Post by ravigen on Dec 22, 2014 0:24:34 GMT
Before the Imperial invasion, the Ikegami worshipped Seven deities, with numerous smaller spirits and guardians which they invoked regularly for their daily lives. They were, Tenmu the Creator, Nishimoto the Sage, Teruna the watcher, Hanae the gatekeeper, Chihiro the Warden, Iori the Trickster, and Jungo the Judicator. Each principal deity had a Temple scattered across the Ikegami lands, worship revolved around certain festivals and offerings to different deities, along with numerous prayers and invocations for various circumstances. Tenmu was invoked for giving life to children, farming and the various crafts, Nishimoto for wisdom and scholarly aptitude, Teruna for patience and temperance, Hanae for the passage into the next world and for new horizons, Chihiro for battle and honor, Iori for swiftness and subterfuge and Jungo for fair treatment and disciplined law.
Those with the potential for magic were sent to the various Temples to learn to harness their abilities and prepare themselves for protecting the people, recounting the lore, worship of the gods and instruction of wisdom. Each Temple doubled as an academy where people from all over came to learn, there was peace and prosperity, until the war came. When the Empire invaded it was heralded by Vaekirate missionaries proclaiming the seven as false gods and calling for the worship of Aedak. This rallied the priests and priestesses to battle alongside the Daimyo and war spilled across the lands for years to come.
In the process of the great war each of the Temples were eventually taken, destroyed in the fighting, their vast libraries pilfered and sent south to Karmozijn Kark or to Messara, with Shinano, the Temple of Tenmu being the only one captured intact being repurposed into a Vaekirate mission.
For those magic users who were not killed in the war or were unable to commit seppuku before being captured, they were sent south to Messara to face trials for magic apostasy, For their benign nature they were offered the option to become Tovenaar in service to the Vaekirate. However many refused and were detained for life in the College, though many of them have since perished, mostly for lack of will, simply refusing food and drink until they passed, for those still living in detainment they await death or freedom, whichever comes first.
