The Pentaphany
The Epiphany of the Five
"Sothe, Liestra, Alar, Prythe, Astres. These are the names given to those forces that guide us and lend us strength. They have always been. They will always be."-First Palatine of Liestra, Theodorux I.
Overview
The Pentaphany, or the Temples of the Epiphany of the Five, is an organized union of five temples dedicated to the gods Sothe, Liestra, Alar, Prythe, and Astres. Arising in -10348 ON, but having prototypical forms centuries beforehand, the five temples are a united theologic union preaching a foundational orthodoxy about the fundamental existence of the Five throughout the history of the kinds. With this fundamental existence, they preach of the virtuosity each kind can live and strive toward by following the examples of the gods and their saints. The Pentaphany is a widespread religion by the Epoch of Flame, having spread its influence and institutions across Central Tys. It has great secular power amongst its faithful and at times has rivaled and even been greater than many kings and empires over the ages.The Pentaphany is at its heart a syncretic religion that takes those religions that came before and unifies them into a single orthodox theory. It teaches that the Five have always existed and that many earlier gods were actually different facets of the Five. The earlier gods Tyzic, Roruna, Yolpaqui Cuetlachtli, Dami-Go, and the like were taught as simply different but incorrectly interpreted facets of the Five. In this way, they more easily convert would-be believers by not forcing them to rebuke their old god(s) but instead see them in a new light.
History
The Pentaphany rose at the death of the Empire of Mekkhor and in some ways was seen as a successor to them. During this time was the great Cold Death when the armies of the undead rose across the land to strike at their ancestral home in Skalovia. However, along the way, a mixture of confusion on both the lichs' side and the living led to a great continent-spanning war on the death knell of the empire. Out of this war, the Pentaphany which started as an outsider cult to the old Mekkhorian religion, rose to prominence on the back of the works of their prelates, paladins, clerics, knightly orders, monk orders, and sisterhood. With their blessings of Liestra, they also had almost sole control of food supply in these dark times which made the common peasant dependent on them. The temples took control with the dissolution of the old consulships and were a unifying force during this time. At the end, theocratic control reigned in the northern half of Velas. However, even the Pentaphany was small in number to the larger numbers of warlords that rose during this time in the great defense against the undead. These warlords worked with the temples but would want their own lands in return for leading the majority of armed forces against the menace. Along with this, older archons of the Empire would want their old rulerships back. In this tension, the Pentaphany and the new warlords allied themselves to quickly destroy the archons of old. They split the land in a 1:3 ratio between the Pentaphany and the warlords. This would create the modern parishes and form the regional borders that exist today.
The Pentaphany held a political tension with the new lords and kings that would wax and wane with the millennia. In their secular rule, they made their religious laws canon and had influence across their secular borders by the control over the hearts and souls of the masses. They also held military power in the form of the knightly chapters and orders like the Chantry of Sothe and political power by often being present in the courts as advisors. Their power base was in the regions of Mekkhor but would spread to southern Xatla and would have mixed but minor attempts in Aizarin. The gnolls of Wakunan would also accept the Pentaphany but always saw it through the lens of their messiah/prophet figure and would often follow their teachings over the clerics.
This secular rule and tension would continue until the decades after Great Unburdening, when the secular power of the temples fell. After this time, the parishes landholdings were taken away by the ruling states. Their reach will spread spiritually, however, and until the outlawing of their militant orders in 612 PR they will have a closed fist in the other hand for monsters, cultists, anima, and enemies.
Places of Worship
The Pentaphany Undivided - Temples, Chapels, Cathedrals
Sothe - Graveyards, Mausoleums, Sepulchres
Liestra - Crop Fields, Groves, Hospitals
Alar - Coliseum, Arenas, Tourney Grounds
Prythe - Courthouses, Town Halls
Astres - Workshops, Factories
Holy Number
5
Hierarchy
The Five Palatines of Liestra, Sothe, Alar, Prythe, and Astres which are equal in power.
These are known as the Vitarch, Thanarch, Bellarch, Iustarch, and Stellarch.
High Prelates of the Diocese - 50
Low Bishops of the Parish - 400 and counting
Priests (Thousands) Paladins-Clerics (Hundreds)
Parsons (Hundreds)
Parsons (Hundreds)
Deacons (Hundreds)
Laymen (Millions)
Virtues
The virtues upheld by the Pentaphany are the combined mixture of those acts, conditions, qualities, or states that the individual gods hold to be the highest. They are split per god as such.
Liestra Charity, Hope, Prudence
Sothe Humility, Respect
Alar Loyalty, Bravery, Comradery, Fortitude
Prythe Justice
Astres Diligence
The Temples teach that the divine can be reached by following the virtues of the five, even when one is dedicated to one god.
God Speech
The prelates are the extremely few men and women alive that have heard the voice of their chosen god directly. It is unknown why the gods only save their voice for these few, although others have claimed to have heard them. It is one of the greatest privileges awarded to the heads of these religions.
Divine Investiture
Divine Investiture is the empowerment of those formally recognized as clerics and paladins by one of the gods of the Five. It is most often given either through prelate or higher clergyman, but it has been known to have been given to those of great faith and virtue. Investiture gives those chosen faithful powers that are to be used in furtherance of the Five's teachings and will.
Saints
Saints are those figures dedicated to the Five that lived outstanding holy lives and serve as virtuous models to live up to. A very rare few have even ascended to the anathemahood, and can serve as patrons to the righteous. These are known as the Living Saints. The Cymrien calendar has feast days for each saint. These are faith-wide holidays that allow for leisure and worship at the temples of the Five.
Mechanically, patronage by the Living Saints may allow special abilities or more options of power investiture.
Saint Bromae An instrumental saint of the early church, Saint Bromae was a human chosen of Alar that freed the magic users that had seen repression under the temples of the Five.
Alois d'Feis An emancipator of fallow from the Pentaphany's execution. He was secretly of fallow blood but received the same empowerment and blessings and lived a virtuous life without the call of his sire beckoning him to sin.
Kunan A saint whose sainthood is in conflict of whether the gnoll Kunan of the Desert truly displayed virtues of the Five or if her inclusion is pure false syncretism. Regardless, she is an officially accepted Anathema.
Potent Excommunication
Potent excommunication is the ability of the prelates of the temples to remove the ability of a cleric or paladin to perform miracles that their dedicated god invests in them. It only works with those that use the power of the Pentaphany's pantheon. It is a great shame upon the excommunicated and is kept for the heretical, treasonous, or truly vile in the eyes of the Temples. It is one of the most powerful abilities the highest priests of the gods have.
Mechanically, excommunication can occur to a character in direct eye-sight of a prelate and they must speak the prayer of failed contrition at the target. This does not work indirectly like with a magic ball. The prayer takes a full five minutes to say. Afterwards, a full five minutes is had while the character is stripped of their godly blessings and power. Once done, the character's power investiture via GURPS rules is removed from their sheet and their abilities. They keep any spells that could be powered by magery if they had the prerequisites to use it. If they do not, then those points that were spent on those powers are refunded and those powers denied.
Reconciliation is a power a prelate has and it can be done by any prelate of the religion.
Interestingly, in history prelates and antiprelates have actually been able to excommunicate each other and each one would lose their power. Why this is has no explanation, and it is almost a rule between two (unless by trickery they can remove the other's power force) rival prelates that it would not be used against the other. The legitimacy of their offices would come into question.
The Afterlife
The Pentaphany teaches that when someone dies, their soul is judged by Sothe who is responsible for placing them in the correct afterlife. Sothe's afterlife is one of ecstatic contemplation, Liestra's is one of beautiful green fields and revelry, Alar's is one of rest at his hall of heroes, Prythe is one of euphoric order, and Astres is one of the creation of stars. Those faithful of the Five that died then returned have seen the face of the Crow Father and his sorting process. However, those that do not worship the Five have also claimed to have seen the afterlife including worshippers of the Twin Gods and the animists of the Hekatiens, so Sothe's pure control of souls is in question. Along with this are those that have thrown their lot with the powers of Woehl whose souls are damned (or blessed, depending on their favor) to the Tithing Realms or the hells.
Proscriptions
These groups, items, actions, and institutions were outlawed by the Temples and their use or presence would demand excommunication of the proscribed and the execution of any of its users.
Woehltriv and Woehltan worship, invocation, or assistance
Slavery in 41 PR
Legitimization of worldly "god emperors"
The Council of Wyrms and the Astresian Dilemma
When the great blasphemy of Uhlion the Broken was made known, firearms were outlawed as tools of sin and any holding them could be severely punished. They were made from a blasphemous act against the God of Stars which justified this decree. However, not all Astresian clergy agreed they should be cast down. A great number of them believed that while they were produced from a sinful act they also should be able to study and even use these weapons that were made from the stolen stuff of their chosen god. This became a large point of contention for decades until small gradual steps were made to allow studying them. These small steps eventually culminated in the Council of Wyrms, named as such because it concerned the weapons used by the dragons and dragonkin of Skalovia, which fully freed their use. It also lifted the intersection on Skalovia, which had been softening under the rule of Premier Janna Ukiatev.
Burial and Cremation
The Temple of Sothe teaches that the living thinking kinds are to be buried and their graves undisturbed. In this way their bodies can naturally die as their thinking conscious self did. To defile a grave is to do a great evil in the Sothian religion. Important graves are often guarded by gargoyle and reaper anima to ensure their rest is not disturbed and grave robbers are to be punished. Necromancers, aside from the sanctioned groups of Lusmia and those complying with the Court of the Night, are also to be put to the death for defiling bodies.
Cremation has been seen as a form of defilement for millennia. However, in the epoch of flame, undead invasions, and necromancer risings became nearly as terrible as the Cold Death invasion of long ago. The temple held firm to their word and still required all dead to be buried. Naturally nations like the Republic that did not fall under the temple's influence discarded this decree, especially in the wake of the Lich Wars of the early first century. By the second epoch, the temple would loosen this decree. It was decided that it was better for a body to burn than be turned to undead in areas where undead and the works of shi were prominent. It was considered sinful still to burn the undead or damage the body in realms where this was not the case.
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