Minervian Church

### Offices

The Primate,Cardinal, Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, Vicar, Dean, Pastor, Deacon, Priest

## Active

### Kingdoms

Kingdom of Rohynn, Kingdom of Astrynn

*This page includes role-play FANON information, any Canon material will be marked accordingly.*

The Minervian Church is the largest church within Essaxonism. The church holds three monastic orders and one knightly order. The head of the church is the Primate of Minerva who has his residence in the Darian Cathedral within the great city of Minerva, the former capital of the Minervian Empire.

## History

The church was assumably founded by the Enovy Darion in the year 41 a.f.C when he preached to the essaxian community in the city of Minerva. Even tough the church wasn't recognized as such back then, members today still see Darion as the first Primate of the church.

In the year 433 a.f.C the Emperor Arius Augusta claimed to had a vision of Yescho, ordering him to convert to Essaxionism and establishing it as the state religion of the Minervian Empire. Before then, Essaxonism was persecuted in the empire. Followers of the faith had to hide from authorities and must fear death if they got caught practicing their faith. Arius Augusta changed that and turned the temples of the former minervian relgion into churches and declared the bishop of the essaxian community in Minerva to be the new high priest of the empire, granting him his prefered title and also the rulership of the church.

The church then proseded to convert the people of the empire to Essaxionism. With every new conquest of the Empire, the church grew and its membership increased. After the forseen downfall of the Empire, the church persisted and established itself in the kingdoms that emerged from the ashes of the once great empire and continues to extend until this day.

## Hierarchy

While members claim that the true leader of the church is Dyēus and is just being represented by the Primate in Minerva, he is still the de facto leader of the church with his residence in the great city of Minerva. While the cardinals form some kind of council and serve as advisors and mediator for the primate, he still holds absolute power over the church calling out laws, promoting priests, declaring saints and commanding the offices within the institution. His reign lasts for his lifetime. Only a cardinal can be elected to become the next primate after his demise. For this matter, they meet each other in the great city of Minerva and discuss who of them should become the next cardinal. Archbishops are bishops that oversee the kingdom they're active in and is also member of the church. They are the superiors of the bishops of the kingdom who serve the same task as the archbishops but for a much smaller realm of influence like a duchy or county. The same counts for abbots who have the smallest realm of influence, like a town or barony. Pastors are active in small villages or sometimes even towns if these don't have a abbot in power. All clerics have to be appointed by the primate and have the duty to hold ceremonies like church services, marriages, funerals and conversions. They look over the community they got entrusted with and make sure that more people convert to Essaxionism and become memebers of the church. Priests on the other hand dont have to be appointed and don't have a realm of influence at all. They serve as either missionaries of the faith or preachers in small communities. No matter if pedestal or cathedral, priests can preach wherever they like to. Everyone can refer himself as a priest if they want to and start preaching to the people any time.

## Work

The church is known to be partly clerical as well as militarian. While they may hold festivals, worship services, conversion ceremonies and build churches and monasterys, the primate can also declare holy wars. The most trusted warriors of the church gather themselfs in the knightly order called "Knights of the Cross" and ensure that the members of the church as well as the holy sites are being protected.

### Saints

The primate can declare saints. These can be seen as holy people after the comming of Yescho who gave to life to Dyēus and recieved special abilities in their craft from him. After the death of a saint, the church believes that Dyēus orders them to look over the people of his former craft and gift them luck and the right skill. To become a saint, a member of the church has to be seen as "blessed" by other members. After the demise of a "blessed" person, a cleric can ask for a research by the cardinals who then check if the person was "truly blessed." The research is being perfomred in secret. If the cardinals agree on the "blessing," they can then ask the primate if he wants to declare this person a saint. If he does, the day of the canonization of this person becomes a holiday. Some saints of the church are:

* Enovy Darion - *Protector of the holy church and the patron of the "Knights of the Cross"*
* Enovy Jero - *Guardian of travelers and merchants*
* Enovy Kitu - *Patron of craftsmen*
* Enovy Selma - *Patron of priests and missionaries*
* Saint Elric - *Patron of sailors and fisherman*
* Saint Matilda - *Patron of physicans and herbalists*
* Saint Alaric - *Patron of farmers and hunters*
* Saint Joan - *Protector of the holy city of Essax*

### Buildings

The church is responsible for temples and places of worship, which differenciate as chapels, churches, monasterys and cathedrals. Tough they hold no special value for the church ceremonies, they show the the amount of piety within the community the temple is placed in. In Essaxionism, the temples are seen as "Houses of Dyēus" which means he lives in each of these temples, turning them into a sacred place. While most devout followers build up a whole cathedral to worship Dyēus, others prefer a little chapel for smaller requests from Dyēus. Every cleric or priest can preach in any kind of temple. Building a temple isn't cheap, so the kind of temple resembles not only the devotion of the community, but also the financial aspects of the regions. Chapels can be found in villages or small settlements, while churches and cathedrals are more common in towns or great citys. The Minervian Church also build monasterys for people who want to forsake the secular world and spend the rest of their life worshiping Dyēus, studying the life of Yescho and the Enovys and maybe be gifted the same blessing the saints obtained from Dyēus. These monasterys act independently from any kingdom and only serve the Minervian Church.

### Inquisition

The Minervian Church does not tolerate any kind of essaxian schism as well as the foundation of other churches and calls these out as heretical. Infidels also need to fear the church, because they do not accept any other faith in their realm of influence even with some exceptions. The Knights of the Cross are known to hunt down essaxian dissents as well as infidels.

* Unutarianism
* Kelebiardy
* Divasanism
* Tanaism
* Paganism

### Conversion

While everyone can consider themself Essaxian, they need to follow a certain creed to become a full member of the church. For this, they need to ask someone who is already a member if they could join the church. At this point, every member is ordered to answer with "Yes" because it is written in the Divaso that "(..)the gate to Dyēus is always open for the soul who asks(..)" making the intrested person a half-member of the church. To become a full member of the church, the half-member has to consult a member who refers to themself as a priest or is an actual cleric. They than have to ask the priest or cleric if they could "was of their sins" to which the priest or cleric also has to answer with "Yes." Together, the priest (or cleric) and half-member need to go some sort of water source, may it be a lake, sea or even just a cup of water. The priest then has to baptize the half-member either metaphorically or literally, citing the verse "In the name of the father above (or Dyēus) I will wash of your sins and baptize you in the name of Yescho. Amen." After the half-member has "his sins being washed of," he becomes a full member of the church.

### Holy Sites

They're many holy sites in the Minervian Church. Most important are the city of Essax and the great city of Minerva. They play an important role in the history of Essaxonism and in the church as well. The Knights of the Cross ensure that pilgrims who travel to one of these holy sites stay protected and that the holy sites are governed by members of the church. If this isn't the case, the primate may declare a holy war to take the holy site back. The church is also known to recover relics from these holy sites and gift them to loyal members of the church, mostly rulers. It is said that these relics gift its bearer some sort of blessing which they would only recieve if they visited the holy site.

* The city of Essax
* The village of Rory
* The great city of Minerva
* The temple of Sesa

### Holidays

The church celebrates many holidays. Most of them centre around the life and work of Yescho when he walked the earth. Some holidays remember the deeds of the minervian saints as well as their (martyr's) death. The kind of celebration on these days differentiates from wide spread, joyfull festivals to small, silent griefing hours.

* 31. 12 Birth of Yescho
* 30. 10 Death of Saint Alaric
* 23.04 Return of Yescho
* 03.06 Day of Unification
* 08.06 Birth of Enovy Darion
* 18.09 Death of Saint Joan