Quoan’dal est Ure
| Quoan’dal est Ure
Church of Illumination | ||||||||
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He had seen the light. The fire burned his skin and through the pain he came to realise the fundamental truths. Upon coming
into possession of this knowledge he saw the Essence manifest before him. Not with his eyes, but with his knowledge. And with
this same knowledge that allowed him to see it he knew it's name; Deimir. Now he knew his purpose and he choose his name;
Sosjom’dal; The bringer of fire. He traveled from the barren mountain range of Kirl in the North Land through the desert
of Baalah and came to the South Land and here within the fertile ground would his teachings take root. Here he would share the
fire of knowledge. ~ Excerpt from the 'Essence of Flames'.
Contents |
Overview
The Church of Illumination, as this religion is called in English, was formed only several dozen years ago by the Tavarothian Sosjom’dal. The Church was an unusual development shortly after the nation ended it's centuries long isolation for the Tavarothians had a strong distrust of any monotheistic belief; yet the Church managed to grow exponantionally in a short time and reached millions of followers within the nation of Tarakalar. Many of the members of the Church simply were followers who believed in the tenets, but a number of them took it to greater extremes.
History
The Church was founded several dozen years ago and seemed to predominately function on the wealth of it's founders and major benefactors. Unlike many cults in Tavaroth, the Church required no monetary sacrifices of it's people or anything else of material value. The Church purchased a mass media company within the South Land and it's sermons's modern messages that both appeased traditional values and embraced modern living made it very popular amognst the South Landers. The fact the Church seemed to have no persecution against anyone; Be they homosexual, a certain gender or race or even other faith even earned their attention from the Emperor Arnaud Taurain in a surprisingly positive view, who granted the Church the acknowledgement as a legal faith within the nation and the Church no longer needed to call itself a cult or sect.
When the civil war began within Tarakalar, it soon became clear to the loyalists that the Church of Illumination was in no small part involved in instigating it. With the many followers they had, the Church had been carefully been sowing seeds of discontent about the current state of the nation. The Loyalists marked the Church as troublemakers but didn't consider them truly a threat as long as order could be restored. A year later the civil war still raged and the Church had long since outgrown the name of 'trouble-makers': they equipped rebels with weapons and trained suicide commandos to cause as much carnage amongst the government facilities and personnel as possible. Worse still was their deployment of military forces that employed technology vastly superior to that of the Tarakalarian military. Where the military used conventional firearms, the Church attacked them with energy weapons.
The final straw however was when after three years of civil war the church had captured the crown prince Alexander Taurain and tortured him before burning him alive, the entire act was captured on camera and was spread across informational media networks. By this time however the hatred for the government that the Church had created was so great amongst the populace that this act that would have once united the entire nation against the Church now only earned hatred from the remaining loyalists. The few remaining loyalists gave up and abandoned their old home land of Tavaroth and went into exile to the land of Azerran. What was left of the former Empire of Tarakalar ceased to exist as any semblance of a cohesive entity. Various provinces and cities fended for themselves as a generalised chaos erupted.
The Church had hoped that with the loyalists fleeing, that Tavaroth would be easy to conquer, they were disappointed. The civil war had drained on their resources but more frustrating for them was the fact that at some point Sosjom’dal had simply vanished and with his disappearance the Church fractured into groups, each believing themselves to be the true followers of Sosjom'dal's teachings.
Add to this many rebels who had driven off the loyalists but now sought to start a new state and the noble houses who betrayed the Empire by seeking to take over themselves and the Church realised they had a long fight still ahead of them.
Goals
The first and foremost goal of the Church of Illumination is to take total control of the landmass Tavaroth. Further more they seek to establish their hold by creating churches within other nations. They seek to wipe out all false beliefs, starting first with other monotheistic believes and then polytheistic ones. They are aware that this, if at all possible, would take exceptionally long. But the followers of this belief are convinced that they shall succeed.
Tenets of Faith
The Tenets of the Church of Illumination are relatively simple. They carry little in religious historical or mythological myths. They main strength seems to come from the force of personality of their preachers and their ability to draw people in by approuching them when they seek something to hold onto. This combined with their wilingness to accept anyone into their faith, regardless of their lifestyles means that they draw in many who would be turned away from other religions.
The Tenets of the Church of illumination.
- Accept Sosjom'dal the bringer of fire and knowledge as your savior; For it is he that brought the understanding of the Deimir.
- Accept the importance of knowledge, dedication and obedience and strengthen your spirit.
- The importance of knowing yourself is of the utmost importance. For only those that know themselves can become part of the Deimir and transcend the coil of flesh.
- Understand that to know yourself you must first willingly stop seeking. Take the words of those above you at heart, for in their tasks lay the knowledge that you need to end the cycle of re-incarnation and become part of the Deimir.
- Seek to help your fellow Illuminated. The offering of wealth is the tool of those trapped in the flesh. Work with body, mind and soul to further the travels of your brothers and sisters on the path of becoming one with Deimir.
Current State
Many years have passed since the civil war began in Tarakalar. The Church had succeeded in taking control of the entire South Land, but the rest of Tavaroth was stilll out of their grasp as they fought left behind loyalists, rebels, nobles and the nation of Azerran, led by the Tatiana Taurain of the old Emperor. The situation was further complicated when Taraskovya, tired of the continuous chaos on her doorsteps, invaded Tavaroth and formally annexed the region.
After the Taraskovyan invasion and annexation of Tavaroth, the Church was branded an illegal organisation and hunted down mercilessly. Since then, the organisation has gone deep underground and continues to wage a limited scale terrorist campaign against officials in the Southern Province of Tavaroth. Despite its fall from grace, the Church remains confident that they will win, driven by their fanatical beliefs in Deimir. Moreover, not content with resisting Imperial authorities in Tavaroth, the Church attempted to spread its network throughout the entire Taraskovyan Empire to "take the fight to the doorstep of the heathen Emperor".
Within Tavaroth itself, activists of the Church of Illumination continue to wage a campaign of urban terrorism against Imperial and local officials. In this, it has banded together with small separatist groups that continue to oppose Taraskovyan annexation of Tavaroth and have toned down their religious rhetoric in favour of the political message of a "free Tavaroth".
