I have made the edits. Also here is my religion.
Name of Religion: The Heavenly Paths - Often called the Paths
Founding History: The most holy and righteous faith was founded after the first adherents of the Holy Mother made themselves known to humanity in Kolen. Spreading the Holy paths of the mother, they used compassion, understanding, and moral expectation to win the support of the local peasantry and farmers, before gaining audience to the nobility and administrators of the human settlements in Kolen. While initially hesitant to accept the faith, the Holy Paths began to garner following under a particular women: Talia. She claimed to have been the first to have spoken with the Holy Mother when she fell to earth, and had gathered a strong following of loyal adherents. Burning heretical and heathenous symbols as they went, the mighty march towards the then single kingdom of Estiele would later become known as the first Pilgrimage of Grace. Talia, how was said to have survived what no women could have in battle, and to have never faltered even in the dark, arrived at the capital of Estacele and demanded an audience with the King. Given that she had brought an army she was granted this.
Through what is said to be a week of miracles and piety, Talia was able to win the king of Estiele, and in doing so win the Paths legitimacy amongst many human kingdoms, most notably Lannduane, who adopted the faith in the wake of increasing religious pressure. Once the local kingdoms began to fall to the faith, other religions found themselves being forcefully evicted or eradicated, to ensure only the Mother's message would be spread. The need for greater conversion and the expediting of this process gave rise to the institutions that govern the Paths today. Out of respect to the King of Estiele, Estacele would become the Holy City of the Faith.
Leadership: The leader of the Paths is both the key political and religious figure within the faith. Revered as a demi-god fated to the position by the Holy Mother, they have mastered all twelve of the Heavenly Paths. Traditionally they were referred to as the Great Wanderer, in honor of the first master of the Paths who walked the world with the Holy Mother to attain enlightenment. Though with the rise in prominence and competition of other faiths around Invera, the Covenant has taken to referring to their leader as the Divine to establish the Path’s as mankind’s most spiritually righteous faith. While politics has worryingly become wormed its way into the Conclaves leadership, the Divine is still expected to be the pinnacle of humanity by their followers, and to act as the direct mouthpiece of the Holy Mother: Ellilas (E-yell-ass).
To choose the Divine, a ritual known as The Hallowing must be undertaken; it is an election ran by the Conclave, in which the one-hundred Serene Chanters and the Quaria vote on a candidate. While technically any person – even those not within the Covenant – may become the Divine, in practice the figure has always been a Serene Chanter save once. Upon the elections completion, the figure is coroneted and celebrated before moving to the holy city of Sola and assuming their duties and powers. Chief among which is the administration of the faiths higher functions, the selection of the upper echelon of the Covenant, the spiritual advisement (in theory) of all devout rulers, the interpretation of new scriptures, omens, and signs, representation of the Covenant at official matters, and, should it be needed, the call for a Pilgrimage of Grace against heretics or heathens.
Hierarchy: The Heavenly Paths is a very structured faith, developed to match the ego’s and ambitions of its leadership throughout the ages. With a proud level of bureaucracy and organizational devolution of powers, the best way to understand it as a whole is to move from top to bottom:
The Serene Chanters (The Serene): Ignoring the Divine, these men and women are the power and, in many ways, the hands of the Covenant. They are the selected one-hundred individuals deemed devout enough to act as the advisory body to the Divine, crafting advocatory edicts for the Divine to consider. They are also the executive hub of the faith, tasked with carrying out the edicts and policies of the Paths.
While each is technically equal, they divide themselves amongst varying ranks, some largely titular, others with more weight, but are for most practical purposes organized between 3 systems.
First among them, and generally the top contenders for the position of Divine, are the Cuvia (Su-via). There is a dozen of these pious agents, each of whom serves the Divine directly from Sola. They are permanently housed within the Palace of Redemption, the grand temple of Sola and residence of the Divine. Given this close relationship, the Divine has always placed a great deal of trust in the Cuvia. Typically, they are in charged with delegating tasks to the other Serene Chanters in order to pursue the Covenants agenda and achieve the Divine’s goals. A less discussed function is the carrying out private requests from Divine, which for whatever reason, are best done with secrecy. Each of the Cuvia also has a varied number of other Chanters under their jurisdiction, typically distributed by bloodline’s, property, and political allegiances
Below them is the small, but vital Treria. These are the three men who administer the Holy courts. It is important to note that while hierarchically they are below the Cuvia, in reality they are in their own separate branch from the rest of the Covenant. These men are put into place by the Divine and can be either enormously powerful or largely ceremonial depending on the members. Charged with interpreting the finer points of scripture, below what is deemed worthy of the Divine’s time, charging Covenant officials, launching suits against offenders of the church, and issuing, at their discretion, edicts of enforcement of Holy Law.
In some way the true power of the Treria is their power to appoint lower religious judges. These are members of the Chanters who have typically studied theological doctrine extensively, and so are deemed qualified to pass judgement on lesser crimes, unworthy of the Treria’s consideration. Since every nation that officially follows the Paths must allow for the holy courts in some form, the Treria has influence in the judicial systems of a large portion of Invera, often helping set legal codes and practices.
Lastly, comes the largest segment of the Serene Chanters, simply called the Chanters. As stated, these men are delegated varying amounts of authority dependent upon what their Cuvia gives them. The Chanters are not powerless though; as it stands the Chanters are the only among the Serene who may own land and titles. Each owns large bishoprics and are tasked with supplying, appointing, controlling, and representing the Allatorii (Al-i-tore-e-i), their lower subordinates. They are also the primary means of communication to the masses of the faith from the administration, with the rest of the Serene typically maintaining distance from the lower echelons of the Paths.
Quaria:The Quaria is a purely regulatory role, having little religious duty. Appointed by the Divine, its most visible function is acting as the tie breaker of the Divine’s election. However, they are also granted control of the Department of Interior Affairs, which is the lion’s share of their work. This is a body of investigators, enforcers, and bureaucrats who root out corruption, handle allocation of funds, allotments of land, and the hiring and deployment of the Covenants Protectors – the official guardians of the Covenant composed of donated vanguard from pious nations – and, if they should be present, hired hands. As such the Quaria, while still acting as a religious figure, is largely devoid of religious responsibility, instead ensuring the efficiency and coordination of the Paths various branches.
Diseni Priorita (Di-sen-e Pre-ore-e-tae): A body directly working under the Divine, they are an investigatory body separate from the Quaria. Handling matters separate from regulation and organization, the Diseni Priorita are deployed to leaders of follower nations. They are hard line zealots for investigating nobles and leaders suspected of heresy or heathenous practices, disobedience to Covenant mandates, dishonoring of the Covenant, treachery against the faith, and religious disputes either external or internal within nations. They are also the responders to requests from significant population centers to carry them into the faith. This last point pertains primarily to nations who do not follow the Covenant, but possess followers of its message who may be oppressed or simply dissatisfied with their nation’s ruler, and wish to come into the fold, at which time, a number of decisions will be made.
A subset of the Diseni Priorita is the Inquistorium: These are inquisitors who move throughout pious nations, investigating claims of heresy, reports of heathens or cults, and so on, working with the Erelivavius to find and persecute such offenders. They also act as a correctional body, often forcibly righting or purging negative elements, and act on a variety of social levels, save for top nobles, for whom their parent organization handles for delicacies sake.
The Inquistorium has been fairly described as the most ardent followers of the faith, often carving scripture passages and symbols of the Paths onto their body. They each must know the Song of the Twelve, the primary religious text of the Paths, by heart before they can even be considered for the position. In reward for their extreme devotion, they are given the “Inquisitions Right”. This grants the inquisition the right to launch investigations on any member of the faith, as well as judge and execute their own verdicts. Unsurprisingly, the Treria conflict with their jurisdictions as times. What truly gives the Inquistorium its infamy though is the Chambers of Truth. These are effectively torture chambers, either to punish offenders or to reeducate them. Marked by the weeping eye of the Holy Mother, few enter the Inquistorium’s clutches that ever leave again.
Allatorii: This particular class of the Covenant is, to put it mildly, quite large. For the sake of simplicity, when discussing power in the faith, the Allatorii comes to represent everyone not given their own specific classification or position. While of course, there a number of different ranks within this class, for practical purposes they needn’t be differentiated. The Allatorii are the local means of enforcement of the Chanters, and thus the Cuvia, and through them, the Divine. From the Callagar who manage parcels of their Chanters land and administer their own local Sephe (church), to the special Ruinii (Rue-ee-knee) who serve only on specific holidays or celebrations, to the Malavivae who release Covenant news and work with the Erelivavius, who themselves are tasked with investigating local town claims of heresy and the like. The Allatorii is the backbone of the faith, even including the followers with no duties other than belief. No other branch of the faith is so indicative of the current status of the Paths as they are.
Holy City: Estacele
Pantheon: The Holy Mother Ellilas
Beliefs: The Covenant is an entirely monotheistic faith, worshiping the Holy Mother Ellilas. To the followers of the Heavenly Paths, the Holy Mother is the very essence of creation; she is derived from nothing, instead being mother to all. She existed before time and space, before concepts of anything, and carved them into being. The tale has it that, as the Mother knows all things, she knew of life before it existed. She desired to see it and watch its splendor, and so breathed life into the universe, her gentle breath forming into animated flesh. However, as there was no space, life could not flourish, and so the mother cut a piece from her gown. Its thread was pure white and shimmering gossamer, creating pure twinkles of light. So that all life could see these lights more clearly, she changed the snow white silk to deep night, so all would know and love the light. Then, seeing life flounder with nothing to stand on, she took her pearl necklace up in her hand and cast the perfect glowing orbs into the dark, each looking for a star of their own. Thus, the planets and moons were created. Lastly, so that all life would know its value, she plucked a hair from her shining golden locks, and let it swirl in the heart of all beings, and so time was born.
Thus, the universe and all within it was made. As she watched her creations though, she saw that life was lonely spread amongst the planets. So she gathered all her creations and put them on a special place in her heart, the greatest of her pearls: Carelia (the name for the planet traditionally). From then on, the Mother would always watch over her children, guiding them and protecting them.
From the tears in her gown though, a literal slash in perfection, was born a malevolence. Not a Deity, but rather the force of chaos and imperfection. To those who follow the Paths, this force is the constant nagging feeling to betray the mothers influence. This is called Icceti (I-che-tea) and the foulest of men and heretics are its followers. As their intelligence grew though, the Mother feared their path, and so fell to earth as a shooting star.
When she landed, she saw a woman crying on a great stone, lamenting the sins of all life. The Mother saw her purity, and so rewarded her with a shard of herself as the form of the falling white star, and told her to hope and believe in the star’s light.
This woman would go onto to be the first Divine. Her name was Talia, the origin of the old Inverian word Talum, or justice. She would carry the shard with her to all places, showing people its light and what it had taught her. For the Holy Mothers essence was enlightenment, and so the shard, now known as The Mothers Heart, revealed the practices of morality and peace to all those who would listen to it. It showed what would come to be called the Heavenly Paths; there were twelve in total, each teaching a different aspect of life needed for fulfillment and salvation of all life.
As the Covenant lists them, these are: Piety, Hope, Courage, Honesty, Peace, Love, Power, Honor, Suffering, Knowledge, Temperance, and Purity. Each is widely open to interpretation, though the Covenant attempts to give guidance on the matter.
The definitions as the Covenant sees them are as follows: (1) Piety is the practice of belief in the Holy Mother, understanding her will and essence is present always and within us all, even if we cannot comprehend this physically, we must know spiritually. Thus, as the Divine is an extension of the Holy Mother, piety is also derived through obedience to the Covenant. (2) Hope is a special strength that stands in the face of the darkness that is the Icceti, surviving the suffering and tribulations of life. (3) Courage is the power to stand against the Icceti’s perils and its followers, acknowledging the risks but knowing that the Holy Mother stands beside you in the face of evil. (4) Honesty is the great struggle to embrace the teachings of the Holy Mother, and demands we always speak with purity. (5) Peace is a state of being, both of the body and of the mind, where we are free of the Icceti’s desire to harm, and also find serenity in ourselves when alone. (6) Love is not with the body but with the spirit; we ignore physical desire and know our relationship to the Holy Mother and rejoice in it for it gives us our humanity. (7) Power is a means of acting whereby we are not idle and act as we should when we can for the Holy Mother. (8) Honor is a state of being in which we cannot ignore the guiding principles of our soul, for when these principles are the Holy Mother enlightening you to righteousness. (9) Suffering is a demand upon the soul and body, where we must endure the Icceti’s tricks and attacks with grace, for with each act we endure we are closer to the Holy Mother. (10) Knowledge is the trickiest of Paths, for we must learn all we can to improve ourselves and others, yet we must also be mindful of the potential for knowledge to corrupt the purity of the Holy Mother’s message. (11) Temperance is of the soul, and demands that we always act in moderation and remain calm in the face of adversity and temptation. (12) Purity is essential to all of the Paths, and demands that we remain one with the truth of the Paths and the Holy Mother; the most difficult to achieve, it also demands that we are without the ways of Icceti.
Listed as they are, each is supposed to lead into the next, however, with time, many divisions have arisen concerning the ordering of the branches, and which holds the greatest significance. Regardless of this though, in the faiths most pure form, in successfully practicing these twelve paths, as the chosen divine does, will lead to all men’s salvation and reunion with the Holy Mother.
In a similar adherence to the faith, union with the Holy Mother may be also be forced or forcefully protected through a Pilgrimage of Grace. Only able to be called by the Divine, the Pilgrimage is understood as a call to arms by those able and willing to defend the Paths. Though a march like this has certain requirements about it, vagueness and ambiguity shroud some of the true intentions of the Pilgrimage, first called in the wave of Holiness that spread the Paths so aggressively centuries ago.
There must be a perceived aggressor to the faith from some heretic or heathen; such a threat should take the form of attempting to subvert the faith, the Covenant, or nations of the faith by a polity or some large organization. The Pilgrimage must declare the option for conversion of any it is targeted against, and must result in the destruction and eradication of the threat entirely. There must also be some after effort to rebuild and spread the true word by the Pilgrims following the success of the action.
Approximate number of followers: All citizens of the Two Kingdoms follow, whether they believe or not, it would be social death not too. The faith also has many missionaries and zealots that travel Kolen and across the waters to spread the word of the Holy Mother and has gained many followers, totaling in the millions. Other nations are free to add if they choose.
, I'll post later today.
(sorry if the flag doesnt works, i dont know how to post)
