Catechism Makharhyan

**Caishiwa:** Exarch Aymer Marcellis II
**Paloris:** Exarch Virgil VIII

**Priphonia:** Exarch Menakr IV

The **Catechism Makharhyan** is the collection of major tenets, saintly biographies, apocrypha, and poetry that serve as the basis for **Makhairan Rhyanism** and its successor denominations. It also serves as a collective term for the disparate Post-Makhairan orders as a whole.

The majority of the Catechism was compiled during the time of the Makhairan Empire.

## Structure

The Cosmics
The Cosmics are a collection of encyclopedic texts detailing the Makhairan Rhyanist interpretation of the wider spiritual cosmos, most of which are apocryphal. In most versions of the Catechism, it is presented before the First Chronology.

The First Chronology
The First Chronology is the Makhairan narrative of creation, generally presented in iambic pentameter.

The Dialogues
The Dialogues are the direct or secondhand accounts of various saints' and sages' interactions with either Rhya Herself or the Ennead, or with each other. As the name suggests, these are almost purely dialogic in format. Iambic meters are used to denote mortal voices, whereas those of a deity or spiritual messenger are trochaic, a distinct number of feet being used by each individual.

The Second Chronology
The Second Chronology is a narrative account of the rise of the Aoshanti Empire of Abzu, and its eventual fall, through the writings of certain saints of the Dialogues and several later ones who lived through the Fall of Abzu. It is generally presented in dactyllic pentameter.

The Eschatology
The Eschatology is the Makhairan myth of the eventual end of time, the final death of Rhya, and triumph of order over discord and suffering.

The Miscellanea
The Miscellanea are an assortment of additional texts, some of which are encyclopedic or highly specific to a particular Enneadic deity. Many of them detail proper activities of worship, dates of divine significance, and general tenets to live everyday life by.

## Tenets & Mythology

In addition to the essential tenets of Rhyanism, the Catechism Makharhyan teaches the following:

1. **Mandatum Emeritus:** Belief that divine right to rule is earned by the creation of an effective and just law, which can apply to all peoples of the galaxy. Opinions on how the Ecumene relates to this vary by sect; some have suggested that the Ecumene, or more specifically the Tvolii, should push to claim this divine right, while others believe it should be invested in a broader international system.
2. **Deeper Potential:** Belief that all beings have a "greatest possible potential" to give back to their society, a tenet borrowed from Lieschi spirituality. By extension, all societies have a greatest possible system of maintaining a good and just order, which may differ but can all ultimately be joined by a divine ruler.
3. **Pantheon of Homeworlds:** Worship of, in addition to Rhya, the guardian souls of worlds with natural biospheres, most of these being species' homeworlds—known as the **Nahnyani** (signgular: **Nahnya**) or simply **Homeworlds**. Most often, worship is directed at Rhya first and the most local Homeworld second, with exceptions generally being labelled as more traditional paganism. Tai, Mu, Nhoh, Eo, Volyn, Thoa, Athi, and Mkai are the primary world-souls and deities venerated by Post-Makhairan Rhyanists.
4. **Rights of Nonsapients:** Most Post-Makhairan sects strongly discourage any harm dealt to non-sapient species, and as a result many of their followers have a fully vegetarian diet (though nearly universal use of food synthesizers in the Ecumene means this is rarely applicable).
5. **Internal Dualism:** Belief that an internal struggle between order and chaos is innate to all material beings. Rhya is often held as a paragon of spiritual harmony and guide towards it: the embracing of one's deepest purpose in collaboration with a world that has been shaped to social harmony.
6. **Cosmic Order/Disorder Struggle & Cyclical Time:** Belief in malevolent forces, the **Antekahni**, which are doomed to eventually lose the cosmic struggle, but seek to prolong their benefit from disorder at the expense of mortal life. This struggle occurs in a cycle that transcends individual universes, but will eventually end with Rhya's final death, the salvation of all life, and a return to an original state of timeless, immaterial order.

### Pantheon

Rhya
The galactic rose, a universally recognized symbol of Rhya and the wider religion. In Makhairan Rhyanist art and architecture, she is often depicted as a many-armed, many-faced woman with traits of each race in the religion's sphere of influence, sometimes encircled by rings and wreaths of gold.
In Makhairan Rhyanism, Rhya's nature is interpreted in two different senses, written separately as **Rhya** and **RHYA**. The first is a conventional understanding of Rhya as a singular goddess, and the head of the pantheon. The second, however, is an understanding of Her as the sum total of all spiritual beings in the Aoshtai Galaxy, including the former definition, the Ennead, and mortals who have reached enlightenment (such as Her saints and sages).

Makhairan Rhyanism teaches that Rhya remains the one truly pure being in the cosmos, Her perfection maintained through the Ennead, who willingly take on the world's disorder so that She may remain an untainted source of Order.

Ennead (Homeworld Gods)
Makhaira, the world associated with **Mkai**. Mkai is the patron of the Makhairan Aoshanti, nobility, wealth, and warfare. He is generally depicted as an armored, in some cases fully metallic Aoshanti with eight arms, each carrying weapons: a saber, a spear, a kite shield, a greatsword, a warpick, a flail, and an arbaleum. Some depictions also show him with four metallic wings below the waist.Tvolai, the world associated with **Tai**. Tai is the patron of the Tvolii, Ionic psions, politics, knowledge, and navigation. They are typically depicted as a partially mechanical, winged Tvolis-like figure with three tails and six arms, holding a sextant, a scroll, and a lighting bolt.Eovinj, the world associated with the world-soul **Eo**. Eo is the patron of the Eovinjai, Exigent psions, personal combat, fitness, and luck. She is often depicted as a muscular, featherless Eovinjai with an Eovinjic eel around her neck, and four arms, two of them holding a coin and a longsword.Volynha, the world associated with **Volyn**. Volyn is the patron of the Volydin, Radiant psions, arts, music, joy, and change. She is generally depicted as a Volydin with a spherical sun in place of a head and a mechanical left arm, holding an *erhu* in her right.Muara, the world associated with **Mu**. Mu is the patron of Qoens, Ophai, Muaran Aoshanti, the hunt, and trickery. She is often depicted as a masked humanoid woman in dark clothes, with ansiopteran wings and feathers in her hair, holding a mockingflower branch and a bow.Ataraxia, the world associated with **Athi**. Athi is the patron of Ataraxic humanity, love, ingenuity, and carnal desire. She is typically depicted as a human woman with short hair, a rose-colored toga, and a crown of flowers, carrying either a fan or gear.Caishiwa, the world associated with **Shih**. Shih is equated with defense of the homeland, national spirit, and self-sacrifice. She is commonly depicted as a winged and armored Aoshanti woman carrying a flower-wrapped spear and shield.Paloris, the world associated with **Lora**. Lora is the patron of parenthood, children, the home, and harvest. She is typically depicted as a four-armed Aoshanti woman in a white robe, holding a lit brazier and a swaddled infant.**Nhoh** is the sole major Makhairan deity untethered to a particular planet, instead being associated with deep space. She is the ferrywoman of the dead, goddess of Null psionics, and patron of spacers, the Saviki, and those unclaimed by any other deity. Most depictions of Nhoh portray her as a female Saviki with a veiled or helmeted face, in the stylized attire of an early astronaut, with an obsidian, star-speckled oar in hand.
The nine focal Homeworld deities are known collectively as the **Ennead**.

Additional Homeworlds
Among Makhairan Rhyanists local to the Ecumene, there has been some debate over the inclusion of Hypraxidonia's alleged soul, Hyya, in the pantheon. Some argue that a lack of mention of her in the Cosmics or First Chronology suggests she is not a valid member of the pantheon, while others suggest that she fits the criteria by which the other Homeworlds were elevated to their statuses in the pantheon.

Abzu, Lessos, and Mayar also tend to be viewed with some level of reverence, as the original centers of politics, faith, and life in the old Empire.

## Organization

### Order of Makhaira

The original **Order of Makhaira** emerged during the 4,800s PR following Makhaira's war of independence from the Druxic Khasarate. Seeking converts across several nations and cultures, it promoted a syncretic, panpsychic pantheon of many Homeworld gods. For many of the nations which developed Makhairan Rhyanist followings, this became a powerful tool of conquest and cultural integration, particularly for the Makhairan Empire.

In the 8,340s PR, the Order underwent a second structural and doctrinal shift known as the **Great Reform**. This shift consolidated the Makhairan pantheon into a core of Rhya and the nine modern deities of the Ennead. This reform also appended an Imperial Cult to its central tenets, stressing the divinity of the Eridian dynasty. The controversy of this reform is generally believed to have been the strongest accelerator of Makhaira's fragmentation, and the origin for the schism between the Proto-Kisarite and Proto-Maneite branches.

The Order continued despite the fragmentation of the Empire for another two millennia. However, the Maneite-Kisarite schism severely weakened its political power. In 10,828, the Fall of Makhaira to the Tvolii, who were secular but largely Kisarite, forced the Patriarchate into exile on Ataraxia. Here, it remained until the establishment of the Volynhic Church, which claimed equal but distinct authority from the "Patriarchate on Ataraxia." This caused the faith to once again, in the year 12,650, fracture into the Ataraxic and Volynhic Exarchates, and several minor churches.

The century following the dissolution of the Patriarchate contains most of the first references to the wider religion as **Post-Makhairan**, as opposed to simply Makhairan Rhyanism.

### Contemporary sects

Five major Exarchates of Makhairan Rhyanism currently exist: the Paloric Order, the Caishiwan Order, the Ataraxic Order, the Volyne Order, and the Priphonite Order. They each fall into one of three prevailing Makharhyan philosophical groups, which are primarily divided over issues of spiritual plurality and authority.

#### Maneites

The **Maneites** are philosophical descendants of Saint Cythredite Maneas, an Ataraxic Human theologist and the first non-Aoshanti Makhairan Patriarch. The Volyne and Ataraxic Orders are considered Maneite churches.

Maneites stress the celestial uniqueness of the Makharhyan pantheon and traditions of spiritual authority dating back to the Makhairan Empire. In the stead of a unified Order of Makhaira, their Exarchs claim the lineage of the Patriarch, and utilize largely the same selection process.

#### Kisarites

The **Kisarites** are philosophical descendants of Saint Aymer Kisar, a Makhairan Aoshanti pilgrim who ventured to Lessos during the early stages of its reclamation. He returned to the West to promote reconciliation with the Lessoan church. The Paloric and Caishiwan Orders and smaller Lacunic Church, as Kisarite sects, recognize the spiritual authority of Lessos, and have adopted elements of its pluralistic and syncretic view of Rhyanism.

The Paloric Order interprets the Ennead as distinct divine beings directly subservient to Rhya, but which are reflected across the universe in many different forms. Conversely, the Caishiwan Order preaches that the Ennead are merely the Makhairan world's most local example of potentially infinite kindred divinities.

Regions where Kisarite sects are widespread were notable recipients of Lessoan refugees during the rise of the Ascendancy in the Aoshanti Concourse.

#### Virites

The **Virites** are a relatively small following who split from the Maneites, following the teachings of Saint Viro of Dylastrova. Their sole significant organization is the Priphonite Order.

While there has been no Emperor, and thus no Imperial Cult, for over 4,000 years, Virites maintain an abstract, optimistic belief in "the Emperor to come" or "the Final Emperor," who will restore the glory of Makhaira in the prelude to the end of this cosmological cycle. However, in many cases the exact nature, timing, and even race of this Final Emperor are the source of division between Virite cults and scholars.

This belief in an eschatonic Emperor made the Virite-majority subjects of former Dylastrova-Trielum uniquely susceptible to Reformist conversion under the Kingdom of Priphonia.

## Important Figures

Important mortal figures in Makhairan Rhyanism are generally categorized as either Saints or Sages. *Saints* are well-known by name, and present in recorded history outside of the Catechism. *Sages*, however, are anonymous, distinguished by their uses of different pseudonyms based on their place of origin, such as the Caesuran, the Palorian, and the Vashtariene.

## Trivia

* Makhairan Rhyanism derives inspiration from Hindusim, Gnosticism, and Zoroastrianism.