Epilogue 2.4: Philosophy and Theology
As life became about more than merely survival, the minds of the people gradually drifted toward the questions that have plagued them for all eternity. Life, and its infinite mysteries, remained unanswered. The reason for being, especially after enduring the destruction of the Last Calamity, felt more pertinent for people than ever.
Those questions created thousands of answers, each with their own philosophies toward life and their own explanations of the machinations of the world. This was, in most circumstances, largely harmless. People of different cultures propagated the gods that they had worshipped before the Calamity. Some took the mantles of their dead gods, such as the Veidimen with Veid. These ideas took root, creating regional, religious, and cultural divides in the nation that before had been united behind a national identity.
In this arena, however, the Blackgard Union and the imperial court gave only silence. Traditions and cultures, provided they didn’t breach the law of the land itself, were not curtailed. By example, the way of the elves of the Bloodwoods propagated to a large number of citizens as they spread from their forest to the rest of the land. More often than not, this was without incident. That changed as time marched on.
Their blind eye toward matters of faith and philosophy could perhaps be considered the biggest failing of the imperial court. As with most truths, only one can generally prevail, and conflict brewed because of their policy of non-interference. A time of war where soldiers were sent overseas proved to be the ignition for an explosion, internally.
I shall try to remain unbiased in my interpretation of these faiths and their founders, some of which persist today. I shall note, however, that I consider myself an adherent of the Word of Law, which has since become the de facto state philosophy, and claim no personal faith.
Divine Imperialism
The philosophy of the Cult of Divine Imperialism can be gleaned from its title alone. It is unique from several other faiths in this section because it was an idea that permeated the populace long before it was formally founded, and there was no individual prophet who came to preach its dictates. Rather, a council of adherents created a formal structure not long after the war in the Great Chu began.
Their canon preaches the notion that Argrave is a being from a higher world who was sent to this realm as its savior after studying and mastering it in isolated study. Once there, the fairest and most intelligent maiden of the age, Anneliese, was offered to him as tribute by the world itself to continue his divine bloodline. The imperial family, thus, are the descendants of higher beings, and must be accorded absolute respect and worship.
It proved a stabilizing aspect of the nation, but as its formal structure and missionaries spread the faith, overtures from the government came to combat its ideas. Followers were often radical, proposing acts of extreme violence against the Great Chu and further assaulting people that questioned the actions of the imperial court. Dealing with these people was an incredibly delicate act of diplomacy, because suggesting that the imperial family was as human as everyone else put into question their right to rule to begin with.