Black Cross Church

The **Black Cross Church**, is the primary religious institution on the planet of Xyon, and is the largest religious organization in the world with more than 1.3 billion members worldwide. Founded in 17 YM, the Black Cross Church is the oldest religious institution in Mikaean history, and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Mikaean civilization. The church is lead by the Reverend Mistress, the doctrines of the Black Cross Church are organized and laid out in the Bastion Dogma. The Black Cross Church is best known for its all-female clergy, adherence to traditional practices such as ritual tattooing, and the Divine Praxis. It members are known as *Mikaeanists*. As a religious institution, the Black Cross Church is the largest Mikaeanist denomination, accounting for more than 90% of its adherents.

The church professes the belief that the creator of the Mikaeans, Mikael O'Neill, was an avatar of God made in the flesh who created the Mikaeans in his image as a reflection of his qualities. The church also professes that it was founded by Mikael through Saint Anais, the individual responsible for promoting the establishment of an organized religion around the father of the Mikaeans. Originally starting out as an underground religious movement known as the Cult of the Father, the church grew in prominence following the Great Convocation in the region of Bastion, where the divinity of Mikael was established as early church dogma. The Zealot faction that came to control the church over their Materialist rivals, instituted the traditions that came to define the church as it exists today.

Since its formation, the church has greatly influenced Mikaean civilization since its inception nearly four thousand years ago, touching up the arts, literature and philosophy, culture and language, as well as the sciences. It is often credited as having been the main unifying force for the Mikaean species during the Tribulation era, and a driving force in the promotion and adoption of the Blackstone Constitution that was responsible for the establishment of modern-day Xyon. Its teachings of salvation and absolution have been a contributing factor in the spirituality of the Mikaean people, and the continued role of the church in life and culture across the planet. The Black Cross Church has been a major charitable organization, assisting the poor, the sick, and the helpless, and offering refuge for members of the Houseless community on Xyon.

## Doctrine

The Black Cross Church believes that the doctrines of the Church were established through the divine guidance of the Silent Creator through his mortal avatar, Mikael O'Neill, whom the Church claims was risen to the level of godship for his faith and obedience to the Silent Creator. Nearly two-thirds of all Mikaeans are thus required to worship O'Neill through the Church, which protects the eternal souls of the Mikaeans in life. The Church believes that major doctrinal issues that it must resolve are handled with the blessing of their god, and they are as such infallible. Of note are the core teachings of the Black Cross Church; all scripture hail from a single source within the Church, that being God, that all scripture is faithfully interpreted by the priesthood with the Reverend Mistress at its head, and that there is no salvation outside of the Church for any rightly guided Mikaean. The scriptural canon of the Church is the *Verunomicon*, which consists of 50 chapters of information passed down from Saint Anais to the Mikaeans, itself based on the teachings and principles of the *Mikaean Codex*, written by Mikael and the source of doctrinal legitimacy of the Church. The Reverend Mistress is regarded as the divine representative of God on Xyon, and thus the head of his holy institution there, which is eternally indivisible and without peer.

### God

The Church holds the belief that there is a single god over all Mikaeans, their known creator Mikael O'Neill, who exists under the headship over a greater deity known simply as the Silent Creator. Both are separate and distinct entities with their own levels of power and authority, with the Silent Creator responsible for the formation of all life in the universe. However, the Church teaches that all intelligent life was created through avatars of the Silent Creator's powers and divine will, and its was deities such as these who created the Mikaeans. To the Mikaeans, Mikael was one of the divinely-inspired avatars of the Silent Creator, who selected him to serve as his hands and vessel for the creation of the species. Because of his willingness to serve as a vessel for the all-powerful Silent Creator, Mikael was lifted up to the position of godhood himself, with dominion over all the Mikaeans and their lands. As such, the Black Cross Church advocates worship and veneration for Mikael rather than the Silent Creator, as through Mikael the Mikaeans render obeisance by their worship of his avatar and chosen representative. As such, it could easily be stated that the Mikaeans are ancestor worshipers in a sense as they worship their creator, Mikael, believing him to be the intermediary for the supreme lord of the universe, the Silent Creator. Having been bequeathed with godhood, Mikael is rightfully owed worship by the Mikaeans, who by doing so, are also rendering worship to the Silent Creator as they acknowledge his chosen representative over their species.

The dogma of the Church teaches that by means of Mikael, the Silent Creator crafted the Mikaeans to serve as the inhabitants of their world, with no true purpose other than to serve him through Mikael, and to enjoy the fruits of life and the happiness that came with it. Mikael was granted dominion over the Mikaeans, and he alone bears responsibility for the lives of his children, gifted to him by the Silent Creator. Every Mikaean has a soul that returns to Mikael upon death, uniting with him for eternity, though they are individual in their will and thinking, they submit to Mikael in the afterlife. The Church also teaches that Mikael can be as cruel as he wishes as he alone has the right to do whatever he so pleases, and that it is not the position of the Mikaeans to question his authority. However, in the same vein, the Church teaches that Mikael has no interest in bringing harm to his children, and that in the end, all evil imitates from the individual being, who possesses free will and the ability to act accordingly. To force Mikael to intervene on one's behalf would be selfish, as it would grant one Mikaean supremacy over the other, as well as infantilize the Mikaeans rather than force them to learn and behave as adults with independent will and motivation. Thus, the Mikaeans do not believe God to be evil or at fault for not protecting them from harm or malice. Rather, in line with church teachings, the Mikaeans view themselves as solely responsible for their actions. Though Mikael can bless the actions of Mikaeans, he will never directly bless the evil that they do to one another.

Naturally, a cult of personality has cropped up around Mikael because of his role as the mortal father of the Mikaeans. Given that he left a photo image of himself in the *Mikaean Codex* for the Mikaeans to know who he was long after he died, images of Mikael are located virtually everywhere throughout Mikaean society. Considered on a scale much greater than anything found in the personality cults of the Kim family of North Korea, Ataturk of Turkey, and the communist dictators Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong of the Soviet Union and China respectively, the personality cult of Mikael crosses over from veneration to outright worship by the Mikaeans. Whereas the other individuals were responsible for founding their modern nations, protecting them, or developing them, Mikael alone created the entire species he presided over, founded everything they stood for from their language to their very thinking patterns, and was the biological father of all Mikaeans in the species as a consequence of the genetic information he used to create them. As such, the connection between the Mikaeans and the man they worship runs deeper than any ties between autocrat and subject on Earth, for the Mikaeans know who created them, when they were created, and how they were created, lending their worship far more credence in terms of justification than other religions on Earth.

## History

*Main article: History of the Black Cross Church*
### Formation and growth

The Mikaeanist religion that defines the modern Black Cross Church was originally established in 17 YM by Saint Anais in the city of Bastion. Guided by Mikael to adhere to law and order, as well as maintain a degree of spiritual belief, the early Mikaeans adhered to a set of moral laws and principles as written down by Mikael in the *Mikaean Codex* in 15 YM. Anais was one such Mikaean who followed the same teachings, though it was her opinion that Mikael was in fact an avatar used by a higher power to create them as his servants, a belief which she originally kept to herself out of fear of reprisal. Always considered more zealous than her peers of the time, Anais was determined to spread her ideology with her sisters and clarify the wider religious beliefs of her people. Long regarded as a moral authority on the teachings of the *Codex*, Anais began sharing her beliefs with the members of her coterie, whom she easily convinced regarding her thoughts of religion, and began the Cult of the Father, which quickly spread throughout the early settlements of the Mikaeans.

Starting off as an underground personality cult, the Cult of the Father slowly grew over the next decade or so in the frontiers of the early Mikaean civilization. Avoiding the gaze of the Mikaean progenitor, Mikael O'Neill, the cult sought to avoid being shut down by O'Neill and his First Sons, who had no interest in a religion that glorified the man as an avatar of God. Though a devout man of faith, O'Neill held the belief that it was for the Mikaeans to determine their spirituality independently of himself – he had only provided them with the tools and the innate desire to do so. The embryonic group of cultists, led by Anais, began to preach their views of O'Neill in the countryside of Bastion, and later the rest of the Mikaean Coast, though they were keen to share these views with close friends and confidants that could be trusted not to expose their activities. All new members of the cult were obliged to take up an oath of secrecy until the time came for them to reveal themselves to the wider population. Two years after its creation, 350 of the cult's members would meet deep within the woods of the hilly regions of Bastion. It would be here that the Great Convocation would take place and determine the future of the early religion.

During the Convocation, sparked by a dispute within the cult over the nature of O'Neill's divinity, would take place outside of Bastion and settle the matter for posterity. The two factions that led the debate were the Zealots led by Anais, and the Materialists led by early cult member and sister of Anais, Genevieve O'Neill. The Zealots argued on the grounds of Mikael having been created by God as an avatar to walk among mortals, and that it was required of them to venerate him as a such. The Materialists, however, had shifted greatly over the years from the original views of Anais, and believed that they should adhere to the views of their creator, and worship in private without fanfare. Having served as the personal doctor to Mikael O'Neill himself, and gotten to know the man as an individual rather than a god, Genevieve, though her faith was strong, had a different view of their father than her sister Anais. Their views also included the belief that while Mikael was to be regarded with respect and reverence, he was not himself God, but a mortal like the Mikaeans and a servant of God.

Anais' words found purchase with the majority of the visiting members of the cult, who too agreed with the concept of Mikael having been made a god by a much more powerful entity, who used their father as a medium to carry out his will on Xyon. The Materialists, however, countered by stating that Mikael had never claimed to be a divine being or that he had been working on behalf of a greater power, pointing to his deliberate attempts to avoid having an extravagant or elaborate title and dwelling befitting his supposedly divine nature. This argument was struck down by the Zealots after they mentioned that at no time did Mikael ever discount Anais' claim that he was a god in the making, though Genevieve sarcastically remarked that "our Father cannot denounce that which he knows nothing about", referring to the underground nature of the Cult of the Father. Anais in turn argued that, with all due respect to her sister, Genevieve, only a truly divine man would deny his divinity, and that Mikael only sought to spare his offspring undue excitement by confirming their beliefs.

Genevieve was censured by the rest of the Convocation for her earlier remark, and Anais emerged victorious as the Materialists were barred from making any further arguments on the subject of Mikael's nature as a divine being throughout the rest of the assembly. As a consequence of this victory, the cult came to be dominated by the Zealot faction of the religious organization, and Genevieve and her Materialists were driven from the ranks of the organization's leadership and into the common monastical or parishioner status for the rest of Anais' lifetime. With the Materialists removed as a threat to her faction and ideals, Anais established as dogma the divine nature of Mikael and his relationship with the higher power known as the Silent Creator, the entity carrying out his will through Mikael. The Divine Praxis, establishing all of the doctrines of the faith, were voted upon by the wholly Zealot Cult of the Father at the end of the Great Convocation in 24 YM, and the official teachings of the body solidified by the cult members.

### Expansion of the faith

With all cult members on the same page as far as doctrine was concerned, the Cult of the Father had become more bold in its proselytizing work, going so far as to begin preaching in the cities of Blackstone and Oxida Nova openly in the quarters where officials were less likely to visit on a regular basis. By 30 YM, there were more than 60,000 members practicing "the Faith" as it had come to be know out of the nearly 250,000 Mikaeans living in the region at the time. Though many of the patrons and the male authorities had come to suspect something had been taking place in the back-alleys of Mikaean society at the time, none of them seriously considered investigating the issue, even though Mikael himself had expressed concern that the Mikaeans may have been developing a religion centered on him without his approval. With no serious opposition to their work and nearly half of the Mikaean population practicing the faith, the Cult of the Father grew with little issue or concern. The cult members were keen to avoid drawing Mikael's attention by practicing their faith secretly, and none of the men in the population responsible for keeping the Mikaeans in line bothered with enforcing rules that they believed were unnecessary against what was a harmless if not beneficial belief system.

There existed, and still exists in the modern day, a debate as to whether or not Mikael either knew or encouraged the growth of Mikaeanism behind his back. Many Materialists actively hold to the belief that Mikael had been unaware of the growth of Mikaeanism, pointing out that he never wished to be regarded as that which he was not. The Zealots believe that Mikael was unaware as to the extent of the religion's growth, but that he know that something was taking place which he did not support, hence the need for the early believers to practice their faith underground. Regardless of the extent to which he was aware of the Cult of the Father's existence, all parties agree on the topic that Mikael did nothing to stop the religion from spreading, and completely ignored the subject by openly voicing his stance that the Mikaeans determine their own course on the subject of religion and spirituality. Many today view his statements as endorsing, if not directly, the growth of the cult, though there still remains considerable disagreement with this view within many corners of the Materialist community within the modern church.

### Blossoming era

Mikael's death in 40 YM shook the Cult of the Father to its core, as the loss of the very individual the members of the faith had been worshiping since its inception in 17 YM, had a deep effect on the Mikaeans. Not only had their messianic figure died, but the man who had created them and everything they knew, nurtured their civilization, and provided guidance to them as father, was now gone. Even though the Materialists recognized this as an opportunity to dethrone Anais and her faction from power, not even Genevieve was so bold as to do so, viewing it as a potentially tactless move on her part. The entire faith entered into a period of prolonged mourning, lasting for nearly five years after the official year-long mourning period instituted by the Council of Patrons. Anais ended the mourning period in 45 YM, and continued preaching for another two years years before she ultimately took her own life by drowning herself in Lake Bastion in 47 YM. Her death was a heavy blow to the leadership of the Cult of the Father, and weakened the position of the Zealots as a faction for many years. Without Anais as the leader of the cult, there was much indecision on the part of the cult members in whom to select as the new leader of the religious institution.

Taking charge of the situation, Genevieve returned from her period of ostracization within the organization, and established herself as the leader of the cult. Though many of the Zealots did not initially accept her declaration to take over the movement, Genevieve wisely announced that in the two and half decades she had to reflect on her punishment following the Great Convocation in Bastion, she had come to accept the Zealot way of thinking on Mikael and his celestial role within the faith and the universe. Her speech at the underground Cathedral of the Patriarch was widely received by both Zealots and Materialists, the latter approving of Genevieve's tacit move not to directly refer to Mikael as a god, but as a "creator", which he had realistically been. Through her efforts, Genevieve brought the faith back together and reaffirmed her commitment to the tenets of the Divine Praxis, and acknowledged that it was time for the cult to become mainstream in Mikaean society for the benefit of all members of the population. To that end, Genevieve announced that she would officially reveal the presence of the Cult of the Father to the world.

However, Genevieve stated that she would first be reorganizing the Cult, as the organization's name had carried a negative connotation during the leadership of Anais, as an underground society that deified a dead man against his will. Based on this, the Cult of the Father would be completely reorganized into the **Black Cross Church** on 1 Mikaeon 48 YM, with Genevieve as the new Reverend Mistress of the Chruch. When asked why she chose the name that she did, Genevieve responded by pointing to a cross that she created prior to coming to the Cathedral of the Patriarch. The cross was entirely black, and had eight arms; four long and four short. The long arms of the cross, Genevieve stated, represented Mikael, the patrons, the households, and the coteries, best known as the "Four Pillars of Xyon". The four smaller arms represented the four traits and qualities Mikael had impressed upon his children, namely love, truth, logic, and integrity. Black was Mikael's favorite color and represented purity in the eyes of the Mikaeans. And "church" came from an ancient an archaic term that Genevieve recalled from the faint genetic memories she and her fellow sisters possessed through the patrons from Mikael, and which best represented the "belonging nature" of the religious institution to Mikael.