Honey-Eaters

One of the few monotheistic faiths in Orochtha, the Honey-Eaters disregard the gods, believing them to be the flawed and failed children of Athai, the supreme Lord of Creation. They believe that the gods were incapable of fulfilling their role in Athai's grand design, and thus introduced discord into what should have been Athai's perfect creation. They believe that the gods did not willingly descend to walk among mortals, but were instead cast out of Athai's realm, and that their despondency at their father's abandonment became the source for the cravenness and evil that pervades the mortal world.   To the Honey-Eaters, mortals were created by Athai to fix the discord in creation. They believe that the gods' darkness twisted mortals and caused them to lose sight of their role in the grand design, and that the gods, seeking closeness to the divine in the absence of their father, wove the Great Lie and convinced mortals to worship their unworthy selves.   As a result, Honey-Eaters believe that all mortals must dedicate their lives to awakening their inner divinity, unlocking the secret knowledge that Athai placed inside of them, and use that knowledge to ascend and prove their devotion and worthiness to Athai so that the supreme Lord of Creation might welcome them to take part in the creation of the next world. They contend that all those who fail to awaken their inner divinity are doomed to an eternity as a soul held captive by the wicked gods, forever to languish in separation from the light of the Athainokalassos, the true divine realm from which the gods were originally expelled.   The Honey-Eaters take their name from their practice of consuming large amounts of Kiepheloi Honey. As the Athainokiepheloi were the first of Athai's creations, they believe that the kiepheloi, which are those first creations' descendants, are the closest to Athai's divine perfection, and that by consuming the creatures' honey, which the kiepheloi produce from eating gold, which is Athai's marrow, they give their inner divinity the strength to break through the Great Lie and show them the secret truth of the world so that they might ascend and join Athai in Athainokalassos.   This practice, however, makes the Honey-Eaters vulnerable to what outsiders call Golden Blood Syndrome (GBS). The Honey-Eaters do not view GBS as an affliction, but rather as a sign that they have stepped onto the right path. They believe that GBS is a tribulation that they must endure if they are to cast off the Great Lie. They believe that it is the manifestation of their inner divinity fighting the gods' deception, and view the development of lustrous golden blood in the terminal stages of the disease as a sign of imminent success.