The major forms of faith in Aesca are land-based, specifically, animistic shamanism. On the continent of Arna, this splits into two major faith groups, these being the Quahanu faiths and the Muscora faiths. Both of them rely heavily on the Whisper as sources of inspiration.

The Whisper is the general term used to refer to the presence of the "land-song" or "core of being" to which all people are attuned. Every human hears a soft and trilling song, seemingly referring to a being or state of being to which all things are tuned. The song can always be heard, far off in the distance, if one takes the time to listen for it for just a brief moment, but it doesn't interfere in daily life and is usually drowned out by thoughts (and is very easily drowned out by the sounds of the city or jungle at night). It is interpreted many different ways by many different people (the natives of the Nazro continent hear something, too, but their words for it generally translate to "the scream" or "the cry of pain.").

Quahanu faiths share the idea that each spirit is is own entity separate from a whole, but is part of the whole. The idea that a rock is its own rock but part of Rock while at the same time not being part of sky is one such example. These faiths also, as a whole, tend to believe the Whisper refers to a tangible entity. Muscora faiths, however, believe the Whisper refers to an ideal, a generalized song of existence, and believe that each spirit is a piece of a greater, unknowable entity to which they are all connected. To use the rock example, a rock spirit is just a visible piece of the whole of an unknowable entity of which everyone is part. These distinctions are important; should a Quanahu follower visit Death, for example, he or she would believe they were speaking with Death itself, while a Muscora follower would believe they were visiting what piece humans can understand of Death, and that Death is indistinguishable from, say, the sky.

Both have a degree of truth; spiritually speaking, everything is part of everything else leading up to the whole of perceived existence, but both groups draw a line. The majority of the faithful, however, fall somewhere between these groups, mixing pieces of both in various regions of influence and ideologies.

It's important to note that faith and science in this setup are directly related and intertwined. You can call a shaman in the phonebook and ask it to summon up Death or Uchgrunmaku (who, being the predatory archosaur that he is, will want some form of offering in your blood and hair or vast amounts of raw meat for his time), and so these things can be quantified, observed, written about, and defined, in addition to the folds and wrinkles created when other realms intrude or places take on emotive resonance (which makes making maps a headache). Really all this means is that "magic" and "science" are semantics words in Aesca.

Oh yeah, and you can totally go to the Underworlds and visit dead relatives. More on that later.