Magic and Religion

While hardly a part of everyday life for most of Oenklay's peasants, magic is far from rare in Oenklay. Most of the magic that is performed is in the form of utilitarian rituals: a baron may seek out ritualistic cure for a disease; a blessing on the farmland of a wealthy serf may be performed before planting in the spring and so on. The other form of magic seen is in the form of the minor tricks performed by those in traveling entertainers. Most of the “magic” seen here is in the form of sleight of hand, but someone capable of true magic in some low form travels with nearly every such group.

There are no grandiose magic schools or such in Oenklay. Nearly every wizard, warlock, and travelling show trickster is trained as an apprentice by someone else. The result is that most arcane practitioners are relatively low skilled. Non-religious magic is viewed by most nobles as a “commoner's trade” and so even though every noble that can afford one has a magician of some sort on staff, it is rare to find a noble who practices it, at least overtly.

Like the rest of western Antire, Oenklay venerates a set of vague beings known as Elders. A wide variety of Elders are venerated in Oenklay. Even malicious gods are venerated openly. This is generally in the form of offerings intended to placate them rather than veneration. A number of monasteries exist in Oenklay and this is where most of the priests, clerics, and paladins get their training. A number of these are monastery-cathedrals located in towns, while others are their own countryside demesne. Every town has at least one temple, every village a chapel, and many roadside shrines exist throughout the land.