Cults

Religion in the Gorhad area
In the age of the Second Empire, religion is mostly practised by members of the lowest classes, such as bondsmen, woodsmen and hunters; these almost invariably follow the Equinox Cycle, as do wandering holy men and hermits. The patricians of the Empire instead claim worship, and attend to the rituals, of divinities from the Arvarian Cycle, and monastic and clerical orders, which are keyed to it as well, find in the aristocracy of Gorhad most of their leaders, although the middle and low members of them are not generally nobles, and monasteries, especially of Neder, are sometimes found outside the Gorfehlin as well. Worship of evil divinities, as was common once among the Gumrach is not practised, and still forbidden under penance of death in all of the Empire.
Other than the two main cycles, among isolated tribesmen and non-human populations a variety of gods is worshipped, which the few scholars that care about "these superstitious trifles" often identify with distorted figures from either theogony. These lesser religions are little known, short-lived and will not be detailed here.
Strangely enough, in spite of the little acceptance of cults, it is generally admitted, among all social classes, that monks and hermits, clerics and holy men wield powers that go beyond the scopes of the commoner, and that they deserve respect more than they do pity; the learned usually justify it with "hard discipline, deep meditation and long training". As these powers are generally fixed, "harmless to the righteous man and scourge to the wicked" they do not undergo either the people's terror or the sovereigns' wrath as magic, or anything reminding of it, does.

The Equinox Cycle
his is by far the most widespread theological system, and the root of most superstitions and traditions, and of the calendar. It has a few principles:

Mortals cannot know the names of the immortals, which are then referred by "attributes" or "locations"

Worship is an individual act, and the truly faithful is the most isolated. That entails there are no clerical orders of the Equinox Cycle's divinities, and that theosophists tend to isolate themselves in deserted places or to wander continually so that "they are not bound to place or acquaintance"

Following the will of each god is impossible for a mere mortal, which has to choose one and follow Him/Her to gain the mercy of all.

Each thing, being, city and time of the year either belongs to one god or is evil, and therefore to be avoided.

Displaying one's power is abusing of the grace of the god that grants it, and therefore a bad thing. The Equinox Cycle's exact mythology is very complicated, and generally unknown to those that follow it. Simplified, it states that in the beginning there was only a single god, a shapeless, nameless and genderless shadow, a creature of the Void, and that it was taken by the beauty of women and of the golden-scaled dragons that lived on deserted places and wastelands. This primeval god mated with both, and of both engendered ten sons, before all its might was transferred in its offspring, and his essence dispersed again in the Void forever. The ten dragons are believed to have very similar passions, and that enquiring about them would drive man closer to evil; they are also believed to be keyed to certain places, where their power would be greatest: although most of these places are unknown, one of them is believed to be south of Stygia, one north of the Northern Realms, one in the eastern wastelands, and one in the scrublands west of where the Dargavs live. For this they are called cardinal dragons. This belief is so widespread that even in the Empire, to mark places unknown on the maps it is commonly written "hic sunt dracones".
The ten (benignant) Heroes are instead thought to be anywhere in the same degree, and the magnitude of their influence rather to depend on the setting; they are spotted from each other by their "attributes" or chosen form of influence; they are then referred to (odd numbers are thought of as female, even as male) as:

the Lover
the Sylvan
the Learned
the Wanderer
the Healer
the Righteous
the Aesthete
the Fearless
She who Provides with Nourishment
the Giver of Rest
Quite naturally, warriors that fight for a just cause are believed to be favoured by the Fearless, ploughmen by She who Provides with Nourishment, troubadours by the Aesthete, adventurers by the Traveller and so forth. Talents are commonly referred to as gifts of the ten gods: e.g., a green thumbed man will be called "one gifted by the Sylvan".

The Arvarian Cycle
This is the official religion of the empire, and the one the monastic orders are based upon. Its main principles are:

Referring to a god by anything short of His name would be belittling Him, a most heinous sin.

Worship is helped by the presence of other worshippers, and magnified. The truly faithful would be lost among the venom of the unfaithful, and must seek his own kin. Also, wilderness would sway him, so he has to live in places built by his likes to help his furthering and meditation.

Following the will of each god is logically impossible, because their wills often contradict each other; although, following one will protect the believer from the other's wrath, and further His might.

Each thing, being, city and time of the year either belongs to one god, good or evil.

Displaying one's power is showing to others a god's might, and draws them to Him. The Arvarian Cycle's exact mythology is very complicated, and widely studied by members of the monastic orders and imperial patricians. Simplified, it states that in the beginning there was only a single god, Normagar, the almighty and that it was taken by the beauty of humans, giving raise to the genealogy every noble child in the Empire knows by heart:
From Normagar came Dela, the Destroyer, Neder the Preserver and Ishtar, a woman, the Creator
From Dela came Nurval, the Deadly, and Nergal, the Torturer
From Neder came Iuran, the Just and Trick, the Artful
From Ishtar came Ishanat, a woman, the Healer and Silar, Forest-god
which totals ten gods. Not all of them have monastic orders, and actually worship of Dela and his sons is strictly forbidden, and that of Trick completely forlorn.
he monastic orders are only five. It is common to their members to dress in luxurious tunics, each tunic the same for each member of each order; only, the highest the monk, the more jewels and tokens of power he wears over it. Though monks would never stoop to wear something as uncomfortable as an armour or a heavier weapon, males often wear a sword, and females a knife; the high ranks wear silver versions of either item. Monastic orders are not bound to live in poverty, and they definitely don't, but they cannot own wealth individually, under any form. Whatever they wear or bring, is given them by the order, they dwell only as guests of someone or in the monasteries of the order, and they must give the order whatever they find, or are given. Some detail of each order is given below; with the term "monk" or "nun" it is meant any member of an order, while "priest" denotes one that has undergone higher learning and meditation, and is supposed to be gifted by the god with powers.
The order of Normagar has an enormous importance in Gorhad, being among the most active factions in court power strives. Its monks wear white overloaded with golden thread on the shoulders and chest, are all males, and invariably come from the oldest nobility of the empire. It is almost impossible to see one of these monks unarmed, and they usually travel escorted by sturdy bodyguards; their role is generally as advisors for political matters, which they administer with much more fairness and wisdom than ordinary officers of the Empire do. Although they are deeply involved in court life and plots, they do not resort to treason, and are usually untainted by the corruption and decadence of the environment, in which they stand as stony reminders of some ancient, forlorn virtues. As a granted power, at a degree that varies with the rank, priests of this order are said to be incorruptible through money, sex, promises of power or even (if any still exists), magic. The temple of Normagar, enlarged and decorated in the times of Rayvin I, is next to the imperial palace, to which it is connected, and second only to it in magnificence.
At the opposite stands the order of Ishtar, made all of women, mustered among the most beautiful and perverted of any place. Namely devoted to the goddess of creation and love, its nuns are dedicated only to the wildest lechery, and no orgy is said to be any fun unless at least one of them is present; young members of this order are found almost only in the Imperial Court, care much for pleasure and little for political matters, dress in very light tunics of deep crimson with golden sparkles all over, and often carry a small black whip, for purposes that have very little to do with self-defence. Priestesses of Ishtar hold they are made irresistible by their goddess, and that they can therefore force anyone to do their own will. The sceptic claim their "power" works only on men, and for reasons not fit for description in a manual that could well get in minors' hands. The temple of Ishtar, other than being a slang term used almost everywhere to call a brothel, is a small, very cared-for building just south of the Dargav quarter of Gorhad, around which a wide red-light district has spontaneously sprouted.
While the two former ones have much to do with court life and though their members are gathered from anywhere, they eventually settle down in the capital only, the malish order of Iuran is everywhere in the Empire, where its priests, which dress in stiff black tunics brimmed with thin silver geometric patterns and a tight hood over their head and neck and invariably carry a visible broadsword, act as judges, at any level, and with no competitors in the task, albeit exceptionally important cases are at times taken over by the emperor himself, by ancient privilege. Because of their trained intuition and sense of the law, monks of this order are appreciated also outside the Empire, especially in the most enlightened parts of Clenia, and small congregations or single travelling priests can be found there as well. Priests of this order are thought to have several powers granted by their god, and in particular many believe that a murdered corpse touched by their monastic symbol will accuse its assassin by striking terror into his mind as soon as the priest lays his eyes on him. For this reason, important victims of court plots in the Empire are usually destroyed or concealed. There is no such thing as a temple of Iuran.
All males, clothed in light brown laden with complicated patterns of black, red and golden embroidery, monks of the order of Neder are spread equally over the Empire and the Four Realms, with some installations in Clenia as well, and the most important monasteries in some remote corners of the Haram Plateau. Members of this order are devoted to the study and preservation of texts, and make quite a trade of copying them and selling off the copies. Priests are said to be able to read any language, whether currently spoken or entirely lost, and are frequently seen around book vendors purchasing new texts or selling them. They have no real temple but, by ancient privilege (going back to Rayvin I), they have taken hold of the ancient and enormous Gumrach library in Zeugma, declared it sacred to Neder, and had the interiors decorated with frescos and bass-reliefs of Neder-related symbols and events (which, due to the twisted and overly intellectual mentality of all the followers of this god, is apparent to them only).
Last but not least, the order of Ishanat, open to women only and having chapters through all the empire, dresses in simple pale blue robes and is devoted to healing the sick and the wounded. Priestesses claim that they receive healing powers no other mortal can even dream of, and have actually healed many a man though of as doomed by ordinary medics; the usual sceptic speculate that this is only due to the techniques the order has developed through the centuries, and that are unknown to the outside world.
The temple of Ishanat is in one of the poorest quarters of the inner Gorhad, near to the infamous Submontes, but many think it is connected to the Imperial Palace by a wide, but secret, underground tunnel.