NationStates

Buddhism is a minority religion in the Freehold, seen by the majority of both citizens and non-citizen subjects as mysterious, bizarre, and by some more ardent traditionalists as difficult or even offensive.

No census conducted to date in the Freehold on religiosity has listed Buddhism as a single option, compiling it under an 'other' category instead. It is believed however that the Buddhist population of the Freehold is no greater than 50,000. Demographically, the majority of Buddhists belong to non-citizen classes, particularly provincial residents of either federate or tributary status, with a few holding the Lykosian rights, and a tiny amount holding full Ephyral citizenship. The population of Buddhists could hypothetically increase if Buddhist citizens of states given 'allied' status relocated to Ephyra, as citizens of allied nations have that right of residency - but could also be subject to decrease due to conversions, incentivised by the Ephyral state.

Whilst Ephyral law and the state demand no particular devotion or worship to any single deity, and indeed cultivate a conditional religious tolerance amongst its diverse subjects, religion is viewed as a state and public affair, conducted openly, and with endorsement by the state due to the irremovable link between the divine and the operations of the state epitomised by the concept of the divine peace and the practice of correct ritual. For the divine peace to be maintained, all residents of the Freehold are required to participate in the regular and annually held public festivals to the numerous gods of Ephyra. To circumvent issues of religious tension, Ephyra's interaction with polytheists was to incorporate their gods into the Ephyral pantheon, respecting the ancestral worship of an ethnic group's gods just as their ancestors did - essentially permitting the conquered group to continue their religious practices, whilst acknowledging the divine peace is upheld, and laying the groundwork for further religious syncretism.. Indeed, it is ethnic religion in particular that the Ephyral gods exalt, for they are the gods of one's own forefathers. This emphasis on keeping tradition from generation to generation is why the disliked religion of Judaism is more tolerated by the state than Christianity or Islam, which lack an ethnos and actively convert and proselytise to a faith that refuses to acknowledge the existence of other gods, and prohibits its members from cultivating to the Ephyral gods and therefore jeopardise the divine peace.

An accusation of religious malpractice can take the form of a charge of atheism, and anyone so accused will have the legal right to end the case immediately by performing sacrifice and offering to the Ephyral gods, in particular Lysara, the goddess of the hearth, home, and state. Refusal to do so, and a prosecution leading to a verdict of guilty, results in capital punishment.

All three Abrahamic religions have been subject to random mob persecutions over the years, and some continue to happen today. Judaism, for its ethnic faith, was granted the right to pay a religious tax in lieu of taking part in the religious festivals, with the tax funding the temples of the Ephyral gods to simulate offering. Christianity and Islam were, in time, granted this same right with the further prohibition on proselytising. Refusal to pay this tax is additionally considered a crime of atheism and neglect towards the gods, whilst proselytising carries a penalty of enslavement.

Buddhism is treated perhaps as a more benign form of these religions. The practices of the Abrahamic faiths behind closed doors lead to suspicion from the citizen and polytheistic population, who conduct their religious rites openly before the gods. Buddhism is seen to lack any gods whatsoever, functional atheism if not criminal, and the routine presence of animal sacrifice in the religious rites appears to the Ephyral to fly contrary to the Buddhist concepts of non-violence. Its further perceived elements of solitude also alienate it significantly from the wider population, and whilst it isn't regarded as excessive in its devotion to the gods in the way that Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are noted to be and disliked for, very little about it strikes the average Ephyral as being of 'proper' religious practice.

In this manner, Buddhism exists in a sort of legal limbo. No religion-wide tax is imposed, and individual Buddhists can either cultivate to the Ephyral gods or if not, individually pay the tax. This second option is also afforded to them if accused of atheism. Should a Buddhist refuse to either cultivate or pay tax, they'll be sentenced to death.

There have been no state-sanctioned persecutions against Buddhists, and mob-attacks on them have been rare. Buddhists have been caught up in violence between the pagans and monotheists, which though now rare, can occasionally flare up between citizen colonists or allied pagans and the mostly provincial monotheists.