Church of the Eternal Dragon

The last time Richard came to Klandor, he had only started to learn the Church of the Eternal Dragon’s martial arts. Now, he had spent half a decade where his second consciousness was constantly analysing fighting techniques and integrating them into his own style. He was already far beyond Io, and able to keep pace with Flowsand. This martial arts system that embodied laws that transcended planes was endlessly mysterious and could be improved upon indefinitely. 6;40

## Overview

### **3 Main Churches**

* **Sacred Alliance:** Based predominantly in Faust where two chosens were stations.
* **Millennial Empire**: The Millennial Empire’s Church was far grander in scale compared to that in the Sacred Alliance, its construction more intricate and delicate.

## Offering System

### **Issues**

* The tricky system of the offerings were an issue that many powerhouses and rich families faced. The more powerful one became, the more difficult it was to get what they wanted from a single offerings. Some rich families intentionally let weaker subordinates make the offerings on their behalf, but this meant the grace would go to the family that had actually performed the ceremony instead of their masters.
* The more one used this loophole, the worse their own blessings became. The Eternal Dragon wouldn’t suddenly shortchange them, but it grew near impossible to get the things they wanted. In some extreme cases, warriors would end up being blessed with magic abilities. In the end, many rich families and powerhouses chose to sell their offerings instead, using the guaranteed funds to buy the things they desired.
* Seeing the great power Richard acquired with his title, Prince Tumen finally understood the point of persisting. The Eternal Dragon wouldn’t let anyone profit off him, but nor would they lose out. So long as one put in the effort, there would eventually be results.

### **Top-tier Offerings**

It took a moment for the priestesses to gather themselves, silently counting the number of offerings within the chest. Many felt their hearts flutter once that reached double digits, and when they concluded that it amounted to ten top-tier offerings they were all eyeing the chest with raging desire. That amount of divine grace could easily propel any of them to the limit of level 20, giving them the possibility of entering the legendary realm and becoming a high priestess just like Ferlyn.

Richard was the first person in over thirty years to have produced so many top-tier offerings at once. Most of the priestesses looked at him with renewed respect, and some even with slight fear. Helping out Tzu in the Forest Plane.

### **Richard's Offerings**

Richard was someone who offered sacrifices as though they were daily meals; towards the end, even rank 3 offerings had flowed without end. While he did a lot of things that others considered stupid, like using divine grace to force a jump in orbit, the old dragon recorded everything. At present, there was likely no one in all of Norland that could match up to him in this regard. Anyone that came close definitely didn’t spend all their lives cooped up in a church fighting for scraps.

There were no politics here, only divine grace, and he had plenty.

## Hierarchy

As they gained more blessings from the Dragon, they would become clerics, then shamans, then priestesses, before eventually becoming high priestesses in charge of their own church. It was no secret that the Eternal Dragon favoured girls.

### **Divine Officials**

* High Priest
* Chosen
* Grand Priest - ambassdors of the Church. Had the ability to use Banish.
	+ **Hourglass Mark**: Half a metre long, the grey sands within only occasionally glinting the colour of gold. There was a mark of the Eternal Dragon.
* Great Priest
* Cleric

### **Paladins**

* Commander
* Vice-Commander
* Captain

### **Hourglass of Time**

The hourglass was the symbol of the Eternal Dragon of Time. It is the condensation of timeforce gained from divine grace's. The only way to expand the hourglass was only through offerings for both the host and offerer. When it came to the Eternal Dragon, the appearance of one’s hourglass was directly related to their importance. It was a rather crude method of establishing hierarchy, but an effective one.

**Hourglass Symbols**: These elaborate patterns had a purpose to their existence; the more intricate one’s hourglass, the more favour they held. Every symbol and motif represented a specific type of favour, while the size and colour of the hourglass represented the total amount of divine grace one held. Put simply, these hourglasses were a direct representation of one’s status in the Church.

## Members

Every member of the clergy is a representative of the Eternal Dragon in the mortal world. At a higher level, even a basic priest could conduct an offering ritual within a Lighthouse of Time. Most members were female.

Ferlyn and Flowsand were the only Chosen in all of Norland, and both were beacons of power. The First Light of Dawn was one of the strongest clerics in the history of Norland, known for her tyrannical power even before she became Chosen, and Flowsand was someone who could mediate sacrifices even outside the Church. Both had emerged from the Sacred Alliance, and with their departure Norland was left with no Chosen at all.

### **Faust**

* Ferlyn
* Noelene
* Jacqueline

### **Darkness**

* Flowsand
* Io
* Nyra

### **Chosen Vs Common Worshipers**

He flashed a cynical smile, with a tinge of something that she couldn’t quite understand mixed in, “Not one of you is irreplaceable to the old dragon, regardless of your talents. You meet his standards, and that’s enough. There is no point in overqualified decorations, or am I wrong?”

Sypha paled further. Richard’s words echoed suspicions she’d had herself, but she’d never managed to word it so frankly. He concluded, “In the eyes of the Eternal Dragon, only the Chosen and those like me are special. I can turn an ordinary person into a priestess, and a priestess into the master of the church. Just like the one waiting out there.”

“But… how do you know so much about all this?” “I have a friend with a… complicated relationship with the old dragon. She was the one who showed me how to make good use of my title, or I’d just be bullied by you people. Heh, that would have been a big joke.”

As a high priestess, becoming Chosen was her ultimate dream. Although all Chosen eventually had to head to the Darkness, it was the only way to earn a shot at freedom.

Richard stopped in his tracks, turning and staring at Noelene, “You can’t be Chosen just because you want to. The old dragon is the one that chooses, not us. If he wants it, someone will pop up. If not, whatever. As for priestesses, he doesn’t really care about that either. Power, number… all that matters is grace. The Church that ends up with the most offerings is the most valuable one, and they’re the ones that get the most.”

## Techniques

* Banish
	+ A spell exclusive to followers of the Eternal Dragon, giving them the ability to eternally mark any living being and cast them outside the Church. The branded would never be able to enter again, even if they became legendary beings. The only way to make up for it would be the intervention of someone with superior divine force.
	+ The spell was powerful, but it was also fair. If the target had already accumulated a certain sum of divine grace, they were unlikely to be branded.
	+ Using divine tongue, one can banish people from the church.
* Time Distortion
	+ This was one of the Church’s strongest techniques in dealing against spellcasters; distortions in time were a fatal blow to such delicate arts as spellcasting.
	+ This ability worked not by affecting the target but distorting time entirely, which meant one could only counter it with extremely quick reactions or a basic understanding of the laws of time themselves. The greatest threat wasn’t even to grand mages or druids; it was precisely to legendary beings. Most legendary mages had extremely powerful energy but their bodies could not compare; a failed cast of a legendary spell stood a chance to kill them outright.

* Metal Burst
* Outburst

## Trivia

* The thing was pure silver, with the sand inside being of the same color as well. This was an hourglass more ornate than even Titled Worshippers, which meant only Chosen could possess it!

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Book 8, Chapter 93
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Book 8, Chapter 91
3. ↑ Book 1, Chapter 99
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Book 8, Chapter 92
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Book 8, Chapter 123
6. ↑ Book 6, Chapter 136
7. ↑ Book 9, Chapter 119