Faith

The **Faith**, also known as the **Bovido Fidem** (literally meaning ***Holy Faith***), is a radical denomination of Christianity, based around the teachings of the so-called Final Testament, believed by followers to be the final teachings of God prior to the end of times, or the Raptus, where the most pious devotees will be allowed to ascend to heaven. With nearly 79 million followers across the globe, the Faith is the second largest branch of Christianity.

Founded around the mid-18th century, the Faith was established as the central religion of the Templars of Belitung and was carried across Asia through the expansion of the Bovido Hassian state, which was formed in 1809 as a dedicated theocracy to the Faith with the Holy Clergy forming the church, government and clerical functions of the nation. Deeply tied to the concepts of Bovido nationalism, the Faith has it's central leadership based within the Bovido Clergy, with the leader of the Clergy traditionally being the de-facto leader of Bovido Has and later the Bovido Imperium, under the form of the Imperium Clergy.

## History

Formed by missionary colonists in England in 1657, the Confides of St. John was initially created as a humanitarian group who would travel the world and teach local populations of the virtues of Christianity. Sent ahead of a British invasion of the newly formed Japanese Empire, the Confides began their work but were exiled to the island of Belitung after they were linked to the failed invasion in 1672. Following the exile of the early Confides of St. John to the island of Belitung in the 17th century, the religious group began to form increasingly radical ideas revolving around the arrival of a second coming of Christ in the form of a "holy warrior destined to lead his devotees to paradise on Earth". This new sect of Christianity began to devote itself to achieving pureness of faith, undergoing a substantial revolution of culture and language in the mid 18th century as the teachings of the religious sect began to be compiled into what became known as the Final Testament upon the orders of a new organisation known as the Templars, only further spurring on the dogmatic fanaticism which had radicalised the island's religious population. Around the turn of the 19th century, the mysterious theologist Ismachiah Joash had become a leading figure within the Templar clergy, encouraging a drive towards violent militancy to overthrow the Japanese guards who governed the island; in 1809, Joash led the people of Belitung to revolution and established the state of Bovido Has, meaning *Holy Lands* in the regional dialect of a resurgent Latin language. Under this new regime, a theocratic government was slowly established with Joash at it's head, espousing teachings and decrees to steer the nation in his chosen direction; most notable of these decrees was the Decree on the Bovido Has, which stated that the people of the Templars had a holy duty to spread the faith of the Final Testament to the world, a decree which would later form the basis of Bovido Hassian expansion for two centuries.

## Role in Bovido nations

Following the Bovido Hassian revolution of 1809, the Faith became the core state religion of the newly formed state of Bovido Has with the Templar government being intrinsically linked to the state; the Archbishop of Bovido Has became the *de-facto* head of state, although the Emperor still *de-jure* held the role, and state mandated Christianity became law in 1810 following the Decree on Religion passed by Ismachiah Joash. In later years, the emergence of the Holy Clergy of Bovido Has in the early 20th century saw the development of a new church system as the Clergy began to work its way into every way of life within Bovido Has, with clerical positions taking over every aspect of government by the 1960s. Under the leadership of Peter Purba, the role of the Holy Clergy and the Faith became largely reduced as Purba attempted to move away from the religious theocracy which had previously governed the nation, although following his death and the brief civil war, the Clergy returned even more powerful under the leadership of Michael Ezra, who abolished all remaining state positions that had been previously separate from the Church.

In 2020, the death of Archbishop Hazael Buller led to an internal power struggle between more pragmatic leaders such as Damal Clod, Nadia Crestvick and Etsushi Toyo, and the more dogmatic leaders such as Syli Dean, Anton Ujung and Julios Cragen; ultimately, Clod and Dean agreed a brief power sharing coalition to help lead the nation during the first year of the Has Wars, although Clod's capture and execution alongside the fall of the Bovido heartlands in the Pacific during the Invasion of Belitung meant that the nation was left in the hands of fundamentalist hardliners under the government of Syli Dean, who proclaimed himself as Archbishop and Emperor from the head of a new Bovido state based in the Japanese islands. At the same time, the fall of Makassar allowed for regions of the empire such as Jerusalem and Russia to formally proclaim their independence and the nation splintered into factions, each with their own approaches to religion - following independence, the Russian Federation began to systematically persecute and execute former members of the clergy, whilst in the Jerusalem Bovido, former Archemirate Anton Ujung attempted to form a new Bovido state under a more fundamentalist doctrine of the Faith, reinvigorating the Holy Clergy during a Contingency plan to eradicate those deemed to have led to the fall of Bovido Has, whilst also securing the brightest followers of the Faith to operate under Ujung's reign.