Editing Spolitism for Bogmoth

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.

 

When the Bright Empire collapsed, Spolitism grew in both power and sophistication as it developed contact with the new Uz kingdom of the Yolp Mountains created by Arkat.  Spolitism before this was a religion focused on Darkness and the Underworld without a strong connection to the Uz.

 

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.