support and maintenance of rural temples and clerics. In rural Cedonian farming villages, it's typical for a priest of Coron, a priest of Arrumanthus, a priest of Lucia, and occasionally a priest of Torronir to share a single temple. Members & priests of other religions have been both tolerated and persecuted throughout Cedonia's history, depending on the political climate. The present government of the Republic has not yet decided on whether or not to resume state sponsorship & funding of the Orders. * * * * The Arts in Cedonia ------------------- Priests of the Order of Coron use certain metaphors to describe how the process of living in Celandra affects the soul. A soul begins raw and unformed, and its various life experiences change it and shape it, until it is collected and examined by Coron at death. Some priests use gemcutting as their metaphor, but stone-cutting, metal-working, wood-carving, architecture, and pottery as metaphors all have their supporters. As a result, the Order of Coron and the Order of Torronir are closely allied, and this has had a profound effect on the Arts in Cedonia. In Cedonia, the visual arts are considered to be the most important arts, and the three-dimensional arts are the most important of the visual arts. Cedonian literature is largely limited to drama; the novel form has not been invented yet, and most books for adults are non-fiction. Flat paintings and textile arts tend to be very formal and relatively primitive in style; they are not very popular. Sculpture is the most common of the arts in Cedonia. Nearly everyone carves wood recreationally in rural Cedonia, and folk art woodcarvings are highly collectible. Cedonian sculptors in stone and metal are widely considered to be the best in Midsea, and are the most advanced in technique. Rich Cedonians do not have portrait galleries, they have statuary galleries. Most Cedonian buildings are highly decorated with carved friezes, statues, and gargoyles. The queen of the arts in Cedonia, however, is jewelry. The Order of Coron and the Order of Torronir have an arrangement whereby the Coronite gemcutters facet and polish gems which metalsmiths of the Order of Torronir then sets in gold and silver jewelry of all sorts. The revenue from the sale of this jewelry is one of the income sources for the Cedonian religous orders that make up the State Church. Current Cedonian tastes tend towards the ornate, if not baroque, but there are those who advocate the beauty of simplicity. Andrew __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
