Order of Paragon

The Order of Paragon, The Order or more simply, Paragonism is a religion based on the belief of a single deity named **Garung**. The Order is the single most popular religion in Clamund, with many other religions being born from this one alone including but not limited to: The Cult of Steel, The Church of the Four Divines and Cartharism. This religion is worshiped by almost every legit kingdom in Clamund, this is especially true for the Holy Empire of Visimar who were the ones to not only establish the religion but have it enter into the empire's shrewd politics. By means of adopting an Arch-Confessor who is equal in rights to the Emperor of Visimar himself.

## History

The History of The Order is traced back to the late stages of The Age of Magic and the early Age of Iron, where it was quickly established in the early days of The Empire of Visimar. It is assumed that the Order was established around the time of Emperor Ragnfred the Holy (510-569) when a blinded priest of the Old Faith barged into the emperor's palace claiming that he saw Garung in a vision, which to that Garung told the priest to establish a place of worship in Midheim and so with the Emperors permission he did.

Historians claim this origin story to be false as it was taken from the Holy Book of Faith instead of actual historical recounts. None the fewer that's what everyone believed. More personal accounts from books of history claim that the crazy blind priest was actually an ambitious foreign priest from a place far from Clamund that was visiting on behalf of the Golden Empire to overlook the bustling rise of Midheim, reports say after a personal audience with the emperor with regards on a new religion, he was quickly dismissed and was told to go back to his Empire.

This enraged the unknown foreigner as he took to the masses on a grand campaign in Midheim, converting the peasants to this new faith he Called the Order. Despite many attempts to stop this man, which usually involved riots and pagan uprisings, Ragnfred soon found himself stuck in a city of pagans that wanted his head for failing to convert with the rest of them.

The Emperor was forgiven of his sins after he was converted to the faith, and in return, he was now known as The Holy. The faith also eliminated this story of violence in many official historic records of Clamund and instead places the faux one in its place.

During the late Age of Magic, the Order began to insert their ranks into official councils and even the larger rank of Arch-Confessor. And by the early Age of Steel, The Order was soon inserted into almost every kingdom in Clamund, with varying degrees of success and stability. With some regions having to be "Invaded" in order to introduce the faith.

## Garung

**Garung** is the name of the godly figurehead of the religion. He is the supreme being that singlehandedly created the world of which Clamund has found itself in. All who worship the religion of the Order believes that Garung is the entity that grants people fortune and good harvest if they are willing to pray for him. Garung is imagined to look like a god in shining silver armour, armed with a spear. Under his armour lies a glorious and muscular body with a long and well-kept beard. Most illustrations of Garung depict him with white and wrinkled features, despite these signs of old age he still keeps a well-structured body.

Garung in the holy texts is written as a holy crusader that entered a scorched planet inhabited by demons and mutants who controlled the world with magic conceived by a dark entity. He purged the land of all evil and by doing so, turned the planet into a lush green land ripe for the taking. After he had killed the final demon, he created copies of himself using the elements of the sea, earth and fire to create the first humans. These humans then inhabited the world and by the time Garung had finished populating the earth with his seed, he vanished. It had been said that by creating human life, he used most of his energy in the process. Because of this, he fled Earth to go sleep in dormant for a considerable amount of time. Before he departed the planet, he left his armour, spear, and a text of his doings and religion behind for his children to find.

His departure from earth had resulted in heresy to take routes in the planet, this dark energy took the existing humans that Garung had left behind and given them dark energy that would turn them into the Wizard Kings who would rule the land that Garung had left behind for centuries. This dark magic turned all who possessed it into mutants of the human form which created Elves and Dwarves in the process.