Notes on Saseism

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Nathan
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Notes on Saseism

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The people of Merveilles all worship a single deity, Sasei. The religion may be called Saseism, the Cult of Sasei, Founder Worship or various House-specific names. Sasei is believed to be the founder of what may be called the Merveillais nation. Sasei was from a time that no man could remember and was from a land no man could pronounce. Sasei gathered the local indigenous people and civilized them. He taught them his language and various customs and many Wonderful things. Sasei's exceptional sensitivity to Wonder allowed him to become seen as a god among the early Merveillais. Merveilles was once a unitary nation, ruled by a dynasty of Sasei's deified descendents. As time went on, the Merveillais spread farther and farther from Dynasty City (the approximate site of modern day Quadropoli). People spread to the mountains, to the ocean, to the river, and to the plains. Over time the distance proved too great for the descendents of Sasei to maintain and eventually the Dynasty of Sasei fell to be replaced by the present Houses.

According to House Amours, before the Sasei Dynasty collapsed, Sovereign Sasei IV, visited each of the emerging House Lords and offered them words of pure wisdom to guide each House into the future telling them that four will always be stronger than one. These words were phrased differently for each House, resulting in the diversity of the Houses today. Believing that all Houses are acting in accord with Sasei's advice, House Amours focuses on creativity and generally ignores the other Houses, believing them to be following their true path. This creates an air of naivety the other Houses perceive as weakness. There is an organized church within the Amours Houseland called the Veracitic Church of Our Adviser Sasei and is responsible for many of the most beautiful temples in all of Merveilles. While there is very little dogma associated with the Veracitic Church, the people of Amours simply love the beauty and majesty of the temples, clerical garments, ceremonies, and various relics.

House Dagues, however, holds that Sasei IV took a precious artifact from each House and then gave it to another House. Sasei intended this ploy to bring the Houses together to return their artifacts to each other. However, the Houses proved to be more distrustful than Sasei realized and to this day no House publicly acknowledges the loss of any ancient artifact to avoid showing disadvantage. This original deception of Sasei IV prompts the Dagues to act similarly deceptive today. The Dagues' version of Saseism is confined to private familial shrines and is seldom mentioned in public to the point that no one truly knows if the Dagues still even practice Saseism.

The legend of Sasei is more straightforward to the House of the Matraques. To them Sasei IV was a brutal and oppressive Sovereign who ignored the needs of the emerging Houses. The Matraques maintain that they slaughtered Sasei IV and his army to allow the four Houses to flourish. This fear of oppression prompts the Matraques to maintain all of the Houses' equality by sheer force. While the Matraques believed they murdered Sasei IV, they still revere him as a worthy foe that only proves the might of the Matraques. Each Matraques soldier aspires to an honorable death to join Sasei IV in the afterlife in order to battle him for eternity.

House Rubis maintains that the Sasei Dynasty could not feasibly support the expanding Merveillais and collapsed from financial limitations. The first Lord of Rubis discovered that his House was the only House still tithing to the Sasei Dynasty. When the Rubis cut their tithes, the Dynastic City crumbled into the Merveilles River. This guilt prompted House Rubis to almost entirely finance the building of modern Quadropoli. This continual tithe to maintain Quadropoli is the extent of Rubis' religious organization. They do not think any action beyond donating the considerable sums of money can truly atone for their guilt. Tithing itself has taken on a religious structure in the Rubis Houselands. Tithe collectors are seen as the clergy as they are relieving the Rubis people of their guilt.

At present, the Houses do not discuss their religious practices with each other, believing it a sign of weakness and fearing that over sharing information may lead to some form of inequality. All each House knows is that Sasei is considered a deity in each other House. In reality, each House's version is true. Sasei IV visited each Lord and gave them advice while at the same time arranging for their sacred artifacts to be stolen and swapped hoping that at some future time Merveilles would be united enough to return each artifact which was imbued with Wonderful powers. After the Rubis cut their tithes, Dynasty City fell into the river from neglect prompting Sasei IV and those still loyal to him to flee the city to the Matraques, who he hoped to find sanctuary.

Each version of the religion also explains why each House places such a high reverence on equality, consensus, and maintaining the autonomy of each of the Four Houses.
The ghost of Nathan Waffel-Paine

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