Stripping Path
The Stripping Path is the most prominent of the religions of central Keltia. Although, the religion is most commonly practiced by the Haifan people who live and work within the borders of the Maritime Markets of the Strait of Haifa, the Stripping Path also enjoys a strong following the unaffiliated city-states along Strait of Haifa, as well as in the formerly independent Hammish territory of the Free State of Haifa.
Beliefs
To the extent that it recognizes the Triality of the Oversouls, or the relationship between the universal forces of order, chaos, and mystery, the Stripping Path is regarded by most scholars as a variant of the Pallisican Religion. It is not, however, regarded as a branch of the Pallisican Religion, for the primary reason that there is not within the Stripping Path a tradition which places an emphasis upon any notion of a struggle between the Universal Forces of order and chaos. In contrast to the religion of the Pallisican peoples, which promotes the destruction of chaos by means of the creation and preservation of order, the Stripping Path regards chaos as the supreme, indestructible, unavoidable governing force of the universe. Whereas in the Pallisican Religion, order is regarded as the absolute highest end, or the thing which most closely resembles the divinity which existed at the beginning of time, the Stripping Path regards the universal force of order as an ephemeral, illusory force, which in many ways serves to distract humanity, and other forms of life, from the actual order and nature of the universe. While the Pallisican Religion reveres the pursuit of order as the highest of all spiritual aims, the Stripping Path approaches the concept of order from a much different perspective, instead viewing it as an almost insidious illusion which prevents spiritual beings from finding meaning in a chaotic universe.
This difference in views relating to the exact nature of the Triality of Oversouls manifests most prominently in the fact that while the Pallisican Religion is an agnostic religion which does not formally recognize the existence of any particular god or set of gods, the Stripping Path is a theistic religion whose adherents worship Bacchus, an extra-Micrasian god who, the religion maintains, embodies the most prominent spirits of chaos: madness,intoxication, and violence. The worship of Dionysus is a fundamental component of the belief system of the Stripping Path; virtually all of the religions various ceremonies, rituals, and individual practices, honor each in their own way one of these three aspects of chaos, and are aimed at cultivating a relationship between practitioners of the religion and Dionysus. The worship of Dionysus is the element of the Stripping Path regarding which the authorities of the Pallisican Religion have historically expressed the greatest amount of aversion, even despite proclamations the Oracle Ruler, Opyeme Amor, that it was the Pallisican Host Spirit which ushered the worship of Dionysus into central Keltia.
