Aspecticism
Sects of Ascpecticism
Étherealite
Étherealites posit that the waking world, what most of us would term 'reality', is in fact an in-between state for the planes we truly inhabit, and ultimately, the lives we truly lead. The act of dreaming, as they interpret it, is in fact our consciousness realizing its presence within 'The Ethereal Plane'.
Étherialite congregations are held in the mid-afternoon, and comprise one hour of thoughtful rest followed by one hour of group reflection. The sect's followers, called 'Seekers', are encouraged to keep written record of their time in the Ethereal Plane using a journal.
Plainly stated, their spiritual goal is to achieve total transcendence, which is to say they aim to become fully lucid while in the Ethereal Plane, and in doing so, abandon the material world altogether.
Materiste
By and large, Materistes believe that dreams, and other byproducts of the ethereal, are meant to prepare a soul's journey in the afterlife. Essentially, that material pleasures, physical feats, and sensory experiences are held paramount while one is still in corporeal form. This ranges in interpretation from devotion to athleticism, to rampant wealth acquisition, to exploring the plane we inhabit as much as possible.
Those who reach the peak of Materiste discipline - "The Glinting" - are believed to permanently lose their shadow and become immune to physical pain. No verifiable record exists of this feat being completed, however.
Chrônien
Chrôniens, for the most part, do not believe in free will, contending that the universe is an elaborate, interlocking superstructure, spurred on by nothing but its own momentum. The passage of time, they contend, is an illusion created by consciousness, and that existence has no origin point- instead believing it to be part of an infinite cycle of causal events.
Their most prominent religious symbol is a serpent eating its own tail.
*Non-denominational Aspecticists, though a great minority at time of printing, hold to maintaining harmony between these three elements of being.
The Aegian Chronicle
A massive, oscillating, interwoven series of perpetual motion machines, connected to one another via elaborate and elegant glasswork tubes. Fine white sand flows through it in sequence as the machine turns. It is said to be a tributary monument to Terra's Assertion (so-named for Olenya Terra, the founder of the Chronian sect), who posited that, when followers of Aegis are able to predict the movement of each mote of materia in the physical realm, they will be able to predict the future.
"'Dreams?!' Bah! This is not some solo sojourn into some lurid, half-baked memory of a past lover, or a foggy re-rendition of one's schooling, or some other petty subconscious nonsense. Every rest, we cross into a world without limits, an infinite expanse of wonder, horror, and mystery, taking with us naught but our own guile, spiritual agility, and mental fortitude."
-Aether Guide Warren Rubius Xho
"The material is made only to serve the ethereal. Without the spirit, the body is a mere lump of decaying organic matter- a meaty cage meant to shackle the boundless traveller within.”
-Aether Seeker Arterio Xenan