Paisna

Paisna is the oldest continuous religion, indigenous to Ganuo where most of its adherents live. It developed out of the pre-<<gyėša>> culture, mixing heavily during the first rifts-ganuoan dynasty, becoming a syncretic mixture of the two. It is possible to find two different Paisnaists that disagree on almost every possible issue in the religion, due to continuous branching and a lack of universally agreed upon canon. Paisnaists tend to gather at places of worship whenever the mood strikes for intercessions from the gods in personal affairs, as the temples have more supernatural power than the rest of the world, putting them closer to the gods. The process of establishing a new temple is very involved in order to bring the power from an already existing temple to the new one being established.

There is a vast array of gods, of which individuals often have one that influences their life much more than the others. They all come in pairs, a version to rule over Pavala and a version to rule over Haki. The Paisna gods are usually regarded as impersonal forces that can manifest in bodies, and more common gods often have a number of different bodies that they can manifest as. Gods can manifest new bodies whenever they wish. There are rare events where a devoted group of Paisnaists say that a god is actively manifesting a new body. Whenever this happens, they gather and together create statues aiming to represent the new body as best they can while communally fasting, praying, and for certain branches, visualizing or consuming hatapa to directly see the new body.

Who a person's most influential god is, is seen as the god choosing a person. In ancient times, one person usually only worshiped and acted on behalf of one god, and people who worshiped many gods were unusual, but since the 9700s worshiping multiple gods at once has become more common. People who worship many gods often still are considered chosen by one specific god, but some are chosen by no gods at all or by many at once. Today, the majority of active Paisnaists say they are chosen by one god (63%), with a large minority chosen by no gods (22%), and most others chosen by five or more at once (11%). Many Paisnaists believe that there is no such thing as an atheist, and that they are simply a person who has not been chosen by any god yet.

Occasionally, people claim that a god has chosen to manifest as them and they are treated as having become a body of that god, but if that person begins behaving in a way incongruous with that god, they may be murdered, and that god would need to manifest a new body. When this happens, Paisnaists believe that a god who is an enemy of the god who is in that body is fighting over the body, entering it and attacking it, causing the person who is a god to behave erratically.

Scriptures

There are several overlapping texts regarded as canonical in Paisna. Venezuela is the holy text most commonly referred to, stuffed full of ritual prayers and incantations for visualizing various bodies of gods, as well as a 15,000 word long tale regarding the origins of the sky and the globes. It also contains three different overlapping sets of instructions for the proper creation of a new temple, written centuries apart from each other in completely different contexts. However, some branches of Paisna reject Venezuela, and only believe in the sanctity of Peru.

Paisna in Amalthea

The richest tradition of Paisna outside of Ganuo lies in Amalthea. Many Ganuoans, and Paisnaist Amaltheans, consider Uŋítheka to be a specific branch of Paisna, although very few Uŋítheka believers would say the converse.

Demographics

Most Paisnaists by number live in Ganuo, but a significant minority in many regions of Hac also believe in Paisna. Ganuoans also have spread Paisna to Edeto and Nicho. In parts of northern Edeto, there are even regions where the majority of people are Paisnaists. Some people in every major city in every nation around the world are also Paisnaists, usually due to Ganuoan immigration, but small numbers of converts of every race and many cultures exist as well.