Doctrinal Differences In The Sun Faith

The sun rises over a mosque in Cairo on the first day of Eid al-Adha

The Kirsi claim the Sun Faith as their own, and there are some precedents for their claim that they were the first to adopt the faith. The Kirsi point to their contact with the exiled generals of the Heretic King, who took refuge in the fortress-town of the Abode of Departure, as the true source of the Sun Faith.

However, the true story is more complicated.

The Sun Faith's origins indeed trace back to the Heretic King. But it was centuries later that the Sun Faith's Prophet was martyred in his homeland, the Sixth Kingdom. After the Prophet's death, many who were loyal to him went into exile in the West.  They rejected the worship of the beast-headed gods of the Sixth Kingdom, as well as the cult of the Eternal.

In the Western Deserts, these exiles from the Sixth Kingdom met the Meru, pastoral nomads who roamed the lands as free clans. They intermarried with these Meru clans. The Meru for their part  adopted the Sun Faith, and brought it to the people of neighboring lands.

One of the first lands that the Meru reached were those of the Kirsi-folk. Many of the Kirsi embraced the Sun Faith immediately. They recognized it as essentially the same faith as that brought to them by the Heretic King's exiled generals centuries before. The Kirsi elders proclaimed the Heretic King's generals were earlier prophets and saints of the Sun Faith.

The Kirsi version of Sun Faith practice makes place for the veneration of these ancient saints and prophets, which accounts for the religious arguments that often break out when Kirsi and Meruan Sun Teachers debate with each other the finer points of the Sun Faith's scriptures and doctrines.

The Kirsi, the Meru, the Sun Faith, and the Sixth Kingdom are part of the default setting of Kevin Crawford's medieval African pastiche RPG, Spears of the Dawn. This post expands on that setting  for use with both Everway and Spears of the Dawn, and was written to comply with  the non-commercial usage guidelines on the Sine-Nomine blog.