IMPERIAL DECREE | On the Ecumenical Council

[Tide1 4535]

 

Issued and averred by the office of the

IMPERIAL CROWN

 

✠ PRELUDE

At my coronation, I sanctioned religious freedom in the interpretations of our Lord’s teachings for all subjects of the Empire, for I was compelled by my duty as Holy Imperator of the Lord GOD’s Empire of all Man to advocate for those faithful in error. I had called for an ecumenical council and placed imperial pressure upon the Church to reach a peaceful resolution, for I well understood the importance of the Spirit. I had, before the ecumenical council, a Saint's week ago by now, been deliberately heavy-handed in my criticism of long-time peers and companions within the Church, who had supported my claims and efforts to a united Humanity for decades, yet whom I believed did not live up to their duties as proclaimed shepherds of the faith.

 

✠ AS PERTAINS TO THE REFORMATIONISTS

Yet to my dismay, I see now the failings of my ways - how my acts of mercy have given way to greed and ambition. I had curtailed and muzzled the Curia, and I forced them to give clemency to the reformationists, for I believe, and have always believed in the inevitable unity of all man in both temporal and spiritual oath. Yet when I convinced them to invite you into their home, rather than accept this invitation to rebuild the Church from within, you chose to tear it down instead. You did not step into the Holy See with the intent to settle these disputes; you came to usurp the Curia, and with it you have usurped the hospitality of your Emperor.

 

There are those among you, like myself, who view the failings and misguidance of the temple and its weaknesses with pity and shame and seek only to better the institution through earnest criticism. And there are those among you who seek to undermine the Empire through this weakness, and supplant the institution with your own. The High Priest was Pontiff elect, by a college of Cardinals steeped in prayer; he was legitimized before our Lord God. Beside that very same Pontiff, by our very same GOD, did I unify the divided realms of men. You were never called upon to question his Spiritual Authority, nor his faith; you were called upon to question his institution of the two.

 

✠ THE EMPEROR’S MERCY

 

I levy upon you a second chance, ever forgiving, to reclaim what you have spurned, my favor. To resume the ecumenical council. The High Priesthood does not recognize your vote, nor does the Imperial Crown recognize a vote made by barbars by virtue. The ecumenical council shall be directly overseen by the Emperor to ensure order. There shall be no topics of Sigismund or Pontifical legitimacy. We shall not debate about the past, for we are gathered to secure a future, one with established Holy Laws and new blood within the temple.

 

For as long as a trueborn dragon sits upon the throne of all man, there is no, and shall never be an Exalted Sigismund. The legacy of a wiseman twisted and fetishized by Carrion idolatry well beyond his grave, he shall at last rest as a Saint - free of the god-worship of Raevir, free of your cardinal sin which has caused naught but self-righteous harm to the unity of man for five-hundred years. You shall look to the Exalted as paragons of virtue, never worship them as you would worship GOD, and in this task, your people have failed.

 

✠ THE LEX TIBERI

 

Thus it shall be writ into the LEX TIBERI that any such gatherings devoid of Curial presence, held in secret or otherwise, with the express intent of defaming, illegitimizing, or otherwise fostering seditious sentiment regarding the sitting Curia or the Pontiff without express permission from the Emperor, be considered grounds for a schism, and that to partake in such an activity equates to SEDITION, and that to declare your support for a schism openly equates to REBELLION, as outlined within the LEX.

 

✠ Cardinal Alaric ✞

 

May GOD rest his soul, for he acted willingly the part of a bridge upon the river that divides humanity. Yet some, in their devilish nature, would not see this bridge exist at all, should the alternative that is their way, be denied. 

Though I know not yet the names of the killers of benevolent Alaric, GOD rest his soul, the people of the Empire can rest assured that the Order of Quaestors and the Inquisition have been and shall continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.

 

✠ CLOSURE

 

Thus, I remind the good folk of the Empire that those who refuse the authority of the High Priesthood as pertains to matters surrounding the ecumenical council also refuse Imperial authority, and that by doing so, you deem yourself successors to the same blood with which I wet the blade of our Empire. And the Empire shall be predicated upon doing so again, and again for all time, for as long as the Dragon’s blood runs pure through not just an Emperor, but the beating hearts of its people, too. 

 

 

AVE IMPERIUM!

 

 

---

 

H V M A N I T A S    I N V I C T A

“Für Gott und Kaiser,”

 

HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY, Tiberias I of the House Horen, by the Grace of GOD, 

Emperor of Man, Holy Imperator, King of Burgundy, Seventis, Salvus, Renatus & Oren, 

Duke of Middelan, Helena, Lorraine, Sunholdt and Reutov, Protector of Grense, Protector of the Heartlanders, Patriarch of House Horen & the Tiberian Dynasty, 

Captain-General of the Church, Defender of the Faith.

 

BVRGVNDIA IMPERIVM

 

[LordofCabbage 559]

"LONG LIVE TIBERIAS SON OF GASPARD! LONG LIVE CALLAHAN ! ! !" screeched a certain knight-errant in lands far-away erratically.

[Rig 17580]

The Inquisitor quietly scattered his agents throughout the Empire to seek out the seditious and expediently bring them to justice.

[helldiving 5793]

"We are the Emperor's angels of death, not his angels of mercy," bids Sir Markus Kruber to the adherents in the Imperial Order of the Red Dragon, prepared to find the culprits of Cardinal Alaric's death and put down any insurrectionist and schismatic movement, now outlawed within the extended domains of the Holy Imperium.

[Crevel 7557]

Father Martin scans over the edict, before simply resting it by the wayside. The Emperor had made apparent what had already been clear. He was not a servant of God, but a tyrant in lockstep with Callahan's worldly prejudices. He hopes that a recent meeting would see the results that he prayed for. Nevertheless, he continues in his duties of faith that exist outside the Church's internal divide.

[ContestedSnow 1435]

"This might have been the expected result for anyone with eyes or ears at that council. It is this barbar's hope that His Imperial Majesty does see that the Curia is resurrected from the grave of Canon Law to do as he bids in the LEX TIBERI." Aleksandr prayed, among the deathly gales of the isolated Empire's north.

[Norgeth 1894]

Captain Cornelius Fellowmere, Baron of Codsburg, nods as he reads over the decree. "Good, I am happy Tiberias upheld his duty in the removal of these violent schismatics, may GOD keep his judgment wise. . ." mumbled the sailor, casting his fishing net into the water.

[drtrollado 267]

"The Church has already showed us that it will not rule with His Grace, but with temporal powers. Trying times for the Church are ahead" The acolyte spoke as he crossed the lorraine over himself.

[Nooblius 7965]

High Priest Carandir sits at a table by a window, looking out across Numenost the fair from a tower of the Temple Bastion Saint Caius. Long ago, the Clown King had set his place far in the wilderness, away from his imperial family, to serve as a solitary defense against the dark and as keeper of the flame. "The greatest political prudence is to ally yourself with the will of Aeradar, the King of Flame, our Lord GOD! What evils the world will set against you, even if you are to lose, as had the good Westerlands, shall be in the eternal plan of the Almighty Author, the Illuminating Flame," Carandir commented to another Adunian, a skeptic just as many others of the wisdom of the former Priest-King's political antics.

 

"In truth, I had let anxiety into my heart, as to what would come of this episode. I wondered, well, it was not the first time the temple restored might be crushed in cunning intrigue- so my teacher taught me." A proud, nefarious smile came upon Carandir's expression, and all his shrewdness was lade bare for a fleeting, unguarded moment. "But, I suppose it would have been silly to think we, all of us, went through all that- just to give it up at the end. What were they thinking?"

[Security_ 2287]

“A church under empire. A shame that history repeats itself.” A Wickish priest mumbled from within the temple of Owyn. “At least the matter of Sigismund was finally decided after years of pussyfooting around it.”

[Cally 1080]

"Huh?" Said a Won-In girl as she was handed the missive in the crowd surrounding the insurgent Roger Lezarde of Drusco.

[DancingZebra267 1626]

"GOD is Good!" Cheered the aged Chaptermaster.

[Drew2_dude 2636]

Thaddeus slouched deep in his chair, lazily holding a half-empty flagon in his hand while wine dribbled down his chin. He bellowed a hearty laugh at the missive.

 

"Ha! Tiberius of Van Aert Blood, striding once more onto the wrong side of history; as his forefathers did so brazenly before him! Why, I'd be more shocked if it didn't happen every half decade or so! With that Callahan creature burrowed so deeply into his skull, the poor Emperor can scarcely hear the voices of reason, drowned out as they are by the ceaseless gnawing of worms! May the Eye of Exalted Sigismund grant him the foresight to see the error in his ways; the clouded judgements of a man wrestling with his Daemons, shouting loudly over the advice of his greater Angels."

Edited August 18, 2025 by Drew2_dude

[KaiserJacobII 1456]

As the sun rises over Lemonhill, Brother Lothaire rises too. He soon takes the news of the morning in a small pile. "Sedition and rebellion.. Good GOD, that's serious," he utters, pausing for a moment, "I hope.. I hope those Edelites, GOD willing, see the error of their ways before they bring upon themselves bloodshed. Ach, first Alaric.. Hmm.." He trails off, and his eyes wander away from the decree.

[Terry 2680]

"Godani Jest Wielki, but this Church... nie more. Exalted Sigismund will endure regardless, as will the Haeseni, long after this decree is long forgotten ov." Muttered the old Sigmar, shaking his head. He may not live to see what the future holds beyond Aevos, but even then... he didn't quite care.