Religion & spirituality
Although most Sicinians today practice a form of Akaeian Christianity, in truth much of what is the faith has its origins in the spirituality of the first Sicinii.
The Three Realms (or the Three Queens)
Everything, and everything beyond everything, falls under the domain of the three sister Queens: Life, Death, and Truth. When everything was first nothingness, the three debated what should define themselves. Life felt that existence was the only real definition, while Death claimed that the non-existence they resided in was all that defined them. Argument soon escalated into battle, and the two Queens left each other in anger to form their own realms. The third Queen, Truth, was dismayed by her sisters' fighting, and by what she saw as their own wrongs. There was no simplicity to the question that could be answered by either existence or non-existence. Instead there exists a greater understanding in the universe beyond Life and Death, something that cannot be fully explained or taught, but must be discovered by following one's own path. So she created her own realm, one that unlike Life and Death was not sharply defined by battle, but instead always lay beyond the reach of all but a few. It is those few, those who have found their path to Truth who are considered to be the truly enlightened.
What we know as the universe is in fact the battlefield between the queendoms of Life and Death. Just by being born, by existing, we are fighting for Life. However, no Life as we know it can be without Death. We must take life to feed, shelter, to survive, and so we are also warriors for Death. However, we are but a small part of the battle that occurs, though an important one. Frequently we are visited by higher powers: angels from Life, demons from Death. Neither angels nor demons are troubled by the porblems of humanity; their sole purpose is to snatch victory for their own Queen.
The battle rages even as you sit here and read, with each side evenly balanced. It is Truth that maintains this balance, for should one side gain the upper hand or even claim victory then all that we know would be destroyed. Neither the realm of Life nor the realm of Death can be deemed the evil realm, for both are equally destructive in their own ways. Absolute Life means the absolute existence of everything, and the absolute lack of nothing. It is Life to the point that nothing is any longer alive. Death, by contrast, is absolute nothingness, as situation as stagnant and unchanging as Life.
Truth is the only one of the three Queens to be considered as "good", for unlike the others it has no definition. The word "Truth" as we understand it barely hints at the magnitude and depth of the realm, but it is the closest our language may come to describing it. Truth is found through the pursuit of one's own greater spiritual meaning, and to finally discover Truth is to reach the ultimate enlightenment. The path to Truth can be stumbled upon in an infinite manner of ways; it may be found in this frontier of Life or even in the passage from Life to Death itself. The search for Truth is the ultimate quest for all beings in this existence, with all the holy men of the world and all their teachings being the results of their own journeys for Truth. However, the saviors and prophets of the world cannot show you the way to Truth, they can only guide you to find the path, but they cannot walk you there.
A temple of the Sicinii has at its center a large stone, carved into three pieces to suggest three hollows. The first hollow contains earth, to symbolize Life. The second hollow is empty, to represent the absence that is Death. However, when a visitor to the Sicinii temple comes to the stone where the third hollow should be they stop, for there is no hollow. They will undoubtedly turn to a nearby priest and ask, "Why is there no hollow here? What signifies Truth?" The priest will shrug and say, "Before you is no symbol of Truth, for there is no truth but Truth." One does not fear Death, one reveres Life , but in all faiths one always worships Truth. -the Celbinax
For most Sicinians the old beliefs have over time been replaced by Akaeian traditions, but some theological scholars believe in some doctrine evidence of the old Faith of the Sicinii can be found. Several professors of theology at the University of Bausin have found links between the modern Holy Trinity and the Three Queens, while others point out remarkable similarities between Saint Michele's Enumerari on the ideal passage to heaven and the centuries earlier work the Celbinax, quoted earlier and ascribed to the Sicinii priest-king Aingeru, which explains the steps he took to reach the path to Truth.
