Editing AnglerStudios:Story/Aspects (section)

== Aspects and Religion ==

Now, earlier, you may have have asked 'wait, we have a red-Aspect here and a tree-Aspect there, and a courage-Aspect here - isn't there an Aspect we've missed out on?' and you would have been most clever to notice.  Shouldn't there be an Aspect-Aspect?  Is there a principle to which all Aspects, provided that they conform to themselves, are themselves conforming to?  This abstract thought is often called 'The Aspect of Aspects' or 'The Aspect beyond Aspects'.

There have been, throughout the history of Aspect Study, those who have looked to this concept and called it 'The High-God', or rather 'this is the High-God we have been worshipping'.  While these individuals have rarely been called out-and-out heretics, they have generally been considered with varying degrees of suspicion.  The more popular opinion - presuming that the individual both believes in a God and even has any knowledge of Aspects - has been that the High-God is outside the Aspect-System, or more accurately, permates but is not bound by the Aspect-System.

Many different religious movements have sprung out of the study of Aspects.  There have been hedonistic cults that worshipped every individual Aspect, and ascetic cults that attempt to deprive the self of any Aspect qualities whatsoever, and other such things.  These groups were usually based in [[AnglerStudios:Story/Places/Burgand|Burgand]], being the unquestioned hub of all research into the Aspect world, and most have been quenched or at least greatly reduced by the emergence and success of [[AnglerStudios:Story/Religion|the Cult of the Smith]].  

The cult of the Smith itself has no inherent dogmas concerning Aspects, excepting where theories may contradict their own doctrines, and has mostly been open to research in this area, at least where people are even aware of it.  Resistance to Aspect-research is usually based then on personal feelings given a religious covering rather than actual issues of belief.