Editing EternalEmpire:Theology (section)

=== Deities & Worship === 

	To the extent that other religions can be made to comport with these beliefs, the Chingolun is highly syncretic. Over the centuries, hundreds of foreign gods and goddesses have been adapted into the Chingolun and certain ones have become wildly popular outside of their original cultures. Some cults actively favor a single deity or group of deities above another, but for the most part, worship is highly personal and invokes many powers. Individuals tend do to emphasize the worship of a favorite deity that they consider to be their patron, however; indeed, most families, social organizations, occupations, cities, military units, and even whole nations invoke patron deities. How one decides upon his or her patron is an intensely personal process and is never dealt with lightly, as it usually hinges upon deeply valued traditions or the intervention of the God or Goddess in a person’s life.

	Forms of worship vary from deity to deity, but most have highly formalized liturgies or distinct rituals appropriate to that particular God or Goddess, particularly in the case of public worship, as in the temples or the holiday celebrations. The keeping of these forms is often entrusted to powerful individuals or church councils that have the power to punish deviation and blasphemy, albeit on a sacerdotal level only. In the past, certain high priestly offices, frequently tied to the secular power (like the Vicar of Tylofost) had power to punish religious undesirables through fines and humiliation, torture, and even death. Since the ascension of Ionomîs, these offices have been stripped of their secular power and an atmosphere of religious tolerance has prevailed. Certain forms of worship are forbidden by law in Arqualan, however, particularly human sacrifice and ritual torture, neither of which ever took hold in mainstream Arqi society and have been considered perverse blasphemies for millennia.

	Those deities that have taken physical form on Pergo such as '''Ionomîs''', '''Thuder''', '''Mardalae''', and '''Morcanus''', naturally establish their own conventions on the forms of worship and supplication that their followers must adhere to. Most of these deities encourage respect and toleration of the other gods and their followers, and take great pains not to deny the existence of the “invisible” gods. Nevertheless, the deities individually tend to remain aloof from one another and confrontation and cooperation among them is equally rare. The main exceptions to this are the Gods and Goddesses of the Hangritic Pantheon, which not only deny the legitimacy of all other deities, but rebuke the Chingolun as a false religion. Accordingly, the Hangritic Gods and their followers are despised throughout most of the southern hemisphere.