Is this alright religious world building, please tell me how to improve it. (lore dump)
The Izakar people have many gods. Zailth, Temuris, Var'sah. But the most beloved is Lord Nethis.
Lord Nethis is actually Zailth, just in a different, more human form. Zailth is the ever calm god, whose body lacks all movement other than the rise of his chest and it's depression during breathing, and his blinks.
Lord Zailth is the half lidded lord, his eyes are half closed for majority of time, and his blinks are long, extremely long from the human point of view. When he closes his eyes fully, existence ceases to exist, all things around him die, all universes collapse into him, all existence but himself is annihilated. When he opens them again at the end of the blink, when they are open fully, a new existence is born of it. New universes, and the gods are reborn, and then his eyes reach a state of half lidded, where they stay for a long time until his next blink, when the cycle will be repeated again.
And within each cycle of creation he manifests in a more reactive, more personal form, that form is Nethis. The god of winds, the god of kings, and the king of gods.
Nethis has no set appearance, he can appear unto you in any form. He can come to your door as a traveler seeking a glass of water and you will never realise you have met the lord. He can be the rock you sit upon after fishing, or the tree whose fruit you eat.
he also resides in the body of the saints, those who reach the zenith of devotion, become exalted devotees, then their bodies become a temple, and Nethis takes over their senses. Once that occurs they lose the ability to sin, for now their actions are guided by the lord himself, and he can not sin. This does not annihilate free will, but it does reduce it. The saint is still himself almost all the time, but the lord intervenes when he has to. When a grave sin is about to be committed the lord comes, and takes over. And this takeover is not as simple as a frail body being pupated by the lord, it does not simply come to prevent sin of the saint himself but his surroundings.
When it was needed the lord took over Saint Maltus and tore apart the armies of Torosi. Forgiveness is core of faith, but violence can be righteous too, but none can make this decision better than the lord. Maltus was willing to let himself die to the hands of the Torosi, he would not pick up a weapon, he would rather die, but the lord took over his body and tore the Torosi apart. And Maltus was not happy, he argued with the lord, but the lord told him to sacrifice oneself is righteous, but not always, even if he had complied with every demand, the King of the Torosi would still not stop his conquest, sometimes war is a responsibility too. To give in and not fight would have been the real sin in this context, so the lord had to intervene, as he can not allow Maltus to sin, for Maltus is the greatest of the saints.
When the lord takes over a body, it is no longer a human body, it is the lord. It is no longer bound to the physical limitations of it's actual owner.
Warrior monks are not new to Zailthism, they have existed since the very beginning. But warrior monks were bared from the status of "Saint", until Maltus that is. Initial view of the faith was, "violence can be necessary sometimes, but never be righteous".
This meant a warrior monk was subject to harsher living standards and conditions otherwise, and socially supposed to repent more than the other monks, and give up on other "pleasures" of life, even more than other monks to make up for him picking up a weapon.
Within Zailthism warriors already have a separate class, and they are not subject to these extra conditions, it is only when someone wants to be a monk and a warrior at the same time that these conditions apply.
But the verses of the world say "Violence can be righteous, thus warrior monks can be saints." And Saint Maltus becomes the first saintly warrior.
However this is not a settled thing across all sects of the faith, most today allow warrior saints, some still do not.
Another important discussion, not all saints are possessed by Nethis. Saint is a title handed by humans, it is still rare, not every monk becomes a saint, but exalted saints are extremely rare. In all of the Zailtar, and thus in all of canon there are only 8. In the 1600 years since Maltus many local figures have come and gone who created commotion in their day, apocalyptic preachers, people declaring that they were Nethis manifested and all of that, some even built cults around them which lasted significant times but these were all fringe or moderate movements and rumours, no widely accepted exalted saint has been here since Maltus who has been as declarative and more importantly demonstrable about his/her nature to the world. No divine possession has been observed in a demonstrable way by a wide enough audience to attest it as unquestionable, thus as it stands, for most people, Maltus was the last Exalted saint.
Women are allowed into priesthood and sainthood in Zailthism, though again allowance and acceptance in scripture does not always translate to actual equal opportunity and respect in the real world.
The core of the faith and the sitting place of the high priest of the faith is at the holy mound of Mir, in the temple of Mir, at the centre of the holy city of Mir. The mound was raised by Man of god himself in canon. (Man of god has no name to speak of, in the scripture he is simply called "Man of god" most of the time, alternatively he is called "The scaled one", "The first created", and "The Bestowed one".)
Back to Nethis,
He is the lord of the winds, thus winds are a sacred part of Izakar culture. Izakar people make the best perfumes in the world, some perfumes are considered sacred, they are used in every walk of life in Iza, from temple ceremonies to birth and death and weddings and other festivals.
Smell in general is considered sacred. To open one's windows when cooking is a cultural staple, to spread the smell of the food around. To keep the air clean, to keep it scented with perfumes and burning of offerings which produce great scents like sandalwood, and oils and meat.
But here class comes to play. Not all perfumes are made the same, and sold the same. The best of perfumes are hard to make, and also sold expensively for the same reason. There is a class divide, as people of more wealth have access to the best of perfumes and incense. Charity is emphasised, and the lord cares not for the grandiose of a ceremony but the intent, but still it is a dream of every faithful to celebrate their lord in the most grand way they can, that is human tendency, to wish to do something big.
Other traditions done in honour of Nethis are Daka. Dhami Daka and Dilai Daka.
Daka means "to perform"
Dami Daka is to perform arts, like singing, poetry, dancing and martial prowess.
Dilai Daka is to perform debate, academia and philosophical inquiry.
In Izakar culture public display of art is seen positively, it has been emphasised many a times in the scriptures(The Zailtar).
You never know how your art may inspire and even save others, maybe you wrote something that someone needed to hear today, so it is important to not just keep art to yourself but to spread it around. This brings joy to Nethis.
And Dilai Daka is not restricted but in practice it does end up being a thing the priestly and noble classes participate in more than the common folk.
The Zailtar itself is split into two, the Verses of the Dilais(closed canon) and Verses of the world(open , new verses and books have been added time to time ever since 1600 years ago when the tradition was first founded by Saint Maltus).
Gods do not possess genders, their appearance is utterly by choice and can be changed at will, they are beyond names and gender, including Zailth and Nethis. It is just that in normal discourse and day to day worship the gods are intentionally frozen to their most famous and well known form to help worship and visualisation, hence human figure of speech are applied to them, but in strict scriptural sense Nethis can not be referred to as "he" or "she" or "they" as Nethis is simply not a biological natural being, he is the pre requisite to nature himself, he is Zailth, he is the cause of all contingency. This is true for the rest of the pantheon too, their primary feature are the element or aspect of life they are associated with. Maris is the lord of the moon and tides, that is the only real definitive "characteristic" he posses in the traditional sense, his male look, his complexion, his personification is not really accurate to his true nature as he has no fixed form.