Salbin (/ˈsɒlˌbiːn/) was the official religion of the Exoi Kritocracy and the majority religion of the Exoi species.
Adherents believed a group of deities existing in the void between galaxies in the universe—appropriately called the Gods Beyond Galaxies—had created all that existed, including the very concept of sentience. Salbin focused on worship of these gods through a number of rituals. The Exoi believed they were a specially blessed race, even after the discovery of sentient alien species, but also believed that aliens could offer sacrifice and praise to their gods too. They believed in an afterlife that was called the Finality, a fate of punishment reserved for evil or blasphemous beings; what fate awaited the pious was unknown.
The preachers and ministers of Salbin were called the Acolytes of the God-King, and derived their name from the belief that a single one of their gods had taken on Exoi form and produced offspring with a female Exoi, beginning a royal line that spanned millennia. The Exoi God-King was revered as a demigod figure and has sole legislative power in the Kritocracy. In addition to their ministerial and missionary duties, the Acolytes were personal attendants of the God-King and his family.
Salbin was known to have scriptures, although the details are not known. Both the scriptures themselves and the voluminous commentary they acquired over the millennia were housed in the Temple of Incarnate Glory on Toriafas.
After Rin Sakaros killed Chohwelk VII, the last God-King, and exposed the Acolytes who had been artificially keeping him alive and covertly ruling in his name, the royal line was extinguished. This, combined with the Kritocracy's dissolution and submission to the Golden Empire, prompted a crisis of faith among many Exoi and their alien converts.