NOVEL NEXT BECMI Chapter 199 – As a Matter of Faith
"You believe I must turn away from the faith of my forefathers in order to effect real change here, Lady Edge?" Sir Horn asked with clenched teeth.
"Yes." I never sugar-coated things with him, and he knew it. "The Churches of this world exist to serve the Immortals who empower them. The Immortals of these Churches lived thousands of years ago, and that is the world they want to see and keep around. They don't want to see humanity advance to a point beyond what they themselves achieved, to when Immortals are not needed, when things are achieved by mortals that normally would only be the province of them. If you want Pavis and Coluv and Metri to take an interest in this land once again, you'd have to revert it to the standards of their time and peoples and how they ruled back then… and that mode of rulership is what is causing all the problems today.
"They aren't interested in raising the floor. They are interested in the continuance of how things were, not in how things might be. That is simply how most religions function. The more you rely on the Immortals and the less on yourselves, the better it is for the Church.
"You seem to have a familiarity with the system of senators and patriarchs and legates and the elected Emperor of the Eonics," he guffawed, before taking a final drink of his own goblet and setting it aside.
"Women not having the right to vote or even be spoken to? How one became an Immortal still surprises me… except for the fact that she did so as a priestess, the one vocation in their culture where a woman could rise to power without being looked down upon for doing the job of a male." I just rolled my eyes.
Magical worlds, gender differences were extremely minor things compared to the power to be gained by gaining more Levels. So what if males started off stronger? There were offsets, and the difference meant nothing at higher Levels, at least compared to normal men. Power was its own form of strength… and denying women the right to even choose careers that facilitated Leveling meant the Eonics had been massively shooting themselves in the foot, even as they pursued heroic behavior in slaughtering their foes as a standard of behavior for their young men.
Well, that was basically what a classical hero was, after all. Adventuring and doing battle to gain glory and eternal recognition of their name. Those deeds became legends and lived on, the Immortal stayed known and relevant, and their worshipers sought to emulate them and be like them, not be greater than them.
Sir Horn's smile was hard. I could fight very, very well, and I could Cast like nobody else on the planet could. The Eonics would've spurted nosebleeds of inferiority just being around me.
"The Salutes, they are gaining much attention," he admitted quietly. "Everyone can feel the subtle power of the Salute to the Morning, and they wonder who they are Saluting, not what they are Saluting." I'd told him and all the others plainly that the powers that made the Salute could not hear them here, but perhaps, one day…
"Establishing a third church that does not have an active priesthood behind it would be… problematic," I told him.
"But you have powerful Clerical magic!" he protested. "I have seen you use it!"
"Yes, but I cheat," I advised him. "The way I do so is not something you can build a true Church upon… and the powers I venerate do not have an actual hand behind them right now, a clear voice that could offer guidance. There are no Immortals or their servants behind what I serve, Sir Horn, and what that means is that some opportune Immortal would be happy to sneak right in and take over that function and its influence upon the worshipers to co-opt the entire church.
"I am not saying I do not WANT to set up a Church of Heaven, Sir Horn. I am saying that doing so simply isn't realistic given what would happen if we tried to. Serving an airy ideal when an Immortal Patron is basically contacting others every day with their magic is not going to have any staying power in this world."
"I… see." And he did. A god who answered versus one who did not would have all the advantages, not the least being able to appear in person and just awe the shit out of everyone and everything. "Then, we need to base this on philosophy, rather than on a cult of personality, yes?"
There'd been many discussions about this topic in the Markspace among my elites. Learning that there was a Heaven, that Good and Evil were forces being completely ignored here (and yet magic enshrined them!) and the Alignments were beyond the Immortals entirely, with true Gods being beyond finite, were all headspinning moments for people for whom the Immortals were very, very real, if very powerful and distant.
But we'd all seen what Immortals had done and could do, the ramifications of their actions, and who paid the price for their games and contests with one another. The only ones holding them to account were one another, and in the end, that meant barely held to account at all, only encouraging them to find ways around such rules out of sight.
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"You mentioned that minor spells could be gained and granted by faith alone," Sir Horn went on, his voice filling with fervor. "I would… there are paladins anointed by the Churches of Law, warriors given blessings of faith and minor clerical powers, true holy warriors. I would like to walk that path of power if I could, and you said it was possible…"
I could only sigh in resignation. His soul was brimming with Silver, wanting to do the right thing, aim for the Higher Cause and Belief, and without Heaven here, there was no direction to true Paladinhood.
What they called paladins I just called Templars, Knights of the Temples, basically lesser Cleric/fighters following the 1/3 human paradigm of a side Class without even knowing it. Basically, the Faran and Paladin Classes were just using the Human advancement paradigm without knowing it as a side-Class, stripped of all overlapping powers and so much cheaper than being a full Class on its own. Caster power and Turning ability, that was basically it. It increased the amount of Karma they needed per Level, but given how active my people were, that was non-essential.
I would have preferred that he take the arcane route, becoming a budding swordmage, even if he didn't become an elven-trained Ranger in their burgeoning Tradition.
"Then let me speak of the three Orders of Good Templars: the true Paladin, the noble Myrikhan, and the valiant Champion. Shining Silver, glowing Gold, and radiant Rainbow. They are among the very best of mortals, committed to a life and path of doing Good and great deeds, souls drawn on a path that very, very few mortals have the morals and ethics to follow through on.
"The typical Patrons of such warriors are Mithar, Aru, and Valus in the Pantheon I know of, but those warriors do not actually need the direct blessing of the Divine. They hear the Call, they are drawn to serve, and in the end they serve the Silver, the Gold, and the Rainbow. Their Divine Patrons are, in essence, big brothers following along the same paths as they, and so they are not under any obligation to mortal churches or religions which, in the end, have different missions than do they.
"Here, there are no Divine to facilitate this mission, and Good has not condensed into a Heaven to begin manifesting servants and responding to will and Faith by forming the first true Gods, of whatever power.
"Here, the only divine power we have access to... is pure Faith."
There was a rustle across the Markspace as my words echoed there, and my people were listening.
"The Immortals of this realm are not Divine. They gain no power from Faith, only information from the prayers of those who follow them and Glory from deeds done in their name that further their goals and ambitions.
"They are effectively parasites and leeches preying on the mechanics of Faith to further their goals, beholden to none.
"This, then, is the same mechanic I have been using, except I am tapping the power of Faith to wield Divine magic. As they can't use the power, my stealing it from them is basically invisible.
"This is the single oldest Tradition of Faith magic in mortal existence. Before Immortals, before gods, the most primitive of our ancestors venerated the spirits of the land, the sea, the sky, the mountains, the lakes, the forests. They honored the spirits of the primal beasts, they cowered before the darkness of the night and shadows, and whispered of great things hidden behind the beauty of the stars and moon.
"These things were not gods, but they were Fey. Our forebears could feel the power, if not use it, and even as ancient as they were, they had power, and could overawe those who came before us.
"The Ur-Priests were those who stood between these powerful spirits and beings and their tribes, be they elven or human, dwarf or hyn or other. Today he might speak for Grandfather Tree. Tomorrow she might speak for the uncaring sky. The day after, the rolling fields, and the day after, for the spirit of the sea to bless their catch.
"The people had Faith in all of these beings, and that was the power tapped by the Ur-Priest. The concept of only serving one faith, one Immortal, or one religion was an alien concept, for our ancestors respected and feared them all.
"If you wish to draw on Faith, this is the path you must follow in this day and age.
"However, to do this is to draw the very, very jealous and envious attention of the Immortals, daring to take the Faith that they gather and return to their own mortal servants for magic, as if the ancient ways are now the height of hubris for daring to do what the Immortals stole from our predecessors.
"If we choose to do this, if we set foot forward on this path, it will need a disguise, a cover drawn over it to deflect attention and make it seem what it is not. They will go looking for the Immortal behind a new religion and church, considering the mortals just dupes and pawns.
"The Ur-priest is neither a dupe nor a pawn. They choose to stand between mortals and non-mortals, and they directly wield the Faith of their people, NOT the power returned to them by Immortal or god.
"If you choose this path, you are instantly at odds with the Immortals, who have long buried this choice and power from mortals. Indeed, its removal from us may well be the thing which empowers Immortals the most, as it totally removes the ascendance of Faith to the Divine and enslaves it to their own will, forever preventing the rise of beings greater than themselves.
"If you deviate from the path of Good in this matter, then you become like the Immortals, parasites and leeches on the Faith of mortals, callously wielding the power as heartlessly as a wizard does the arcane energy and mana of the world, for your own purposes and benefits. Many of those who discover the power of wielding Faith fall to this role, become tricksters and thieves of the powers normally restricted to the Divine, thinking themselves entitled peers of greater beings because they have seen the greater power of Faith and can wield it for themselves, just like gods and Immortals can.
"That will also be very much in violation of your Allegiance Oath and the Geases you agreed to in order to be silent on this matter in the face of others. Be aware of this."