A Detailed Summary of the Faith:
In the earliest parts of the Faith scripture, we have a passage of how the Faith has been born into the world in distant lands, far away from Sarkov and it's mighty nation.
In the beginning of time, the world was without form, unsullied and undivided. The king of the gods, Odane saw that the Earth was without form, and seeking to create something special below the heavens, decided to create the world as we know it. Laboring for countless eons, he slowly formed the hills, the valleys, the rivers and the mountains that pricked the skies where the heavens lay.
With that, Odane created the first men out of the fire and the bones of creatures of the Earth, creating many peoples and placing them all over the land. Odane promised the people that he would select a people to be the patron too, along with the rest of his pantheon.
And so, thousands of years passed and the people soon forgot the message that Odane had upon all of the people of the Earth, all except for one person. This man whose name is long gone with his bones wrote down long ago the records of what would come. For years, those records were long forgotten and abandoned.
One day however, a scholar happened upon these records. This scholar read the records and gleaned the information from them over a period of ten years. Just as he finished up with the records, he heard the voice of Odane speak to him.
Listen to me son of the fires and bone, listen to me here and now closely and obey what I will tell you to do. Leave this palce and travel as far as you can until you happen upon the first nation that you meet. There, spread the word of Odane, god of the sky and the heavens. Spread the word of Masgard, the god of war. Spread the word of Slysius, the plow-woman. Spread the word of the Kindly One, who brings peace and an end to suffering to people when they need it the most. Spread the word of Hulur the ironsmith, and the words of many more gods and goddesses, for we are the true gods of this world and seek to enlighten all of you.
So the scholar abandoned his place and his work, and traveled far and wide for twenty some years, searching for another nation that he could spread the Word to. But alas, he could not do so, and grew frail and weak.
One day, he drew up to a little hamlet far away from what he knew. He collapsed outside of the hamlet, and was found by a herdsman and was nursed back to health slowly. When he was able to wake and speak again, he knew he did not have much time in the world left, so he passed his knoweledge on to the herdsman and asked him to spread the Word of the gods.
The herdsman respected the scholar's request, and carried on, seeking a new place to pass the word to. He too died before long, but not before spreading the word to others, who carried on themselves. Farther and farther they went, until finally, one of them reached the borders of a nation now long gone, an old man gnarled around a cane who walked with a limp. He had achieved what the people before him could not, he had spread the word of the gods to the first people he came across.
An interesting passage most certainly, one that we can not confirm the authenticity of at the moment. We have no records from where the Faith came from after the first two men who brought it to Sarkov, the revered Neumann and Kerlin, passed away twenty and thirty years after the Faith's migration to Sarkov.
The Deities of the Faith:
Odane, king of the gods and lord of the skys and the heavens, the god that many people offered praise and love too for his nurturing nature of people.
Lyra, the Maiden and the one who guides the children in the hiearchy of the gods. Maidens give offerings to her for her grace and her protection of maidens themselves.
Masgard, the god war. His statues and figures show a brutal man, but one not guided by purely rage and bloodlust. He does war because he must, and typically recieves offerings from warriors.
Hulur, or Huulur is the god of the forges, who works his forges in the depth of the sun to produce the gifts he gives to the gods. His altar is typically forgotten amongst everything else, but is still one of the higher visited ones for the tradesmen and craftpeople that come and worship him.
The Kindly One, the vestige of death itself. A gnarled man propped up by a staff, he brings and end to suffering of people and has a dual purpose of creating the life that comes into the world after a death. He is respected, but his altar is visited rarely and even then only by a few people who are typically gravesmen and grieving families.
Slysius, the plow-woman, who works the fields in times of war and cares for the family. She is a symbol of hope for mothers who protect and nurture their children.
Artaeus and Malcom, the twin gods of the hunt who lead the sun and moon across the sky and place the stars amongst the heavens. Hunters offer a variety of things to them, including fresh kills that they have caught.
Lafera, the guiding crone who cares for the children as well and prepares people for age and wisdom, as well as death. The elderly and the infirm come to her altar for peace and happieness.
Ulysium and Jarah, husband and wife and lord and lady of the sea respectively. Their altar is visited by fishermen looking for a good catch and for sailors and oceangoers in general.
Arctius, god of the winds and the carrier of messages from the gods, an aloof figure who is worshipped by people of different types.
The Judge, a god that decides which people go to the heavens and which ones descend into the Purge Realm to be consumed by fires forever. An andrygonous god, the Judge changes between races and sex often and is highly respected, just below Odane in the hiearchy of the gods.
New additions to the Faith pantheon;
The Smiling Jester, a grinning simpleton who is the patron of assassins and thieves, the Smiling Jester is an amoral god that seeks the destruction of everyone but his followers. His cults had been gaining ground in Sarkov before the Exodus, and now the cults have been exposed to the light and are expanding rapidly.
The Songbird, another new addition, is a god with the head of a bird who will call out at the end of the world and ring the bells in the towers all across the lands. When this occurs, the end of times as foretold in Faith doctrine will occur, and it will not be pretty.
The Red Reaper, a vicious god who bathes in the blood of the fallen and consumes human flesh, the Red Reaper collects the souls of the dead and the evil, those who are liars and cheats, and takes them to a punishing realm where they are purged and cleansed forever. Many say that he is a two faced form of the Kindly One, but he is feared and respected to the extreme.
Splinters of the Faith
Since the Faith came to Sarkov and it's lands, it has been rather less than unified. Although all members of the Faith share the same religion, many of different aspects but are still strongly supportive of each other despite the differences in the religious sects.
Faith Martyrdom is an especially radical sect that seeks glory in battle for the nation and for the family of the people throwing themselves into battle. Faith Martyrdom dictates that a person's true value is seen on the battlefield and the best thing they can do in life is to do valiantly in protecting their country as much as they can. Especially popular in some places given the old Martyrdom beliefs and practices in the north eastern Sarkov, Martyrdom Faith is still but a smaller splinter of the larger Faith conglomerate.
On the southernmost areas of the Valyrian peninsula near Pyrrhus and the city of Kora-Torr is the central hub for the for the Valaria Faith movement. The Valarian Faith is one dedicated to peace and pacifism, less so towards militarism and whatnot. The Valarian Faith dictates that healing and harmony with nature is more important than any other aspect of life, which has made itself highly respected in the areas were the highest amounts of warfare claimed large swathes of the population during the First Sarkov-Samnite war. Valarian adherents are some of the best healers and focus all of their attention on easing the passing of people that they can not save.
More in the central Sarkov, the original Faith is strong and powerful in nearly all aspects of life. Since the giant scriptures of the Faith came to Sarkov, they have been changed little and are followed by a vast percentage of the population. Central Sarkov is also the place where the Faelenkriser, or leader of the Faith itself makes his home from where he leads and dictates large matters concerning the building of temples and whatnot as well as possible movement and recruitment of the Faith's personal defense force, the Fallen Stars who protect men and women of the Faith whether they be preachers or begging brothers.
Over on the penal colonies though, a darker form of the Faith has arisen. The Grey Faith, a highly militaristic and supremely organized faction of the Faith, has deep rooting here. Many of the members of the Grey Faith believe wholeheartedly in holy conflict for the hearts and minds of the world's people, and seek to do it through military might and power. The Grey Faith is rather small, making up less than five percent of the total amount of Faith adherents, but they are a powerful people in the penal colonies on the Slastholim Islands. Many of the members of the Gray Faith were the black and grey robes of the Kindly One, as a symbol of their need for power over life and death of people, and many of the higher members have the white stars of the Faith and the Sarkovian nation intertwined.
Organization and Structuring
Structure and organization of the Faith is highly important to keep it going. Besides minor local varieties in the lower structuring, the Faith is pretty well organized and maintained nicely.
Headed by a
Faelinkriser, who is the high leader, the Faith directly responds to him directly. He is the leader of the Faith as a whole, and the Faelinkriser is elected for a twenty year period to rule, and to also try to be re-elected by the lower echelons of the Faith after every twenty years has passed.
Below the Faelinkriser is the thirteen heads of the upper Faith, the
Suu-Car. Roughly translated from the Faith language as Holy Man of the Books, these men helm the Faith operations in their selected areas and regions of expertise and keep the valuable books and papers of the Faith under tight wrap to avoid them being damaged or harmed.
Under them are the one hundred and twenty two
Sylvrans, members that helm even smaller specific regions. The Sylvrans meet every time a Faelinkriser needs to elected, and cast their votes for whoever they believe in the most.
Under the Sylvrans are the
Arch-Sylvrans, who manage the day to day running of the next to last smallest areas. The Arch-Sylvrans are the ones who produce the cash needed from donations and tithes paid to the Faith as well as taxes given to them by people needing the Faith's blessing for certain actions, as well as marriages, funerals, blessings, ritual celebrations, and other miscellaneous celebrations that are held in Faith tradition.
Under the Arch-Sylvrans are the preachers and missionaries that bring forth the masses of people into their temples and worshipping houses to behold the gods of the Faith on the days whenever they are called to do so.
Outside of the main Faith are the begging brothers, who travel around and spread the message of the Faith in return for food and coin, and the members of the Fallen Stars, who protect the begging brothers and the men and women that are a part of the wandering missionary groups that roam the lands to spread the message of the Faith.
The breakdown of Sarkov and it's nation and it's transformation into a horde has led primarily to the decline of an organizational structure, though it still exists.
The Faith's Restructuring, or How the Faith Became Darker
Presented by historian Narov Serlin
With the assassination and the elimination of the Grey Council, and the forced marches that resulted in cannibalism for the Faith soldiers on the front lines and the subsequent battles in the South and in the North, the Faith has splintered further into many more radical groups, and the militant beliefs in the Faith have grown ever stronger. Not even massive losses during the southern battles that claimed large swathes of our southern territory and civilians that fought and died for the glory of Sarkov has deterred the men and women in the Faith. The assassinations, the losses, the utter defeats we have suffered and the places we have lost... that does not concern the Fanatics and the Zealots and the Martyrs who fight and die so that their blood may stain the ground as their enemies burn before the blade.
The Grey Faith still remains powerful, as does the Martyr's Faith and the original Faith itself. The Valarian Faith that was peaceful and pacifistic has shrunk somewhat, but it's healers have been warned of an impending plague, and those same healers prepare now for the worst. But from the ashes of the old arise the factions of the new Faith, the factions that shall not be stopped. I believe that I will have to come up with a word to describe something that is both glorious and terrifying at the same time, for these new offshoots of our blessed Faith arej ones that shall not back down, shall not back down, until their goals have been completed.
Soldiers back from marching have quite often come underneath the new
Red Faith. The Red Faith is a offshoot of the Faith that believes that the consumption of flesh and blood of fallen enemies bestows the powers and the good parts of a man's soul. They believe wholeheartedly in blood sacrifice, and when enemy soldiers are captured by the Red Faith, the results are rather horrific. From a chronicle;
Quote:
It was a captured Samnite, one of the soldiers that was caught after the battle of Kora-Torr who had tried to escape. He was nailed to a post, and had his flesh torn off bit by bit as it was consumed by the congregation. The blood that ran out of the body was captured in cups by the adherents who then filled a massive, plaster bowl that was as white as snow. The preacher who led the congregation took the bowl in his hands and dipped a cup into the bowl, bringing it out and filled with blood. He passed it around to the congregation, who took sips of it as they sat there and lit candles. They sang in the tongue of the Faith, a sound that was loud and beautiful in an unearthly sort of way... then the preacher took his fingers, pushed up the Samnite's head, and used one hand to pry open the man's eyelids. He then tore out the eye of the Samnite and stuffed a cave spider into it, which proceeded to burrow into the man's skull. The screams fell silent after about five minutes or so, adn the men and women of the congregation cheered and danced.
That is just the tip of iceberg really. The
Red Martyr's Faith combines the bloodthirstieness of both of the types of the Faith, of the Martyr's Faith and the Red Faith. These people are probably the most violent of any offshoot of the Faith, and reports have surfaced that radicals in Ligurian held territory have freely attacked and maimed countless others before dying due to dozens of arrows. This offshoot of the Faith also consumes a powerful hallucinogenic and violent drug that causes the person to bleed from their eyes and their mouth rather profusely but sends them into a violetn rage. There have been reports of people that follow this form of the Faith that have had entire limbs and half of their body torn off and they still keep coming on before they expire. By comparison, the Martyr's Faith that was present at the Battle of the Burning Seas seems tame by comparison.
The
Martyr's Grey Faith grows stronger every day though. Combining the power and the efficiency of the Grey Faith with the fanaticism and the devotion to the Final Cause and the Cleansing, the Martyr's Grey Faith is a horrible combination. They have trained the ruthless Fanatic irregular companies who have been shown to march directly into arrow fire, absorbing them in a wall of flesh as they step over the bodies of their comrades to keep the advance up, smiling all the while. Unlike the other Martyr Faiths, the men and women of the Martyr's Grey Faith do not consume flesh or blood, but they have been known to train children to continue the fight to the last person, calling the soldiers Zealots. The children are also given a powerful hallucinogenic drug before battles to induce reveries and bloodlust.
The most radical and bloodiest of the Faith offshoots is known by a deceptively simple name; the
United Faith. The United Faith has become well known for it's bloody practices, citing the use of the Toras-North and Ligurian prisoners strapped to the ships during the Battle of the Burning Seas as an example of being to lenient towards the enemy. They band together and have formed their own militias in the towns and countryside, even stealing into the sovereign land of Apulia, Toras-North, and Liguria. They have even started to train their own assassins if the War for Valyria continues, as well as brainwashing any captured soldiers that are not killed as soon as they are caught.
Faith Structuring:
Since the Grey Council was assassinated during the war, the Faith's leadership was very shattered. Many of the good generals were killed, though some like General Rachus and General Saran survived the onslaught and made it back to Sarkov. From there, they started to reorganize the Faith and create a new order that was even more efficient than the way it had been before.
After Rachus and Saran died, calls for more radical leaders started, and since the Grey Faith council was no longer there, the
Red Night took power. With members from all of the radical offshoots of the Faith, they hold tremendous power and a twisted worldview that they seek to come to fruition if Sarkov does not regain it's territories back. Eager to spill blood, the Red Night has started training new soldiers and has adopted the battle cry of
"Sallah". This directly translates from the Faith language as "Die." If that's not a sign of what may soon come to pass, then I am a fool.
After the Immolation of Kora-Torr, the Faith is growing more powerful in Sarkov, more powerful and well organized. It is simply becoming more obvious by the day that if the plague from the far east does not kill us, it will be this bloody war.
I'll end this with a line from some of the last scriptures of the Faith's documents.
March on and sally forth
Believers in the Faith
For we shall never die as long as we fight
For honor and glory of the gods.
We march to war
Death and bloodshed
To carve a better world
From the ashes of the old
Vengeance and fury
Shall split the world asunder
Tear the Earth apart
And be the end of everything
But stand strong, people of the Faith
A new dawn is coming
A dawn from the days of flame
And the crimson night
Stand strong, people of the Faith
We march on till the death of the world
Never stopping, never faltering
To the final battle
Our toil and blood and has marked this land
Shall we back down and stop?
No, we shan't cry out the people
We'll fight them even harder.
Now fight now, to the end of the world
The final battle and enrapturement
For what we do, and what we make,
Shapes the world of the future.
The Faith Tales of the Exodus
In the long ages past, when we were in the Valyrian homeland, we were the most powerful peoples in the world. Our glory stretched from north to south, spanning the entire peninsula, and was going to stretch across the world. Armies were at our command, nations rose and fell by our hands, money flowed through our fingers and into our coffers. We were the most powerful people in the world, bringing forth greatness and prosperity to lands around us... we sought peace and expansion after our first conquests of the enemy, the Samnites that we had brought into the fold, and we wanted no more blood shed. Valyria had become full of bodies of the dying and the damned, so what was the point of having more to bury?
But then, the blasted demons from the South, led by their false god Ziril and at the command of the fire haired wenches and cowards struck us by surprise. They brought forth three other nations to fight us and try to smash us apart. They caught us unawares, split open our nation, and the blood of Valyria poured across the lands till it fell into the oceans... we marched against them and threw innumerable troops against them, but they held fast. We were on the wrong side of the war and we knew it.
We needed troops, supplies, and more power if we were to turn back the demons. Our Grey Faith saw to it that in the absence of a leader, who was assassinated by Zirilite assassins, the Grey Faith attempted to sell the colony owned by us in Iberia to the Ctyrians. We would have gotten a hefty amount of cash out of it, a hefty amount of money that would have turned the tide. But in our darkest hour, we got no money, no troops, no supplies from our supposed friends... the deal had fallen through, and they seized more land. We were forced to march on tiny rations, until our soldiers had to eat human flesh and blood to keep themselves going, until they hardened like brick and fell upon the Toras men with a ripping fury the likes of which has not been seen upon this world. Despite what we did, they still gained ground, and the situation became dire.
The Grey Faith council, inside of Sarkov and safe behind the walls from the rampaging penal colony warriors, were slaughtered by assassins when they convened. Grey Faith commanders were killed left and right, leaving a decimated officer corps. Very few survived, and those that did retreated and tried to hold the best that they could. Our people were growing tired, though the Fanatics, the Zealots, and the Martyrs held fast. The Battle of the Burning Seas only made the beliefs more solid and promising, that the Final Victory and the Cleansing of the Demons were close at hand.
With the boy king Markrov II dead by assassin blades, the Lark of house Blackfyre took the throne. Charismatic, he saw what would happen if the Valyrian peoples stayed in their homes and continued the war. Acting with the Faith command and the military, a daring plan was concocted.
Since ships were not a viable option out of the peninsula, due to the massive fleets of both Liguria and Toras, the Lark ordered all peoples to band together, from Verlinschva to the borders of what was once Naffarin. People came together, banding together in columns, wielding weapons of all shapes and sizes. The cities of Valyria, which had stood for nigh on four hundred years and more, were put to the torch by the Red Faith as they marched south to deal with the demons, sowing salt into the ash so that nothing would grow there again, so that no one could have the gem of Valyria. Massive forests were set on fire, to deny anyone the ancient homeland of the Sarkovites, and the Dukes of Samnia and Verlinschva stayed behind in their homes to die as they would, with dignity and honor.
There was only one way out of the peninsula... north.
Through Liguria and Ctyria, the Hordes marched, leaving bloody trails of bodies and ash in their wake. The Zealots and the Fanatics would rush forward to die upon the blades of the enemy, sacrificing themselves to damage the pride, the honor, and the morale of the Ctyrian bastards. Then the Royal Guard, made up of Grey Martyrs, would stride forth and crash like a wave against rock, to smash through the enemy lines.
Ctyria and Liguria were cracked open, laid to waste, and destroyed. The Lark, before leaving Valyria, turned back with fifty Royal Guardsmen to return to Sarkov. It is said that he immolated himself amongst the ruins of the palace of the old kings and rulers of the nation.
So here we are. On the edge of a new dawn, a new day, a new life. We are complacent for now.
But one day....
Our wroth and wrath shall sweep south and west once again.
To purge the heathens from this world.
Retake our homeland.
And pay back every debt that we have taken, repay them in blood.
Ten thousand fold.
The ruins of Valyria after the Fall.
Fires that gripped the nation.
