Melonism

**Melonism** is a decentralized religion consisting of myths and beliefs of the Holy Melon and Puffer. Melonism has multiple branches and a Christian interpretation too.

## Core melonist myths

### The creation of the world

According to melonist belief, the world was created by the first pufferfish. Before the beginning of time, only one being existed. It was the first-puffer. This puffer was forever inflating in size until it popped, thus creating the first melon, which is the universe. From the seeds of the melon grew other pufferfish, inflating and popping again, populating the world with not only melons but every other living being.

### The fall of the pufferfish

Long long ago, when pufferfish were still popping, blessing with plenty of seed they were still roaming across the world. Humans were scarce back in that time after they arrived to Pannonia, but other thinking creatures were plenty.

There were villages inhabited by humans. These humble villages lived prosperous lives. Melon harvests were plenty and the settlements kept growing. One day, humans came to the attention of dark twisted creatures. These beings came to exist from infertile melon seeds. They were petty and evil. Some called them mutants, some called them demons but most humans referred to them as Dark Gods. They held immense power and sought to destroy their parents, the pufferfish. They thought the puffers were not making use of their power. They were throwing away their lives pointlessly by popping. Of course, the wise puffers craved neither power nor control.

The Dark Gods set a melon plight upon the world. Humans for the first time were starving. Soon, bandits appeared, pillaging and raiding for any food. One village, which had plenty of food, as it was growing other foods created by the puffer, not melon, had been sought out by a group of bandits.

The villagers all prayed to the puffers to help them, but the puffers do not interfere with the affairs of their creations. The villagers also begged to the Menmelon -the elder race of Pannonia- but to no avail; they did not help them as they did not grew melons on their fields. The villagers turned to the dark gods, and they answered. The Dark Gods asked for a sacrifice, as suffering and death are what gives them more power. When their demands were met, they gifted a woman in the village with immense power.

The plight had ended, and as the other villages realized that this village turned away from the puffer, they set upon a crusade. This crusade was driven back and the village sacrificed more and more humans to keep the power of their guardians. The power of the Dark Gods kept growing with every sacrifice. They soon began purging the pufferfish, taking away their creating power. More and more pufferfish couldn't pop anymore.

The pufferfish slowly lost all their powers. The Menmelon, seeing this, swore revenge on the dark gods. The 1000 Year Wars between the Menmelon and the Dark Gods soon began.

### The Great Melonwars

The Melon Wars were a thousand year old conflict between the Pannonians, guided by the Menmelon and Ostenbourg with the Dark Gods by their side. According to the myth the war resulted in the destruction of all civilization, leaving the world empty for The Exodus.

#### The introduction from the scripts of Melonman Simon- The legends of The Great Melonwars

> *The melon gods were preparing for war, enraged by the treachery of the dark gods turning on their creators. And as the gods were preparing for war, so were humans. The free city-states of Pannonia and all other people, arming against the rising empire of Ostenbourg. The city-states, populated by ancient Pannonians, before Ottakringers arrived, were never united. Although they shared the same beliefs, language, and culture each city kept to its own. The ancient mountaintop fortress of Tadhel stood above a bay that was the center of all commerce in the Pannonian sea. The small town of Melonia, the powerhouse of agriculture and the masters of melon cultivation. Pedoria, the greatest of them all. The galleys of Pedoria controlled the sea, and its huge population could raise an army within a week. These meddling city-states put away their feuds to unite against the common threat. The war began, and for the first time in history, humans waged war on a grand scale. The massacre went on for hundreds of years. God against god, human against human. The war slowly ground down the greatest of civilizations. Smaller and smaller armies faced each other on the battlefield. And slowly but surely all the empires were destroyed. Leaving nothing behind but ruins. All the gods went to exile, tired and seeing that their conflict never may be settled. For many long years, we lived in darkness. But as everything seemed lost forever, came new people. They settled in the bays of Tadhelia, the shore of Pedoria. I can feel they are descent to restore the legacy of the old world. I am writing this book to them, so they remember the mistakes of the past.*
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Historians speculate that the cities mentioned stood where many of the current cities on the server lie. Pedoria where Póla is standing, the ruins of Tadhelia can still be seen above Wackely Bay, and the abandoned houses of Melonia can be found next to Wackel City.

## The melonmen

Melonmen are messengers of the pufferfish. They perform miracles wherever they go and when they die, they spread the seeds of melon.

### Melonman Robert

The story of Melonman Robert as recounted in Melonman Simon's *Chronicles of the Melonmen*:

*In ancient times, when no great empires were to be seen and but small city-states were to be found across Pannonia and its sea, a wise man by the name of Robert lived and wandered across fields and mountains and passed through a great number of villages, some more some less welcoming. As he one day approached a village, on the quaint street leading to the town he met two humble farmers in wretched clothes, with wretched faces. When greeting them, they would but tremble in disgust, fearing the strange man smelling of melon. As he passed through the city gates, he observed the town quite carefully, identifying it as a dirtiest place, as wretched as the farmers he had met and poorer than any site he had visited. When entering the main market square, he was attacked by the townspeople, as they feared a stranger like him would bring upon them more misfortune than they had endured already. But as the dead body of the wise man fell onto the ground, the people observed as his body turned into a large pile of melon soon before hitting the earth. The melon was enough to feed the village for decades and enough to plant fields that would feed it for all eternity.*

### Melonman Franz

The story of Melonman Franz as recounted in Melonman Simon's *Chronicles of the Melonmen*:

*In a century long gone by, in the hills of great Pannonia, which, adorned by sublime castles, like jewels upon great crowns of gold, and separated by vast seas of golden wheat, lie upon the pufferial core of the world lived Franz, a valiant youth and brave swordsman, born to Huberta, daughter of the brutal Count Früderick, and King Horand of the castle known as Friedburg, for no two warriors fought in its walls in a century nor was it ever attacked in that time, which lies high upon a monolithic peak surrounded by a sea of blue on one side and seas of gold on the remaining sides. One misty morning, the sun shone sporadically through the thick clouds, a mighty ship arrived at the shore, its front resembling that of a dragon and its back a dragon‘s tail, guided through the ocean by two brave sailors. Quickly King Horand‘s messengers informed the old lord of these heros‘ arrival, and with his knights he rode to the beach upon his white steed to greet the noble men. Franz, meanwhile, remained in Friedburg, wandering through its gardens which many poets have sung about. It was thither that, spying through the shrubbery, he saw how a strange man quite miraculously managed to pick up his mother and carried her off to the shore, whence they entered a boat of small size, heading to the larger boat which the king greeted at the beach and had left already to feast with his guests. The young knight, shocked by the seamen’s sly plot, ran to the beach where he saw the great ship becoming smaller and smaller as it made its way to the horizon and where his father and his retinue had gathered as well, visibly confused as to why the sailors left so promptly. As Franz informed them of his observations in the gardens the men prepared their greatest ship, clad in shimmering copper, resembling a great eagle in front, to follow the thieves across the violently sinking and rising sea, but were stopped by the young knight. He walked slowly to the sea, regaining its cosmic serenity as he came closer, and when he tried to step into the water he could not, for the crystalline fluid below his feet had turned into melon, and as he walked further he did not drown, for it was melon he walked upon instead of the sea of blue. And Franz spoke to King Horand: “Calm thy men, father, for we do not require wind‘s grace for travel now, but our steeds, mighty and rapid.“ Quickly the thieves‘ ship was conquered and the thieves killed by the brave knights and King Horand’s wife taken back to Friedburg, the great castle. Franz, blessed by the Puffer with His holiest fruit to bring justice upon the slyly deceitful, went to the west, performing miracles in a similar fashion for many years.*