Ishan Faith - Saltwave RPG Campaign

The Ishan Religion

Readiness in the Defining Moment

In the Hero’s Tongue, the language of the kzinti, the word ishan means "readiness."

The hunting question of Ishan is, "Are you ready to act as God wills, or will you follow another path?"

The word revealed by the Prophet, Rrkia-Friday, instructs all thinking creatures to be ready to do the will of God. By doing the will of God, one can achieve great things and live in harmony with self, others, and nature. Doing something else displeases God and leads to trouble and danger. Not through God’s punishment, but through the natural failure to make the right choices.

Game Information

Alignment: Neutral Good (priests are always of good alignment, sincere worshippers are of good or neutral alignments)
Domains: Good, Healing, Sun, War
Titles & Forms of Address: These are the titles given to the ranks of the followers of Ishan. For the form of address, imagine you were speaking to the person, as in "Good day, my Lord," to address a nobleman or, "Good morning, Your Readiness," to address a priest. Referring to the person in the third person would substitute "His" or "Her" for the "Your" of the direct address.

Student (lay believer, no special address)
Ishant - literally "ready one" (cleric 1-8, "Your Readiness")
Talishant - literally "most ready one" (cleric 9-12, "Your Decisiveness")
K'zishan - literally "master of readiness" (cleric 13-16, "Your Eminence")
Talizan-ishan - literally "example of readiness" (cleric 17-19, "My Beacon")
Enlightened One (cleric 20, "Your Oneness")

Official Language: Hero's Tongue is the official language of the faith, although teaching and observances are often performed in the local language. All clerics must learn Hero's Tongue to read the scripts in the original context.

Relations with Other Faiths: Followers of Ishan tend toward tolerance, believing that it is not right or proper to judge others except in a moment of kra'thesh. They get along well with elven beliefs, druidic followers, and Dianic worshippers. They despise the evil practices of the many small goblinoid cults, infernal and abyssal servitors, and those who create or consort with the undead. Followers of Ishan regard Komatsines as hidebound relics of an earlier age, and will allow them to go their own way, but not to hold power. Komatsines, on the other hand, are in a state of holy war with Ishan.

Other Classes:

Many monks are followers of Ishan. With its emphasis on individual choice, readiness, and action, many training orders and disciplines adhere to Ishan. Ishan monks are Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Neutral Good, or True Neutral in alignment. Ishan monks see conflict as opportunities to test themselves in kra-thesh. For this reason, they often wander from their training halls and monastaries. Many monks will provide free training in self-defense and unarmed combat to common folk as they travel. All other class features remain essentially the same.

Paladins of Ishan are called from among the followers, and usually seek guidance from the ishant or talishant in their local areas. They receive further training from clerics and fighters. Some are lucky enough to train under a more experienced paladin. Spellcasting and turning undead are the major class abilities that are taught by the clerics of Ishan. The others are learned or discovered by the paladins themselves. Some paladins have more spellcasting ability and fewer granted powers than the standard PHB class.

The Teachings of Ishan

Kra'thesh

Life is full of both ordinary and defining moments. A defining moment, called kra’thesh, is one in which a right decision must be made or there will be failure. A simple kra’thesh can be a choice of which road to take, whether to use sword or bow, or whether to lie or tell the truth. The more important kra’theshi involve moral judgments, life or death decisions, and relations between people. Kra’thesh challenges the thinking being to rise above its animal nature and baser motives. Through Ishan, one can be ready for kra’theshi and act appropriately. One must, of course, live in accordance with God’s will every moment of every day, but this is not what Ishan is truly about. One’s habits and instincts rule such day-to-day decisions. While it is important to strive for perfection in all things, one’s life really changes only when the opportunity of kra’thesh appears. Ishan is instead the way one decides whether to follow what God has set forth, or a path of one’s own devising.

Ishan

Because one can never know the will of God truly before kra’thesh arrives, one must be open and prepared for such moments. It is only possible to learn, to be vigilant, to be ready, and to act when the moment comes.

To act appropriately in kra’thesh, one must be able to recognize that the moment is kra’thesh and then understand God’s will to take action. The first requires the constant awareness of the hunter. Attuned to every scent, sound, sight, and tremble of whisker, the hunter is aware of the prey. The hunter is also aware of the situation. The hunter is also aware of himself. By this awareness and ishan, the hunter is ready to act in the kra’thesh of the hunt to catch the prey. At kra’thesh, the hunter either succeeds or fails. It is a simple either-or result.

The rest of the teaching of Ishan is about understanding God’s will. Knowing in general what God has decreed is easy. Taking right action in kra’thesh is not so easy, even if one has ishan.

Principles of Ishan

Be always ready and alert for kra’thesh.
Keep your sword and claws sharpened, so that you will be ready to act in kra’thesh.
Learn of all things, but especially of God’s will.
Male and female are different but equivalent parts of the whole, so balance them evenly.
All thinking beings are different but equivalent parts of the whole, so balance them evenly, too.
Treat the thinking being as sacred. Do not eat it. Do not hunt it for sport or trophy. Do not take parts for their powers or material value. Restore it to life, when God permits. Return it to the earth when its spirit has fled.
Act without deliberation, but with thought, so that you may be open to what God wants you to do. If you find this a contradiction, you have more to learn.
Keep clean, so that you may be healthy and ready to act in kra’thesh.
Be truthful and honest so your dishonor may not keep you from ishan. Dishonor weighs heavily on the soul and distracts from ishan.
Control your passions, or you will be ruled by your passions and not have ishan in kra’thesh.
Waiting for kra’thesh is not ishan. It is anticipation (tal-ishan), and is not the same thing.
If you make a vow, ishan is to keep it in kra’thesh.
When a head shot comes open, ishan takes it, if it is the right action.
Sometimes, inaction is God’s will. Ishan may be for inaction, and only the kra’thesh will tell. By taking no action in this kra’thesh, you fulfill God’s desire for you.
One cannot have ishan for everything, but one can always have ishan for God’s instructions in kra’thesh.
Do not eat monkeys.
Ishan is to change, if God’s will demands it. Sometimes it is to keep firm. Other times it is to change. Only kra’thesh will tell.
Slavery is imbalance. Keep no slaves.
Enlightenment is only in kra’thesh. You cannot seek it, you can only have ishan.
Age does not bring ishan. Experience does not bring ishan. Right action does not even bring ishan. Only ishan itself brings ishan.
Ishan and right action in kra’thesh change habits. Habits can only limit ishan.
You cannot have ishan by watching the mouth of the burrow.
There will come a time for another prophet. Ishan in this kra’thesh is important, and yet Ishan will resist.
If it was easy, there would be no need for it.
If you meet Dark Schniedar on the road, kill him. This is ishan.

Holy Symbol

The holy symbol of Ishan as a religion is an open circle with a line from the left in to the center point, and two lines splitting from that line, one right and up, and one right and down. The circle represents the kra’thesh and openness to it. The entry line represents the path. The diverging lines represent right action and failure, and the choice of each.