The Canon

The Canon, also sometimes called the Book of Puklesh, is the main Pukleshi holy text. According to tradition, fourteen prophets over the course of 100 years received divine inspiration from Almar, telling them to write down exactly as they had heard. Copies of the Canon may be partitioned in book/chapter format, or by which prophet said what.

The original texts of the Canon were written in the prophets' native languages, such as Testif and Biome Settler dialects. Copies of the entire text translated into Common came later. The reliability of these translations is constantly called into question, as is translators' ability to interpret the ancient forms of Testif, Low Ender, etc. Translation issues cause much of the disagreement on how contentious passages should be interpreted.

## Overview

All in all, the Canon is approximately 789 pages long in 12-pt text. In book/chapter format, it has twenty-six books, which sounds like a lot, but some "books" are only a few pages long.

### Book/Chapter Format

A list of each book and a brief synopsis.

## History

It is generally believed that Prophet Tiburat, the earliest contributor to the Canon, wrote down his texts in the middle Gold Age. Historians place this at about 1460 BPC. The last contributor, Prophet Kask, is thought to have written his part in 1360 BPC, since the Canon was supposedly written over the course of a hundred years.

The Council of Fyera met in 867 BPC to decide which texts of the Canon are, indeed, canon. This involved a nearly forty-day period of debate, prayer, and intense textual study. When the Council came to a close, the elders decided to excise the writings of two prophets, Hyru'a and Tatlu, as not canon to the Canon. The remaining fourteen prophets' texts were standardized into a single book. The elders' decision led to the creation of non-Fyeran Puklesh, which maintains the veracity of these two prophets' writings and includes them in their version of the Canon. Mainstream Puklesh regards the non-Fyeran version as a heresy, and often forbids its adherents from worshipping alongside orthodox Pukleshi.

The first edition of the Canon in the Common language was completed in [INSERT YEAR LOLOLOL]. A group of language scholars and theologians at [some college ig] put the translation together after several years' work. This specific translation is called the Universal Edition, or sometimes the Version For Us All. Although the stated goal was noble -- to put the holy texts in the universal language so that it was accessible to everyone -- the translation is not without controversy. Particularly fundamentalist Pukleshi accused the group of "cheapening" the prophets' sacred words by making what they called the layman's Canon. Additionally, the extensive translation work was scrutinized for accuracy, with fears that nuances of the text could be lost in the change from original to Common -- or intentionally changed out of the translators' biases. Because of this, some very traditional Pukleshi continue to use older texts in their original languages, not trusting the veracity of the Universal Edition.

The Canon came into more popular use during the reign of King Raphael Chase, who had converted to Pukleshi earlier in his life. Due to this, he made use of Adam Chase's Master of Ceremonies in regards to Initiaist Festival Days, while introducing those of his own faith to the calendar.

During the reign of Richard II, Pukleshi were persecuted as a religious minority in Treehold. Although the Canon was not banned outright, the Tyrant King passed laws forbidding production of new copies. Adherents often hid their copies out of fear that they would be discovered and destroyed. It was also forbidden for anyone to preach from it in public. Even Initiaist monks and nuns ran afoul of the law when they studied it to compare it to their own holy texts.