Jump to content

The Tyrian Red Faith


AstriaS
 Share

Recommended Posts


Zp1NU5faSVQIyEYio6K6b8Ou8hT-a-QDIhc5qsio85uY-LPMraAgV_XxAmdG3HQjLz5Ngtccxbkx1pRSzsX-PKG-F47lSCYikvxFn7SqgKEnKCyG3hPZ3vvWu2c9AEnu-4uHNmvi

The Tyrian Red Faith

A Comprehensive Text on the Faith of the Father from a Tyrian Perspective

Dated the 12th of Malin's Welcome, Year 21 of the Second Age


 


INDEX

I.Preface

II.The All Father

III.The Paragons

IV.The Father’s Flame

V.The Father’s Tenets

VI.The Ruinous Powers

VII.The Red Clergy

VIII.Resources for the Laity


I. PREFACE

 

In the year 1759, High Keeper Alisa Camian published her renowned work, The Red Faith; A Primer. In the nearly sixty years since, this text, intended as a simplified, easily-digested exposition on the Red Faith and our beliefs, has remained the most prolifically referenced source of information on the Faith amongst the laity. However, despite its usefulness, the Primer finds itself lacking in a number of aspects, most specifically in matters of more granular details. Further, in light of recent diverging opinions coming to the fore, particularly from the Arthurians, a text on the Tyrian perspective is much needed. As such, the following text is intended as a more comprehensive collation of information and resources.


II. THE FATHER

 

The Father is, in short, the Guiding Light and Protector of us all. We of Tyrian belief hold Him to be the representative of the necessary duality of the realms of creation; He is the Order of Law, and He is the Chaos of Wrath and Retribution. It is the Father who charged our ancestors, when they swore their loyalty to Him, with the duty to fulfill his Divine Mission and take up arms in his eternal struggle against the darkness of the Ruinous Powers. As such, he calls on those who are faithful to him to aid in His war against the Long Dark. Those who hold to his Faith dedicate their lives to his service, and in death their honored souls go on to serve him in the realms of the beyond as the soldiers of his Eternal War.

 

It is not uncommon for the uninitiated, uninformed or purposefully ignorant to vastly misunderstand the being of the Father. Many believe he is one of many Gods in a greater pantheon of deities. This is false. The Father is the only deity to whom the Faithful pledge their souls and their loyalty, for it is the Father to whom our ancestors pledged their loyalty. Then, there are those who believe the Father to be a god of fire. This, too, is false. Though the Father is represented by the flames of our Hearth, and though the Hearth is of His essence, the importance of the Flame in our faith is that of symbolism; It represents his presence in our world and in our hearts, it represents the burning passions, fury and luminescence of the Father, and it represents the Father’s covenant with His Faithful.


III. THE PARAGONS

 

The Paragons are those servants of the Father who, in their mortal lives, left such significant impacts on the world and the Faithful that they, themselves, came to be revered by their descendants and honored by the Father Himself. They are the Father’s closest servants within His Halls, and it is they who bestow blessings and guidance to the Father. There has historically been much debate over those who are revered as Paragons at a given time, whether it be over the deeds of a particular Paragon or the truth of their lives as a whole.


IV. THE FATHER’S FLAME

 

It is a common misconception, due to the symbolic and literary prominence of flame within the Faith’s text, that the Father’s Faithful give reverence to all fire everywhere. This, however, is an untruth, for the Father’s Flame is the only flame which is considered inherently sacred. The Flame which burns in our Hearth Temple is the selfsame which has burned in the Faith’s Temples for generations, descended from the very flame that was granted to Thoromir the Herald to see his people through the Great Blizzard. Taken from the Father Himself, this flame contains a portion of His essence. It is the symbol of our covenant with the Father, and many of our ceremonies take place before it.


V. THE FATHER’S TENETS

 

When the covenant between Thoromir’s folk and the Father was sealed, he bid his new Faithful live by his code, the Three Tenets; Suffer not the Unworthy, Spread the Flame and Stand against the Long Dark. By these Tenets, we live as the Father decreed, and we live in service to his mission. Though the tenets vary in the ways they have been interpreted over time and between practitioners of varying doctrines, there are a number of core, essential elements that have remained sacrosanct and therefore unaltered over the course of the Faith’s history.

 

The First Tenet: Suffer not the Unworthy

The Unworthy, according to all traditional doctrine, are those who do not adhere to the strictures of honor and morality. They are the greed-plagued, the slothful and the moral degenerates of the world. There is no one face, nation or creed that represents those who are Unworthy. They are everywhere, for where there are men and women to fall prey to the corruption of immorality, there will be those who are consumed by it. The draw towards corruption is an inherent flaw of the mortal mind, and it is up to us to resist its corruption and rise to a greater standing. Those who do not dedicate themselves to this mission of moral betterment are the Unworthy. The Heretic, the Thief and the Murderer are all Unworthy, yes; but so too is the man who allows his honor to be stained and his spirit tainted by inaction, for if we give in to corruption, we harm ourselves and our people.

What, then, must the Faithful man do to follow this first tenet? Simply put, he must dedicate himself to his own betterment, for the good of himself and his kinsmen. Further, he should help guide back to the path those who have wandered astray. Those who refuse to be helped, or who are beyond redemption, however, are to be left to the consequences of their sins, as they are Unworthy of the Faithful’s mercy.

 

The Second Tenet: Spread the Flame

The Second Tenet is by far the one with the least variation in doctrinal interpretation, historically speaking, being the least subjective. Contrary to the claims of many outsiders, the Flame, in this instance, is metaphorical, representing the Faith and its teachings as a whole, much as the Hearthfire and its care represent our devotion and our service to the Father. To spread the Flame is to teach others of the Father’s teachings, and of the Faith’s values and practices. Further, it is to not shy away from letting the Father’s name and presence be known. Most commonly, the laity do not engage in proselytization, however, and instead fulfill the Second Tenet by way of ensuring their children are given proper, pious upbringings. As such, it is a common belief among women that being a mother is among the greatest ways they are able to serve the Father. It should be noted of course that the Faith and the Father abhor quite strongly the practice of making converts at the point of a sword. Those who are forced into speaking words of devotion do not speak them truthfully, and therefore the words have no meaning; A blind man cannot be made to see, even with his eyes pried open.

 

The Third Tenet: Stand Against the Long Dark

Considered by many to be the Red Faith’s mission statement, the Third Tenet is the one by which the most dedicated of the Father’s Faithful live and die. The Long Dark encompasses a number of ruinous forces that would seek to destroy or actively bring harm to the balance of our world. It is these forces against which the Father fights in an eternal struggle of Light against the unfathomable darkness. In his mission to ensure the continuation of the realms of creation, the Father demands of his faithful vehemently oppose such enemies of his Light, and his followers are expected to adhere to this demand without question. It is for this reason that arcane practices are banned within realms governed by the Red Law, and similarly why the Order of the Purifiers exists as an institution of the Red Clergy. To allow agents of ruin to advance their agendas is to allow creation as a whole to become jeopardized, and to insult the Father and our ancestors who fight tirelessly to defend it under the Father’s banner in the afterlife.


VI. THE RUINOUS POWERS

 

As previously stated, the Faith holds the fight against the Long Dark to be one of its most central purposes. This darkness includes a variety of malignant forces, ranging from Voidal magics to the abhorred creatures of the undead. Left unchecked, these elements run rampant, doing untold damage to the natural balance of the world. In the past, under the leadership of High Keeper Arthas, such things became known as the Fel Plague, and were treated as an infectious disease that leeched upon the soul rather than the body. In the modern day, and after the Inferi War especially, the myriad facets of the ever-lurking Darkness have come to be called the Ruinous Powers, and it is these powers which we must oppose at every turn. 

The Void and practitioners of the arts which draw upon it, wytches, the Inferi and their servants, the dreaded dark arts, and many other malevolent powers and beings; All are agents of Ruin, and must be treated as such. It is the duty of every devout follower of the Father to take up the blade against these forces wherever they may be found. It is for explicitly this reason that the Order of the Purifiers exists. They are our bulwark against the Darkness, and it is they who fight in place of those who are unable to do so. To fail in our duty to illuminate the darkness and expose its agents would be to fail the Father and doom the world to its end. Should the Light falter, then all will be consumed in eternal, tenebrous nothingness; all that is the world- every rock, every creature, every man and woman- will cease to be. It therefore falls to us to act as the raging flame to bring forth the Light and repel this looming fate, and in so doing prevent the Ruinous Powers from bringing about the eternal end; the Long Dark.

In many ways, the subject of the Ruinous Powers is where the Tyrian and Arthurian doctrines deviate most strongly from one another. We Tyrians hold a much narrower view of what is and what is not a step on the path to ruin than the Arthurians. We have come to acknowledge those practices with goals similar to our own as benign, even benevolent in some cases. It was the Tyrians who took up the sword against the demonic horde in the Inferi War of Arcas, and it was we who found ourselves on good terms with the Paladins of Xan, some of our most honorable allies in that conflict. Further, it was we who were granted the blessings of the Aegnul Aeriel in the Final Battle of Korvassa. As such, we have come to tolerate the presence of those who, in their own way, bring benefit to our cause in the fight against the Long Dark and its agents.


VII. THE RED CLERGY

 

The Red Clergy is the primary source of authority on the Faith, its teachings and its doctrines. It is composed of three offices. There are Initiates at the lowest rank who are given the menial duties of the Temple’s functioning; They are the scribes and the Temple’s custodians, as they work on their path to advancement. Secondly, there are the Hearth Brothers and Hearth Sisters. They are tasked with minor administrative duties and with sharing the Faith’s teachings and guidance with those who seek it. Finally, there are the Keepers, the fully fledged priests of the Father and the bearers of His Flame. They are the ones who tend to the Hearthfire, educate the Faithful, and delegate tasks to the lower ranks and guide them in their advancement.

As a supplement to its goals, the Clergy also employs the Order of the Purifiers, who act under the command of the Lord Purifier. This subordinate branch of the clergy is dedicated to the location, documentation, and elimination of those individuals, groups or entities who would pose an obstacle to the Father’s Light.


VIII. RESOURCES FOR THE LAITY

 

Below are listed a selection of texts for the laity to review for further information. It should be noted, however, that the below-listed writings are from varying periods in history, and therefore the doctrines and policies described within are likely to differ from those to which the Tyrian Faith currently adheres.


 


Scribed by,

Hearth Sister Mera Camian

 

With Contributions from,

High Keeper Alisa Camian

Luminary Lucien Arkin

Keeper Dramyr Edvardsson

Keeper Tavish Faretto

Hearth Brother Grigori Ruslanovych

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Theoderic would receive a copy of the publically distributed missive in the depths of his office, after reviewing it several times he would shake his head "the difference in doctrine is too profound to be called mere difference of opinion" with that he would bury himself once more in his papers

Link to post
Share on other sites

Lord Purifier Kursin would read over the missive penned by the hearth sister as it arrived to his desk, reading it over and reaffirming some lapses in his own understanding from having been more focused with the running of the order rather than studying the scriptures in the grand archive. He would find himself making a note of this lapse in piety and take some time to peruse the archive once more.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Caedric receives the document via bird, he would begin reading it as he climbed a great mountain, "Ah, finally. Years in the making the refined ideas of our faith published." he'd say between deep breaths, "We always needed a stricter orthodoxy." As he reached the top of the summit he'd look over the brutal yet serene landscape as he ponders the contents.

Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, AstriaS said:

In the year 1759, High Keeper Alisa Camian published her renowned work, The Red Faith; A Primer.

 

Vane offers the red faith primer, advertising an Alisa Camian book signing "Come meet J.K. Camian, get yer book signed!"

Spoiler

ae06386daa2525f69e4d379302dfc279.jpg

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...