Harat-Shariin Religions

Many Harat-Shar worship the Battleangels, a group of griffin-like beings, one for each of the intraraces (pardine, tigraine, etc.). Part of the reason that the cheetaines sometimes suffer discrimination is that they forked this religion, adjusting it into one that features a Christ-like figure named Kajentarel.

Major Polytheistic Religion of the Homeworld

a battleangel (1994)

Referred to as 'the Pantheon', as in "do you follow the Pantheon."

The oldest adopted Harat-Shariin religion, and the most popular on Harat-Sharii, is that of the worship of the Pantheon, called so because there is a pantheon of angels beneath a deity referred to when required as the Arbitor. The Arbitor sees no direct worship, conceptualized more as an impersonal force; individual Harat-Shar are supposed to interact with their personal angel. These angels are depicted as griffins and are divided into two sets: Angels and Inverse Angels. Each angel has its inverse (usually in coloration only). Angels are constantly battling their inverses, who represent all the bad traits that can be had in a personality.

Each Angel is the patron of a certain segment of the population, called their Pride. There are separate Angels for the sexes, and separate angels for digitigrade/plantigrade and the cat types. For example, the patron angel of female digitigrade jaguars is Natakarenza; every female digitigrade jaguar is part of her Pride. It is believed that as long as there are female digitigrade jaguars, Natakarenza will exist...and if Natakarenza falls in the eternal battle on the First Plain of Reeds, then all the female digitigrade jaguars will vanish. Natakarenza's personality traits will be reflected in all of her Pride. The inverse of Natakarenza, Cerialeiza, represents the bad or undesirable traits of Natakarenza's Pride. When a female digitigrade jaguar displays cowardice, it is said that Cerialeiza is within her, or has bowled her over. Every battle a female digitigrade jaguar wins will strengthen Natakarenza in her battle against Cerialeiza.

These angels are drawn in a very stylized manner, and in devout households it's common to have them prominently painted on a wall in a common area in a generic pose, and to have them painted in a pose special to the family in the more private rooms. Statues are commissioned for temples, and it's not common to see them in households.

A intrarace's temple is either divided into two sections, one for male and one for female worshippers, or into two separate buildings. Priests must be of the sex specific to the temple to make offerings and hold services.

Angels

• Jenacerezale, female leopard
• Kajentarel, male lion
• Merinletzal (or Merinlejetzal?), female tiger
• Natakarenza, female jaguar

Inverses

• Cerialeiza, female jaguar
• Irenlateiyar, male lion

Miscellaneous

• Oaths and Sayings: "Inverses,", "blood and angels," "how on the Fields?", "Angels on the field,"
• Peace Feast Day (Christmas-like equivalent)
• End of year festivity (falls in spring by Alliance Mean)
• Part of a standard Harat-Shar funeral service begins, "As the Angels sent us to this life, so we escort our sister out of it to the wheel of souls the gods have decreed as our joyous lot..." Funerals are officiated nude.

The Monotheist movement

This less common religion is actually the second-most practiced on the homeworld. It is primarily practiced by the cheetaine intrarace, and the fact that they forked the religion to include a Christlike deity is part of why they sometimes suffer discrimination. The deity is a winged Harat-Shariin lion twice the height of a normal Harat-Shar. The religion also contains cheetaine saints and apostle figures, including a young girl with king cheetah patterns who befriended the lion when he was flung to earth.

(In Mindline, chapter 6, the deity's name is spelled Kajentaral.)

• "Lion of Heaven" is a name used by these followers to refer to Kajentarel.

Minor Sects

• Shipguides - This sect is practiced almost entirely by Harat-Shar born on orbital environments or on ships, and is characterized by the belief in angels, not as god-like figures, but as guides. These angels are not mapped to the intraraces, but to celestial bodies/phenomena, like the stars, the moon, space itself, etc. They have "glorious hides that shift from one pattern to the next, like constellations." This sect does not observe a winter's end holiday, since there is no seasonal shift in space.