Difference between revisions of "Alexandrian Theology"

Latest revision as of 08:20, 1 September 2012

Alexandrian Orthodoxy

• Godhead: Alexandria Omnity

• Holy Texts: Canon of Orthodoxy, The Apologia, Prophecies of Alabar Tremaline

• Views of Alexandria: Alexandria, whose ascent to power was prophecised by the mad elf Alabar Tremaline, stole all of the divine power from the petty and squabbling demi-pantheon in order to face down and defeat the Dark Lord, a supera-godly being of malace and entopy whose touch had infected the world in the earliest days. During the battle, she was wounded by the traitor Sayid and chose to destroy her mortal form in an unimaginably powerful explosion in order to assure the defeat of the Dark Lord. Although the explosion took with it her best friend Dadtim and much of her rear guard, it also utterly destroyed the Dark Lord. She now exists as the incorporeal (or perhaps recorporialized) Omnity on the far side of the veil.

• Origins of the Church: The Church was built not by Alexandria, but her followers. Primarily Sterros Merroand and Mythrian Arabelle, although most of Alexandria's Stand played some role in its formation, Kivan Half-Elven being the most prominent exception, with the backing of powerful Gilden-Thanes. The Church originated in the North - the new state of Alexia and the Dwarven Lands - and spread south and west over the next two centuries through heavy, Church encouraged missionary activity.

• Views on Morality:

• Views on Afterlife: Oblivion, Banishment to the Hells, and Ascent into the Heavens are the three options. The dead are judged not by Alexandria herself, but by the greatest of her followers: the eternal champions, called Saints among the Flannary and Paragons among the Gnomes.

• Church Organization: The Church is highly structured, complicated, and hierarchical. In broad strokes, the church is lead by a single Arch-Warden at the top. Under him or her, there is a Stand of high ranking advisers, wardens and leaders of the semi-autonomous Manifest Episcopacies, which are generally monastic or service branches of the church. This group administers the Temporal Authority, in addition to running the church. Also answering directly to the Arch-Warden - at least technically - are the Hadriarchs of the Regional Episcopacies, the large regional divisions of Church administration. Each Regional Episcopacy is divided up into dozens, scores, or even hundreds of bethels, usually divided up according to national boundaries, dedicated to ministering to the public and administered by priests and acolytes.

• Role of the Church: The Church is an inescapable part of almost all aspects of life on the Mainland, and its role in unifying and stabilizing the mainland cannot be overstated. For starters, they hold a virtually ironclad monopoly on divine magic on the mainland, at least as practiced by the Goodly Races. Additionally, the Church produces the vast bulk of the Mainland's coinage, meaning the church elders exhibit tremendous control over the world's economic systems. Not to mention that, as the Church tries and punishes the vast majority of violent criminals, the church also plays a tremendous role in the jurisprudence of the Alexandrian world. Often, the church will act as an intermediary or arbiter in political disputes, but takes no direct part in the wars which pit the goodly races against the goodly races (see below). The church also services the spiritual, and sometimes physical, needs of the flock.

Note: While Barbannan declared the Petarans to be Servitors by fiat for the purposes of his failed crusade, generally speaking the prohibition on active war also applies to the human, halfling, dwarf, and gnome peoples of The Ulan and Petara.

Peteran Heterodoxy

• Godhead: The Creator

• Holy Texts: Cantacle of the Eight, The Great Code, Prophecies of Alabar Tremaline. The Testimonial of Sayid is not technically a holy book, but it is the justification for the incorporation of Divine magic into the Petaran culture, and so is worth mentioning here.

• Views of Alexandria: A Petaran orphan raised among the barbarians after a miraculous survival following a shipwreck. Not the godhead, but rather an anointed warrior-prophet who released divine magic from the Usurper Gods and then killing the Dark Usurper by martyring herself. Rather than becoming a god, or making her followers divine, in her death she wisely freed divine power of the Eight Makers (the servants of the Creator) from the hands of the corrupt demi-pantheon and gave it to men, as The Creator had always intended. The Petarans see Alexandria as the fulfillment of an ancient promise: the Petaran people turned their back on the Demi-Pantheon in the earliest days and so were denied divine power, and it was she who liberated it.

(Of course, the lack of Divine magic led the Petarans to become the greatest Abjurers in the world, as well as leading to the invention and use of smoke-powder and a powerful aesthetic-psionic tradition.)

• Origin of the Church:

• Views on Morality:

• Views on Afterlife:

• Church Organization:

• Role of the Church:

Zupanist Heterodoxy

• Godhead: The Source of Life
• Holy Texts: Zupanic Cantos
• Views of Alexandria: A central figure to the faith, but not the godhead. Credited for the Awakening of Mykos Ligit.
• Views on Morality:
• Views on Afterlife:
• Church Organization: None. Worship, ritual, and organization differs from place to place, or even tribe to tribe. Religious differences are one of the many reasons the barbarians of the Ulan give for constantly warring with one another.
• Role of the Church:

Heresies

It is rare, but not unheard of, for splinter groups to break off from the true church based on differences in interpretation, tradition, history, or any number of factors. Normally, these groups originate around a charismatic leader whose unorthodox preaching brings together a large enough flock to allow divine investiture. An alternate route to accessing divine power attracts a mass number of follower to the cause, leading to explosive early growth. Inevitably, the Temporal Authority takes notice and sends in the inquisitors to suppress the movement by any means necessary.

However, often the same heresies pop up again and again through history, as new preachers - almost always evangelists -

Alternatively, most cults are technically heresies, although the technical definition is still as subject of tremendous debate among sages. According to Hardraldick Thane's widely accepted definition, cults can be differentiated from heresies by the fact that most cults generate in secret, grow their number over time, and do not depend on any one individual as a focus. The gnomish philosopher Gabrababriabopor (gab ra bab ree ah bo poor), however, argues this definition is inadequate because it lumps in groups dedicated to the worship of outsiders with those groups that simply practice heretical - but essentially Alexandrian - beliefs in secret.

It is worth noting here that this section does not servitor religions, which are alien enough to warrant unique treatment.

Kivanite Heresy

The most radical - and unique - of the Alexandrian heresies, and an exception to the rules above, in that it was based not on a different interpretation of canon, but rather on an entirely new, revelatory Second Testimonial of Kivan given from an apparition of Kivan Half-Elven himself to the Alexandrian priest Redzan the Clean.

Gildenite Heresy

Red-Star Heresy

Antinomian Heresy

Perfectionist Heresy

Moralist Heresy

Humanist Heresy

Atheism, Agnosticism, & Non-Religiosity