The Dairwuo-Bryatesle communities are religiously dominated by a rather powerful "conglomerate" of religions, a dozen organized monotheisms forming a sort of religious "alliance". This alliance regulates and smooths the interaction of rather diverse religions under a single religious umbrella - imagine if all of the abrahamic religions had one pope, and lived in a weird denial about the fact that they're pretty different.
This might seem to be a peaceful and tolerant arrangement, but the system does maintain a variety of oppressive practices. Among these, we find the treatment of minor religions.
The minor religions of the Dairwuo-Bryatesle word are generally regional religions that predate the spread of the main flavours of DB religion. Some of them clearly are related to some of the modern religious communities, others less so. However, in order to maintain religious peace, we find a variety of regulations that various local rulers have instituted.
We find a variety of rather different types of rules as well as approaches to rules, which after codification often have remained in effect for more than five centuries. Some rules are clearly capricious, intended to circumscribe the lives of the minority religions. Some are based on misunderstandings - e.g. the legate of the empire has banned something under the impression that it's important for the community, yet it turns out it never was of any significance. Sometimes, sympathetic legates have ruled in ways that enforce the minority religion's rules, i.e. giving imperial sanction to the community's rules for itself. Sometimes, this too has been based on misunderstandings - but due to the nature of the negotiations, the minority religions' voices seldom were heard very well.
The leaders - oftentimes an inherited position - are afforded some of the respect of a major religion's middle-level clergy, but not all of it. Inherited leaders tend to be seen as comparable to noblemen, whereas leaders who are chosen by other means - meritocratically, democratically, randomly, or in some other way, are usually afforded less respect by surrounding communities.
Primarily, all of these movements are banned from proselytizing, and their practitioners may not ascend to any (higher) public office. Additionally, noblemen may not join them. Only a handful of noble families are members of minor religions.
As they often are ethnoreligions (or even 'subtribal religions'), not all of them even accept converts in the first place. Further restrictions on conversion may exist:
- In the south, it is common for members of the minor religions to be forbidden from converting to major religions. This does strengthen these religions' viability over time, but was for some reason understood as a punishment by the rulers instituting this rule.
- In the north, rules for conversion w.r.t. minor religions vary strongly:
- Kmusre ves is only permitted to accept female converts. This is an intentional legal irony, as kmusre ves only really is a religion practiced by men.
- Members of nybritmu ves may only convert to the major nukper movement; however, a convert's offspring is not considered nukper, and must thus personally convert as well. This continues for as many generations as anyone can remember that someone's of nybritmu origin.
- Telat ves may not convert, but they may convert an infant of theirs to the kenoper religion.
- Sadres ves can accept converts - but conversion must be for a span of five generations, i.e. the sixth generation reverts to the ancestral religion.
- Several minor religions may accept converts from other minor religions, but must never accept a member of a major religion.
- Tilib ves, a religion that does not really have a notion of conversion, must accept a freed slave if he wants to convert. This regulation seems to be inserted purely due to the great disdain which the tilib doctrine holds for slaves and non-tilib.
Ritual rules also may apply:
- The tagrum uis may not own horses, nor use them in either ritual or professional contexts, unless ordered to do so by a non-tagrum.
- This has led to the tagrum breeding donkeys into ever more horse-like breeds.
- During the horse plagues of the seventh and tenth centuries, donkeys seem to have been way more resistent to the plague. Donkeys derived from the tagrum donkey population became an important export.
- The kmusre ves and the nybritmu ves are both under restrictions on fasting; fasting is an important religious expression in many areas, and the restrictions are thus:
- Any spontaneous fasting must be at least nine days long.
- The calendarically fixed fasts may not be longer than one day.
- Since a nine-day fast is very strenuous, the kmusre ves and the nybritmu ves have both gone in for not having spontaneous fasts at all.
- Since fasts are seen as a way to call upon God to reduce a calamity, they often are used in times of plagues, which of course weakens the immune system. After several plagues, religious leaders realized that the kmusre ves and nybritmu ves had better survival rates than other religious communities: the restriction was scrapped, and I am happy to tell you that the nybritmu ves and kmusre ves are now permitted to fast spontaneously during times of plague.
- The southern Daster uis may only perform ritual magic for pay for members of major religions;the northern Isam ves may only perform ritual magic for members of minor religions.
- Numbate uis may not change their religious narratives or their rituals: for this reason, local officials have paid scholars to document their beliefs and practices as carefully as possible, and enforce orthodoxy and orthopraxy from the outside of the religion.
- Tavan ves may not commit any of their religion to paper, except for the bits that are present in the accords with the empire.
- The kmusre ves and the nybritmu ves both have restrictions on them that permit their priests from offering certain sacrifices to certain gods at certain times. These restrictions are specific to the clergy of each religion. The workaround that tends to be used is that nybritmu clergy perform the kmusre ves sacrifices and vice versa.
- Members of Telat ves may not talk of their religious beliefs if asked by an outsider. The law requires that they answer "I am forbidden by decree from the empire to speak of such things." Songs that are sung in public may only allude to their beliefs and never say them outright.
- Several of the religions may be forced to attend a major religion's house of worship once a year
- The numbate uis are forced to attend a Kindaper temple, but at a special event where no kindaper laity are present. The kindaper clergyman will generally berate the numbate uis for a while. Liberal kindaper clergymen may just go "nice, you're here, so, uh, wanna leave now?". Some really steadfastly chauvinist kindaper clergymen may "forget" to attend, leaving the numbate uis in a sort of legal limbo: they have no witness to prove that they attended, and they are legally mandated to do so.
- The daster uis must send contingents that have a progression through a lirbexper temple during service, singing certain traditional songs (that contradict daster uis beliefs).
- The kmusre ves must be at the far back of the migdaper assembly halls, but are overseen by a clergyman to sign off that they were present.
Rules on religious buildings may exist:
- Tavan ves may not repair their religious buildings (but they may build new ones)
- Kmusre ves may not build new religious buildings (but may repair them, and may reappropriate buildings that have had other uses)
- Daster uis may not have religious buildings at all.
- The rules on where the religious buildings may be built are rather strict, as well as generally demanding them to be small, inconspicuous and humble.
Rules on interacting with the civil society, with the army, and several other such concepts exist:
- Military:
- Some religions must form their own minor armies to fight for the empire.
- Some are entirely forbidden from organizing armed groups.
- Some have mandatory quotas for military service.
- Justice system:
- Some are permitted to have their own courts in minor matters.
- Some are required to
- Civil society
- The minor religions are mandated to keep a constant "census" of their members, and these books generally are considered "holy" in all of these religions.
