Velanity, also known as the Velan Faith, was an aggressive solar doctrine that dominated much of eastern Galwyndor in the centuries leading up to the Crusade Era (~9500–9950). It is often blamed for inciting the chain of religious wars that culminated in the Loniban Convention. Though now extinct, its legacy echoes in outlawed texts, scorched relics, and the blackened ruins of former sanctums.
Origins
The roots of Velanity are traced to a band of wanderers who vanished into the scorched deserts of Geldenmark in the early-9000s. According to fragmented accounts, the group survived a sandstorm by sheltering in a sunken ruin, where they ingested heat-warped fungi later identified as a potent strain of magecap mushroom.
For nearly a week, they were gripped by shared hallucinations—visions of a sun that watched, judged, and burned. When they emerged, they were not the same. They spoke of divine fire, sacred agony, and a cleansing light that demanded obedience. These visions were later recorded in a cryptic text known as the Velan Verse, which would become the doctrinal spine of the Velan Faith.
From this fevered genesis, Velanity exploded into a codified religion—rooted not in tradition, but in revelation. Its followers believed the sun had spoken, and its word was flame.
Velanity, then obsessed, researched, absorbed and radicalized several earlier doctrines, blending:
- Solar symbology (halos, flame motifs, sacred light)
- Purification through suffering and ritual ordeal
- A tiered theology of pain, where the righteous suffer to bear the sins of others—but the wicked must be sacrificed
Core Beliefs
- The sun is not hope—it is judgment. It reveals and withers all falsehood.
- The soul is tested by fire. Weakness burns. What survives becomes pure.
- Non-believers are impure by nature and may be offered as ritual sacrifices to stave off world-decay.
- Initiates must undergo the Seven Severances to purge the self of earthly bonds and be reborn in sacred pain.
- Pain is not punishment. It is currency. And some souls owe more than others.
Rituals and Symbols
- Sunbrands: flesh-searing marks often applied to the eyes, sternum, or spine to signify vision, judgment, and sacrifice.
- Velan Crucibles: sealed sanctums where initiates endured hallucination-inducing trials through heat and sensory deprivation.
- Burning Crowns: ceremonial headdresses forged from radiant metals. High priests wore them during executions, often until the metal fused to their flesh.
Conflicts and Extinction
At its peak, Velanity controlled nearly one-third of the eastern continent. Its doctrine of justified sacrificial violence clashed with emerging Tethuricism—a structured faith focused on divine order and sanctity of life. Frequent Velan raids into rival territories often ended in the burning or ritual immolation of captives, leading to escalating retaliations.
While Q’evrism was still a relatively obscure sect during this time, it too found itself targeted for its rejection of solar doctrine and linear judgment.
The result was the Crusade Era—a chaotic century of theological warfare. The Sundering Crusades (9900–9950) marked the final campaign against Velanity. Its sacred cities were razed. At the siege of Haldrun, the last Flamekeeper was impaled atop the crumbling sun-temple, signaling the faith’s extinction.
The violence of the Crusades shocked even hardened rulers. In response, King Lonib of Galicia called the Loniban Convention, an interfaith treaty banning theological warfare and outlawing Velanity in all its forms.
Legacy and Forbidden Echoes
While the faith is officially extinct, whispers of its teachings persist. Some pyrotheurgic orders and splinter cults still reference the Velan Verse in cryptic texts. Scholars argue that the Vurg derive spiritual DNA from Velanity—though Vurg rituals lack the sacrificial zealotry of their predecessors.
Artifacts such as Sunforged Relics and Velan Crowns are outlawed across the modern world. Mere possession of Velan scripture is grounds for imprisonment—or execution—in many states.