The people of Ionadis are super religious. Kind of hard not to be, especially since the descendants of the gods are actually descendents of gods, and run around setting stuff on fire and just generally doing weird stuff.
Everyone believes in the same Religion, but the issue is that there are different sects. Some gods are worshipped more often than others, there are patron gods for almost everything, but there are two main gods.
Solara
The goddess of the sun and stars, and light. She is generally revered as the main god, and is Mother Goddess to all of the Empire. Her descendants are her mortal representatives, the most important being the Mother Empress.
Lunos
The god of the night and the moon, twin brother of Solara and her lover. Lunos is not as venerated as Solara, and in some aspects is even shown as evil, even though he's not.
Some people tend to avoid certain areas due to conflict of religious beliefs. Some ethnicities tend to believe in certain sects more than others. Daywalkers tend to worship Solara, Nightwalkers Lunos.
This is because of the schism of religious texts. There are many versions floating around of religous texts, but there are two main kinds, causing the rift between the Day and Nightwalkers.
This is super problematic, because it further creates racial tensions, because both sides think the other is lying, when they are just victims.
Not all the gods and goddesses are powerful. Gods are more powerful depending on how many followers they have. Because of this the most obscure of gods are forced to work through cults, or the extremely devout, or possessing people, sending them messages.
The most powerful of gods simply directly interfere in the lives of their mortal subjects. Some can't be bothered even though they're powerful and only interfere if they need something done. Some gods don't like mortals, others love them and do them many favors (further increasing their popularity and therefore powers), many just don't care for them, they way a person doesn't care for ants.
Each God has their own domain. They can't control everything, and they have their own limits such as people. Some Gods have influence in multiple domains, but try to stick to one out of fear of other more powerful gods.
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The Story of Creation
From The Void came forth Solara and Lunos. Always in conflict, they were rarely together at the same time. Solara and Lunos always competed with each other, trying to prove that one of them could create better things than the other.
Solara's tears of sadness when she was alone in The Void created the ocean. Lunos did not like her tears, and created the sky to separate himself from them.
Solara saw that Lunos had separated her from the water through creation of the sky, so she created land so that she had something to walk upon to visit her sadness. From Solara's new tears she created vegetation and plants all over Ionadis.
When she had seen the beauty of her tears had created life, she cried once more. Her tears of joy created stars and light .
Lunos did not like that she had more things than him. He did not know how to create his own light, so he created moons to reflect off of hers.
Solara was lonely and tired of crying. She knew that she could breathe life into the world through the creation of vegetation. She wanted company, for her brother Lunos rarely visited her.
Solara decided to make lower creatures (animals of the land) from the dirt and soil. She took clay, and various other tools and stuck them together to make their shape. Once satisfied she used the heat of the sun to give them life and energy.
Lunos felt that these lower creatures were not to his liking. So from the waters he breathed life into it (fish), and from the skies he created movement(birds).
Solara was jealous of Lunos' flying creatures. They looked down upon her creatures of land. She did not like that Lunos had created creatures in her domain of the sea, she felt it mocked her sadness.
Solara then created the DayWalkers, those who walked among the light. Their skin soaked in the sun, and their hair was dark and long. She made them strong and tough to protect them, to handle the severity of life, and she felt it was good.
No longer was she lonely.
Lunos saw what Solara had done and did not like it. He did not like that Solara had made more than him. He did not know how to create the things Solara did. This is because true magic comes from pain. Something must be given to earn power, in turn this keeps the universe in balance.
Solara was stronger because of the pain from her loneliness.
Lunos created his own reflection of the DayWalkers, the Nightwalkers. With pale skin like that of the moon, and light hair like the birds of the sky, Lunos cherished them more than the DayWalkers, and felt that they were superior. He gave them intelligence so that they would create and know how to avoid the harshness of the world.
The NightWalkers and the DayWalkers did not like each other. They felt that one was superior to the other, which was far from the truth. Their abilities complemented each other, but they were far too different to understand it. After some time they would kill and maim each other, creating suffering and malice.
Lunos and Solara saw this, and it was not good.
They did not agree on many things, but they both loved their creations dearly. So they met to agree what to do about their creations (Solar Eclipse). They walked upon the sky and saw all that they created and found beauty in it. They made love and created the heavens. They walked upon the land and saw beauty in what they created, and once again after their lovemaking, Solara was begotten with a child.
After some time they could not come to an understanding, and they separated once more.
When it came time for Solara to give birth, she cried tears of joy. The tears fell to the sky, as little tiny stars (meteors, meteorites) fell upon Ionadis. They cracked upon landing and out came her children, the Sons and Daughters of Stars.
The Problems
So since the des Regalis family came to power, they wanted to justify their rule. The des Regalis were Nightwalkers, but Lunos was seen as evil, and by association Nightwalkers were seen as evil as well. So they rewrote all their religious texts to change the truth. They knew that it was hard to make people believe that Lunos was not evil, or that he was even neutral, but they used their cunning and intelligence to come up with a plan. They rewrote the books to say that they were the Daywalkers. They said their skin was pale, and it shone in the sun, therefore this must be true. After some time people began to believe this new truth. Some Nightwalkers refused to believe it, and have the original texts to this day. They are in the minority.