Greagorian church

The Greagorian church is the state religion of the Holy Empire of Sanbreque in Final Fantasy XVI. Its followers worship the goddess Greagor, considered to be the only true deity. All the empire's leaders are members of the church, in particular the five cardinals who govern the five original provinces of the empire and elect the Holy Emperor, who is supposed to be their equal, even if he is considered to be the incarnation made flesh of the goddess Greagor.
The church considers dragons to be the sacred servants of their goddess, and they are well represented in Sanbrequois art and are bred and protected to serve as supports for the legionnaires of the imperial army. The nation's Eikon is the dragon Bahamut, and the empire's elite fighting forces who serve the holy emperor are the Holy Order of the Knights Dragoon, knights who train to fight like dragons. Even the elite assassin unit composed of Branded Soldiers, the Bastards, have members with dragon-based names, such as "Tiamat" and "Wyvern".
Statues of the goddess are found in churches visited by the populace for sermons. New churches are built to regions that the empire annexes, implying that the empire propagates the faith and spreads it to the areas it takes over. Other religions in the realm include the Crystalline Orthodox, who worship the Mothercrystals themselves as deities, and similar beliefs derived from the ancient Circle of Malius used to be widespread across the Twins; in modern day, the Greagorian church is much more prominent, and the state religion of the empire.
==Beliefs==
The followers of Greagor worship dragons as sacred servants of the goddess, and since the founding days of the empire, have both doted and depended upon them.
Emperor Sylvestre Lesage believes himself the incarnation of goddess Greagor on Valisthea, and so justifies his megalomania and want for more land and Mothercrystals as the divine will that no one can oppose, and those that do to be heretics.
Members of the Greagorian clergy include s who divine the future from the movements of the heavens. The astrologers of the imperial court share their auguries exclusively with the emperor, granting them significant political influence should the emperor of be receptive to their divination. This implies some importance placed on fate or divinely-influenced determinism in the church's belief system.
==Historical Greagor==
A woman upon whose story Goddess Greagor is based on lived during the Fallen civilization, about 1,500 years ago. During the War of the Magi, various nations waged war for aether resources from the Mothercrystals with formidable magicks. A female knight during this time used magicks to create a dragon-shaped weapon. This tale became prevalent in the Greagorian church, creating the symbol of Goddess Greagor, who rides on the back of a wyvern.Final Fantasy XVI Ultimania p.716
== Behind the scenes ==
The Greagorian church may have been influenced by the real-world Catholic church, its name potentially being a reference to Pope Gregory VII, known for his "Gregorian Reformation", in which he participated and helped make ecclesiastical power independent of secular power.
According to in-universe belief, Greagor has 72 spirits of light. Seventy-two is a recurring number in real world religions, including Jesus's seventy-two apostles, the number of names of God according to Kabbalah, and the number of disciples of Confucius who mastered his teachings.
==Notes==
===Annotations===
===Citations===
Category:Organizations in Final Fantasy XVI