Avabism is an Eskandric prophetic-dualist monotheistic faith founded in Artian Cayat in 882 by a Cayatian Shazi prophet named Avab. Declared the Supreme Prophet, Avab of Cayat’s teachings written in the Zascas make up the core of Avabism. It teaches a dualistic cosmology describing a struggle between the good spiritual world led by the uncreated, benevolent, and all-knowing deity known as the Sealtiel (or the Godfather), and the evil material world corrupted by the demon-spirit Zinthrel. Avabists believe that the key to lifelong enlightenment is to seek and follow the former, doing so by adhering to the teachings and laws of the Supreme Prophet written down in the Zascas. Eschatologically, Avabism predicts Sealtiel’s ultimate triumph over evil, directly ruling over a human race finally free from the Zinthrel.
Avabism claims to be the complete, ultimate, uncorrupted revelation of Sealtiel, the Eskandric deity also worshipped in Shazism and Nelorism. Founded in 882 in a Shan Shazi Cayatian community known as Harbrat, Avab’s teachings intended to reform the Shaanti religion via “scriptural restoration”; that is, clearing out the Shazi teachings Avab deemed to be misinterpreted or outright invented by Shazi priests. He also intended to integrate what he deemed to be compatible from various prior belief systems, including Sarabism, Karrism, Myathic and Vagrumic Madulism, and ancient Arto-Wellenesian religion. Avabism views Avab of Cayat as the Supreme Prophet, succeeding Eskander (who is asserted to be a prophet, not the incarnation of the Sealtiel as Shazis believe). The Zascas are the primary holy scriptures of Avabism, revealed to Avab orally from 870 to 882 and written down by Avab and his son Zathgit between 882 and 900. They contain what are essentially rewritings of old Shazi scripture, accounts of Avab’s life and teachings, Avab’s commentaries of the old scripture, his martyrdom in Morev at the hands of the Artians, and eschatology.
Avab travelled all across the Artian Empire between the years of 882 to his death in 890. He travelled throughout Cayat, to Morev, to Eskandergret and even the Vicusian peninsula, founding temples and appointing prophets to each. He was arrested by the Artians three different times: the first time in 882 after he killed his son’s Artian captor and sentenced to be trampled by war mammoths, but he escaped by a miracle where he lifted the mammoths up Telekenesis before being let out. The second time, he was banished to the Vicusian peninsula for summoning thunder on a greedy Sabbatine governor’s mansion before forcibly giving his food reserves to starving Cayatian peasants. The third and final time, he was found by a caravan sent by the Shan Shazi patriarch, which turned him over to Morev where he was stoned in 890. Before he was executed, however, he appointed his followers as prophets, ordering them to spread his teachings as far and wide as possible, both to the Shazis and to non-Shazis. His execution in 890 is seen by many Avabists as a martyrdom for the Sealtiel.
Core Theology
The core theology of Avabism is outlined in the Zascaic creed outlined throughout the Zascas which every Avabist must adhere to.
Sealtiel and Zinthrel
Prophets
Avab
Eskander
Scriptures
Angels
Cosmology
End times
History
Avab and the First Followers (850 - 890)
The Avabist Revolution and Early Avabism (890 - 1000)
High Temple Era (1000 - 1594)
Modern era (1594 -)
Denominations
Zascaism
Main article: Zascaism
Zascaism believes that the Zascaic Temple is the rightful and proper continuation of Avab’s temple laid out in the Zascas, led communally by a Council of Prophets whose succession is dictated by prophetic succession and traces all the way back to Avab and the first followers. They asserts that the Zascas are the supreme law of the land, intended to not only govern, but to serve as a complete spiritual foundation for those who follow Avab. Zascaics usually hold that the role of teaching and interpretation of scripture belongs to the prophets alone, although significant reforms have been made to this doctrine, allowing laymen to read and interpret as well.
Up until the Possessionist Schism that occured in the 15th century, Zascaic thought was entirely dominated by the Zascaic Temple in Morev. Following its fall to the Fashis in 1594, once-unified Zascaic authority fractured into different temples and undercouncils; each with their own culture, nationality, and even theological interpretation. The Vicusian Zascaic Temple became the most dominant form of Zascaism post-Morev, with the Vicusian Council of Prophets (at that time the Undercouncil of Mogharbura) becoming the de facto authority for all Zascaism. In the 18th century, more rites distinct from Mogharbura reemerged in Pashed and even Morev itself, prompting the Thirteenth Conference of Morev in 1784 which reunified the Temple under a new constitution which established rites governed by each respective temple.
Zascaic Temple
Main article: Zascaic Temple
The Zascaic Temple of Avab is believed by Zascaics to be the direct and rightful successor of the first temple founded by Avab and the first followers. It is governed by the aforementioned Council of Prophets, with each seat succeeding via prophetic succession.
Old Zascaism
New Zascaism
Aemilism
Yothgarism
Zaphkenism
Main article: Zaphkenism
Zaphkenism believes that Avab’s temple should be led only by direct blood descendants of the Prophet Avab, known as the tau’Avabias. Led by one supreme prophet from the House of Avab, known as the Zaphken, Zaphkenists hold that the Zascas, while still extremely important to the faith, are only as equally important as templic and prophetic tradition.
Zaphkenism emerged via a series of disagreements between Avab’s followers during the Avabist Revolution. While Zaphkenism sees itself as the truest expression of Avabism, its theology can be traced to a group led by the Prophet Emar who argued for monarchical leadership as opposed to the collective leadership of the now-Zascaic Council of Prophets. The Emarites argued that, based on Avab’s divine blessing of his son Zathgit, that those who share blood with the Prophet should succeed him. However, after learning of Zathgit’s death at sea around 898, the Emarites rallied behind Avab’s younger brother Prophet Azalab. This led to the First Conference of Sabbate in 916, convened by Vaerod I of the newly-established Kevantine Empire. The conference ruled in favor of establishing collective leadership, a ruling which even Emar submitted to; but several of his followers did not. Two of which were Avab’s nephews: Hamin (son of Nechim) and Magiro (son of Azalab), who in 920 founded the Grand Zaphkenate, prompting the Sabbatine Schism which resulted in Hamin and Magiro fleeing Sabbate and then eventually the Kevantine Empire as a whole.
Hamin’s followers went west to Morev, to Lonarian plain, and Vicus. They established the Grand Zaphkenate of the West, creating small diasporic Avabist communities centuries before the Zascaics established a prescence there. After Hamin’s death in 929, the Western Grand Zaphkenate dissolved due to factional and theological differences among his descendants. Meanwhile, the Grand Zaphkenate of the East established by Magiro was founded in Shai’an in Yomora three years after the schism, a city extremely distant from Sabbate. Yomora converted to Zaphkenist Avabism in 930, and Magiro landed in Artian Wellenesia. Two centuries later, Wellenesia converted to Zaphkenism, and Magiro’s descendants live on as Zaphkens in Oirpolo.
Grand Zaphkenate of the East
Main article: Grand Zaphkenate of the East
The Grand Zaphkenate of the East is the largest Zaphkenist temple, and the historical and modern center of Zaphkenism. Like the Zascaic Temple, it operates as a communion of temples governed by prophets via the Supreme Council of Experts (analogous to the Zascaic Council of Prophets). Unlike the Zascaic Temple, however, the Zaphken, the central doctrinal and governmental authority of the Zaphkenate, is elected from the descendants of Avab by a council of senior family members known as the Avabid Council.
The Zaphkenate has been headquartered in the Wellenesian city of Oirpolo since 1051, ruled by the House Avabias since 1260, and even head of state of modern Wellenesia since 1750. The current Zaphken (as well as the current Emperor of Wellenesia) is Shalupo. Historically, the Zaphkenate passed via agnatic seniority, passing between brothers. In 1758, Zaphken Aourlas, a reformer and the second Zaphken to rule Wellenesia, reformed the system by making it elective among the Avabid Council.