The Empyrean Cult is the dominant religion of the civilized centers of the aurized region in Medieval Vala: polytheistic but hierarchical, led by Ammonar. It commands cremation so that the soul may transcend, and opposes the chthonic cults.
| Type | Concept (religion) |
| Symbol | Silver triangle inside a circle |
| Spanish entry | Culto empíreo |
Description
Ammonar leads; the other faces serve the needs of civilized life: Calefa the dead and fortune, Mityara healing and childbirth, Ianna love and war, Istreus secrets and knowledge. Its sign, a triangle inside a circle, is worn in silver at the neck and must be visible: an Empyrean cleric does not travel incognito.
About seven hundred years ago the Auran Empire prevailed with its Pantheon of the Seven (only Ammonar, Ianna, Mityara and Calefa are named) and the dancing blades, women of perfect song and sword.
Doctrine
The dead are cremated in order to transcend: the soul must be freed from its matter and from the cycle. The ancient elves worshiped the empyrean and cremated their dead, until some began burying them and turned to the powers below.
The enemy is the chthonic cults, earth powers that preach remaining (body buried, consciousness kept as a loan from the earth) and ask sacrifices; blood feeds powers and makes magic. Empyreans view this with horror, though whole peoples find it pious. The barrow field of Barrowmaze, east of Helix, embodies that enemy doctrine.
The Schism
An undated Schism of the religion predates the present cycle. Before it, the paladin Thalia Cristalia was the prophet who united the often rival aspects of sister goddesses in the cult of Ianna.
In the cycle
On the Blackwater frontier (year 724) the cult is thin but whole: a temple of Ammonar in the last village before the wasteland, one of his paladins going upriver, dancing blades of Ianna in the band. In the heart of the region it has institutional weight: temples (one half-closed), inquisitors who are both clinicians and priests, the tower of Istreus. Caladan blesses his companions with the grace of the Empyreans.
Open questions
- What split in the Schism, and who stood on each side.