Demon worship
Demon worship, or demonism, is the belief that demons can have a positive effect on a person's life or the welfare of a community. As a faith system, it is persecuted across many nations on Micras. Many demon worshippers flee their native countries and birth families and congregate in new, self-chosen families. It is the official religion of the Community of Goetia. Many Goetic demonists hold a humanist viewpoint in their faith, placing special importance on fierce individualism, religious freedom, hedonism, seeking goodness and beauty, and focusing on improving life as it is rather than a morbid fascination with the afterlife or unseen gods.
Demons can be found in almost all Micran faith systems, from Cedrism, to Bovinism. Not all Goetics worship the same demons, but all Goetics are united in their worship of demonic beings and as a result, being outcasts in their nations of birth. This brings them together in fellowship, both as a local community and as a worldwide brother- and sisterhood.
Many Goetics follow demons from the Cedrist tradition, who physically reside in Goetia with their queen, Kizzy Drakland. These Cedrist daemons were minor spirits exorcised from Demonsfall, a city in Shireroth believed to be founded on the site of the gates of hell. Using the Sword of Fire, Kizzy Drakland removed several of these demons and took them with her to Malarboria. Kizzy compiled the profiles of these demons in the Grimoindr, which lists the demons' powers and how a demonist may pledge themselves to gain the demon's favor. Her close friendship with the Kaiser Ayreon IV allowed her to keep her demonic realm, which was clearly against anti-daemonic laws. After a few years, uprisings, instability, and continued Imperial intolerance to her demons saw her forcefully exiled. In exchange for surrendering the Sword of Fire, she and the demons she exorcised from Demonsfall were allowed to leave Shireroth, and migrated to Cibola and settled in Goetia.
As a faith system forced to grow in hiding, demon worship is a deeply personal religion. There are very few universal practices or rites. Among the Goetics, each Family has adopted their own traditions and rituals. The Cliffbase CF dress themselves in animal skins, acting the parts of dogs, cats, bears, dragons, and snakes to link themselves to spirits of those animals. The Saints CF practice ritual binding, in serene and methodical environments, to remind themselves of the persecution they faced. The Navigators CF tie themselves to a large ship's wheel and flog each other until they experience demonic visions (or faint).
Demonists in other countries have their own traditions. Natopian demonists, neo-Helions, have adopted the beliefs of the extinct Elion-Ant'elion 'tribe' of central Klaasiya. They practice a symbolic form of cannibalism, mimicking the original Helions' actual cannibalism. The neo-Helions worship T'son the Undying Demon, the Blood Gutton, by tearing apart bags of fermented juice over human-shaped bagels, and praying for T'son to transform the bread into flesh and the juice into blood before ritually dismembering the bagel person and devouring it.
Old Ways and the New Way
A division between demon worshipers in Goetia has arisen in recent months due to the influx of demonists from the rest of Micras. Goetics have been forced to re-evaluate the Community and either embrace a wider definition of demonism to make space for marginalized demon worshipers, or begin to exclude certain groups of demonists. The Conference of Cycle Families has formally accepted inclusion, referred to as The New Way, being New Guard, or new wave. The Saints CF was unregistered for its refusal to accept the new ways, and continue to embrace the old, close, narrow and toxic forms of demonism.
