Religion in New Hope
by Margaret Dean & Barb CummingsThe religious beliefs of the Mraal of New Hope are largely based on the precepts of the Lovebringer cult, which itself incorporates many/most of the precepts of the religion of the Redrock Valley Mraal, giving them its own spin.
A Mraal's goal in life is the having and accumulating of bakhan--variously, though inadequately, translated as status, honor, power, merit, virtue (especially in its older connotation, i.e., the proper nature of a person or thing; cf. the Middle English word vertu), good fortune, good karma, well-being, charisma, holiness, even magic. There are many ways to accumulate bakhan, and bakhan is contagious; those favored by bakhansha people gain bakhan themselves. It is possible to lose bakhan by behaving badly or dishonorably, or through becoming crippled, maimed, disfigured by injury or illness. A person determined to be suffering from such an illness may often ask for, and receive, quick death from a friend or relative with no stigma being attached to either party. The Mraal believe the elves to be a different order of being from themselves, one with much more bakhan--the evidence of this being their great beauty, power, immortality, etc., and also their association with an obviously bakhansha place. The Mraal believe that association with these beings will augment their own bakhan. Thus their worship of and service to the elves is eminently practical according to their own lights.
The worst possible thing to call a Mraal is nurbakhansha, "[completely] without bakhan, powerless, without merit, utterly worthless" -- sometimes translated "hollow." One who is nur bakhansha is a non-person. This state is quite distinct from another concept, that of zurth-bakhan. Zurth-bakhan is the negative or "dark side" of bakhan: evil power, bad magic.
The Mraal have no belief in the survival of the individual soul or consciousness after death. On death, a person's life-force re-enters the collective soul or anima that imbues everything. His or her accumulated bakhan, however, is added to a familial and tribal "account," the resultant "good karma" is held to benefit the tribe when luck is needed. Children of the deceased and other blood relations are held to benefit most. Thus the Mraal desire to accumulate as much bakhan as possible during their lifetime is not only for their own benefit in life, and but for that of their descendants and their tribe after they are gone. Thus also their desire to die well, while still retaining a maximum of bakhan, and not in some dishonorable, crippling, or disfiguring way, since bakhan lost through dishonor or sickness is believed to be dissipated with no benefit to anyone.
When Piet, Lord Tyaar's nephew, visited the Mraal in their own village, he unwittingly turned the whole concept of bakhan on its head. Obviously a supremely bakhansha person, as the son of the Great Spirit (he was so presented to his Mraal servants by Lord Tyaar, who knew something of their kinship system; a brother's son would be considered almost the same as one's own, especially if the brother was dead) and also on his own merits (the joy and love that the Mraal perceived in him) he nevertheless consistently showed favor to the least bakhansha people in the tribe: the children, the outcasts, the adolescents. His final act was to lead the entire tribe, irrespective of rank, in a communal dance which expressed their oneness with him and with each other, and to declare his love for every one of them.
Thus the major change which the Cult of the Lovebringer introduced into the Mraal belief system was the idea that everyone was bakhansha, and that the greatest expression of bakhan was love. Within the cult itself this belief sowed the seeds of a spiritual egalitarianism formerly alien to Mraal culture. When Rahirah discovered the cult's continued existence in TWR 1122, she was able to use this belief as a springboard for dismantling the entire concept of elf-worship, for if all were bakhansha, obviously there was nothing to be gained from serving the elves in hopes that their bakhan would rub off.
Once the Lovebringer cultists removed to New Hope, elf-worship was strongly discouraged. It persisted for some time underground, or in the form of superstitions, for not all the humans who came to New Hope were members of the cult, nor were all members of the cult completely convinced that elves and humans were equally bakhansha--such beliefs die hard.
The central belief of the New Hope Mraal is in the world soul, of which every individual and object is an expression, to which one's bakhan returns at death to the benefit of all. They have also revitalized a number of old Mraalish beliefs about ataarth-bakhan (bakhan-of-place) which were what led the forefathers of the Mraal to settle in the Redrock Valley to begin with. Certain places or geographical features (Gull Island, Piet's Watch, and to a great extent the ocean itself, among others) concentrate or express the bakhan of the world soul, and allow thinking beings to contact and participate in the world soul in life. Sacred places thus have a sort of genius or numen, which can be tapped by the knowlegeable.
Piet's Watch was an obvious choice for such a focus originally because it bears a resemblance to the Tower. (Much smaller, of course.) The Isle of White is a zurth-bakhan focus in Mraal tradition, but the Tribe Without Name considers it sacred; there is room for debate on the topic. There are regular ceremonies held at such places, each place having its proper ceremony and season (suggestions for these welcome!) There are also more informal rituals--people go there and stay overnight for prophetic dreams, etc.
Dance and choral music is a very, very important ritual activity as well as being art and recreation, considered to be an important method of establishing and strengthening one's connection to the world soul and one's tribesmates. The equation of the "world soul" with the "song/dance of the world" is a useful metaphor and one the Mraal use often. Many Mraal ceremonies involve song and dance. Storytelling and parables are more valued than sermonizing. Because this is not a literate culture, there are no "holy writings' as such, but there is a collection tales and fables which are supposed to carry a point as well as entertain. What liturgy there is (like the adoption ceremony) has, so far at least, been kept very simple and very much open to individual interpretation. Ceremonies tend to be emotionally rather than intellectually oriented.
There is no organized priesthood as such. Instead of a seperate shamanic order such as the Tribe Without Name has, the Household elders are spiritual leaders. Any elder is technically qualified to do this, though in practice there are those who are simply better at it and get asked to do most of it--also, while all elders are potential spiritual leaders, not all spiritual leaders are elders. However, a spiritual leader who isn't an elder can't perform set ceremonial functions, like weddings, adoptions, etc.
Bakhan-of-action, that gained by living, loving, working to the best of one's ability, is still very important. It is eo-bakhan, bakhan-of-being, that which is granted by circumstances of birth, which is officially considered "equal"--"all are bakhansha and worthy of love" essentially being the leveling of bakhan-of-being, acknowlegement that as expressions of the world soul no one has any more bakhan-of-being than anyone else. Nur-bakhan is to deny one's connection to the world soul. Zurth-bakhan is to corrupt it, or to corrupt another's connection, or to have that connection interfered with somehow.
Ritual burning of the body ensures that the individual soul returns to the world soul; unburned bodies may be used for zurth-bakhan rituals. A symbolic burning of some sort provided for those whose bodies can't be recovered, but according to Mraal superstition, an unburned body, is still an object of powerful zurth-bakhan... especially if you can somehow prevent the symbolic burning from being done.
Despite the best efforts of all involved, elf-worship persists in New Hope for at least a generation or two, until the humans who grew up in the Redrock Valley begin to die off. Even after that it hangs about less obviously in the form of legends of personified good or evil spirits. Examples would be Beliel, who becomes a sort of boogeyman in the years after his disappearence, and Wyn, who, after her death becomes associated with the function of returning the bakhan of children to the world soul.
Another offshoot of the old Lovebringer Cult, Spiritists assert that the Piet living in New Hope at present, while a very nice fellow, is not the original Lovebringer. He may have provided a convenient body for the Lovebringer to crash in for awhile, but the original Lovebringer was a being of pure spirit. Spiritists believe that the Lovebringer came to the Mraal to reveal the possibility of immortality to humankind. Although the putative founder of the Spiritist movement, Kel of Trailingstar, more or less abandoned it after meeting Piet, (Kel, like many founders of religions, was considerably less radical in his beliefs than his followers later became) it puttered along for many years, sometimes gaining and sometimes losing followers, but never quite dying out. It gained a lot of ground during the years of the Stinker Menace, fell off again, and then went through a tremendous resurgence during and after the Hostage Crisis and the Hidden Valley's attack on New Hope.
Spiritism retains the essentials of the mainstream philosophy of bakhan while adding a fillip: Spiritists believe that it is possible for a human to 'strengthen' their spirit by transferring physical strength to it through the practice of fasting, scourging, and other methods of mortifying the flesh. They believe that in this manner they can achieve individual immortality after death in the same way that elves can. For obvious reasons the cult remained small, despite the lure of personal immortality, until some brilliant soul came up with the concept that unintended suffering counted, too--every time something bad happens to you, that works just as well. It was this philosophical change of heart which allowed it to make such gains in membership during New Hope's second and third century of existence. They tend to attract people with a mystical/penitential bent and to gather followers when times are bad, because they offer a Glorious Future.
The 'mainstream' Mraal sometimes see Spiritists as sad creatures attempting to cut themselves off from the world soul in pursuit of a futile goal, or more rarely as an active threat, corrupting the young and dooming them to being cut off from the world soul according to the social and political climate of the moment, but the basic beliefs which the two branches of the religion share (that all are blessed and differences are to be valued) ensure that that there has not been any real attempt to disband or squelch the sect. The elves tend to look askance at all human religions, finding one no weirder than another--and of course the elves have no idea of how they, as a species, achieved the "detachable soul" in the first place, so they can't really claim that the Spiritists are wrong.
There is at least one other moderately serious doctrinal difference of opinion among the membership of the "orthodox Lovebringer" religion, which is the dominant one of New Hope. A signifigant fraction of this population believes that any violence which is not committed in =immediate= defense of self or others is inherently evil. Some persons in this group may take it even further into complete pacifism.
Another signifigant fraction (the majority, at least for now) believes that "preventive violence" under some circumstances or provocations may be wrong, and deserving of punishment, but is not necessarily zurth-bakhan. (And if you think this is hair-splitting, I have one word for you: filioque.) Under some circumstances such an action might even possibly be correct. Like the other group, they vary individually as to how much they're willing to countenance, and what circumstances and provocations they consider sufficient. A violent act may be bakhansha or zurth-bakhansha depending upon circumstances and intent, and determining what category a particular act falls into is very important.
This is both a political and a religious difference, as it strongly affects the ways in which the community deals with both outside attacks and internal transgessions. Nor is it confined to the human population; there are elves who feel very strongly about the issue as well, though their primary motivations are generally ethical/philosophical rather than religious.
As the elders are spiritual leaders, whose concern is the health of everyone's connection with the world soul, if an act is judged to be zurth-bakhan, allowing the perpetrator to continue to associate with others is evil act in itself, because his or her evil could, potentially, infect others. The idea that bakhan-of-being, good or bad, is contagious, is no longer a sanctioned belief, but it still hangs on in odd corners. At the least, even if the perpetrator's zurth-bakhan doesn't literally rub off on people, their example could lead others to evil.
For the human members of a household, appointing an elf elder is rather like a president appointing a Supreme Court judge: you want to choose someone who will, hopefully, represent your ideas into the future--in this case, damn near forever. Choosing a new elven elder can cause a LOT of stir, not only in the household which is doing it but in other households who will be affected. Human elders come and go and provide needed stirring-up, innovation and change in the Council's composition; elven elders provide long-term continuity and the ability to pursue household rather than individual goals over centuries.
The bakhan/zurth-bakhan dichotomy is not simply one of good vs. evil. A person's bakhan is not just goodness; it is the fundamental expression of their being. A lion acting like a lamb may be as much zurth-bakhan as a lamb acting like a lion. Part of the debate over the proper classification of a person's actions may hinge upon whether this kind of action is part of their proper bakhan or not.
The development of the mainstream Lovebringer-inspired religion in New Hope has also been affected by other humans tribes' beliefes, mainly those of the Tribe Without Name, and to a lesser extent the Wing Tribes. The beliefs of the Tribe Without Name center mainly upon the virtue of (you guessed it) names. They believe that the name of a person or object affects it for good or ill and choose their family and personal names on this basis. They also believe in the power of divination and in minor (and generally mindless) 'powers' which can be harnessed or influenced by a shaman. They apparently believe in a goddess of some sort whose messengers are albino animals (it is speculated that their ancestors came from among some tribes in the Great Water area who worship a moon goddess) but they are not forthcoming about their beliefs concerning her and few Mraal know many details of their worship. Many descendants of the original TWON have adopted the beliefs of the Mraal culture around them, but a fair number still stick to their traditional beliefs, going to their own shamans for advice and magical help and more or less ignoring the ceremonies and rituals of the Mraal. The Mraal in general regard the TWON beliefs about divination and the power of names as harmless superstition, but are not above getting a thrill out of playing with them on occasion, rather after than manner of skeptics playing with a Ouji board.
The Wing Tribes have a far more elaborate and structured religion than the TWON do, and it has certain consonances with Mraal beliefs--in particular, the Wing Tribes' concept of the Mother's Song is very similar to the Mraal concept of the 'world dance.' There have been a number of Wing Tribe humans adopted into New Hope (and vice versa).
Relations with elves
Humans are not the only inhabitants of New Hope, though they are the most numerous. How do elves view and/or participate in the community religious experience? Originally they were themselves the objects of worship, and to some extent that attitude still lingers, particularly in regard to Piet. While the sobriquet "the heart and soul of New Hope" when applied to him is generally meant to indicate that his attitude towards and love for life, the world, and other beings exemplifies what all New Hope residents strive for in their own lives, some have been known to take it more literally (usually to Piet's complete befuddlement.) Other elves have also been made the centers of 'cults of personality' in other ways over the years, often without them quite realizing it. This is most likely to happen in the case of dead or absent elves, where the humans don't always have the real live person in front of their faces to throw cold water on their imaginations.
While many elves do participate in the community religious rituals (and are in some cases an integral part of them; it is still traditional for Piet to lead the line dance at the Festival of Love) their take on the matter is usually ethical/philosophical rather than religious/numinous. About the closest they come to religion properly so called is to acknowledge that there is something equivalent to a "song of the world," i.e. "the way things ought to work," "the Way," etc.
The elves' place in the order of things, the question of whether they are truly a part of the World of Two Moons in particular, is still a topic of intense debate for Mraal philosphers. The elves' own beliefs are contradictory on this point; the animal-blooded ones often have a tradition that their ancestors' sacrifice has given them a more intimate connection with the world than their pure-blooded cousins. They are not, according to that tradition, "bound to the time and world in which the Palace exists"--but what exactly that means, no one can say for certain. That aside, they most certainly do not return to a hypothetical world soul at death; in this sense, they are forever seperate from the core of New-Hope-Mraal-belief.
This is a sort of reversal of the common folklore trope of the soulless elves who cannot go beyond the physical world; the Mraal belief in a world soul doesn't imply to them that they go beyond the world in death; rather, they become wholely a part of it in a way the elves cannot. The elves are the ones who go beyond/outside the circles of the world. Although bound to the Palace, they can't (currently) escape either. Either way, the destinies of the two species are sundered after death. The Big Question (which might be a major point of disagreement between the Spiritists and others) is whether this situation is something that should be altered, or The Way Things Are Supposed To Work. Are humans meant to evolve on the same pattern as the elves, or are they meant to go a different way? If the elves could somehow be admitted into the World Soul, would that be a good thing or not?
Some Mraal have speculated that animal-blooded elves are ritually important, serving as messengers between the two worlds symbolically or (who knows?) literally, but few elves feel enough religious impulse to be very interested in the question. In addition this is an area wherein Piet retains a certain religious importance even after Lovebringer-worship as such has died off, because he comes as close as anyone can to being able to experience the 'world soul' directly, and thus provides a channel of sorts to connect the elves as a race to it.
From the New Hoper's POV, while the question of ultimate destiny is being explored, emphasis for the time being shifts to how humans and elves can affect and influence each other during the time they know they have together. Humans can achieve a separate type of immortality in the memory of an elf and in the influence (good or bad) they have on that elf; elves can help humans to achieve their full bakhan.
There has been little discussion of how the trolls fit into all this, if they fit in at all. Anyone inspired to do so is welcome to take a stab at it.
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