Mephitist Church

Mephitism is the official religion of the Mephitist Empire. Its symbol is a quartered circle, representing the entirety of Fuma's Creation, sometimes with three squiggly lines above it to signify the Goddess's Musk Pervading All.

Mephitists worship the skunk-goddess Fuma. The main cathedral in Albric Tor is built over a fissure in the earth, out of which mystical vapors were said to issue. Priestesses would variously inhale these vapors, or listen to the sounds they made while escaping from the rock, and issue oracular utterances conveying the Will of the Goddess.

Mephitist doctrine is rather vaguely defined, however it is understood that the Seelie are taken into "Fuma's Embrace" when they die, and the Unseelie are condemned to the Netherhells. Fertility and martial / marital prowess are the main virtues of Mephitism. The most popular order of monks requires initiates to take a Vow of Debauchery. Members dedicate their lives to the study & contemplation of venery in all its forms. Other orders follow a path of asceticism more recognizable to contemporary human religions.

The main sacrament of Mephitism is venery, also known as "The Mysteries of Fuma" which in most of the Empire is practiced privately by elves in their homes, but in the Southlands is still done in an organized, institutional manner at the temple - as it was in the Long Ago.

Mephitist worship services always include a "Holy Recreation" which uses an explosive chemical reaction to symbolize Fuma's mythical act of creation, the Beginning of Faerie. Mephitists also greet each other with a gesture known as the "Benedictio Interphalangeal", which involves the rubbing of knuckles upon the scalp. The full formal version of the Benedictio requires the bestower to grasp the benedictee in a headlock. Devout Mephitists will sometimes rub their knuckles on their own head, to invoke the Lady's protection in times of distress.