LOKI'S RELIGIONS

One of the main religions on Loki centers around Fane, the Creator-killer. It runs like this: there were seven Creators--beings of immense power and undying, but killable, who created the universe. They are portrayed as big, lumbering, somewhat slow, and jealous of each other. They created the Lokiites as a joint project, but each had a secret purpose--to use the Lokiites to kill the others. The seven were: Hud, Yigg, Libal, Mjor, Himgall, Saan, Neyam and Apinni. (Those last three are portrayed as more female than male.) Tales tend to center on mortals tricking the Creators, not reverence towards the Creators.

Then--according to the legends--there came along one mortal, cleverer than the clever, called Fane. He managed to stir up and argument between Hud and Libal, and while they were battling grabbed one of Libal's own weapons and killed Libal with it. After he slew Libal, he ate Libal's heart, and became a Creator himself. He created his own personal heaven and harem, where he can live in self-absorbed bliss. Ocassionally, though,he will heed supplicants, to mischeviously interfere witht he plans of other creators. Most priests promise to interfere with the plans of other Creators, and all secretely have an ambition to follow Fane, to kill a Creator and thus become godlike.

The Fane priests are trained in battle, and in the art of killing a Creator, according to their legendary beliefs. Their highest official..their "Pope" as it were, is called Murderer, since his highest ambition is to someday have the opportunity to kill a Creator and join Fane as a Lokiite who becomes a Creator.

There are two main variations on the Fane-belief: the Libalists is one. Lokiites, in general, have no concept of heaven or hell, but their afterlife beliefs center on ghosts, and a strong belief in ghosts. Well, Libalists believe that the murdered Creator, Libal, is now a godly ghost who is gathering all ghosts together to storm and seige the Creators, Fane included, and then taking over. Those who aid Libal will get a small measure of his power, after he succeeds. A fanatic minority of Libalists go out to increase the number of ghosts, by killing Lokiites, paying no attention to wergild. They are regarded as dangerous terrorists.

Another variant philosophy or heresy is that the Creators killed Fane after he became a Creator, by ganging up against him. That no Lokiite willever reach Creator status for long until all the Creators are killed. That is the Glut heresy.

One totally different set of beliefs, held by the Niff hierarchy, is of great interest to earthly theologians. It is a belief in a monotheistic Creator. In it, the first two Lokiites, Emb and Askla (male and female), were set in a garden...and told not to eat the fruit of a certain tree. They didn't. Instead they set FIRE to the tree, and to the garden, in derision of the Creator, and for that were exiled from the Creator's home.

Other legendary heroes are Mundis, who was betrayed by the Creators after doing mighty deeds for them. His son, Gurdis, stormed the Creator's celestial city, and wrecked much of it before being killed. Krolf Haki was a (perhaps) legendary Survivor/king who had what he called a "demon guard" or more-than-mortal warriors, rather like King Arthur's Round Table or Jason's Argonauts. THe Haki hierarchy claims to have been founded by him.