Herlucc

Herlucc is one of Pavala's longest continuous religions, it was the religion of Succlythia and continues to have a strong legacy in its descendant nations and cultures, and those that were affected by them. As it formed as a religion, it was deeply philosophical and many religious leaders led fierce and long debates - oftentimes spanning generations. Some claim that it spurred the creation and development of Succlythian geometry and mathematics, and was part of the reason such fine engineering could propagate throughout the empire in the absence of a native writing system.

Herlucc is the idea that humans are the only creatures that can discriminate good from bad, and that they have a responsibility to balance their life so that they can re-enter kanea. Kanea is the natural state of existence; it is the consciousness and fabric of reality that permeates the universe. Human consciousness is a disturbance in the kanea. When a human lives their life, they are trying to achieve a balance between good and bad. When humans die, their spirit attempts to re-enter the kanea. If the spirit is close enough to being neutral in morals (e.g. not too good nor bad), then the spirit merges once more with the kanea. If the spirit is too good, or too bad, then it is rejected from the kanea and must live another life on Pavala.

Beliefs

Kanea

Kanea is the natural fabric of the universe, the unaltered state of existence that has existed since time immemorial - it is the very consciousness and substantiality of the universe itself, permeated infinitely throughout temporal and spatial dimensions and onto itself. It has no beginning, and it will have no end - not in time nor space nor any other conceivable dimension. It is eternally neutral but not unchanging, it is forever in equilibrium with itself.

The Human: A Rift in the Kanea (Ky; Tamkic Kalea)

When the Human emerged, their very existence was a disturbance within the Kanea - their own consciousness had the ability to be detached and in opposition to the cosmic consciousness of the Kanea. Bestowed with the ability to forge their own path aware of the consequences of the decisions they make, assessing whether their outcome is 'good' or 'bad', the eternal equilibrium of the Kanea could no longer permeate into the Human body and mind. Thus, the development of the Human's free will and moral judgment divorced themself from the very universe whose dust they were made of. This burdened them to have to live their life eternally seeking balance, so their mind and spirit can achieve a status as close as possible to the Kanea, and that they may become part of the Kanea once again if they die. If their spirit is too good or too bad, they will be born again and must live another life on Pavala.

The Fundamental Duality of the Universe (Serpas Cècas Deytè)

The Fundamental Duality of the Universe states that not only does the Kanea manifests itself as a duality of good and bad, but that all phenomena within the universe exhibit a degree of classifiable duality. There are a wide number of such dualities, but many are subsumed under broader categories. Searching for the simplest and most universal set of such dualities ('Serpah') has been one of the great philosophical debates of the Herlucc religion for centuries. The individual component of a Serpah is a 'Depah', and its opposite is its 'Kadepah'. Many symbols, called Serpasyc were constructed to represent these Serpah, and they functioned as a form of proto-writing for many, being used as mnemonic devices. The Serpasyc that were constructed are as follows, (note that although a Serpah does not have a Serpasyc does not make it an invalid Serpah, and that some Serpasyc have been considered redundant by some, as they are seen as being already encompassed by another):

Clean, Dirty (Bèynbor, Mata)
Healthy, Sick (Cec, Sthynacic)
Poison/Spoiled Food, Medicine/Good Food (Hèymfèym, Cicfèym)
Danger, Safety (Qanqamba, Bèynba)
Big, Small (He, Bicè)
High, Low (Hoqans, Rams)
Line, Rift (Heet, Etqa)
House, Public Building (Diec, Haktèc)
Place, Void (Eyba, Kacè)
Night/Dark, Day/Bright (Ka, Jem)
Go, Come (Pèic, Bkec)
Use/Attack, Avoid/Defend (Pamic, Èic)
Right, Left (Duqin, Jehs)
Odd, Even (Nora, Sata)
Male, Female (Mym, Hon)
Human Consciousness, Kanea (Loj, Kanea)

The Paradigm of Serklet (Sersklet Tidihic)

Though the Serpah are dual in nature, this does not mean that a phenomenon is restricted solely to just one category, it may be part of two or more Serpah. This is referred to as 'The Paradigm of Serklet', Serklet literally translating as two-four. It is through this process that fewer individual Serpah may exist and still cover all phenomena. A phenomenon may exist under the Line-Rift Serpah and Big-Small Serpah, as Line-Big, Line-Small, Rift-Big, Rift-Small, thus giving four meanings from two Serpah. These can theoretically be infinitely chained.

Choice and Judgment

All organisms have choice, but only the Human has moral judgment, and this impacts Human choice.

Divine Numbers

Many numbers have immense spiritual significance within Herlucc.

1

One (De) is considered a spiritual number as it is whole, yet still further divisible. It is considered representative of Kanea itself, and within itself contains the question of one or many?

2

Two (Ser) is a very important number as it is central to the concepts of duality of the entire religion.

3

Three (Pok) is considered representative of the Human - inherently unnatural and the only able to distinguish between the dualities.

4

Four (Klet) is important for 2 x 2 = 4, 2^2 = 4, 2 + 2 = 4, And the Paradigm of Serklet

8

Eight (Yok) is considered important as the Succlythians used a Base-8 system. It is further considered sacred as it is 2^3.

12358-

Considered a "constellation of numbers" the Fibonacci sequence links together several of Herlucc's sacred numbers elegantly, so this further pattern was extended and considered divine as well - representative of the Human place within the universe itself, with the 5 representing the 5 fingers of the Human hand.

1 - there was one universe

2 - within it existed a cosmic duality

3 - the Human was a disturbance on this reality

5 - with their five fingers, the Human could alter their fate

8 - with their eight numerals, they created a number system and civilisation

The Divinity of the Circle

Similarly to the numeral one, the circle is considered divine as it has one side yet infinite, it is a whole contained within itself, and forever continuous - no end, no beginning; just as Kanea.