Karovan

Karovan is the main religion of Vallarland. It is a monotheistic religion. Followers of Karovan are known as Kovians. Kovians believe that Karos is the one god of the world, but that he did not create the world. The creator of the world is Naros, the father of Karos. Naros created the world, then used his own essence to sow the seeds of life and to make his son. Karos then took on the task of managing his father's creation. His primary duty is to maintain the purity of his father's essence. All living things contain a tiny portion of Naros' essence, and in some creatures, their actions affect its purity. In most cases, animals cannot affect its purity since they act on instinct. Humans, however, can affect the purity of Naros' essence since they can think for themselves and commit evil deeds. When a human breaks one of the tenets of Karovan, it puts a blight of his or her essence. The state of one's essence determines what happens to them when they die.

Kovians believe that when they die, they join Karos in Halasten. Those with a pure essence are rewarded with having their wishes granted and their own servants to take care of them. Those that have a blighted essence have it taken from them (which is very unpleasent) and become the servents of those who have a pure essence. Their essence is dowsed in the Silver Lake at the center of Halasten in order to cleanse them. It takes almost 700 years for the essence to be cleansed, at which point it is returned to its owner who is then reborn.

An interesting thing about Karovan is that it does not deny the existence of other dieties such as Draggor or Ultica. Instead, they are considered to be lesser deities created by Karos to help him manage humans. So believing in them does not put a blight on one's essence, but denying the existence of Karos and Naros will.

Tenets of Karovan
There are two sets of tenets: one that defines what will blight your essence, and another that defines what will purify your essesnce.

What will blight your essence. What will purify your essence.
 * 1) Murdering an innocent.
 * 2) Taking/destroying what is not yours (although if the object in question does not appear to belong to anyone, feel free to claim it).
 * 3) Dishonouring/betraying your family, country, or diety.
 * 4) Cowardice.
 * 5) Rejecting Karos and Naros (to do so is more or less the same as rejecting yourself)
 * 6) Defiling sacred ground (such as a temple or graveyard).
 * 1) Restoring honour to yourself, your family, country, or diety.
 * 2) Assisting those in need.
 * 3) Avenging a murdered friend or relative.
 * 4) Fighting in defence of Karovan.
 * 5) The killing of a saurok.

Agarvos
Agarvos is a lesser deity created by Karos. His duty was to take blighted essences to the Silver Lake to cleanse them, and return cleansed essences to their owners. Agarvos was not happy with this, considering it to be beneath him. He went to Karos and demanded that he be given a duty that befitted him. He was denied. Agarvos continued his duty, but secretly took a portion of each essence that he cleansed. After many years he had amassed a sizeable chunk of essence, and used it to break out of Halasten and create his own small realm called Inkara. Agarvos intended for Inkara to replace Halasten, but to do that, he would need make the humans submit to him. He has the power to affect the minds of humans, but only a limited number of humans. He decided that the best course of action would be to reduce the human population to a size that he could manage. Agarvos then created sauroks as his weapons in his war against humanity and Karos. Should he succeed in overpowering humans, he will then be able to collect all of their essences and grow strong enough to destroy Karos. Because of this, sauroks are considered to be the greatest threat by kovians. The killing of one is a great thing in kovian society, and purifies one's essence.