As Told By Vizir Borlivan of House Rhugandy

Where did the World come from?
When the Potential of the World was fulfilled, Creator acted. Creator made the World out of His own substance by separating that which was World from that which was Not-World and banishing the Not-World to an Other place. Sometimes we call the Not-World by its other name, Chaos. He separated The World as follows. What was before Him was Known, and behind Him was Unknown. Above was Pure, and below was Unclean. At his right hand was Straight-Truth, and at his left Bent-Deceit. He set Light at the top of the World and Darkness at the bottom and Earth in the center and Water surrounding it, and caused them to exude emanations of themselves into the World. And he made two gods to oversee the World, one of Dark and one of Light, Ganesatarus and Idovanus. Ganesatarus was born first and Idovanus second, and so must light always follow darkness.

Where did I come from?
Everything in the world is a balance between light and dark, and that is good. You were the product of the predominantly dark nature of your mother and the predominantly light nature of your father mixing together.

Why do we die?
As night follows day, so does death follow life.  This is according to the Will of Idovanus, and is part of His Order.

What happens after we die?
If you are devout in your worship of the Creator then you may cross the Bridge of Swords to Paradise after you die, to join with Him. But there are other choices. Those who join the cults of the righteous gods will not go to Paradise right away when they die, but will join their substance with their god until in the fullness of time the Creator absorbs the god and all the souls it has gathered back into His substance. Some people even trust in the priests of Deezola to bring them back from death. These are all acceptable paths so long as you realize that darkness and death is inevitable and only the Good God holds the keys to Paradise.

Why am I here?
You are here to help the world attain a balance between Dark and Light, between Heat and Cold, between Motion and Stillness. You are here to punish Deceit* and reward Truth. The best place to start your task is with yourself, so search for balance within.

How do I do magic?
Wizardry is the process of manipulating energies, light, dark, and neutral, through knowledge of the Laws of Truth and Magic and the individual's spiritual strength. This requires natural aptitude and many hours of study. It is the path of the Vizir. Skillful viziri can profit nicely by selling their services for appropriate fees.

It is also possible to obtain magical power from the righteous gods and thereby to serve the Creator. This is the way to power traveled by those who are called Priests.

As proscribed by Carmanos the Guide, only the Magi may directly worship Idovanus, the Good God.  Only a Visir may practice wizardry.  The Good Gods, as identified by the Magi, may be worshiped freely according to one's Caste.

I have heard of other Powers. Can you tell me the truth about them?
Some people give foreign names to the Creator, but they are wrong. All other gods are either righteous gods who follow the Creator, and channel worship from us to Him, evil gods who follow Ganesatarus and steal our souls for their place in Hell, or chaos demons posing as gods to pervert and destroy the World. Do not be Deceived by the chaos gods. The Hierophant and the Magi commune with the Creator so that we may know which gods are safe to worship. Annually they publish a current list of banned gods; you should always pay close attention to the bans.

...Aldrya?
This god is the soul of the unfriendly wilderness, and her children are the Elves. They imitate us by acting carefree in spring and somber in the winter, but they aren't people at all. They are plants.

...Chaos?
In the beginning, the Creator parted Cosmos from Entropy, Harmony from Disorder, Fertility from Death, and Truth from Illusion.  Ignorant fools, deceived by Gansetarus, allowed these primal forces to mix through the sin of self-deciet.  Separation and Balance are the way of the Good God, and this unholy blending resulted in horrible forces loose within the world. These beings are called demons and chaos monsters, and the most powerful are known as the gods of chaos.  Fortunately Sedenya, the Red Goddess, has returned to re-establish Separation and Balance.

...Kyger Litor?
This goddess is the mother of the daughters of darkness, and her children are the Trolls. They do not seek a balance between light and dark, but by conquering light they hope to defeat it. The most useful troll gods are Zorak Zoran and Argan Argar, both of whom combine darkness with fire, and SuBere, who is the women's secret.

...Lunar Goddess?
This goddess was the first created and best beloved, but long lost and thought to be destroyed by chaos demons. Four hundred years ago she returned to the World and helped to restore Balance to the Creator's work.

...Mostal?
Dwarfs believe in the Creator, which they call Mostal, but they mistakenly think that He is hurt or broken. They think he needs to be fixed, and ignore their duty to find a balance between dark and light.

...Orlanth?
This Emanation is the father of the hill tribes of Brolia and Dragon Pass. His children and thanes are wild and unpredictable and say they hate chaos, but they do not know what chaos is. They foolishly think that the Red Goddess is part of chaos and so they war against her. If they weren't enemies of our friends they could be our friends. Some of them who worship Invisible Orlanth have even begun to understand religious Truth. Humakt was once Orlanth's brother but we understand Humakt better than the Orlanthi do, for we see both his Light and Dark natures.

...Primitive Spirits?
Primitive spirits are lonely ghosts without access to Paradise and weak, broken spirits not worthy of worship. They do not provide a channel for worship to go to the Creator, and worship of them does not help you to reach Paradise. When they die, the souls of worshippers of these spirits are dragged moaning into Hell to spend all eternity there.

...SuBere?
This Emanation is the heart of the darkness, the source of all hungry spirits and darkness monsters, who hides Ganesatarus in her bosom, the mother of Dehori and Darkness Hags. She is also the women's secret and carries bad dreams to men.

...Valind?
This Emanation is the icy glacier, the stern father of cold winds, freezing storms and ice giants. He is the cruel ruler of the winter, and has been driven back by the actions of the Lunar cult of Kalikos Icebreaker. This is a mixed blessing. Longer summers make food more plentiful and life easier. On the other hand, historically Valind has been the source of much Carmanian strength. He especially hates Orlanth and is strong in the fight against that foolish cult.

...Yelm?
This Emanation is the Dara Happan's source of light, the sun, the source of gold and right behavior and laws. He is the kindly ruler of summer, the Dara Happan strength in daytime. But he does not acknowledge the importance of darkness, and so he was once sent to SuBere's prisons and now he is carried there every night. See? He cooperates with the Creator's plan, though unwillingly.

Mysteries of the Creator

The Creator (Explanation given to young Hazari and Karmanoi)
The Creator created everything that was, is, and shall be. He is everywhere and yet he is nowhere. He is not physically in the world, but is present through the Laws of Truth and Magic which reveal themselves in every aspect of the world. You can join Him in Paradise after you die. You can experience His love while you live. But it is impossible to understand Him rationally, through knowledge or learning.

Most people are not meant to worship him in the pure way that the Magi do. The Third Prophet, Carmanos the Guide, showed us how to worship the righteous gods in a way that was acceptable to the Creator. We can pay proper homage to the Creator if we worship the righteous gods who follow the Creator. The righteous gods carry our worship to the Creator, and carry the Creator's Love back to those who worship them.

The Creator (The Explanation for young Viziri)
The Invisible God, the Creator, is not just Invisible, but all opposites of every sort. The Creator is omnipotent and powerless. He exists and does not exist. He is male and female and bisexual and sexless, body and mind and spirit and none of them all at the same time. He is all-knowing and idiotic. He is wise and a fool. He is light and dark. He is omnipresent, He exists everywhere and is visible in everything, and at the same time is invisible, non-existent, not here or anywhere. He is wholly other, beyond human understanding, and we will become one with Him in Paradise but until that time we should obey Him through the Laws of Truth and Magic given to us by His prophets.

The prophets are Malkion the Lawgiver, who gave us the Laws of Right Behavior and showed us Paradise, Hrestol the Martyr who revealed the Principles upon which the Laws were based, and Carmanos the Guide, who taught the Magi how to divide the righteous gods from the rebels and from chaos.

It was hard for some people to respect the Creator when they could not understand Him. Before the Guide, some people worshipped false gods which were only powerful people, others freed their animal natures and worshipped any spirit which would have them, and others who were even worse ceased to follow any religion and became atheists who didn't even believe in Good and Evil. All these weak-minded people fooled themselves, thus falling into that sin which the Creator hates the most, Self-Deceit.

But in His infinite Love the Creator sent His messenger, Carmanos the Guide. When he spoke to the assembled Magi in Brinnus, the Guide revealed the Creator's infinitely kind plan to allow us to worship righteous gods who were understandable, just like powerful people. These gods sprang from the Creator's Will, and they intercede between the Creator and His mortal worshippers. Now even those who are weak of mind can worship the Creator, for he has kindly embraced them despite their debility.

ENDNOTES

*Carmanian theology defines Deceit as self-delusion, or acting without understanding the consequences, and not as misleading those who are foolish enough not to know the Truth when they see it. The signs of Deceit are indecision and vacillation.

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