Melakesh

Melakesh is a significant religious figure that originated in the Muzdash Empire sometime before the Bronze Era.

## History

### Emergence in Jigoku

Melakesh appeared in the Muzdash Empire of Jigoku sometime before the Bronze Era in a period of unrest that marked the emergence of multiple human religions.

###  Exodus from Jigoku

#### Settling of Serenity

After the Exodus, a mass pilgrimage led by Melakesh journeyed across the Astoric Ocean to find a land far to the west he called Serenity. Though no authentic maps exist of this land, the region is said to be "serpentine, fertile in soil and rich in rivers and coastlines; flat as it is, it is immunized against all dangers as it is sacred to Melakesh."

The land was named Serenity, the Kingdom of Heaven. Melakesh is alleged to have ruled this land for 10,000 years, and in that time there were no wars nor conflicts; Serenity was made of individual kingdoms and ruled by their own elected kings. Melakesh ruled all of these kings and, every year he was king, would write and distribute an addendum to his legal code for the kings to adhere to. The language of these peoples is unknown, as their texts have been long lost.

#### Caine and the Ascension of Melakesh

The following is apocryphal and only known due to divination and the word of Saint Lancel, who traveled to Vostok Manda; its veracity is often debated.

Caine was the favored son of Melakesh, set to take upon Serenity as its immortal ruler in place of Melakesh. His brother Samaru was sent to search for the lost kingdom of the Senerites and bring to them the Ten Thousand Tablets, which would allow them to adjoin the Kingdom of Serenity.

Unlike his brother Zamar, who would grow to disdain mortal men, Caine believed it was tyranny for the gods to rule men and convinced a majority of the kingdoms of Serenity to reject Melakesh. The kingdoms thereafter destroyed the sacred codes given to them. Melakesh addressed these kings, chastised them for their disobedience, and said that he would only return once the world accepted peace again. He ascended into the heavens, and Serenity fell into discord.

For his role in the disobedience, Caine was branded and forced to wander the world as the final judgment of Melakesh. Beyond this, the kingdom of Serenity was in disorder, and would not cease warring until being conquered by Gaius Olivius and later the Auber.

## Defining characteristics and the Ten Thousand Tablets

### Ten Thousand Tablets

Melakesh, every year in the kingdom of Serenity, constructed one stone tablet with ten new edicts for his worshipers to follow, each tablet having a theme ranging from fidelity in marriage to the social status of men and women. Though these tablets were destroyed when Serenity fell, oral tradition brought from Vostok Manda to Neuphany allowed many of these tablets to be recovered in one form or another.

Visions that the slave Mamun endured and acted upon after being named king by Erud allowed the Old World to regain these archives of the Ten Thousand Tablets. They were reconstructed with volcanic rock from *Pramidia*, and further replicated on standing stones that remain even today throughout Arborea and Bastria.

The Ten Thousand Tablets are the sacred texts to the cult of Melakesh, yet most of his worshipers throughout history did not necessarily retain copies of every edict. If a member could read at all, they most certainly only retained a few dozen replicas of the tablets, about one-tenth of one percent of every edict given by Melakesh. These were usually the first twenty tablets as these possess the most relevant edicts for everyday life.

### Fundamental beliefs

Melakesh, unlike most other gods, is portrayed
as unitary and solitary; consequently, Melakesh's principal relationships are not with other gods, but with the mankind. The core teachings of Melakesh begin with this premise: not only to reject other gods, but that one's actions are the principal concern of their god Melakesh.

According to the Ten Thousand Tablets, Melakesh promised that no matter where his believers went, they would form a great nation. Many generations later, this was seen in Serenity, the Kingdom of Themyscria, and even the Dinamid Republic. The substance of the cult is in law; the worship of Melakesh is primarily found in following these edicts.

Although there is an esoteric tradition in alchemy and mysticism, scholars recognize a "normal mysticism" to the cult of Melakesh, because the cult involves everyday personal experiences through ways or modes that
 are common to all adherents to Melakesh. This is played out through the observance of the Ten Thousand Tablets and given verbal expression in the short blessings that are spoken every time a positive commandment is to be fulfilled. The fact that man abides by law and not by the hedonistic instinct of flesh is considered divine right.

One's bloodline is sacred in regards to Melakesh, as it not only reflects one's connection to the Senerites, but also the deeds of one's ancestors, whose family name is carried on in the blood and the flesh of their descendants. There is preoccupation in the cult over this aspect of one's birthright, which contributed and likely caused the social strata of the Dinamid Republic.

Surprisingly, while there exists edicts forbidding worship of other gods, no edict forces worship of Melakesh himself, only the observance of his laws. This means that there are sects of the cult that do not believe in the tradition of Melakesh or the divine rights of his sons nor in his eventual return, only in the idea that the laws elevate mankind to a divine status.

### Core tenets

The First Ten Edicts, the tenets laid out on the first of the Ten Thousand Tablets, describe the following beliefs ascribed to every person in the clergy of Melakesh:

1. Every law and edict proposed in these Tablets are true and just, so far as that they will govern man with dignity.
2. Beyond Melakesh, there are no answers to be found; reject these other gods as their worship is to stray from truth and reject divinity for wickedness.
3. The laws of mankind are flawed, yet having law elevates mankind above beasts and minerals; for this reason, laws are needed to govern the earth.
4. When there was once nothing on this earth, Melakesh made it so; only he is fit to create laws as he is the Creator himself.
5. For the folly of mankind, it has been demonstrated to us that those of Sener [sinners] are made of the same fabrics as those of Seren [serene people]. Thus, punitive measures must not incur death, as it is undeserved and mankind a false judge.
6. The burnt offering is a displeasing smell to all but the wicked, refrain from burning stock to feed gods and to satisfy the unseen.
7. The eternal spirit finds reproach in the Otherworld, and only the burning light of Melakesh can guide one through the desert to find the Grand Staircase and join him on his sacred throne above the landscape burnt in offering.
8. All actions and every violation of these edicts are recorded for all eternity; observe and obey.
9. There is just reward for following the edicts of Melakesh, and its own reward is its duty. Melakesh has not and will never abandon men to untamed hands.
10. Melakesh is the sole dignitary of the revival of the dead; keep his funerary rites to preserve their body and to keep the vessel sacrosanct.

Along these lines, most priests of Melakesh emphasize practices and observances rather than religious beliefs, associating apostasy with a failure to observe the cult's law and maintaining that the requirements for conversion to the cult include adherence to traditional customs and the worthy bloodlines of the Senerites and Serenites, or those whose blood was untainted by Moloch.