The ultimate symbol of survival at Camp Lamplight is the lantern. When prisoners first arrived, they soon learnt that weapons and walls were useless against the might of the creatures that lurked in the forest, creatures that thought people were a fair meal. Instead, they were driven away by the lanterns that were lit all around Camp Lamplight. Where initially the lanterns were just a tool of survival, they quickly grew to have a strong symbolic value and became the prime religious icon at Camp Lamplight.
Everyone at Camp Lamplight has a lantern, and no matter how bitter a feud may get, you never mess with someone else’s lantern. Sabotaging someone else’s lantern is a crime punishable by death. Not under prison law, but under the law of Camp Lamplight’s survivalist new religion and the sheriff is unlikely to stop it. The sheriff and guards too live by the grace of the lanterns.
When prisoners were first sent to Camp Lamplight they were also given a priest. This priest was a brave man, well respected by prisoners and guards alike. When in the early days of Camp Lamplight he advocated for going to rescue those who had been dragged into the forests by its terrifying creatures he had no issues with joining the expedition. He took up arms and out he went to be the hero. And died. Rather unheroically.
Without a priest they people looked to someone else for religious guidance. The lamplighter. The lamplighter was responsible for going around Camp Lamplight refuelling the lights and as the importance of the lanterns grew, so did the importance of the lamplighter. Soon lamplighter was no longer a job but a title. The Lamplighter still has the dangerous job of keeping the lamps lit, but they also serve the same purpose of religious guidance as any other priest might. In the conflicts of Camp Lamplight the Lamplighter is a most crucial mediator because keeping the lamps lit is their responsibility.
The job of Lamplighter is given from Lamplighter to apprentice and is not necessarily hereditary as most of the other jobs at Camp Lamplight are.
Midsummer is the greatest feast at Camp Lamplight. It is the time of year where it does not get dark at all and the threats from outside are the smallest. This one time a year all the lanterns are extinguished so their proverbial spirits may rest. No fires may be lit either. Because it is the only holiday people get to celebrate in earnest, it is always an enormous celebration. It is celebrated from dusk till dawn with copious amount of alcohol, cold food and dance.
At dawn everyone is expected to travel to the lake and submerge themselves in the lake (mostly to sober up though few would admit this) and then a somber procession, led by the Lamplighter, goes to relight all the lanterns. It is considered good luck if your lantern lights smoothly during this procession.
Sheriffs of old have recognized this new holiday without great protest and by request of these sheriffs Camp Lamplight receives extra rations and gifts from Planet Sunrise this one time a year.
Camp Lamplight has no real religious doctrine around relationships. There’s no strong morality about what you can and cannot do where relationships are concerned. You can freely move in with someone or move out with someone, freely have children, freely sleep around. You can do whatever.
So whilst weddings aren’t at all necessary, some people enjoy the celebration. The most important aspect of a wedding is registering it with the sheriff, a purely bureaucratic process. At this point a partnership will be registered at Planet Sunrise and stronger rights will be applicable to the partner. These stronger rights are entirely mute in a place like Camp Lamplight where things like alimony, hospital visits or tax burdens are non-existent but they theoretically apply.
People who do marry more often do it to take side in the Howler versus Hunter feud more officially. Your stance on weddings is more likely dictated by your faction than your religion.
But should you, after all of the above, want a religious wedding ceremony then the Lamplighter will officiate. The ceremonies can be largely dictated by the people getting married but a few customs are in place.
It is common for the married pair to decorate a joint lantern together, and for every household to put a spare lantern around the house of the newlywed couple to wish them good luck. It is also common to surround the wedding site with a circular bonfire with three openings for entering and leaving. There’s also historic precedent for every single guest bringing a bucket of water with them.
Where weddings are relaxed occasions, births are not. Childbirth is something people at Camp Lamplight take very seriously. Not only are people dependant on the next generation to survive, but there is also a great degree of pride in the continuation of Camp Lamplight.
When a woman discovers she is pregnant the most important thing that needs to happen is that two lanterns are made. One is made by the mother. The other is made by the closest other relative to the child. Most commonly this is done by the father, but in the absence of those it can also be for example one of the mother’s siblings, or her closest friend. Either way, whoever makes the lantern is the child’s other primary caretaker. It should never be done lightly.
Every child should have two small lanterns ready at the moment of birth. The moment labour starts the other caretaker has to light the lamp they made for the baby. It is believed a lit lamp encourages a thriving baby as it means they are welcomed into a safe world.
The mother’s lantern may only be lit by the mother once both mother and baby are happy and healthy. It is considered extremely bad luck to light the mother’s lantern should she not survive the childbirth.
A child should always have two little lanterns. Should one of their caretakers die as they progress through childhood another person has to take on the mantle of caretaker and make a second lantern for them. Children are considered too precious to ever be left without two caretakers, whoever they are.
The two lanterns are replaced by a single big lantern, made by the child itself, when they reach adulthood. Adulthood is not bound by age but rather by the caretaker’s determination of readiness. It is a great thing when your caretakers help you in making your first full-size lantern. It is commonly done near midsummer, but this is more a habit than a rule.
Nothing is more likely to attract a predator than a dead body. And nothing is better at keeping them at bay than fire. Thusly bodies are burnt. At Camp Lamplight the moment someone dies work starts on their pyre, regardless of the time of day. No rest is had until the body is burnt. The result of this are quiet affairs where people both grieve and rest. Speeches aren’t common. The Lamplighter is responsible for lighting the pyre and making sure the fire remains controlled.
The primary religion on Planet Sunrise is the Sunlight cult. It is a non-centralized, liberal religion that worships the sun. They also fully acknowledge that the sun is little more than a convenient ball of hot gas, but this ball of gas is so central to survival that it seems fair to worship it. Because it is not centralized the Sunlight Cult can vary greatly in customs and practices from parish to parish, dictated largely by their priests.
The central doctrine however remains the same. Do right by your fellow man. It’s never gotten around to defining what right is, which has lent it its relentlessly liberal streak. It is however this idea of doing right, of doing the moral thing, that led to the founding of Camp Lamplight in the first place. Killing people, even criminals, is wrong.
The people at Camp Lamplight have a passing awareness of the existence of the Sunlight cult but know very little about it. It isn’t relevant to them anyway.
The Lost have a religion. The few glances of them the people at Camp Lamplight get give the impression that it is a fundamental religion. But what it entails? No one knows.