Hostianism

While the Host Spirit is recognized across Micras, its primary domain is believed to be Keltia.

Hostianism, also known as Hostianity or the Hostian Mysterism, is a family of related religious traditions centered on the veneration of the Host Spirit and on the relationship between the universal forces of order, chaos, and mystery. Hostian belief systems understand the Host Spirit as the architect of the cosmos and patron of commerce, whose dreams sustain the existence of the Pallisican and Bassarid peoples. In contemporary usage, Hostianism usually refers to four major traditions: the Pallisican Religion, the Stripping Path, the religion of Alperkin, and the Reformed Stripping Path. Together, these forms of worship define the dominant religious culture of the Haifo-Pallisican sphere and much of eastern Keltia, while also influencing a broader constellation of Hostian societies grouped under the Bassarid Periphery.

History

It is well documented that during the Hammish Civil War, followers of the Hostian Pallisican Religion provided material support to the extremist organization known National Salvation Front.

Modern Hostian thought traces its origins to the late 28.30s PSSC, when early Pallisican doctrines were first systematized in the essay On the Pallisican Religion. These writings articulated the Triality of Oversouls—order, chaos, and mystery—as the fundamental forces through which the Host Spirit shapes creation, and they provided the ideological framework for Pallisican nationalism. During the subsequent decades, Hostian belief supported the rise of key Pallisican polities, including the Kingdom of New Zimia, Passio-Corum, and the Maritime Markets of the Strait of Haifa. In these states, devotion to the Host Spirit was closely bound up with mercantile expansion, maritime trade, and the consolidation of political power along the Strait of Haifa.

At the same time, Hostian investors, cults, and merchant houses became notorious for backing radical movements and private military ventures. During conflicts such as the Hammish Civil War and later crises in Keltia, Hostian-aligned financiers and priesthoods were implicated in funding extremist organizations and pirate fleets, especially those associated with the Alliance of the Bassarid Oceans. This dual legacy—state-building and subversion—has remained a defining feature of the faith’s political reputation.

In the 36.80s PSSC, the major Hostian traditions were drawn together under the political and economic structure of the Haifo-Pallisican Imperial Trade Union. Within this framework, Hostianism spread rapidly across Keltia, Corum, Eura, and southern Apollonia, as the Imperial Trade Union, its successor entities, and the wider Bassarid trading sphere established colonies, protectorates, and commercial enclaves. By the early 40s PSSC, Hostian belief systems formed the single most influential religious bloc in the eastern hemisphere.

The collapse of the old imperial order and the emergence of Bassaridia Vaeringheim did not end Hostian influence. Rather, Hostian theology and cult practice were re-organized through institutions such as the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path, the Council of Kings, and the shrine network centered on Lake Morovia. In this new configuration, the Reformed Stripping Path became the leading doctrinal expression of Hostianism, while older Pallisican and Stripping Path traditions continued to flourish in the wider Bassarid world.

Hostianism’s political and moral reputation remains sharply contested. In many nations, the role of Hostian actors in the War of Lost Brothers and the Haifan Civil War is cited as evidence that the faith encourages dangerous forms of religiously motivated violence and economic subversion. Some states have formally criminalized Hostian worship or membership in Hostian organizations; notable among these is the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie, whose Succession to the Throne Act, 1700 lists Hostianism and related Bassarid religions among proscribed faiths. Elsewhere, Hostian practice is tolerated under strict scrutiny, or survives through expatriate communities and discrete commercial enclaves.

Within the Bassarid sphere itself, however, Hostianism is widely credited with inspiring a high degree of scientific, political, artistic, and economic innovation. Devotees argue that the Host Spirit’s emphasis on risk, trade, and adaptation has driven the dynamism of Bassaridian civilization across the Micrasian east.

Beliefs

While specific depictions may vary in character and detail. the Host Spirit is almost always depicted as a woman with glowing blue skin, with flowing blue or black wearing a conical, feathered crown. Sometimes it is depicted as being naked, other times it is clothed. It is always depicted as sitting with its legs crossed, and its arms - whether two or four - extended outwards in greeting, or folded in contemplation.

Hostian traditions share several core convictions, even where their myths and ritual forms differ.

The Host Spirit

Across Hostian systems, the Host Spirit is revered as the cosmic architect and patron of commerce, thieves, spies, and all who operate along the edges of lawful order. It is not usually described as a god in the conventional sense, but as a creator and sustaining principle that exists between the plane of the gods and the plane of created reality. The Pallisican people, their culture, and later the Bassarid nations are understood to have arisen from the Host Spirit’s dreams and designs. Iconography varies, but the Host Spirit is commonly portrayed as a luminous, blue-skinned figure crowned with feathers or horns, seated cross-legged with arms extended in greeting or folded in contemplation. The ambiguity of these depictions reflects the Spirit’s position above conventional categories such as gender and species.

Different traditions place the Host Spirit differently within their cosmologies. In the Pallisican Religion, the Host Spirit is a largely neutral, distant architect whose concern is the broad evolution and survival of the Pallisican peoples, rather than the daily petitions of individuals. In the Stripping Path, the Host Spirit is acknowledged but subordinated to the worship of Dionysus and other gods, and is regarded as a dark, often unsettling patron of chaos and tragic insight, whose dreams underwrite the lawlessness and excess characteristic of Bassarid pirate culture. In Alperkin Hostianism, the Host Spirit is situated among the High and Dark Alps (the highest spiritual principles), sometimes slightly above them, sometimes slightly below, depending on the school of interpretation. In the Reformed Stripping Path, the Host Spirit is re-centered as the sustaining dream behind Bassaridian civilization itself, with Bassaridia Vaeringheim described as “the realm within the Host’s waking dream” and the gods and goddesses treated as manifestations of specific virtues and forces within that larger dreamscape.

Despite these differences, most Hostian traditions agree that the Host Spirit is ultimately concerned with balance between order, chaos, and mystery, and that it expresses itself through trade, risk, revelation, and the endurance of the Bassarid peoples.

Oracle

The Oracle (or Chief Moniker) is the most eminent mortal figure associated with the Host Spirit. In classical Pallisican thought, the Oracle is a single individual—traditionally the holder of the Crown of Passio-Corum—who embodies or channels the Host Spirit’s will and possesses privileged insight into its dreams. This relationship is described as the Oracle Mandate, and is believed to involve visionary experiences, dream-encounters, and the performance of miracles or decisive teachings. In practice, the office of Oracle has been historically opaque and politically fraught. The New Zimian Temple Authority has generally insisted that only one Oracle can exist at a time, while popular belief has often entertained the existence of multiple Oracles, openly or in secret, especially during periods of crisis or contested succession. The tenure of Kan Zen and the later reign of Crown Díapaza Bréidle gave rise to speculation about hidden Oracles and clandestine covenants with the Host Spirit, contributing to the mystique and controversy that still surround the office.

In the Reformed Stripping Path, the function once attributed solely to the Oracle is now partially redistributed across institutions such as the Council of Kings, the Temple Bank, and the Council of Dream Keepers. Nonetheless, the idea of the Oracle as the Host Spirit’s chosen voice remains deeply embedded in Hostian folklore and political theology.

The Hostlands

The waters surrounding the ruins of Krey'Akusu are said to bubble in anticipation of the arrival of the Host Spirit. Scientists, however, believe that the bubbling is an as-of-yet unknown physical phenomenon which corresponds to the movement of storms through the region.

Hostlands are specific regions, cities, or landscapes revered as places where the Host Spirit is believed to manifest with particular clarity or frequency. They are recognized primarily within the Pallisican Religion and older Bassarid traditions, and are formally catalogued by the New Zimian Temple Authority. Among the best-known Hostlands are the Afrikaanian Woodlands of northern Corum, where the Host Spirit is said to appear as a young, beardless wanderer accompanied by the fearsome beast Caztáigs Danaß; the Gulf of Zinjibar and the waters around the Krey'akusu Archipelago, where the Host Spirit may be glimpsed as a woman riding in a chariot drawn by satyrs and pulled by golden Arslahni horses; the city of Agripinilla, long associated with public apparitions of the Host Spirit and its retinue during biannual festivals in honor of Dionysus and other deities of the Stripping Path; Normaria, capital of the Iron Cult of Leng, where the Host Spirit visits the Black Cathedral to acknowledge the Haunter of the Dark, a terrifying cosmic entity held in uneasy containment; Shiprock, a distinctive mountain north of Newvillage, believed to be the meeting place between the Host Spirit and its rarely named feminine counterpart; the swamp-ringed environs of Somniumpolis and the surrounding districts of Bassaridia Vaeringheim, where the Spirit is variously perceived as the pirate known as the Bull Roarer or as the monstrous Adlet that haunts the approaches to Erythros; and Thermosalem, the most recently recognized Hostland, where the Spirit is said to be encountered in its most unassuming guise as a quiet visitor to the city’s hot springs.

The village of Bassaria, in the Abeisan Archipelago, is regarded by many as a Hostland, although it isn't formally recognized as such.

Hostlands are sites of pilgrimage and ritual, where practitioners seek blessings, visions, and sometimes curses upon enemies. Theologians disagree about whether these apparitions are literal or symbolic: some argue that the Host Spirit never directly enters the created world, others that it acts only through intermediaries such as Oracles and cultic figures, and still others that it may occasionally manifest in a restricted, incarnate form. Popular devotion typically assumes that the Host Spirit can appear at will, with the Hostlands as its preferred thresholds.

Dream Spaces in Bassaridia Vaeringheim

The Dream Spaces of Erythros (above) and Somniumpolis (below) are regarded as the most sacred of all Dream Spaces, for the reason that the Host Spirit is believed to manifest most frequently and tangibly in these two cities.

Within Bassaridia Vaeringheim, Hostian geography has been elaborated into a network of Dream Spaces—sacred precincts found in every major city that serve as focal points for communion with the Host Spirit. Whereas temples and shrines of the Reformed Stripping Path are dedicated to individual divines such as Thalassa or Chrysos, Dream Spaces are reserved for the Spirit itself and are treated as the physical anchors of its dreaming presence. Each Dream Space is designed to harmonize with its local setting. In Erythros, the Dream Space combines Haifan-inspired arches, autumnal gardens, and a reflecting pool watched over by a totem of the Archigós, a fearsome adlet-like manifestation of the Host Spirit. In Somniumpolis, the Dream Space is woven into swamp canals, lantern-lit walkways, and floating offerings that drift through mist. In Luminaria, dream architecture emphasizes dawn light, underground chambers, and mirrored surfaces tied to the cults of Eos and Tarsica.

Rituals in Dream Spaces typically involve meditation, offerings of food or crafted objects, and silent contemplation of water, mirrors, or abstract sculptures meant to evoke the Host Spirit’s dreamscape. In addition to their devotional role, Dream Spaces function as sites of social stabilization: they host reconciliation rites, civic oaths, and ceremonies of remembrance, and in modern Bassaridian public health practice they also serve as places of psychological grounding during crises or outbreaks.

Ecology and the Host Spirit

The Strait of Haifa, long regarded as the primary setting of the Host Spirit's dream, is home to a broader variety of unique plant and animal life, than anywhere else on Micras.

Hostian cosmology does not treat landscapes and ecosystems as neutral backdrops, but as direct expressions of the Host Spirit’s dream. In Hostian writing on Keltia and Corum, biomes, currents, and even evolutionary oddities are read as “script” – patterned traces of the Spirit’s ongoing act of imagination. In recognised Hostlands and Bassaridian Dream Spaces, the Spirit is held to be unusually “awake”, and the result, according to Hostian commentators, is an extraordinarily dense and eccentric variety of lifeforms that appears nowhere else on Micras.

Ecological syntheses around the Haifan rift emphasize that this “overwritten” quality of nature is most visible along the lakes and straits where Hostian religion first crystallised. In and around Lake Morovia and the Strait of Haifa, the mixture of semi-poisonous shrubs such as Noctic-Rabrev, vampiric macrofauna like the Alfen, parasitic spirits such as the Morovian Wisps, and large charismatic vertebrates including the Morovian Sasquatch, Morovian Water Buffalo, and Bulhanu’s Sea Cow is treated in Hostian literature as a textbook example of the Spirit’s restless inventiveness. Temple naturalists and shrine communities in cities such as Vaeringheim, Somniumpolis, and Luminaria, and in the forests and wetlands surrounding them, describe these regions as places where “life runs away with itself” under the Host Spirit’s gaze, even as they document the same assemblages in increasingly technical ecological terms.

A comparable Hostian reading has developed for Corum. The bewildering concentration of unusual taxa catalogued here – including insect-coded species such as Alel-Hial-Eda and Niha-Hial-Nas, amphibious lineages like Imab-Adred-Nas, and shrub and tree complexes grouped under various Rabrev and Fiota forms – is interpreted as proof that the Host Spirit dreams with particular intensity along the Corumian fault-bands and lacustrine basins. Corumian Hostianism often speaks of “layered dreams”, in which successive climatic eras and political orders leave behind overlapping halos of flora and fauna. In this view, endemic species function as mnemonic devices through which the Spirit remembers former configurations of the world, and the sheer variety of life is itself treated as a theological datum.

Strikingly, the claim that these Hostian heartlands harbour an unusually diverse and anomalous biology is not confined to Hostian sources. Foreign analysts, particularly the Defence Against Anomalous Phenomena of the Raspur Pact, classify Corum and Keltia as Ecological Nexus 001 (Corum) and Ecological Nexus 002 (Keltia), treating them as persistent “ecological nexuses” distinct from ordinary environments on account of their concentration and churn of unusual lifeforms. DAAP’s watch lists and extramicrasian-contact dossiers, compiled on behalf of states such as the Benacian Union, Constancia, Natopia, and Nouvelle Alexandrie, effectively constitute an external survey of Hostian lands that echoes Hostian claims about the singularity of their ecologies, even when framed in the neutral language of threat assessment and containment.

In practice, this ecological theology shapes policy and everyday land use. Sacred-site protections, Dream-Space zoning, and shrine ordinances in lakeside and strait-side cities tie resource management to liturgy: controlled harvesting and burning of Noctic-Rabrev, seasonal limits on hunting keystone megafauna, and ritual taboos around wisp-haunted forests or deep Morovian channels all function as de facto conservation regimes. In Corum, similar patterns appear in Hostian communities that treat dense Rabrev thickets or ancient Fiota groves as living sanctuaries; access is restricted by custom and oath rather than by formal statute, but the ecological result is comparable. Hostianism thus links the veneration of the Host Spirit to concrete ecological outcomes, and the remarkable biodiversity of Keltian and Corumian Hostlands becomes both a proof of doctrine and a moral obligation to steward what the Spirit is still actively dreaming into being.

Host Stars

While different Hostian traditions may recognize their own Host Stars, there are roughly 50 which are recognized across most belief systems. Around twenty-six of these are visible in the Northern Hemisphere, while around 24 are visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

Among the most important of all Host Stars is Azos, the Star of the Unkown Hosts. Despite its name, Azos is not actually a star, but a nearby galaxy which extends across roughly one-third of the night sky in the Northern Hemisphere.

Host Stars are prominent stars (and a few other celestial objects) honored within Hostian cosmology as markers and channels of the Host Spirit’s influence. They are understood as luminous signposts placed in the sky to remind the Pallisican and Bassarid peoples of the Spirit’s power and ongoing governance of the cosmos. Traditional lists vary, but most Hostian schools recognize several dozen Host Stars, divided between the northern and southern hemispheres. They are usually among the brightest points in the sky, many of which remain faintly visible even in daylight. Some Host Stars are, in fact, galaxies or unusual stellar phenomena: the best-known example is Azos, a vast galaxy dominating a third of the northern night sky and revered as the Star of the Unknown Hosts.

Host Stars are associated with specific virtues, dangers, trades, or life events. Sailors may address prayers and libations to a maritime Host Star before crossing a perilous sea lane, while lovers, exiles, or conspirators call upon stars linked to reconciliation, escape, or cunning. In the Reformed Stripping Path, Host Stars are also integrated into the Bassaridian Zodiac, where each sign is bound to one or more stars that shape the character of its month and associated festivals. Informal household devotion to Host Stars is widespread: offerings are left at windowsills or rooftop shrines, short prayers are muttered during eclipses and conjunctions, and significant contracts or journeys are often timed to favorable stellar alignments.

Bride of the Host Spirit

Shrines to the Bride of the Host Spirit often feature symbolic vessels, braided cords, or empty veils—representing her role as a channel, mediator, and stabilizing force.

The Bride of the Host Spirit is a key theological figure in later Hostian thought, especially in the Reformed Stripping Path. She is not regarded as a distinct deity or historical person, but as a sacred archetype expressing the Host Spirit’s decision to bind its own power to care, continuity, and mutuality. Doctrinally, the Bride represents the tempering principle within the Host’s dream: without her, the Spirit “dreams without pattern,” producing only flux and upheaval; with her, those dreams crystallize into durable social orders, institutions, and relationships. She is thus the embodiment of covenant, trust, and relational stability under Hostian authority.

Ritually, the union of the Host Spirit and the Bride is acknowledged in major Dream-Space ceremonies, particularly in Somniumpolis, Luminaria, and Thermosalem. Participants offer braided cords, paired vessels, or woven cloth to symbolize reciprocity and shared obligation, and the Bride is invoked in oaths concerning marriage, trade alliances, and military allegiance. The Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path has codified her role in texts such as the Compendium of Balancing Forces and the Declaration on Sacred Balance, which interpret the Bride as the Spirit’s self-binding in favor of creation.

Different Hostian traditions interpret the Bride in distinct ways. Alperkin theologians sometimes identify her with the Snow-Veiled Principle (Calir-Eni), a metaphysical “distance” that slows the translation of dreams into matter, allowing reflection and restraint. Certain Stripping Path sects in Normark and the Valley of Diamonds stage passion plays in which the Bride appears as a bound figure who willingly bears the burden of the Host’s power to keep the world from collapsing—a dramatization that has sparked debate over the balance between mutual agency and sacrificial suffering. Shrines dedicated to the Bride emphasize symmetry, weaving, and paired forms rather than the mirrors and waters associated with the Host Spirit itself. Annual rituals such as the Binding of the Cords in Erythros celebrate her as the guarantor of enduring relationships in both private and civic life.

The Coryphaeus

Several temples across Bassaridia Vaeringheim maintain chambers known as Ordinaria, where important decisions are said to be made in the presence of the Coryphaeus.

The Coryphaeus is a theological concept that describes a particular mode of the Host Spirit’s action: the moment when divine will is expressed as clarity, structure, and ordered speech. Rather than being a separate being, the Coryphaeus is the Host Spirit acting through articulation—especially in the drafting of liturgy, law, and doctrinal texts. The Reformed Stripping Path uses the term in connection with scriptural commentaries, temple ordinances, and the work of scribal councils. When scholars speak of “seeking the Coryphaeus,” they refer to the disciplined process of aligning human thought and language with what is believed to be the Spirit’s pre-existing wisdom. The Coryphaeus neither originates revelation nor resides permanently in any individual; instead, it is invoked collectively whenever communities attempt to clarify, codify, or reform their religious life.

Some traditions loosely identify the Coryphaeus with aspects of the Oracle, while others—particularly Alperkin schools—treat it as one of several “Voicings” (Tith-Mörah) through which the Host Spirit shapes reality. In Bassaridia Vaeringheim, the concept has been formalized in documents such as the Lexicon of Divine Action and is symbolized architecturally by abstract installations or nameless inscribed plinths in Dream Spaces. Private chambers known as Ordinaria are maintained in several major temples, where councils meet in ritual silence before undertaking revisions to liturgy or law. These sessions are said to be held “in the presence of the Coryphaeus,” acknowledging the Spirit’s role in bringing coherence to human institutions.

Liturgy

Liturgy of the Host Spirit

The Liturgy of the Host Spirit is the central Hostian rite in Bassaridia Vaeringheim, performed regularly in Dream Spaces throughout the country. It is designed to align participants with the Host Spirit’s dream and to reinforce the spiritual unity of Bassaridian society. While details vary from city to city, the liturgy is commonly described in four movements: Invocation, Reverence, Communion, and Release.

Invocation

The liturgy opens in silence as worshipers gather around a focal feature of the Dream Space, such as a reflecting pool, totem, or geometric installation. A presiding Dream Keeper lights ceremonial lanterns or lamps whose designs echo local architecture and cult symbolism. Verses recalling the Host Spirit’s creation of the Pallisican and Bassarid peoples, and its guardianship over trade and dreams, are chanted in rhythmic cadences. Bells or chimes mark the transition from ordinary time into the liturgical interval.

Reverence

During the Reverence phase, participants approach the center of the Dream Space to offer gifts such as seasonal produce, crafted objects, written prayers, or symbolic tokens representing recent risks, journeys, or reconciliations. The Dream Keeper leads a hymn or responsorial chant, and its melody and imagery are typically tailored to the city’s character. In Somniumpolis, the hymn may emphasize waters, reeds, and marsh-light, while in Erythros it commonly invokes the strength and vigilance of the Archigós. The reflecting pool, mirror, or totem is treated as a window into the Host Spirit’s dreamscape, and worshipers gaze into these surfaces seeking personal or communal insight, trusting that the Spirit’s attention rests on those who dare to look back.

Communion

Communion is the contemplative heart of the ceremony. Participants sit or stand in concentric arrangements while the Dream Keeper recounts allegories and parables said to arise from the Host Spirit’s dreaming—stories of merchants, pilgrims, divines, or distant conflicts, adapted to the city’s concerns. Guided meditation, controlled breathing, and periods of shared silence are used to foster a sense of immersion in the Spirit’s ongoing dream. In some Dream Spaces, subtle music, incense, or controlled lighting changes accompany this phase, underscoring the sense of liminality. The aim is not trance for its own sake, but a felt awareness of being sustained within a larger, purposeful pattern of events.

Release

The final movement returns participants to ordinary life without severing their connection to the Host Spirit. The Dream Keeper extinguishes the lanterns, leaving only ambient light. A basin or vessel of blessed water is passed or approached individually, and each participant drinks or touches the water as a sign of renewed unity, resilience, and shared responsibility. A closing hymn—often brisker and more outward-facing than earlier chants—frames daily labor, trade, and political duties as extensions of the liturgy. Small tokens such as flowers, carved charms, or vials of water may be distributed as tangible reminders of the Spirit’s presence.

Cultural Role and Adaptation

The Liturgy of the Host Spirit is a core expression of Bassaridian identity. It is distinct from the rites directed to specific divines of the Reformed Stripping Path, but complements them by anchoring all cults and cities in a single sustaining source. Civic authorities, the War League, and the Temple Bank all participate in or sponsor public liturgies during major festivals, constitutional commemorations, and moments of crisis. Shortened forms of the liturgy are performed during market days, port blessings, and festival eves, allowing broad participation without disrupting economic life. In recent years, Dream Spaces have also hosted versions of the liturgy specifically adapted for healing, grief, and mental stabilization during epidemics or disasters, in cooperation with orders such as Temple Aprobelle and the Pharmacon Sect.

Distribution and Statistics

Precise demographic figures for Hostianism are difficult to establish, in part because Hostian beliefs are often layered with or expressed through local cults and civic rites. Broadly speaking, the Pallisican Religion and the Stripping Path remain dominant across the historic Haifo-Pallisican world, especially along the Strait of Haifa and in former imperial territories on Keltia, Corum, and Eura. The Reformed Stripping Path, centered in Bassaridia Vaeringheim, is the most institutionally unified Hostian tradition, providing a common doctrinal framework for the Council of Kings, the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path, the War League, and the modern shrine system. Alperkin Hostianism is practiced primarily in Alperkin and its diaspora communities, where it forms the backbone of Alpine religious and philosophical culture. Peripheral or semi-autonomous Hostian societies— historically including Alperkin, the Iron Cult of Leng, the Alliance of the Bassarid Oceans, and the Corumian Underground—are collectively described as the Bassarid Periphery, a term that reflects their strong Hostian identity outside the direct governance of the Bassarid core.

Outside the Bassarid sphere, Hostianism is present wherever Bassarid merchants, pirates, and expatriates have settled, particularly in port cities and trade hubs. In some nations it enjoys full legal protection; in others it is tolerated with restrictions or kept to private enclaves; and in a minority of states it is formally banned as a subversive or dangerous faith. Despite such constraints, Hostianism remains one of the most influential religious formations on Micras, shaping not only the internal culture of the Bassarids but also the diplomacy, commerce, and conflicts of the wider world.