Maatism
Maatism is the major native religion of Karnak, practiced by some 40% of its present population as of 1756 AN. A polytheistic religion featuring both anthropomorphized and amorphous gods, Maatism is the oldest continuously practiced religious tradition in Karnak. It also remains one of the central religious traditions in Karnak alongside Umraism. The Pschent of Karnak is usually a practicing Maatist, although rare exceptions exist in Uramist Pschents ruling the country. Alongside its religious concepts Maatism also embodies multiple strands of philosophy that permeate Karnak's civilization in every social stratum and every part of the territory.
Maatic priests generally present the religion as the journey of every person to attain spiritual balance and, eventually, become one with the gods in the afterlife. Those individuals who pursue acts that bring peace and harmony to the land are thus closer to the gods. Those who contribute to violence, chaos, and pain will be abandoned to those gods and other metaphysical forces that regard "mercy" as a foreign concept. The concept of rebirth in Maatic tradition is present but debated, but it is generally acknowledged that no person retains memory of what could be termed "past lives" as their immortal soul drifts towards one ultimate fate or another.
Overview
Given its extreme age, Maatism also brings a complex cosmological system centered on the concept of spiritual and physical balance, continutity, and the maintenance of order within the seen and unseen universe. Many continuously surviving traditions from its earliest days as an organized religion include ritual practices, astronomical & astrological observations, political & dynastic legitimacy, moral philosophy, governance, and worldviews shaped by thousands of years shaped by slow tradition and change.
Maatism's emphasis on balance is partially derived from thousands of years of existence in a deeply contrasting Karnaki landscape. Karnak's geography is highly contrasted between the well-watered, verdant coastal regions and the deep desert where few can survive without a lifetime of preparation for the elements. The desert and well-watered regions of Karnak shift with time, and the second millennium AN have seen the deep desert retreat inland from the interior mountain ranges that protect much of the green parts of the country. During the early days of Maatism, however, most of Karnak was covered in deep sandy desert, with only a few river systems. Common belief holds that adherence to the religion was one of the causes of this re-balancing of the land in humanity's favor, and archaeological evidence has pointed to a shift that did begin a few centuries after the religion as established near present-day Abyd'os.
Maatic tradition retains a mixture of symbolic, personal, and non-personal (and even non-sentient) gods and other mythological entities. While the nature of this pantheon's composition and membership (for lack of a better word) is a matter of intense debate, the core concept of the religion is as established as it is old. That is, the central concept of Maatism is Maat itself. Maat is no longer understood not as an individualized or personified deity, but as the underlying order governing existence, binding mortals, rulers, nature, and even the gods themselves into a fragile but necessary equilibrium. Maat itself is still revered, however, among most Maatic temples.
Nature of the Gods
Physical and Non-Physical Aspects
Maatic tradition retains a mixture of symbolic, personal, and non-personal (and even non-sentient) gods and other mythological entities. Over the millennia of its existence, some early gods underwent a slow shift into non-personified manifestations of universal principles rather than strictly personified beings in the conventional sense. While these so-called "conceptual gods" do indeed exist at the center of this religion, they are not identified as anything regarded as "human" on present-day Micras. And indeed, neither are they considered to be alien (extraterrestrial) in origin (outside of a fringe, new-age minority). Personhood is sometimes assigned to these gods by some adherents, but most organized temples instead acknowledge the so-called "mystery of their existence" and deliberately avoid questioning the individualistic nature of certain gods.
However, other gods such Heru-Er (a falcon-headed god) and Saqqara (a lion-headed goddess) are individualized and personified, and indeed focus on specific concepts such as leadership and vigilance (Heru-Er), or justice and righteous violence (Saqqara). Fully animalistic gods such as Apis (a bull) or Mau (a cat) are revered by some Maatists for the benefits they bring to society, but the sacred nature of the physical animals themselves is usually left to the individual adherent. A number of fully humanized gods exist, such as Asar (creation and rebirth) and Heru (righteousness and balance).
Divine concepts are central to the maintenance of the immortal soul, and certain concepts such as Maat are considered to be worthy of reverence as if it were a deity to itself. Gods such as Pophis that represent the endless void are specifically revered as deities, but are at once disembodied and untouchable. Yet while Pophis lacks anything resembling a conventional form or even a distinct personality (at least in a human sense), these gods affect the fate of one's soul if (very unwisely) ignored. Such gods that are similarly amorphous and mysterious by nature are attended to by organized cults (so-called "High Maatism"), while looser adherents (so-called "Low Maatism") treat them as concepts and instead focus on personified deities as objects of worship.
Reverence for Maat
Regardless of whether one is High or Low Maatist, the concept of Maat itself is universally revered as the central binding tenet of this religion. Every aspect of divine worship and preparation for the afterlife is measured by one's contributions to Maat -- and transgressions against it. While Maat is no longer a specific "god" to be prayed to, it is revered and sometimes worshipped directly as the primordial force responsible for the existence of life, the movement of the immortal soul, and the instrument by which one is both judged and brought closer to the gods in the afterlife. Extremely rarely, one who is deemed to contribute greatly to Maat is themselves deified and retains their personhood, rather than absorbed into the divine (itself a truly great honor). Pschent Masaak IV (died c. -2500 AN is one such example of a gradual deification.
Creation Myth
Atarum Begets Itself
Long before the existence of the physical or spiritual universe, Maatic tradition holds that there was only an endless, silent, and horizonless void known as Nu-Er. There was no concept of order, chaos, or movement within this endless domain. For eternity, the void continued as such. Within the depths of before-time unknown even to the gods themselves, there eventually rose from the stillness of this void over the course of eons the one known in present-day cosmology as Atarum, or the First Consciousness. As this consciousness grew, it became aware of itself and thus aware of the concept of existence. Thus, the first primordial being was born, and in this birth Atarum grew aware of the great, endless emptiness as well. The oldest traditions of Maatism hold that there was no balance, continuity, life, or memory within this being for many more eons. Neither did the concept of "personhood" exist, or the notion of greater or lesser.
In the void and by itself, the being became aware of its own isolation, and its first emotion was loneliness. There was nothing with which Atarum could name itself to, nothing to grow its consciousness with. As the eons passed, Atarum learned the secrets of existence and so begat the primordial gods Maat and Pophis, the former which gives its name to the Karnak national religion. These gods of order and motion could not find balance within themselves, however. They were aware, just as Atarum was aware, and in growing into their own awareness knew that there was no order or motion in the endless void.
Maatist tradition holds that Atarum begat a new form of awareness, that balance, motion, life, memory, continuity, and all other aspects of existence could never occur unless there was a fabric in which to house these things. And neither could a single and undivided existence achieve these either. Neither could Maat and Pophis create or beget in their own right within the endless void, for they understood no more than Atarum did, and they did not understand the concept of personhood like Atarum did. And so the three beings rested in the endless void until Atarum finally created Light, in the form of the primordial god Re-Mun.
Atarum's Great Sacrifice
The creation of light in the endless void roused Maat and Pophis into a state of awarness, and they moved towards the light. It lacked personhood or awareness. Atarum had never done something such as a personless creation, and the actions of its begotten in moving towards the light triggered a new existence: Re-Mun, the spirit of boundless light which understood the endless primordial darkness. Unlike its predecessors, Re-Mun's understanding of the darkness gave rise to awareness only Atarum had before felt: the endless loneliness of the cosmos. But Re-Mun was a spirit of light and could not reconcile with Maat or Pophis, each moving according to their nature and unaware of their own selves and unable to voice their desire of newness.
Atarum wished for its begotten offspring to live beyond the endless emptiness that even the First Consciousness could not overcome. Atarum wanted personhood for its begotten, and yet could not create existence for them out of nothing. Atarum wanted to beget creations with their own personhood, and witnessed Re-Mun's vain attempt to bring anything permanent into being, for light is a brief, fragile, and ultimately fickle creation. Among them, only Atarum understood form and substance, for Re-Mun could not express this, while both Maat and Pophis rested idly in emptiness, unable to express their own existence or influence Re-Mun's boundless-but-formless light.
Atarum came to understand that balance, life, memory, and continuity could never arise within a singular and undivided existence. Atarum thus decided to beget the universe from its own form, with the aid of Re-Mun. Surrendering its own physical form, consciousness, and its very soul, Atarum divided itself endlessly. In the actions of these endless divisions, there arose a physical cosmos with motes of Atarum's being scattered into the endless void. Endless in form and illuminated by Re-Mun's boundless light, the Universe of Atarum begat the first stars. Light was given form and darkness was cast asunder from the light. From this division, the physical universe emerged and Maat and Pophis awakened.
They moved into the universe and inhabited it, part of the universe yet eternally separate from Atarum's creation and Re-Mun's light. But in their awareness came strife, for the act of creation was perfect but the primordial forces endlessly fought over the universe created by their progenitor's great sacrifice. Yet this conflict gave rise to motion in the universe, and balance in its motion. Thus, the other gods were begotten in the light of Re-Mun and the chaotic yet precise motion of Maat and Pophis. Deities such as Setekh rose during the earliest days from fragments of Atarum, and emodied destruction, disorder, and collapse. Other gods rose from motes of Atarum to counter these, or bring their own forms of awareness to the universe.
Theological Implications
Unlike the gods of the Maatic pantheon that came after the so-called "primordial beings," Atarum is not presented as a sentient or personified being in the conventional sense. No mote of Atarum that understands its own original existence remains within the cosmos, although new gods may give rise from these motes. More rarely still, beings that contribute greatly towards Maat may prove themselves as divine and thus achieve godhood (of a sort) in the afterlife created by the gods that followed the creation of the cosmos by Atarum's self-sacrifice.
Atarum represents the living universe itself, as fragments dispersed throughout existence. The stars in the faraway cosmos, the mountains, the rivers, contain fragments of Atarum's physical essence. And living beings, including gods, humans, animals, and other spiritual or physical beings, are also understood to contain traces of the universal god's original divine essence. For this reason, Atarum is not worshipped like most other gods, or as an active ruler. Rather, Atarum is the totality from which all existence was begotten. Atarum is everywhere, one being but infinitely divided for the sake of its creation. While some Low Maatic traditions continue to portray Atarum through symbolic imagery or humanized depictions to better understand it, organized High Maatic temple doctrine generally rejects the idea that the creator still exists as an individual being capable of thought, speech, or direct intervention in the material or spiritual plane. That, instead, is the prerogative of other gods, and Re-Mun is instead commonly worshipped as a chief god for his central place in the creation myth and active, self-aware existence simultaneously as part of the physical universe and apart from it.
The concept of the Great Sacrifice form one of the central, universal foundations of Maatism in Karnak. Existence itself was begotten in an act of selfless and divine sacrifice. And the universe itself is constantly in a state of motion, in a delicate balance between order and chaos, with the collapse of the universe possible if Pophis, far more active than Maat and aided by the powerful Setekh, decisively wins the contest. The preservation of balance and civilization is therefore considered a sacred obligation shared by gods, rulers, priests, and common people alike. Maatic tradition therefore teaches that Atarum’s sacrifice must not be wasted through neglect, corruption, passivity, or disorder, and that Maat must be aided at all times to achieve balance in the cosmos and harmony in the land.
The concept of Maat emerged as a primordial force that preserves creation from dissolution and fragmentation, while Setekh continuously seeks to use his own power and the power of Pophis's endless, random motion to unravel this balance through chaos, violence, decay, and moral collapse. Thus, it becomes a religious duty for both rulers and commoners to maintain justice, vigilance, righteousness, harmony, and prosperity in the land. These ensure stability not only for society, but the cosmos itself. Rulers and dynasties that weaken enough are said to allow Setekh's influence too much upon the land, leading to excessive drought when there should be rain, unrest, corruption, and eventual political collapse. Where rulers neglect their duties and allow the land to fall into chaos, this state of ruin lasts until a new Pschent is chosen by Heru-Er to restore balance to the land once more. Thus, the gods also dispose of old rulers as they age and wither and call them to the afterlife, and place new ones in their stead to maintain balance. And so the land of Karnak has persisted in this effort for thousands of years.
