#i just like the moths and relate to them being steadily isolated from their culture despite living in an area

[datastate]

so. bug christianity huh.

hallownest’s heart had a sanctum for its religious scholars, and kings’ idols are common enough. this isn’t touching on the various ways that his insignia is engraved in the very design of his claim. with how deified and physically unreachable the pale king was, there was definitely a method of prayer for him specifically. (with wl’s worship presented in other ways)

a lot of the kings’ idols that we find have enough minor differences that they’re assumed to be tailored to the owner, symbolic of their king’s omnipotence(?). from this, it’s likely that those with this would use their idols as some sort of connection to their king.

he has emphasis on offering yourself up for the kingdom (for him) and promising to carry your burden in turn; a part of this may be setting up a tithe with the idol when you’re preparing for prayer, along with the confessional part of it.

afterward, instead of keeping the geo you set when praying, you would give your money to one of the fountains set around - or the sanctum itself, seeing as the sanctum has a place in hallownest’s capital, it was endorsed by pk, and i imagine at least some of the money would go to support his most faithful (and useful) citizens.

i know kings’ idols were not given to the poorer, and so under the assumption you didn’t have one to share with your family, it’s probable that giving your geo was either yearly or seasonal (before the stasis). while those rich enough to own a kings’ idol were allowed privacy (maybe even enough to remove their mask for him? something that is probably only ever shown to family or especially close friends or lovers), others probably had to go to the fountains/statues during these designated times to speak with their king and give their money there, without that privilege.

i can think of one situation where they may do this - the area with gruz mother sleeping has a statue of the king. it’s close enough to the stagways (if you’re in dirtmouth, but still consider yourself a part of his kingdom, that’d be especially helpful), and it’s besides many of the homes so it’s easy to access. if they didn’t use the lift to the capital, they could’ve used the stagways to give over their tithings to the sanctum.

the richer may have been coerced out of hoarding money by this - like, ‘oh? you aren’t praying?’ / ‘what?’ / ‘you hardly have anything to offer to him.’, etc. the capital was comfortably rich, but they were refused any sort of. millionare status lmfao

there were definitely other ways of showing your faith outside of prayer too, though. maybe small sayings before meals or, it may have been a small tablet with your written promise, that you would give over with the geo, or maybe they would only use parchment for this (though, i’m not sure how that’d line up with their. conflict with deepnest) so that it would be rendered unreadable to all but the king once it was dropped in the fountain for him.