The Denayi state cult is a form of ancestor worship. Its rituals seek to placate the dead, and to honor them for the assistance they give to the state. The religion is orthopraxic rather than orthodox in its outlook, and has little in the way of official theology. All of the state�s dead are assumed to help the republic, but the spirits of sacrificial victims are considered more potent. The minor gods and saints who were once human vie for attention with other mythological figures, often pre-Denayi Gods, all of whom actively promote human endeavors. The Circle themselves are considered to be living Ancestors, and supernatural favor to aid in their decisions. The state cult has, over the millennia, absorbed many local religions and practices, and ritual practice varies from shrine to shrine, but those of Denayi itself, and especially of Denayi city have precedence and prestige over other forms of worship.

The Circle prefers to absorb and acculturate other religions rather than displace them outright. The state cult has influenced other religious practice, and the government actively encourages those elements of local religions that most closely resemble Denayi ancestor worship.

Conversely, the Republic discourages hostile theologies. Monotheism in particular, with its accompanying denial of other deities, often meets with censure, as do strongly hierarchical churches which might organize against the state. Circle policy dictates that Governors should try to modify these religions whenever possible, often by pressuring a religion�s theologians and leaders towards syncretism. Governors can also legally emancipate local shrines (especially those that honor saints, walis and the like) from their mother churches, and shepherd them towards incorporation into the Denayi state cult. Provincial government can also annex and disband the administrative apparatus of troublesome organizations, retaining only those elements deemed compatible with state interests. If religions so targeted resist these changes, this is itself proof of their untrustworthiness.

As a last resort the Circle or the Governor may order that a particularly subversive religion be eradicated wholesale. The Denayi state is not a fine instrument, and such suppression is usually carried out by the army or the Uukaptai, with considerable loss of property and life.

Thus, from the center of the state Cult on Denayi, one finds increasingly divergent religious practice as one travels father away from the main trade routes and father down the social scale. In any given city, for example, there might be one shrine for the High Nobility and Uukaptai whose Denayi priests perform the same liturgy as in the capitol, a second that serves the local army and which acknowledges local gods as Denayi ancestors, a third that acknowledges the divinity of local mythological figures yet invokes their blessing on the state, several more of purely local religions, and any number of shrines dedicated to local gods, Denayi ancestors or both.

The farther up the social scale you travel, the more likely a person is to frequent the first types institutions, and the less likely they are to frequent the latter. Those in purely local authority retain considerable freedom of religion, but those who serve the Republic find nominal adherence to the state cult a practical necessity.