Order of the Wanderers
The Order of the Wanderers was a major religious institution devoted to the Wanderers, a group of deities worshipped by much of the Western Commons, Northern Commons, and Halfling Hills. The Wanderers were made up of seven major deities, as well as a number of lesser deities. The seven major gods and goddesses were Etermel, God of the Storm, Monsters, and War, Famela, Goddess of the Forest and the Home, Rydaea, Goddess of the Land and Harvest, Rydos, Goddess of the Hill and Craftsmanship, Amu, Goddess of the Sea and Fish, Yartos, God of the Harbor and Trade, and Jetorik, God of Magic, Knowledge, and the Library.
History
The name "Wanderers" referred back to the religion's originators, the Rowen. Originally nomadic herders, the halfling people envisioned their deities as mysterious, ambiguous figures who walked among them. As they journeyed through southeastern Beurum and made contacts with various other groups, they spread their religion to other ethnic groups, such as the Trebai and Alois. By the late First Era, traditional Trebai and Alois belief systems had either fallen out of practice or been absorbed into Rowen religious thought.
Late in the First Era, the Trebai were the first to incorporate the Order of the Wanderers into state affairs. The Trebai mandated official religious holidays, festivals, and rules, though each of these varied by chiefdom. Following the Battle of Obsidian Bay and the fracturing of the Western Commons, officials of the Order seized some widespread power and standardized Trebai worship. Though this power was balanced out by the eventual founding of the High Kingdom of Beurum in the Second Era, the church remained a powerful force among Trebai lands.
The Order never held quite as much sway among the Alois or Rowen peoples. The Alois, who continued to move around and spread out until the Third Era, were increasingly influenced by other religions. They developed a fairly diluted version of the Order of the Wanderers, affected not only by their further migrations but also their own mythology and violent past. The Rowen, who increasingly turned to secular government for organization, began to adopt the teachings of the Order as more of a philosophical guide, rather than a set of deities who had to be worshiped. Religious ceremonies and rituals did continue to take place among the Rowen, but they were not taken as seriously.
At the end of the Second Era, the Akathon Crisis caused a decline in significance for the Order of the Wanderers, chiefly among the Trebai, who were more affected by the event. The ensuing Imperial War in the Third Era caused much of the Trebai, particularly those living in urban areas, to adopt the worship of Kantaran deities. Some Rowen adopted this worship as well, but Kantaran practices never caught on for them due to their lack of large cities. The Alois largely defied Kantaran religion.
When the High Kingdom of Beurum was reestablished at the end of the Third Era, a revival of old Trebai culture took place. This trend drove worshipers of Kantaran deities to return to the Order, or move to the eastern reaches of Trebai lands, where they continued to exist at the time of the Fifth Era. As Trebai government became more complex and expansive, the Order of the Wanderers lost power, and much of their ancient sway in Trebai politics was lost by The Twenty-Year War. The Order continued to hold significance for the Rowen and Alois peoples, but they too considered religious institutions to be second to civil institutions.
"Walk with the Seven"
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