Altostratoism

Altostratoism

Sacred Cloud symbols Found carved into walls of the Ieara cave Visual representation of the clouds
Continent / Island	Beluaterra
Capital Temple	Ieara, Melhed
Senior Council Prophet of the faith High Commander Force of Asscension	Jupiter Kain [1] None None
Temples	Ieara small temple (3)
Congregation	≈ 20
Realms of the Faith	Melhed

The Religion

Altostratoism is the worship of the clouds and their divine wills.

There is an almost infinate number of clouds orbiting our planet. These clouds materialize and rematerialize as it suits them. They do not always act in unison and those opportunities can be experienced when bolts of lightning reaches earth and thunder shakes the ground, proof of at least one clouds anger towards another. Wind is their main servant but they have been known to use a full smorgasbord of natural forces to enforce their wills.

There are three main clouds that are believed to have the greatest effect on our lives.

Smogy: He is the continual rogue of the clouds. A trickster not above covering the sun just for fun and make humans starve when their crops consequently fail. He has been known to send down wind to blow off a hat or steer a bird off course. He has conjured snow on the warmest of summer days just to confuse. He is connected to the primal, the untamed and the destructive aspects of nature. People often raise his name when they wish others misfortune or pray to him in attempts to appease him (and thus avoid being targeted themselves).

Traktor: He is the cloud of tradition. Not seldom does that entail reversing or stopping one of Smogy's tricks. He is the enemy of chaos, wanting order and predictability. And he is not above using force to get it, being the biggest cloud by far. A cloud to be revered. While he has sympathy for the humans, it is mainly for his own pleasure that he wants things to be as he's grown accustomed. People often pray to him in order to ensure that the harvest will be plentiful and that fairness is delivered.

Junia: She is the most demanding of the clouds. Wanting reverence, she is something of a mercenary cloud. People often pray to her to ensure victory in war and other disputes. She demands sacrifice and ultimate devotion from her followers and they often burn cows, goats, dogs and peasants to placate her and convince her to aid them in whatever trouble they're in.

While these are the main clouds, many clouds fight for the privilege of taking their place. Some of these contenders come from humans who have behaved in ways deemed excellent by the leading clouds and thus earned themselves ascension to the world of the clouds. It is however unknown which exact qualities they are looking for, and many have devoted their lives to living in a way that they thought would get the collective attention of the clouds.

The clouds themselves view the sun as the wheel of time and blocking it is one of their most frequest ways of showing their displeasure. To them they've stopped the seconds of life and granted death his day. Darkness expands and death follows. Without quick appeasement to the appropriate cloud, many lives are sure to be lost.

History

Upon losing the War of Ice and Sun against Thalmarkin, Vicar Jupiter Kain of Melhed started a journey of great soulsearching. He was determined to find out why things turned out as they had. In his region of Ieara he found carvings in a cave wall (see cloud symbol above). That had him intrigued. What was it? He ordered the whole cave to be searched and dug up. Under many layers of dust, bone, dirt and fabrics they found a collection of texts that seemed to describe the order of things. The collection was titled Altostrato which gave name to the faith.