The religion of the Eternal Balance was one of the religions of Laplana. It was a pantheist one. The origins of the Eternal Balance were on the Great Night, when the woodmen were hiding in their forests from the demons and tantarantans (ogres, harpies and giants).
The Eternal Balance Symbol
(icon by Lorc under a CC BY 3.0 licence)
Believes
Cosmogony
The planet was viewed by the woodmen as a living being. They named him Torcan, the thinker. Everything imagined by Torcan became real. This way Torcan created all the things: animals, plants, men and mountains. He did it for himself, to have company through the long millenia.
The Balance
The aim of the balance was to preserve the nature as conceived by Torcan. The woodmen had the mission of preserving the balance between all the things. Failing to accomplish this mission meant to be exposed to the Torcan punishment.
The Evil
Torcan, as any other living being, had evil thoughts, nightmares… The demons and the undead were born from this kind of evil thoughts. They were enemies of the nature and Torcan himself. They didn’t belong to the balance, and had to be fought.
Eschatology
When men died, they were reabsorbed by Torcan conscience. Those who had followed the balance came back to the nature in a privileged form,like a mountain, a river, a star… Those who didn’t, came back in a less glamorous form, like a worm or a fly.
Priests
The woodmen priests were called druids:
- Access: the druids choose their disciples by their capabilities. The studies to became a druid were up to twenty years long.
- Functions: they leaded the rituals of adoration and sacrifice, predicted the future and administered justice aiming to preserve the balance.
- Lifestyle: the druids had solitary lives, and joined the community only in special occasions, typically to celebrate rituals and for the tribe important meetings.
- Distinction: the sacred color for the druids was the white, and this was the color of their tunics. They wore too a great staff with singular shape. A druid could be identified by the shape of his staff.
- Powers: the druids could communicate with Torcan through the material shapes of his thoughts: mountains, plants, animals… This gave to them a privileged knowledge of the nature and the future. Besides, they could prepare magic elixirs.
Rituals
Coming of age
This king of rituals were related to the skills for survival. The candidates to the coming of age were abandoned by themselves far from the tribe camp. They had to survived during some time, then find the way home.
Funeral rituals
The woodmen didn’t bury their dead, nor burn them. They built small wood altars, and let the nature consume the corpses. When only the bones remained, they were taken apart and another corpse occupied the altar.
Matrimony
The druid choose the couples that had to be married, and blessed the union. A couple could be divorced if the conditions weren’t respected of there was mistreatment.
Worship rituals
The sacrifices were common on the worship ceremonies. Normally, animals o enemies of the tribe were sacrificed. The sacrifices were offered to Torcan as a contribution to the balance. The death had to be, then, justified.
Table RPG 