Eyom has many different state religions. State religions being institutions granted their authority by the state. It is their role to govern the dispensations of benedictions and atonement. In either case, it is often said that the state can tell you how to worship, but the divines tell you why to worship. They are in essence, the throne's religious powers.
This document exists to serve as a simple overview of the basics of the various State Religions. It is not intended to be robust nor judgmental.
If you need to succinctly summarize each religion in no more than a tweet, here you go:
Covenant of Irus - Two Credit Card Minimum, Carbon Emission Quotas, Torment Buy-Outs
Tol's Children - Orgy Attendance, Reproductive Participation Incentives, Multi-Wifing Bonus
Way of Ashlin North - Rules about where to pee to avoid making it all of civilization
Way of Ashlin South - Rules about where to pee to make all of civilization about it
The Seven Titans - There Were Some Dudes Who Were So Cool They Are Literally Eternal
The Apprenticeship - The Seven must be replaced by the toil of mortals
Terramanism - If I jam enough nature spirits into something, it WILL work
Macketersism - The Flesh is Weak, The Machine is Capable
Sylvin Religion - If I Had A Nickel Per Saint I'd Have $300,000
Labdism - There are more tenants of Labdism than there are Labdist monks, but all of them start with Fuck Irus.
Amazonians - FUCK YOU FIGHT ME or "Marine, The Religion"
Iron Elf Shamanism - Factory Must Grow
What A State Religion Isn't
A state religion is not indicative of a theocracy. While most state religions hold power and authority, they do not get cart blanc authority to make decisions on behalf of the state, nor is the state required to ensure every decision is approved of by religious authorities. They are not even overseers. They are simply religious aspects woven into various nationstates inner workings as a product of time and culture.
State Faith Vs. The Gods' Faiths
It is important to note that state religions are different from divine's religions and faiths. One is mostly an institution of mortals, lead by mortals, doing their best to serve some greater role within the world (though a divine may be at its root or involved within the religion.) The other is a religion run directly by a divine, who manages their followers as one might manage a business, family, or community.
Covenant of Irus
The Covenant of Irus is, in a strictly technical sense, a corruption of the God Irus's will. It is also the only state religion to be a true theocracy with total authority within the state of the same name. It revers Wood Elven life above all other forms of life, and one's own life above all others. Irus himself would insist on all life being revered, in his own ways. The Covenant emphasizes means of self improvement, typically involving exploitation of others. It is not a well liked religion outside of its inner circles.
Tol's Children
Tol's Children is a goblin religion which follows the examples, virtues, and desires of the goddess Tol. It is best characterized by the orgies it regularly throws to celebrate life (especially the creation of new life), and offers its members assistance with and incentive to reproduce frequently. It also pushes for polyamory, in a very much litteral "it takes a village to raise a child" sence of the concept.
Way of Ashlin North
To put it bluntly, this gnollish religion is less a matter of faith and worship and more a philosophical way of life devised to preserve gnolish instincts, needs, and natural urges while also ensuring that the gnollish lands do not smell like urine. This is due to gnolls marking their territory on instinct. The religion, while it offers other philosophical truths, is primarily about proper sanitation. It is very much loved by people who have to live around gnolls.
Way of Ashlin South
A regional twist on the Way of Ashlin North, which inverts the philosopher's core message to state that what Ashlin truly meant was the gnollish instincts are correct and that if it is marked, it is thus owned. It is not a well liked religion, especially by gnolls themselves, who find themselves never feeling welcome in "Southern Convention" practicing lands.
The Seven Titans
Notable for being a construct created religion, the Seven Titans is a simple divine driven religion where the commands of seven ancient persons are heeded as any god's would be. These entities have come to rule the Constructi homelands, and while they serve as sovereigns of a sort, their followers do what they do not merely by command but also tradition. This leads to an interesting situation where the gods followers often do things they did not command, and allow it out of respect for mortal tradition.
The actual commands of the religion are most simple, and relate to preserving the old communities the Constructi occupy, discovering more of them, restoring all that can be restored,a nd keeping the realms orderly for their creators potential return.
The Apprenticeship
The dwarvern relition known as the Apprenticeship is perhaps the most simple faith in all of Eyom. It has but one tenant: Toil at our great task until mortal action replaces the divines. It is often said that the Apprenticeship takes umbrage with the notion that faith and prayer can throw a mountain into the sea because they do so with pick and spade expressly to create the divine powers they seek within the world itself.
Terramanism
Terramanism is a religion based on the taming of nature. It sees nature spirits as livestock, and practices the capture, training, tending, and husbandry of these spirits in order to drive the economies of the communities in which they hold power. It is notable for combining elements of Capitalism within its corpus of religious beliefs.
Macketersism
Macketersism is a faith all about supplementing and replacing the labor of people with the labor of machines. It worships the concept of industrialization and mechanization, seeking to ensure these forces are used for the good of all through dogma and religious reverence for the good machines can do, and abhorrence for the evil which can be done with them. It is a complex and nuanced religion, with many small rituals that instill different practical habits within its followers, all of which relate to the use of machines, public infrastructure, or respect for people who tend to such things.
Sylvin Religion
The Sylvin Religion, also called the Kami Court even though they are not technically the same, is a complex Byzantine religion which defies brief description. It is an endless sea of small rituals, rights, holidays, lists of saints, titles for clergy, and other such bureaucratic ephemera of religion. Nailing down what it actually believes and what it does because it's traditional is most difficult. In brief yet broad, it preaches the preservation of balance within nature, one's self, and one's community. This means the bad and good parts of all things must be equally known, represented, and preserved. Yet, it does not favor stagnation. Merely a specific status quo it believes best for the world. Hence, it is difficult to describe in brief.
Labdism
Laddism is a large people's religion which arose entirely out of one person's idea that someone should make a religion out of doing things that enrage the god Irus. They did precisely that. Most of the faith is self improvement based actualizations all rooted in things which will anger the God of Malice. It is one of Eyom's most popular religions, with followers all across the continent, even outside of places it holds political power as a state religion.
Amazonians
The Amazonian faith is quite simple. It believes the primal joys of love and war are core to all of one's life experiences. That to understand how one acts entirely unrestrained on the battlefield and within the bedchamber of a lover is the only way to learn who someone truly is. It is from that foundation that someone can become the best they can be. Which is always a great warrior and unparalleled lover.
Iron Elf Shamanism
Iron Elf Shamanism is a faith which tends to the development of nature spirits which form in, operate, and inhabit machines. They cultivate them, working to improve the spirit's abilities within their respective realms and rolls. In essence, the religion is centered around being a friend to all machines, and ensuring they are happy with their roles as industry's heart and soul.
Trivial Gods
Trivial Gods are a concept loosely related to Eyomic state religions in that all of them recognise the existence of these quite minor divines. These entities can be worshiped or revered by anyone at all and are typically worshiped alongside other more major divines or religions. An example of a Trivial God would be Oleisia, Goddess of the Oxford Comma who ensures her followers (who must simply use the Oxford Comma correctly) are given an extra pump of flavoring when they order their beverages. Another example would be Steve, who ensures his worshipers can fit just that extra little bit of stuff into their baggage.
While on the surface these entities seem minor and trivial (hence the name) they are divines nonetheless and do have decent sized followings. Many Eyomic citizens see the worship of Trivial Gods as a means of showing their own personalities to the world. Clergy use them as means of finding points of commonality between different religions, sects, and orders.
There are at least 64 Trivial Gods, possibly more, as it is quite difficult to find them due to how little of an impact they leave on the world.
