I agree that the only Church of Henotheism is the Henotheistic Church of Otkorion, its Arkati links are not as strong as they might be, after all Surantyr is the "Nonheretic" and allying with one particular image of Arkat means alienating all believers of the other aspects, and I think Surantyr would quietly try and avoid the question of "What does the Church think of Arkat?" and say that most people are right, and few are wrong, but none are totally right, and then quickly change the subject before someone points out that he didn't actually ANSWER the question. Surantyr is the perfect politican (from his HTWW1 write up). Other Churchs in the Safelster region are a less coherent religion than the Henotheistic Church, in a lot of cases the Church is merely Rokarism with pagan worship tagged on aside. Certainly the Church of Otkorion is the only official state religion, at least until the Duke of Naskorion announces his own Stygian Church of Naskorion (many years hence, I can't remember the exact date, and this Church would almost certainly outlaw the Orlanthi within Naskorion at the moment). The Safelster region is a relgious hotbed whilst Otkorion is more settled, everyone worships the same gods, there is no question of heresy and false interpretations. The correct interpretation is the Archbishops.
As for its actual origin, I see the appearance of the Church as a unified religion as being recent, but its roots stretch back centuries. I couldn't see pagan Orlanthi changing en masse to the worship of the Invisible God so quickly. I think that the Henotheistic Church of Otkorion began years ago when the Kingdom of Jorstland appeared, it was simply a case of some barbarian Orlanthi going "Hey guys, this new magic is cooo-el!" and then promptly starting to try and convert their brethren. Obviously, this wasn't a quick process, and I think it took a very long time for most of Otkorion to convert. However, they eventually joined the Jorstlandi kingdom. They became Malkionised Orlanthi. However, the individual churches were still there, each Family had its own Church, and there were more Churches besides based in the cities. Each had its own individual take on who was a legitimate Orlanthi god to worship, how they should be worshipped, who this Arkat guy was etc... And Surantyr merely took one to prominence and then forced them to unite and decide upon a single doctrine.
All IMO.
Oh, and BTW, just to show timing, I've had a write up of OAKA ready to put up on my webpage for a while now, which seemingly doesn't match any of the interpretations given here. Oh well... : )
Nikk
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