Mešaism

From Almeopedia

Author: Yiuel

Mešaism is the fusion of the beliefs of the ancient Wede:i people, who founded the first Almean states around the year -1500, with that of the Ezičimi, the Easterners that invaded Xengiman around -325.

It has been the official religion of the ancient empire of Axunai, and is today a majority religion in Cuoli, transformed into a form of pantheism, and a minority religion in Čeiy and Belšai. Within Xengiman proper, it was replaced by Endajué, yet still rooted into Mešaic philosophical tradition, which would later lead to the Revaudo revolution.

Mešaism is a polytheist religion, in which the numerous gods are each linked with an animal totem, a gender and an element. It also has a belief in planes of being, called mureši (sg. mureč), a set of seperate worlds that layed one above the other.

The Mureši

Mešaic beliefs state that our world is one of one hundred so called mureši. A mureč could be translated as a "plane of being". The one hundred planes were said to lay one over the other, the one in which Almea is being the 26th.

The concept of planes seems to have evolved from ancient Wede:i beliefs, where a "plane of the Dead" was envisioned. A second plane, from where our souls came from, was added below us and, by the time of the Ezičimi invasion, Wede:i philosophers were already thinking about at least a dozen of planes.

According to theology, the worshipped gods were said to live about three or four planes above us, influencing the planes below them. Indeed, as there are even more planes over them, it was easier to imagine greater beings to explain unexplained events, multiplying "as Marvel Comic superheroes". Some have seen Jippir, the monotheistic god of the Tžuro, as actually a being from the plane right after that of Mešaic gods.

Planets and stars were said to lay in even higher planes, as planets move slowly and in weird fashion, and stars never move at all.

Orthodox Mešaism specified that one could travel between planes only at birth and death. However, there are many stories telling about travels between planes, and some, magicians, have claimed to be able to travel in this way at will. It was also widely believed that residents of the higher planes could facilitate travel at least to their plane.

The Three Sexes

Probably the most spectacular feature of Mešaism, imported from Ezičimi beliefs, is that people were divided between three sexes rather than two. In addition to the usual male and female, there was the third ewimo sex.

The males were portrayed as being masculine, with a general image of being strong and hard warriors ; the females were protrayed as taking care of children and hard-working within the family. While many other societies with similar views demanded that all people had to fit the role prescribed by their biological sex, the Ezičimi instead concluded that anyone who seemed unfit for that role obviously belonged to a third sex, called the ewemi, who were seen by some as less than both men and women. Males had to marry females, and ewemi had to marry among themselves. Some ewemi were homosexual, others were what we would call nerds. People were usually classified either as ewemi or as their biological sex during or shortly after their adolescence, based on observations of their personality and interests.

For more information, see Almean Belief Systems : Mešaism