Awakened One

The Awakened One is the chief deity of the Petrenean Pantheon, dominant throughout the Shimmering Shores. Varying schools of thought exist even among their own church whether the Awakened One is a primordial diety - having always existed - or an ascended mortal; both schools agree that the question is largely academic and of no real importance, with the divinity of the Awakened One ultimately unquestioned. Some (heretical) scholars in Bastonia posit that the Awakened One is simply an aspect of The Almighty. They are seen by their followers as a divine exemplar, an example to strive toward, and a template for the most ideal state of being.

The Awakened One is a True Neutral diety, who grants access to the domains of Knowledge, Liberation, Nobility, and Repose. Their symbol is a hand cupping an open lotus flower. Eschewing violence, the Awakened One's followers who would become proficient in their favoured weapon become proficient in the use of unarmed attacks instead. Though teaching all beings are sacred, certain species of frogs are considered particularly sacred by their followers.

History

The Awakened One teaches that they were a prince among the cities of the Shimmering Shores who became divine through meditation leading to their awakening, who now transcends all relevant concepts of identity. While a god followed by humans, the Awakened One eschewed participation in the Battle of the First Wall and initially ignored The Fire-Keeper's experiments with the creation of the orcs. The Awakened One instead handed down a series of divine teachings over successive generations that are collectively known as The Way, by appearing among their followers in the mortal world under a variety of guises.

Relationships

Though sharing the Bardo with other dieties, such as The Fire-Keeper and San Lauren, the Awakened One rarely interacts with them. Constant in their own inconstancy, the Awakened One is somewhat nomadic, interacting with many other dities throughout all the planes of existence. They are as likely to be found arguing philosophy with San Meteo or San Sylvester as they are wreaking havoc among the forces of the Lords of the Abyss or San Elijah. Neither a leader nor a creator of the rest of their pantheon, the Awakened One is at once an opponent and an ally of the other gods worshipped in Petrenea, a practice they ascribe to constant teaching.

Of all the other dieties, however, he is inordinately fond of Xia Leng and her pupil, Xuthakug Three-Eyes. He seeks both of them out in their respective realms at unexpected times, to "temper" their own awakening.

Appearance

The Awakened One can be anyone and speak with any voice. They are the sun and the moon, the flow of the morning stream and the reeds which oppose it. A favoured form is a wizened mountain sage of any race or gender, speaking cryptic riddles to those who would dare to listen to them.

Realm

The Almighty's divine realm is The Mountain, a hidden valley temple deep within the Bardo. While their followers often congregate there, they can not always be found in that realm, which serves as a refuge for the souls of departed followers trying to learn through the Bardo before their reincarnation.

Providence

A spark of sudden enlightenment, be it major or minor, especially after hard study, is seen as the patronage of the Awakened One. Concerned with reality, they flatly refuse to work through dreams or premonitions. Instead, the Awakened One frequently appears before petitioners in unlooked-for ways, delivering cryptic answers to questions sometimes unasked.

Servants

The Awakened one preaches understanding and harmony between all extremes. For this reason, they are served by a variety of spirits and outsiders fit for task, some of which serve them exclusively and many others of which are members of free outsider races that never the less have fallen into their service.

Unique Servants

Shariputra

The herald of the Awakened One is Shariputra, a once-mortal follower of theirs who ascended to a level of immortality and personal power that borders on demigodly. A bald monk with a peculiarly ageless disposition, Shariputra is said to speak with the voice of the Awakened, and was once the head of the Awakened One's church.

Church

Church of the awakened one is deeply divided internally along philosophical lines, owing in large part to the broad number of mortals who their teachings can attract - as a Neutral deity, their followers run the gamut of the alignments, and even their clergy can wind up strongly opposed to one another. There are two principal schools of thought in The Way - The School of the Great Work and the School of the Elders. The differences between the two are largely philosophical, and while the divide is deep and clear, it is not oppositional in nature; unlike with the Bastonians, such a schism has not lead to acrimony.

The School of the Great Work is the dominant school, and teaches a broader interpretation of The Way that applies its teachings to all beings, not just a chosen few monastics. By contrast, the School of the Elders preaches that the ultimate goal of all life should be complete awakening, and strongly encourages monasticism.

Worshippers

All in the Shimmering Shores are aware of the Awakened One and will mark them on the appropriate holidays. Many lay practicioners follow relaxed versions of the practices of the clergy, but the overwhelming majority make their observances only on the appropriate festivals and auspicious occasions, or when needing to petition the Awakened One's intervention.

By followers, adherence to The Way - however they interpret it - is more important than religious dogma or the trappings of church ceremony. Many visit their local temples less than once a year.

Clergy

Exact styles of ecclesiastical dress vary among the traditions of the Awakened One, with the only real constant being the shaved heads of clergy and monastics in the Awakened One's service, regardless of gender - this represents an abandonment of the ego which is one of the central teachings of The Way.

The Awakened One's clergy are especially often monks (or variants of the monk class). Clerics to the Awakened One exist, but are rarer in proportion, and there's less of a distinction in the clergy between monks and priests than there is in, for example, the Bastonian Church.

Temples & Shrines

As is the way of the Shimmering Shore, the architectural styles of temples and shrines to the Awakened One are as varied as the people who follow them, with few constants. Most agree that there is no heirarchy among the temples themselves - while some schools in the School of Great Works have hierarchies among themselves, the highest temples in the Awakened One's service are no more or less sacred than lowly and remote mountain shrines.

Common elements to all such temples are areas set aside for meditative practice (the exact forms of which differs between schools and locations) and some marking of the presence of the Awakened One themselves, be it a wall-scroll and a single flower to set before it or a massive gold or bronze statue.

Holy Texts

The collective teachings of the Awakened One are recorded in a series of poetic records known collectively as The Way Sutras, teaching a philosophy known as The Way. These teachings include a variety of concepts as esoteric as the shedding of the sense of a self as seperate from an other, to teachings as comprehensible as the Precepts, a collection of guidelines for the living of followers. Teachings regarding the importance of the precepts vary from school to school. One of the dominant Great Works schools, the School of the Cushion, teaches that the precepts are not a series of commandments or divine prohibitions but a description of the Awakened, succinct enough to be memorized, and that true adherence to the precepts would be indistinguishable from the state of being awakened. Other schools teach that the Precepts are in fact proscriptive, and in some places they form part of the basis of law.

These teachings do not call for direct worship of the Awakened One, but push the observant to strive toward Awakening themselves.

Church History

The fractious nature of the Awakened One's church means that it has never had a collective force to unite or divide the Shimmering Shores. Instead, the church impact is more cultural. While individuals as far flung from each other as Peternia, High Toor, and the Pashkhara may have little else in common, the basic forms and The Way are equally recognizable to each and form a basis of understanding they can build from to work together.

Holidays

Because of the Almighty's teaching that they were once a mortal, exact calendar dates of spiritual significance are known and celebrated as holidays. Only two of these are universal throughout the Awakened One's church and both move with respect to the Rophalin Calendar as they are lunar dates: their birthday (commonly referred to as Vesak or Rohatsu, depending on if you are in western or eastern Shimmering Shores, and Awakening Day, marking the day they profess having Awakened and became the Awakened One. Other minor festivals of course exist, but their observance varies as the need drives.

Favoured Animals

Certain species of toads and bullfrogs are held as sacred, as the way they sit resembles, in some aspects, the Awakened One seated in meditative posture. However, a part of the teaching of the Awakened One is the interconnectedness of all living beings.