Editing Spolitism for Bogmoth

[[File:Spol_pic.png|600px|thumb|right|Natha's Well at Night during Sacred Time]]

[[File:Spol.png|600px|thumb|right|Map of the Spolite Cultural Area]]

Spol is a cloudy land full of large ruins and small villages.  The modern-day Satrapy is within the Western Reaches of the Lunar Empire, being the stretch of land bordered by the Poralistor River in the North, the Oronin River to the east, the Brass Mountains to the south, and the Sweet Sea to the west.  The cultural region is larger than the Satrapy, continuing to the east to include the cities of Petela and Hariij, the Darsen Hills, and the haunted bog known as Natha’s Well.  Consequently, there are a substantial number of Spolites within the Satrapies of Karasal and Oronin, in addition to Spol itself.

As a group, the Spolites are a relatively loyal to the Lunar Empire for three reasons.  First, they view the Lunars as liberating them from their Carmanian persecutors.  Additionally, Lunar religion and philosophy has a deep connecting to both Natha and Gerra, two central goddesses for the Spolites.  Finally, the Spolites are somewhat tolerant of the Lunar use of Chaos, since their own traditions are about dealing with inhuman monsters.

Human sacrifice has a constantly changing role in Pelanda before The Dawn.  It was promoted by YarGan, banned by Gartimirus and Idomon, defended by Natha, and relied upon during the Bleak Times (Greater Darkness).  Lenshi then banned it again in the Gray Age just before the Dawn.  One of the core beliefs of Spolitism is that the Old Gods do, in fact, demand human blood, and it therefore supports Natha and rejects Idomon, Jernotia, and Gartemirus on a key issue of workship.   

Spolitism is based on a reading of the Velortinian Principles where if a people accepts that a god helps the people, then the people must accept the god’s price for help.  If gods require human blood – and the Spolites believe many of them do – then one must give them blood as long as the Gods maintain the covenant.  For the Spolite, true mystical union will involve an integration of the living world and the underworld.  This eschatological moment is called DerMaElsor, or “The Return to the Mother Greater than Self.”  Everyone and everything dies, including the world, which is the fullest moment of this return.  Separation before union (life before death), however, has become useful and important as it creates an opportunity to reflect and understand that is not possible if everything merely stayed unified.

Additionally, many (but not all) of the sacrificial acts involve willing participants.  Indeed, the magic is infinitely more powerful this way, and Spolites are quick to point out that murder was only created because the Old Gods were denied their blood.  Spolite myths of the Red King and Gerra’s dismemberment highlight the importance of the holy victim choosing what occurs. 

At the Dawn, Spolitism did not fully exist, as Lendarsh had achieved hegemony throughout Pelanda during the Gray Age, partly by reestablising the Jernotian High Gods.

 

Contrary to popular belief, Spolitism did not develop in response to Nysalor.  Rather, Spolitism's practices of propitiation and human sacrifice were rediscovered when the Aldryami reforested Pelanda.  By propitiating resurgent nature, Northern communities were able to survive while surrounded by Elven forests.

 

Spolitism became useful against Nysalor, as its darkness magic was both powerful and not easily assimilated by Nysalor's Bright Empire.  Spol and its Elven allies resisted both Dara Happa and Nysalor for generations.  In part, this was due to powerful magics that enshrouded Pelanda is Shadow, weakening the magics of Light and Sky and Fire.  The Aldryami continued an alliance of sorts with the Empire of Gloom, and they were reveared, especially in the Gardens of Karresh.

 

 

The new version of Spolitism sought to quicken cosmic reunion, DerMaElsor, which it understood as the Underworld absorbing the material world.  Gradually, a religion based on negotiating with the Dark became ruled by agents seeking to promote Darkness.  The Uz never truly united with the Spolites, but encouraged Spol's war against the Sun in the name of the Underworld.

 

The second half of the Imperial Age is marked by the fall of the Spolite Empire at the hands of the Carmanians.  This was a more dramatic political upheaval than a social upheaval, since Carmanianism accepted that in the end Ganesaturus was redeemed by Idovanus.  "Old Spolites" survives in the mountains and near the bogs, however, where they told very different myths about Idovanus and GanEstoro, and where they still practices human sacrifice to appease many things that did not wish humanity well.  At the same time, the Carmanians feared a resurgence of the Spolites, and depleted Spol of any resources that could be used against the Shahs.

 

In the Third Age, Spolitism has experienced complex transformations.  The Lunar religion has borrowed heavily from Spolitism, claiming Gerra and Natha as their own.  There is therefore a spectrum of Spolitism.  On the one end, there is a sophisticated, urban, and fully Lunarized version.  This is the version that rebuilt Dezarpovo.  On the other end, there is a rural, illiterate, traditionalist form that relies on oral tradition, In its extreme forms, this version of Spolitism rejects that Gerra and Natha are manifestations of Sedenya, deny Gerra is a moon at all, and see the Lunars as just another group of people who worship something in the sky in pursuit of the delusion to create a world without suffering.

We know our debts, we accept that death is, and we know Natha will eventually all back to balance, even herself.  We know the time of DerMaElsor will come, when all is reunified and life and death embrace in Hagu.  We value survival and scoff at false virtue.  We have no time for fanciful tales of a world without pain, for we know such stories cause trouble.  Most importantly, however, we know the Bleak Truths:

* Night always returns, Shadow Never Leaves,

* All life is suffering but not all suffering is life, and

* The Old Gods demand payment in blood.

Of course not.  You have been told that we worship the Evil God of the Lie.  But I say to you that we worship Vogestes the Spearman, the Inspired One.  He taught us that Death Is, and he taught us how to make proper sacrifices.  His truth is that sacrifice makes the world.  And his sacrifices are made in honor of GanEstoro the Shadow Mountain.  Other Pelandans call him Turos, but we know him by this name, and we know he never stopped desiring human sacrifice.

===Vogestes, the Red King, and Yargan?===

[[File:Black_Mountain_of_Pelanda.png|600px|thumb|right|The Black Mountain, Throne of GanEstoro, Temple of Vogestes]]

One of the secrets we know in Spol is that these three are all one man.  Vogestes stayed apart from the tribe, and in doing so realized that death exists.  He taught us how to to make and sustain the world by making sacrifices.  Just as Idomon is the Prophet of Idovanus the Creator, Vogestes is the the Agent of GanEstoros.

 

Later, Vogestes became the Red King in Naveria. He was a good ruler, a loving husband to Naveria, and tragically, he was also her father.  He proved his nobility by accepting his fate when Natha sacrificed him.  In doing so, he ensured his land would be renewed as he had been.

 

Derdromus is the Final Winner, the once and future king of the Underworld.  Turos invaded the underworld to find a wife, and while there he also took the underworld and all its treasures.  Derdromus thus became the Monster Man, wandering the surface and causing strife as he seeks what he lost.  Derdromus is a terrifying force that must be appeased.  Upon his throne, he is divine right, for good and for ill.  

 

Idovanus is the god of order.  He wants everything to be clean and organized, which is sometimes good and sometimes not.  He eventually came to blows against GanEstoro, whose sacrifices and survival were not clean and tidy.  Their fight, and truce afterwards, defines our world. Unfortunately, Carmanos and his followers both exalt and misunderstand, thinking he is a perfect deity.  This has caused misery.