The Great Eye

## Overview

As the Plague spread and society itself began to crumble, King Roderik the Lost disappeared with his family and most of the Royal Court. Whether he simply fled or some other catastrophe took them all remains unknown, but without the backing of the Crown, the **Church of the Glorious** began to lose its influence rapidly.

Even if they could still count with the **Holy Swords** sworn directly to the church, the simple act of rebellion in the masses was enough to cause extreme concern. After all, what is the use of killing the rebellious, if there was no one left to collect crops and service the priesthood?

While some priests did in fact join in helping the less fortunate, some high-ranking members began to either flee or hide in their cathedrals, rejecting the possibility for a life of arduous effort and manual labor among the commonfolk. Eventually, these priests joined around a charismatic figure named Melwas, who preached that all of the catastrophes of the last decades: the plague, the civil war, the defeat in the crusades, the bandit king, and even the series of floodings, were all happening because humanity had begun to ignore the will of the **Glorious**. That He no longer believed humanity capable of caring for His creation, and that it was all part of a divine punishment, with the Plague as the beggining of the true end, where the Forlorn would return to the earth and scour it clean. The Plague, in fact, was proof that the first forlorn, Decay, had already come.

And so, driven by either fear or opportunism, many flocked to his side, accepting his words as the new law. This new Church believed that in order to save the word, all must accept the truth or die, and only when all those living believed with all their heart, and followed the teachings of their superiors, would humanity be spared. They added the Eye of the Lord to their Sun Symbol, representing how their God was now directly watching over for any signs of heresy that might serve to further doom humanity.

## New Beliefs

The new church began to forcefully recruit commoners and soldiers, as well as taking whatever it was required. Eventually, something resembling a hierarchy began to be reformed, with the high-priests standing below Melwas himself, each with an personal executioner and bodyguard, as well as servants that themselves held others below them. Violence, fear, and paranoia soon became the norm, and even the priests themselves carried weapons and torture devices on a daily basis.

While not all who followed him were as fervent as Melwas himself, he soon began to demand all those who followed him to remove their eyes (or at least one eye), for two main reasons. One, the Forlorn had returned, and, as agents of the divine, no mortal was allowed to lay eyes upon them or their work. Second, in order to show their devotion to the Glorious, they must trust that he will guide them with his own vision in this time of turmoil, and such a demonstration of faith would surely be blessed.

This new church had some reforms, including the elimination of some dogmas, justified by the fact that humanity has already failed the Glorious, and must now do whatever it takes to redeem themselves. Still, the focus on order and obedience remains, with a much heavier emphasis on the idea that Melwas is always watching for treachery and blasphemy, and anyone who denies the truth as presented by him is a false prophet, servant of Hell and seeking to hasten the end of the world.