Difference between revisions of "Trelagism"

Trelagism was a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dualism dualist] religion named after the god '''Trell'''. Trell's opposite was '''Nalt''', and the two were believed to be brothers.

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.)

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 located far to the north of Scadrial, close to its equivalent of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_circle Arctic Circle]. The Nelazan resided just south of their Arctic Circle, however, as 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.)

Trelasigm may have diverged from its original beliefs since the end of the Final Empire. However, only one self-proclaimed adherent to the belief is encountered, so the apparent divergence could simply be a personal opinion of the worshiper, or even his interpretation of beliefs that have yet to be revealed to readers.

Whatever the case may be, ''Alloy'' shows a Trelagist that claims to worship Trell, who believes that Trell created mankind, but makes no comments regarding the Thousand Eyes, Nalt's eye, or even expresses a dislike of daylight. In addition, this character holds the belief that the ruling class should be made up exclusively of [[twinborn]] - a concept that would be unimaginable to the Nelazan.