Tayva'stan, a minority sect of the vulpine religion (WIP)

[CallieO]

Tayva'stan

Tayva'stan
[Updated 6/15/21]

Tayva'stan is a branch of triestan that highly venerates the Tayva Din (the Original Children of The Lady), in addition to worshiping The Lady. Tayva'stan is practiced by approximately 8% of triestani adherents, and is considered by both triestani and tayva'stani as being part of the same faith.

Each individual Tayva Din has an annual Feast Day (called a Giln'Hof in Vulpani) during which a tayva'stani family gathers, sings songs of that particular Tayva Din, tells stories, and lights candles in their honor, while asking for that Tayva Din's protection over the coming year. The vulpine calendar revolves around the Giln'Hofni, to the point where the Giln'Hof for the First Tayva Din, Marachao, is the Vulpine New Year, even though it falls on Icebreak, Week 2, Gaesday (March 18) in the imperial calendar.

Tayva'stani vixens (and men who tend towards a delicate nature) wear a headscarf called a vel'tola to signify their piety towards The Lady and Her teachings. The vel'tola represents labor, love, parting, giving, and learning. They only take it off when they go to bed, make love, take a bath, or pray. Unmarried vixens wear white vel'tolani; married vixens wear patterns; divorced vixens wear gray; and widowed vixens wear black.

Tayva'stani men (and women who tend towards the more masculine nature of being a guardian or provider) wear a habit of a solid color and a secondary color, called a jilofa. The jilofa represents guardianship, devotion, connection, education, and love of nature. Every tavya'stani family has a particular color scheme that their men wear on their jilofani.

During tayva'stani wedding ceremonies, the couple to be wedded exchanges their old jilofa and vel'tola for their new one. When a man marries into a woman's family, she gifts him with a jilofa in the colors of her family, which he'll wear from then on, because vulpine families are matriarchal. Tayva'stani vixens are often presented patterened vel'tolani as engagement presents from their intended spouses. They exchange their unmarried headscarves for their patterned ones during the wedding ceremony, shielding themselves from public eye with the use of an opaque screen they enter after their wedding vows are made. Their spouse puts the vel'tola on their new wife, and the screen is lifted to reveal, to the wedding guests, the woman wearing her patterned vel'tola for the first time.

Tayva'stani vulpines tend to be very devout in their worship. Upon waking, before every meal, during every worship service, and before bed, they perform a prayer chant called the jin'tarza. They close their eyes, bow their heads, sit with their arms across their chests in an X shape, hands touching their shoulders, and sing a chant in Ancient Vulpani, praising The Lady. If it's one of the Tayva Din's Feast Days, they pay tribute to that Tayva Din as well.

When praying privately and non-sexually to The Lady, tayva'stani vulpines will kneel on a heavily padded pillow called a vilakoka. Vilakokani that they use at home are often embroidered with fancy patterns; if they have one at work, it's typically white or black. Children's and teenagers' vilakokani are a solid color; upon completion of their Soul-Joining Ritual, felki ("ensouled vulpines") are presented with a specially designed vilkakoka as a gift from their parents.

Unlike vulpines who practice regular triestan, tayva'stani vulpines will only worship The Lady and venerate the Tayva Din, and will follow no other gods.


Feast Days (About 26 Days Apart from One Another)

The Feast Days of the Tayva Din correspond with the Nushanta Nu Shuka Triesta, the Calendar of The Lady. Each Feast Day is considered the first day of a vulpine month; that is, Marchao 1 is the Feast Day of Marachao.

Icebreak, Week 2, Gaesday (March 18): Marachao, female, the Tayva Din of Cooking [This is the first day of the vulpine calendar]

Blooming, Week 2, Ishday (April 13): Napur, male, the Tayva Din of Wind and Exploration

Dryad's Dance, Week 1, Spiritday (May 9): Maltava, female, the Tayva Din of Art

Steelrule, Week 1, Adenday (June 4): Xevious the Conqueror, male, the Tayva Din of War

Summerburn, Week 1, Firstday (June 30, new moon/waning moon): Verlosi, male, the Tayva Din of Water

Summerburn, Week 3, Gaesday (July 26): Laymeesha, female, the Trickster of the Tayva Din

Thunder's Reign, Week 3, Ishday (August 21): Riyajin, female, the Tayva Din of Music

Fading, Week 2, Lasday (September 17): Maskata, male, the Tayva Din of the Jungle and Plants

Highharvest, Week 2, Fireday (October 13, full moon/half moon): Djina, female, the Tayva Din of Romance and Lust

Gaea's Rest, Week 2, Waterday (November 8): Tel'buk, male, the Tayva Din of Transformation, Hearth, and Home

Frostspear, Week 1, Airday (December 4, half-moon/new moon): Oontaro, male, Sweet Brother of Mercy, the Tayva Din of Healing and the Lost

Double Eclipse, Day 4, Deadday (December 30, double eclipse blocking the sun): Mulrani, the Dual-Gendered Tayva Din of Fertility

Darkhowl, Week 3, Adenday (January 25): Dakeeni, male, the Tayva Din of the Islands

Wolfmoon, Week 3, Firstday (February 20): Palzta, female, the Weather Witch of the Tayva Din

[CallieO]

Updated today with information about the prayer pillows called vilakokani.

[CallieO]

Updated yesterday with the wedding ceremony.