Religion

It is shown throughout the game that there exist several major Religions that work and influence the thought and behavior of the many races of the world.

Church of Ivala
In general those humans that believe in the existence of a superior being, seem to follow the teachings of the Church of Ivala. Very little is known about the Goddess, apart from her predilection for the Chosen as her primary weapon against the Incubus King. It's even unclear if she likes them or she uses them because she has no other resources.

The church is structured in function of the human kingdoms. There are seven High Priestess, one for each kingdom which includes the lost one; so far in the game have appeared only three of the seven, but we already have witnessed serious disputes. So it's fair to say that the Church, one of the few human organizations that has confronted with determination the invasion of the Incubus King, is trifled with intrigues and infightings due to doctrinal disputes and personal ambitions.

The celibacy in the Church's ranks is in general kept by a honor system; but in the case of the higher ranks, including important priestess, have restrictive spells that will trigger if they have sexual relations. It is noted, that before the war with the Incubus King, the celibacy spells were not as restrictive as they are in the present. This is in part out of fear that the upper echelons may be subverted by enemy forces. From a gameplay point of view, as the story stands right now (version 0.12.x) it's entirely reasonable to think that there will be a detailed investigation of how the mentioned spells works, because we have several clues that Sarai will be joining the harem, but it's unlikely that it will happen before Simon returns.

Church factions
The Church of Ivala, despite being the main religion for humans' seven kingdoms is divided into three major doctines that have a tendency to contradict one another leading to factionalism and infighting to the point one Church of Ivala can claim the other is heretical.


 * Consecrationists: They believe that mortals are inherently sinful, but can be purified. Most of the factions tend to be reasonable enough. We have not actually met one of these, unless we read a great deal into Simon's dealings with the Church in Feroholm. If we assume that and read into both the conversations at the end of the prologue and the Chosen's ability set, this is probably the most likely faction to have created the Chosen(speculation!).


 * Desecrationalists: They believe mortals are born pure, but can irrevocably lose the purity to sin. They are zealots, but because of their use of Unmen and Unwomen in battles, they are not to be trifled with. Some of their members are implied in the Coup against the Queen Janine. Andra is her most notable figure in Yhilin. The High Priestess in Stineford, (who is crusading against prostitution in Chapter 1), is another example.


 * Subscrationalists: Humans are permanent mixtures of sin and purity, thus allowance must be made for both natures. Their successes against the Incubus King is only rivaled by their creation of Yhilin Inquisition. Carina belongs to this group, as does Sarai.

Church hierarchy
Though men and women both follow the Ivalan religion, we've only seen women in positions of power so far. Why this is true, if it is, has yet to be revealed.
 * Priestess - standard ranks of nuns, celibate.
 * Inquisition Priestess - some are clearly combat oriented, like Carina.
 * Lay Priestess - Sarai mentions this as if it's a type of priestess except from the celibacy requirement.
 * Sanctified Priestess - a rarer rank that requires some kind of process (unknown so far).
 * High Priestess - the seven top leaders of the Church (two from Ardoheim, two from Aram, one from Yhilin, one from the elven forests and one representing the lost kingdoms). So far we have met three.

Succubi
Some of the Succubi have some sort of religion, probably unorganized and unstructured, centered around the mythical figure of the Lustlord, no relation to the shard holder who has taken the name Lustlord.

In update 0.14 Archivist says that not all Succubi are devoted as much as the others. They have some priestresses, mainly in The Old Order of Lustlord, who practice ancient sexual rituals, which are...rigid. A lot of succubi worship The New Order, which is more free. It encourages the world towards more sex as Lustlord watches over everyone. And there is a Reformed Order, who say Lustlord was also a succubus and are focusing on sex itself. The Old Order is tradition-based, New Order is freedom-based and the Reformed makes them rethink their assumptions. Simon is not buying any of this.

Elves
The elves we've seen seem to worship a different goddess called the Mother. Exactly what their religions or beliefs are remains unknown, but they seem to view the Mother as a specifically elven god as oppossed to Ivala as a human god. Not all elves, particularly Altina agree with this or worship the Mother.

Dwarves
During the visit to Stineford's academy, we have the opportunity to visit their well-supplied library. Among many other facts, theories and outright lies, we read that they believe the goddess who created them resided in the stone. They stopped believing in her as some think she died and others that she left them alone.

But in Eustrin we find a shrine to Tertia the Godess of all the Earth with plenty of flowers and a praying believer.

+ Goddess of Magic
+ During the journey, the party will find other creeds.

A mysterious cult (formed only by women) founded with the idea:

'In the beginning, we were just gathering to worship the Goddess of Magic. But those of us with talent have joined together to improve our community.'

It's the only multi-racial cult that the group has met so far as it includes: humans, elves and zirantians.

You would find them once you have the opportunity to explore the city with time. From the conversations with them, you learn that the Goddess that they worship is a Goddess of freedom. If Her presence is true in the world or not, what is her relationship with Ivala or many other questions are so far unknown.

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