The Minister of Teresh raised his golden staff and began speaking in a foul, gutteral tongue, his eyes rolling back until nothing but white showed. Horatio knew it as the forbidden tongue of the dead, and made the sign of Maris across his chest, pleading to his god for mercy. Brother Horatio's prayers were not answered that day. - Mother Contessa, Heirophant of the Reformed Temple of Maris
13 May, 2015
Religions of the New World, Part 1
The Imperial Faith, and the Schism
The survivors of the Old World, those that fled the holocaust that engulfed the Empire and its neighbors, brought their faiths with them when settling this strange and terrible new continent. Many, especially those who followed the Imperial faith, known often as the Temple of Light and Law, or more recently, the Tereshian Orthodoxy, were in turmoil after the Great Migration. The Matriarch was lost, and the chain of succession was unclear as survivors were few. From this turmoil grew a great schism that tore at the allegiances of the shattered peoples of the New World.
The God-King Teresh, First Emperor and God of the Sky, Wind, and Heavens. After the world coalesced from the clashing forces of Order and Chaos, he was the first Man, created whole. While Dwarves took up the mantle of Law and Elves the banner of Chaos, Teresh values both in equal measure. He is said to have founded the First Empire, and ruled for millennia, according to official mytho-histories.
The old guard clung to the Temple's teachings, proclaiming that this apocalypse was merely a test of faith, and that all should look once more to the Temple for guidance. The veneration of the Triune godhead of Teresh, Menva, and Maris, with the Godking Teresh as the head, was taken as an unquestioned matter of course. The Godhead had been venerated in its present form for millennia, surely that should not change now, they said.
A defaced statue of Menva, Goddess of the Land, Seas, and Life, damaged in the Schism War. The wife of Teresh and the first woman. Supposedly the mother of all creation, crafted from Dwarvish alabaster and Elvish magic, and breathed into life by Teresh. She birthed the first generation of the Mannish races, and was the Empress Dowager of the First Empire after Teresh's death and apotheosis.
With these traditions, however, the ecclesiarchy brought the old corruptions that darkened the heart of the Temple. With their monopoly of aid and ministry in the New World, and a hungry and scared people brought low, some accused the Temple of opportunism, especially when the new Patriarch, Corvinus the First, claimed that this exodus was in fact a holy Crusade to purify the faithful, and that he had crowned himself the first emperor of the Restored Empire. Many priests of Teresh were said to take bribes in return for granting special blessings on the rich and powerful. The people noticed that priests were always adorned with gold and silver and many precious stones. A schism eventually formed within the Temple, with nearly a third of the ecclesiarchy, including the entire Ordo Templari, leaving much of the Temples lands defenseless from the horrible beasts of the New World.
Maris, God of Judgement, War, Fire, and the Sun. He led the armies of the First Empire, and organized a codex of laws to govern the people. After his mortal death and apotheosis, the Ordo Templari was founded to carry on his legacy.
The Ordo Templari were the militant arm of the Temple, charged with rooting out heresies, inquisitions, defense, and artifact recovery. They primarily worshipped Maris as their patron aspect of the Godhead, who presided over matters of war and justice and kept the divine flames burning in the heavens. The clerics and templars of this order made the painful decision to split from the Temple after Patriarch Corvinus took power, which they viewed as a grievous heresy - the Temple, they maintain, is a spiritual guide, not a temporal power. What followed was a war between the weakened Orthodox Temple and the militant Reformed Temple of Maris.
After decades, a stalemate was reached and the Partiarch met with the Presbyter of the Reformers and a peace, of a sort, was made. Both faiths vowed to stay out of lands claimed by the other and to always give aid to those in need, no matter their faith.
Maris, Son of Teresh and Menva, is his avatar as the Sun. It is said that prior to Maris's goodhood, The world was lit by the moons and perpetual starlight.
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