Religion is a deeply political issue within the Tartessian Peninsula. Two faiths dominate this land where once there was one. They are the Orthodox Tritheos Church and the Old Tritheos Cult
Both of these faiths worship the same three Gods— The First Man and his twin wives Life and Death. They have been worshipped since the dawn of time by the Firstborn of the Gods, the Elves. A set of beliefs and ritual practices developed through the ages that have come to be called the Old Tritheos Cult. The insular Elves made no attempt to convert the other races to their beliefs, but they would not shy away from teaching others who came to learn from them.
That leads us to…
The Gospel according to the Orthodox Tritheos Church
For over two thousand years, the nations of man have recognized three supreme Gods. The First Man and his twin wives Life and Death. Begotten from them is all that is, ever was, and ever will be.
The calendar is dated with the birth of the Son to a virgin priestess of a pagan nature cult in the hinge of the twin continents. During his childhood, he was a frequent target of ire by the other priestesses. The Son was blessed by vision and prophecy and possessed a keen intellect for matters of philosophy and religion.
Through his incessant argument with the elders and his blasphemy against the faith, it came to be believed that his birth was due to his mother consorting with serpents, creatures known for their wit and deceit. For this, his mother was stripped of her rank and her tongue was struck from her mouth while the Son was merely banished.
Seeking a kind of atonement, the Son took a vow of silence for a period of seven years and endeavored to wander the world alone. During this time, he saw a great many things.
First he lived among the dwarves for a year for they were a taciturn folk who took well to his silence. From them, he learned the ways of the earth. The Son grew to admire the diligence and order of the dwarves. He forged many strong bonds with clan leaders and craftsman and laborers without ever speaking a word to them simply by working with them.
Then he departed and lived among their mortal enemies, the orcs, for the same amount of time. Like the dwarves, the orcs lived in the dark, dank caves and tunnels of the Crescent Buckle mountains. But unlike the dwarves who have a love for order, orcs are a ravenous chaotic horde bent on destruction. From them, the Son learned of violence. He was beaten and bloodied over and over until he grew strong enough to give as good as he got. Through this continuous violence and ensuing recovery, he forged many strong bonds with warchiefs and shamans.
Then misfortune befell the Son and the tribe orcs were crushed by the drow. He survived the battle and was captured and enslaved. The drow treated him well at first. They wished to use him as a liaison with surface dwellers, but found him to be mute. Deemed worthless he was then worked like a mule. Things were not entirely bleak, however. There were other slaves and lowlifes cursed to toil with him. From them, he learned solidarity. Lifelong bonds forged from mutual torture. And then, as luck would have it, there was one day a cave in behind him separating him from his overseers. The Son ran and resolved to return to free his friends one day.
Next, upon leaving for the surface and seeing the sun for the first time in three years, the Son encountered a city-state of goblins. As a human man, he was a valuable prize to the all-female Goblin houses and he was aggressively pursued. They feasted him and lavished him with gifts. From this, he learned the ways of court and politics. Despite never speaking, he was the best male company a goblin could acquire. Male goblins are basically animals, incapable of speech or higher reasoning. He won many allies and admirers among the noble families, but eventually, he had to depart from them as well to continue his journey.
For the fifth year of his journey, the Son traveled away from the mountains to the idyllic fertile rolling hills where the smallfolk reside. He entered their villages and without a word began to assist them in their farm work. They welcomed him with open arms and shared the bounty he helped reap from the land. The smallfolk knew little of war. Though they were willing to defend themselves if necessary, they were more than happy to pay off the larger races for their continued splendid isolation. From them, the Son learned the ways of peace and simplicity.
Then, on the dawn of his sixth year, the Son was wracked by visions more vivid and numerous than any he had ever experienced. They called him to the Eternal City, the spot where the Firstborn first stepped on the earth. Admission for non-elves was rare, but not impossible. The Son showed his slave tattoo to the elves given to him by their underground kin. He was allowed into the city.
The visions demanded of him to learn from the elves and their faith. The Firstborn they called themselves - the first children of the First Man and Life. The ones who precede mortality itself and are gifted with long life spans because of it. It was here in the Eternal City, the Son received enlightenment. He attended the temple where the elves perform their religious rites to the Three Gods and upon hearing his first sermon, it was as if lightning had struck him. All the visions he received throughout his entire life were discordant and cryptic, now he could hear and see and recall them with perfect clarity.
The Son served as part of the cleaning staff in the grand temple of the Eternal City. During this time, he ravenously consumed any material he could concerning the faith. Yet none of it seemed quite right. Much of it aligned with his visions and yet some of it did not. The Son was confused. He believed he had been given these visions and this trial so that he could bring the faith to the other races because the elves jealously guarded the secrets of the truth of creation. This was wrong. For the elves were in error in their worship as well. It became clear to him that his job was to bring the true faith to all people.
Following his year in the Eternal City, the Son returned to his homeland and dwelled among the cities of the Hinge for another year. He was still vowed to silence, but this gave him the time to collect and order his thoughts. He tirelessly worked for an entire year organizing his visions and writing down what he knew to be true. And he knew it to be true because he now knew the source of his visions - his father, The First Man. He used the last bit of his savings to purchase a license to speak at the public square and reserved a spot for the day his vow would expire.
Finally, after seven years of silence, the Son spoke and the Heavens rejoiced and the worldly liars trembled.
Man rejected his message at first. The Son preached, but few listened and almost none believed. The Son changed tactics and began to challenge adherents of the Cults to debates. At first, he achieved much success with this for the Son was sharp of wit despite his long period of silence. But this momentum was lost when his opponents began to refuse him. And they grew to despise him for making him look foolish.
And so the Son was banished a second time. And thus he swore to the kings and liar-priests of the Hinge that he would return in three years with an army at his back. Much laughter was had at this declaration by the foolish men of the Hinge, but the Son was not disheartened.
He returned to the dwarves and they were overjoyed to see him. Then he spoke and he nearly frightened them to fainting. He told them of his time with the orcs and of his captivity to the drow and much righteous fury was stirred within them. But just retribution was not enough for the Son. He preached to them like he preached to his fellow man of what he learned of violence and peace, chaos and order, politics and servitude, and truth and deceit. Not many were swayed, but the dwarves are a prideful and rational people. They debated with the Son for many nights and slowly he won them over with his arguments.
The Son then bid them to forge for him ten thousand kits of armor and ten thousand spears and then he left to return to the orcs. The survivors from his tribe were scattered and joined various other tribes within the mountains. This was convenient for the Son. He had an in with each one. For several months, he went to every orcish tribe he could find and inspired them to his cause for war against the drow. Every one of them had a grudge against the cruelest of the mortal races.
Now with a great host assembled, he returned to the dwarves for the ten thousand spears and kits and armor he requested. And there was great outrage from them upon seeing the Son with a host of orcs. But once again, the Son prevailed in persuading them, but the dwarves promised only their assistance in this campaign to rid their locale of the drow. The combined dwarven-orcish army led by the Son then marched for war.
A bitter war was waged for over a year against the drow. Their magic was potent and their skills at arms were great. But the united army was unlike anything the drow had faced before. The drow could defeat dwarven engineering and overcome orcish ferocity, but to handle both at once? It couldn't be done. One after another, drow cities fell and countless slaves were freed while the drow elite fled deeper underground to avoid the army's wrath. And with each victory, the army swelled to ever greater size with the addition of the angry freed slaves. What was a slow advance at first became a tidal wave washing over the drow and crushing them.
Quicker than any expected, there were no drow cities left to fight. This was the pivotal moment in the Son's plan. He had an army of many thousands honed by prolonged war. Throughout the conflict, just as the Son predicted, bonds forged from shared hardship were formed between dwarf and orc.
"What is good? First, we must ask ourselves a different question. What is our purpose? All things are endowed by their creator with a purpose. Like a carpenter who crafts wood into a particular shape to be sat upon. We call this a chair and we judge it to be good by how well it performs its function. A good chair is one that performs its role well. It is comfortable to sit upon. But we of the mortal races have no obvious simple purpose such as that. So what is our purpose? For that we must understand our creators. Let me tell you of the First Man, Life, and Death, and let me spoil the answer for you now, it is Truth. In this, all the mortal races are united and only together as a whole can we dispel falsehood."
He preached their holy mission to them and they listened for the Son had proven himself in this campaign.
Then after two years underground, the Son emerged once more to see the sun but this time with an army at his back. He then returned to the smallfolk because his army needed to eat. And because he had lived among them and they knew in his heart he was a man of peace, they helped him. Then he returned to the goblins and enlisted their help for they understood the human kingdoms well and their male goblins were effective troops. This took no more than one year.
Finally, the Son returned to his homeland again with the largest army the region had ever seen. The one who had three years prior laughed at him were the first to surrender. They did so without a fight. And his army swelled with his fellow man joining his ranks. Thus the Son swept out across the twin continents conquering all in his wake and showing them the Truth. Always, he handled the defeated with mercy. He came to enlighten, not to tyrannize.
And always he avoided the Firstborn who he viewed as wayward brothers and sisters. And always did he entreat with them and seek to convert them, but they remained obstinate. And like all things, the Son was mortal and fated to greet Death and be welcomed into her arms. The Son conquered much, even most of the twin continents, but a single man can only do so much in one lifetime. He passed on at the age of seventy leaving no heirs, entrusting power to a council of his chosen successors.
These successors, not born of the First Man and not having experienced the formative wisdom of the Son, did as men always do. They bickered and fractured over the Son's legacy. Even to this day.
The Orthodox Tritheos Faith
The dominant faith of much of the known world, followed by all the mortal races save for the elves. The Orthodox Tritheos Church is a massive loosely connected international organization. It is not centralized around a single figure like the Catholic Church of our world, that would be impractical or downright impossible. Regions have autocephalous Archons who congregate in great Ecumenical Councils to settle matters of faith.
The regional Synods are typically major power brokers among their societies. All must pay a tithe to their local church who in turn is obligated to use that wealth for the collective social welfare of the population. This is not entirely cynical. The church is the major vanguard in saving regions from famine and plague. The Church also enforces, to the best of their ability, laws for the protection of the common people including protections against slavery, violence, cruel and unusual punishment, and many other abuses from the ruling class.
The Orthodox Tritheos believes in a hierarchy of the Gods with the First Man above Life and Death. The Church acknowledges that Life and Death are the two original and unbegotten Divine Principles, the Orthodox Tritheos Church contends that the union of the two transcends the limits of either producing a being superior to both.
Thus Orthodox Tritheos societies are traditional patriarchal with men being the heads of households. That isn't to say women are seen as inferior or worthless. The Gods love all their children equally. It is simply that the male gender is entrusted with the responsibility of heading the household.
This is in stark contrast to…
The Old Tritheos Cult
As old as creation itself. The Firstborn of the Gods have been worshipping the Tritheos since before the mortal races were mortal. There is no centralized body of Old Tritheos clergy. Or even clergy in general. Their holy texts consist of a scattering of writings from ancient elves pontificating on their oral traditions of the days when their kind knew no death.
The Old Tritheos Cult differs a bit across the elves, but for the elves of the Mezwesh Dominion, it is a sharply matriarchal faith. The two original Divine Principles are Life and Death. The First Man is the most important of their creations, but he is still ultimately their creation and therefore subordinate to them.
Old Tritheos Cult households are therefore headed by women. Women are naturally suited to management and diplomacy while men are naturally suited to labor and war. It is simply common sense the delicate, more intuitive, and socially glib gender would manage the frictions of social organization.
In Old Tritheos Cult societies, Elven men unironically think politics is unmanly. Basically, being a King is gay. Men don't waste their time doing diplomacy or setting tax policy. They fight. They build. They investigate the natural world. Or hell, even practice magic.
This made for an attractive proposition among the noble women of Tartessia when the Ten Thousand Spears swept through the peninsula. The beautiful Elven invaders not only wanted to take them as wives, but they wanted to elevate them to rule in their own right. After all, no self-respecting Elven man in the Ten Thousand Spears would waste his time with effeminate endeavors like rulership!
Thus the polities of Elfbloods are invariably ruled by Queens while their human rivals are ruled by Kings.