Conarism

When we die, we reincarnate, each time becoming more true to ourselves and our spirit.  The wicked get more wicked and the righteous get more righteous as they proceed through more life cycles. Bad things happen to seemingly good people because they might have been bad in past lives and hadn’t sufficiently atoned, or to test them.  Believers are made to feel that they must have been bad in a past life and have to do good in this one to make up for it if they want to eventually get to Heaven.

Only Conarites can ever get to heaven.  If you don’t believe, then Synigora will eventually give up on you and send you to hell, so most Conarites want to convert everyone. 

Children of Chaos
The Children of Chaos were the earliest beings to gain organized thought.  They shaped the cosmos, and then watch as life unfurled from it naturally.  Most deities are Children of Chaos. The Children of Chaos also advocate for whether souls should reincarnate again, or find their final resting place in Heaven or Hell.  Worship of these beings goes hand in hand with Conarism, and exactly which one varies depending on region/ethnicity/etc. 

Synigora - the goddess of Heaven
Synigora sends good things your way, tries to make you stronger, and argues on behalf of the righteous.  She is also the leader of the angels. 

Katergis
Katergis causes the necessary evil in the world to do bad things to people, to test them.  Sacrifices to Katergis may help to keep him at bay.  He is also the leader of the demons.

The Prophets
Past prophets are also revered as demigods. 

A prophet comes every 73 years so that they can be sacrificed under the light of Gabriel's Comet. The prophet is typically a male who reache his 30s or 40s by the time he is to be sacrificed. The comet is so bright that you can see it during the day. The prophet is burnt at the stake. It’s believed that the soul of the prophet is a fresh, untouched, and purely good one, and he goes directly to heaven after he is sacrificed.  Past prophets are revered as demigods and believers pray to different ones for different issues.  

After the comet passes, Synigora and Katergis will have a battle.  Without the Prophet's strength, the Synigora will be killed and the world will end.  

The prophet writes the next chapter of the holy text with the help of the high priests.  It includes his life story, his thoughts on what it means to live a good life, his commentary on recent history since the last one, his thoughts on current issues, and vague predictions for how to identify the next prophet. 

The church has to confirm who the prophet is each time, and the different sects don't always agree.  The prophet has to fulfill certain prophecies left by the previous one, and perform miracles including impossible feats of strength that the high priests confirm that they can definitely do... though non-believers question whether they are truthful. 

You can find the names and dates for each prophet here: The world's history, according to Conarist Scholars

These are the things you have to do in order to stay on Synigora's good side.  The different denominations debate what they mean and how to accomplish them. 

Sacrifice.
The early Conarites took this literally and people were sacrificed, in addition to its interpretation that selflessness is a virtue.  Today, there is debate about what true sacrifice and selflessness really is and how you can make Synigora see it in your heart. 

• Some believe that sacrifice has to literally waste/delete something of value.  Kill your best cow but don’t use any of it, burn part of your crop, put time into creating something and then pray while you destroy it.  
• Some believe that sacrifice has to be given to the benefit of someone else.  Gift the meat from the cow or your crops to neighbors in need, for example.  Churches that ascribe to this belief often have a system where everyone gives a certain percentage of their wealth or resources, and the church keeps some of it and then gives the rest to the needy. 
• Some believe that physical goods and worth don’t truly have value to your spirit and sacrifice is something deeper within your heart that only Synigora can truly see and understand.  Those who use the church for personal gain don’t like this idea. 

Travail
Work hard to carry your own weight and then some, because someday you’ll be old and others will have to carry you.  

Many interpretations of the text take this to also mean that magic is a tool given to humanity by Katergis to allow us to cheat!  This belief teaches that using magic corrupts your spirit, and clouds your heart from letting the Synigora. If an Ethereum shard appears to you, you must have summoned it with the evil in your spirit! 

Propogate
There are three different interpretations of this.  Some also believe that all of these are valid and it depends on the individual which one you need to do. 

• If you don’t do enough to convert people or help the efforts to convert people, whether by proselytizing yourself, or by helping to fund the efforts to do so.  The church uses this to help justify tithes.  Going out into foreign lands to try to convert people is required of certain levels of priests.   
• Encouraging spirituality in other believers, participating in communal worship, celebrating your faith within your family and church.  
• Have lots of kids.  The more kids you have, the more wandering souls are brought into a family of the correct faith. 

Gratitude
Cultivate a sense of appreciation and thankfulness for the blessings and experiences in life.  Embody hope and optimism and others around you will also. 

Integrity
Upholding strong moral principles, honesty, and ethical behavior in all aspects of life.

These are bad things that turn away Synigora and let Katergis into your heart. 

Dishonesty - breaking your word or lying

Betrayal - exploiting the trust of another

Avarice - taking or hoarding more than you are due

Injustice - preventing someone from getting what they are due, or treating someone with cruelty or unfairness

Indolence - working below your means and forcing others to carry your weight

Gluttony - caving in to cravings of the flesh.  This can include sex, alcohol, drugs, or excessive food. 

Conarites prefer to cremate their dead because that makes sure that the entire contents of their heart are sent with them so that the powers that be can see all of it clearly.  Family and friends of the deceased write letters or create pieces of art to toss into the funeral pyre, wishing them well on their next journey and praying for the gods to look upon them favorably.  No one else is allowed to lay eyes on this letter or gift, ever. A letter must be folded and a gift must be wrapped.  

Burning someone at the stake can purify them.  Since Conarites believe that you have to get more extremely good or extremely bad in life in order to move on to heaven or hell, they do not want to purify wrongdoers who are to be executed, because that will make them less evil, which will slow their journey to Hell, which thus means more life cycles spent on earth.  If a person is evil, it's better that they get to Hell as soon as possible. 

Conarites who scorn magic will often burn magic users at the stake because the magic might have accounted for some of their corruption, and burning them can help.  Spending a life cycle as a mage is not damning in and of itself, but most believe a life cycle spent as a mage cannot bring you closer to heaven no matter how good of a person you are. 

Zorinity
Most rigid and conservative, viewed as extreme by the other branches when it isn’t the most common one in the area. Zorinity is rarely practiced today, having broken into two more moderate pieces at the ninth prophet: Aenetrism and Lysonism. Zorins believe that the Sacrifice endeavor means you have to destroy something of value. 

Aenetrism
This denomination of Conarism is somewhat moderate. They place a lot of emphasis on the teachings of Aenetros, their choice for the ninth prophet. This is what the majority of today's followers practice, except in the Lombardic region.  Aenetrists do not persecute mages, but they do generally believe that magic is cheating and that magic halts you on your journey to heaven. They interpret the Sacrifice endeavor to mean that one should give to others in need. 

Lysonism
This is the most common faith in Oralia, Verontoir, and Brenthia.  They believe that the ninth prophet was an Orlean man named Lysonis.  This branch further subdivides into four more similar ones but the differences between them get more subtle. Lysonists hate magic and will burn mages at the stake.  They also believe that the Sacrifice endeavor must be accomplished by destroying something of value, not giving it to others. 

Path of Seno
Seno was the seventh prophet and is one of the most important, having converted a lot of southern Nordavia.  The Senoans are the most liberal and allow more room for one’s own spiritual journey according to their own interpretations. The Lysonists and Children of Ivo consider them heretics, whereas the Aenetrists just view them as a little nuts.  There is an apocryphal account allegedly written by Seno himself that implied he had attuned an Ethereum shard, though it isn’t clear what kind.  There is one Church of Seno in Molasba, which is the only place with a large enough following to have a congregation. Senoans believe that physical goods and worth don’t truly have value to your spirit and sacrifice is something deeper within your heart that only Synigora can truly see and understand.  Senoans believe in giving back to their community through charity and volunteer work. 

Children of Ivo
As has happened in several other cycles, the last time the comet came around, there was a disagreement on which prophet was the real one.  A few priests rebelled and followed Ivo instead of the more popular Samuel.  After Ivo was sacrificed, these priests started up a small, close-knit following which has become a cult that controls every aspect of its members’ lives.  Ivo had asserted that the sacrifice of human lives was necessary to keep Synigora's attention on your community, and so this cult does abduct and sacrifice a number nonbelievers and mages in a yearly ritual.  They also otherwise destroy livestock and goods in the name of Synigora. Since the leader is a Moonkin, they believe that the Moonkin are inherently wise and ought to be revered and raised for leadership. LOCATION?