>How much is actually known about the Godlearners religious and
>mythical practices?
It changed over time.
First was the zealous back to basics, return to rightness etc. Early Jrustela was a land riven by religious dissent. Normally they confined themselves to city-states but people often wondered that if the Malkioni were one people, why did they have so many answers? Their original impulse was to find the one answer.
They were aided in this by a divination rite that allowed them to talk to God and get correct answers. This was primarily used for religious purposes: i.e. "are these law codes correct?". A problem arose in that they discovered that two or more law codes could be correct. In their attempt to find the one answer, they developed the truth contest in which they could determine which of the oracles* (the people giving god's response) was more correct.
Pursuing this line of questioning allowed them to witness the Writing of the Abiding Book in which the one answer was revealed. It was bearing this book that they liberated Seshnela, drove heretics from Fronela, destroyed the Waertagi and crushed the Dark Empire.
Problems start when they try to spread the book elsewhere: Brithos sinks their fleet, the Kralori missionaries apostatize. They started delving further into the mythologies of others to see if they have left anything out. They are aided in this by study of the secrets of the stygians that teach them about heroquesting.
They study heroquesting and find out their cosmic understanding is enchanced. Further magical powers are gained but they find things they can't understand, no matter how hard they try. They do know how to shape the cosmos to fit their philosophy. At first, it's done as a last resort, then they begin doing it more often before it becomes the solution of choice.
But unknown to them, their philosophy had a fatal flaw that ultimately destroyed them. Sandy has broadly hinted that the flaw was related to or even is the Forbidden Secret.
*Steve Lieb has the idea that because many of the Oracles were women, the God Learners were sympathetic to the notion of women's lib. When their empire fell apart, this God Learner trait is now seen as a bad thing by Malkioni.
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