Trelagism
| Trelagism | |
|---|---|
| Related to | Classical Scadrial, Nelazan |
| World of Origin | Scadrial |
Trelagism was a religion on Scadrial worshipped by the Nelazan before the Ascension of the Lord Ruler and the establishment of the Final Empire.
Beliefs
Trelagism was a dualist religion named after the god Trell. Trell's opposite was Nalt, and the two were believed to be brothers.[1]
Trelagists believed that night was sacred and daylight was profane. During the night, Trelagists were able to see the Thousand Eyes of Trell (the stars) watching over them, but during the day, Nalt, jealous of the worship given to his brother, would shine his single eye (the sun) on the land, blocking Trelagists from seeing Trell's eyes.
One can speculate that their religious observances, if they had any, were at their height during the winter months, and summer months may have contained many petitions to Trell or attempts to ward off Nalt's jealousy. (See "Geography", below.)
Followers
Before the Final Empire eradicated Trelagism, it was practiced primarily by a people known as the Nelazan. Little is known about the Nelazan, themselves, but they were described by Sazed as being a "determined people", and that they mapped out the entire night sky. (Likely, it was only the northern sky and not the entire sky; see "Geography", below.) Since the stars were considered to be Trell's eyes, it is possible that the Nelazan did not name the stars in a manner that other cultures might, but rather gave stars — or constellations — names related to attributes associated with Trell.
Geography
The Nelazan were likely located far to the north of Scadrial, close to or just south of its equivalent of the Arctic Circle. It was noted by Sazed that their winters had few hours of daylight, and their summers had few hours of darkness. Had the Nelazan lived on or north of Scadrial's Arctic Circle, their winters would have had at least one day of total darkness, and their summers would have at least one day of total daylight.
Post-Catacendre
Trelagism may have diverged from its original beliefs since the end of the Final Empire. Miles Dagouter has been the only self-proclaimed adherent to the belief so far encountered, so the apparent divergence could simply be a personal opinion of the worshipper, or even his interpretation of beliefs that have yet to be revealed to readers.
Miles Dagouter
Miles claimed to worship Trell and believed that Trell created mankind, but made no comments regarding the Thousand Eyes or Nalt's eye, or even expressed a dislike of daylight. In addition, he held the beliefs that the ruling class should be made up exclusively of twinborn — a concept that might be unimaginable to the Nelazan — and that Trell had made men like him specially to right wrongs in the world.[2] Whether or not he was a Trelagist is not clear; he referred to his religion as "Trellism", rather than "Trelagism", but he did name his god as "Trell". Miles also claimed, as he was being executed, that "the men of gold and red, bearers of the final metal, will come".[3] It is unknown if this was a personal belief, or a tenet of Trellism.
Bleeder
A metal spike used by Bleeder for Hemalurgy is made up of an unknown metal not known to Harmony. Marasi speculates that the metal is from an another god and resolves to find out more about Trell.[4]
The Set
The Set are agents of Trell.[5] Edwarn Ladrian brags of the Set having Faceless Immortals of their own. One of these tells Edwarn that Scadrial has become too dangerous, and that Trell intends to destroy it instead of using the Set to rule it. He also says Edwarn will be allowed to serve in another Realm, perhaps indicating that Trell's followers are Worldhoppers, or at least aware of the different Realms.
Notable Trelagists
Other Notes
Trelagism was the fifth religion that Sazed offered to Vin.[1]