Zandarism

Zandarism is the wide grouping of all religious beliefs focusing on the divine patron Zandar/Zandahar.

In classical lore, Zandar is the father of the gods, and maintains the heavens, the aether, and the mortal realm. His pantheon is large and diverse, with gods whose scope ranges from life and creation to rivers or cultivated food. Individuals pray to specific deities or groups of deities in the hopes of receiving blessings or staving off misfortunes falling in the domain of that deity's power.

The beliefs of classical Zandarism are challenged by the philosophy of Dharma, as well as the similarities and differences of the religion compared with those native to the islanders of Loretan.

The classic view is now referred to as Vaishnavist Zandarism, for its focus on the concept of Vishnu, or the preservation of creation against that would destroy it, whether from within or without.

This is as opposed to the view of Shaivist Zandarism, which focuses on the imminent destruction and rebirth of the world by the Shivans, which are beings of immense power generally thought to be draconic in nature. The islanders of Loretan hold strong beliefs about such imminent doom, and their religion focuses on appeasing those powers, that they might delay their ultimate reckoning.

The Empire considers Zandarism in all its variations to be Theism, and therefore automatically invalid. Zandarism retains strong popularity in centers of classical lore such as the city-states of the Essen subcontinent, as well as surviving missions in the Dragon Isles. Due to the recent dramatic decrease in popular following on the continent, traditional (Vaishnavist) Zandarism has had to come to an uneasy truce with Shaivist Zandarism, as the latter has, in fact, a larger following in the modern day.