Weboftheworld Wikia
Register
Advertisement
Akhen

The traditional symbol of Akhen.

Akhenism is a monotheistic religion associated with the Exekians. It is ancient, dating back to the beginning of the Old Exekian Empire. The Mandorlin, a collection of books believed to be divinely inspired, is its primary foundational text. Akhenism is the basis for all major faiths found in Alucarsia, including the Temple and Vormundism, with Vormundism generally being considered "Akhenism for the Alucar".

The faith revolves around worship of "the god" ("Akhen" in Old Exekian), an omnipotent, omniscient creator deity usually represented by the sun. Driven by a constant desire to create, Akhen is said to have made the universe for his pleasure and sentient life out of loneliness. His first sentient creations were the immortal Exekians, whose fickleness and idleness disappointed Akhen. He turned two Exekians, Monaxia and Lostris, into the first humans, founding a new, mortal race of sentient beings doomed to die.

History

The earliest known religious texts originate from roughly ten thousand years ago. Who wrote the Mandorlin is unknown. The name "Akhen" is Old Exekian in origin, meaning "Creator of the Universe".

Some Exekians believed that Akhen created humans to serve them, and cited the hierarchy of nature and laws of survival to prove this. Religion was thus used as an excuse for slavery in the Old Exekian Empire.

After the fall of the Empire in the First Exekian War and the creation of the kingdom of Alucarsia, Akhenism remained a fixture among the humans, until an Alucar-exclusive offshoot, the Temple, was created in 72 AYZ. The Temple created a devil character in the form of the spirit Zius, a beastly parody of the Ferdia who was supposed to have created the Exekians in defiance of Akhen. Ancient Exekian art and writings were destroyed, and the humans began depicting Exekians as monsters bearing the mark of Zius' evil.

Foundation of Vormundism

In 161 AYZ, the human prophet Dagda Vormund founded Vormundism, which is considered a branch of Akhenism. Vormundists do not believe in Zius, maintaining that evil is simply the product of sin, which they define as disobeying Akhen. The Vormundists refer to the god by his original Exekian name, and maintain that all life was made by Akhen, therefore all life is sacred.

Advertisement