With 5 XP from Back of Beyond, Finn just hit 75 XP in Religion. I think I will stop putting XP here now, as I don't think he's going to become a religious studies professor or anything, but here's an idea of how he got to this point.
Raised in a small hamlet a ways out from Kalzasi, he didn't get much in the way of religious study. He knew the names of the Gods and the Mistlords, but he cared more about the songs and stories than any actual religious experiences. Then he moved to the city once he was an adult and was exposed to a more cosmopolitan collection of people. He still wasn't religious personally, but he was exposed to more people and more belief systems.
He also met Talon, who would later ascend, which is a part of the story, but comes later.
When he studied at the Academy, he was focused on music, but he was handed the keys to all the things he didn't know he didn't know, so he studied a lot of history, ethnomusicology, and various other disciplines, which sometimes overlapped with religion, but still wasn't a focus. In Kalzasi, he was exposed to new religious holidays and festivals and since he came to them as an adult, they were things he would then go look up in the libraries and archives to better understand what that meant to people other than an excuse to drink instead of work.
Talon was revealed as Arcas, and suddenly, Finn had a personal relationship with an actual god. They weren't bosom buddies, but they were friendly, and he gradually realized that Talon wasn't just showing a little noblesse oblige when deigning to spend time with him.
Later, while dating Arry Venasyr, he did research on Avaerys, as his lover was playing that role at the Golden Peacock—a big break for him. He learned about Streleon and his war with Ugrimal, and then their rebirth as the Divine Twins of Solunarium. He was canny enough a student of music to understand some of how the story was propaganda, or colored by various writers and interpreters.
Then, they went to Solunarium themselves at the possibly casual invitation of Phocion Princeps and he saw how that old dramatic narrative played out thousands of years later in people's actual lives. For all the changes that made him feel like a fish out of water, a good deal of them were either religious or related to religion, which is almost omnipresent in the lives of the citizens there.
He has been called to a pilgrimage, whereupon he was tested by the Twins, alongside Arvalyn, and found worthy of divine grace. In Ash 122, he bore the emblem of Aværys. It wasn't something he asked for, and for a long time he thought it was only a means to forge him into another link in the chain that bound Arvælyn to Solunarium. It all felt wrong to him, but he spent time learning from Vrædyn, the Pontifex and his fellow Radiant.
He learned how to practice their messianic Varværynism, while trying to figure out what his place was in its church, while also learning at Arvælyn's side about the mysteries of faith associated with Varvara's Tethered. He sacrificed a lute with Syren's mark upon it to Varvara, a religious act, to show how he was sacrificing some of his more naive dreams for the realities of his place in Solunarium—which earned the attention of Syren's Bards, as they, at least, were aware that the instrument that Varvara reforged had actually been a blessed creation of their goddess.
In Searing 124, he was raised another level in Aværys' chosen after fulfilling an oath made before his God to seek justice from Thalya Derelicta, who attempted to murder his husband. In that journey through time and timelines, he saw many alternate histories and presents, saw the new and often worse possibilities available to those versions of people he knew, different versions even of the history of his Gods.
While not a bridal mystic, he has experienced sexual congress with his God, which was certainly a religious experience. He has composed music in honor of the Twins.
In Back of Beyond, he encountered an ancient race who worshiped Ugrimal, which will now be a facet of things for him to explore in his mind, how Ugrimal became Varvara, and how Varvara still has connections forged when She was Ugrimal. And while this is an older thread (also Searing 124) and this is where I intend to freeze his XP progress, he is now currently serving as envoy to the Ecithian Commonwealth, where he has met the Orkhan Triumvirate, and so far has had further one-on-one dealings with Syren, with plans to have threads with Raxen and Galetira when Talisman's workload permits.
So, hopefully that's enough relevant experience to support Expert, and we'll leave it at that unless he decides to become a professor of theology or found a cult or something.
Thank you for your time. I didn't intend for this to be so long...!
