The Pentarchy

The Pentarchy is the dominant and state-sponsored religion in Najálisco with most people practicing it. It follows a similar practice to Catholisicim, with weekly mass at a church or cathedral, a holy book (the King’s Gospel, and a system where the individual has little interaction with their deity regularly.)

## Deities

*The Five-Times King*: An all-encompassing, omniscient father-like deity. The Five-Times King or Pentarch is the supreme being of the universe who is believed to have created the universe, or at least humanity, and is the sole force of judgement for the sins of humans. In the few depictions of him that exist, he appears as either an old, bearded, man wearing a series of five crowns made of gold, silver, bronze, copper, and brass, or he is depicted simply as the five crown’s themselves. He is strongly associated with **paternity**, **royalty**, **creation**, and **absolute power.**

*The Three-Headed Beast:* In opposition to the Five-Times King, the Three-Headed Beast, or Trimalum, is a dark force sent from the depths of Koros to challenge the King’s authority. It is believed to control legions of devils and demons all hell-bent on destroying the King by tempting and twisting his followers. It is prophesied that the Three-Headed Beast will battle with the Five-Times King and all the sinners will perish in it’s army and all the righteous will be victorious and ascend with the King to Ezaeus. It is depicted in a variety of ways but the most common is a large black dragon with three heads; a head of an owl wreathed in shadow with fanged teeth, a head of a bull wrapped in chains, and a head of a man with horns that was been slashed and cut with large chunks missing from his flesh. The Beast is associated with **destruction, mortality, evil,** and **primalness**.

## Aspects

*The Son:* The chief aspect of the Five-Times King, the Son is the embodiment of the Golden Crown. Like all aspects, the Son is supposedly a spirit that is reborn in times of great need, the first Son was the actual child of the Five-Times King, sent to Tevrus to save the humans from sin and the clutches of the Three-Headed Beast. While the Pentarchy has yet to publish any official statement on further reincarnations, King Richard IV of Carrolous who helped bring peace to the warring states of Maev in 655 PR is widely considered to be a reincarnation of him. The Son’s holy relic is **The King’s Blood**, a golden vial of activated ichor with supposedly incredible potency. He is associated with **peace, mediation, light,** and **humbleness.**

The Son has no major cult surrounding his worship as he worshipped across the Pentarchic world in some capacity or another.

The Son's true name is Yohan, or Yosef, according to Perry's vision.

*The Knight*: As the embodiment of the Silver Crown, the Knight is the aspect of the Five-Times King most associated with **righteousness**, **chivalry**, **crusades**, and the **smiting of evil**. His original incarnation was the warrior king Isaac, who slayed the Giant and claimed freedom from the Overlords. In later incarnations, the Pentarchy claims that Saint Gegore, who slayed the last true dragon and King Heinrich Leroux, who led a one-man campaign against the Vampiric Plague of 698, were reincarnations of the Knight. His holy relic is the **Winter Blade**, a silver greatsword that supposedly grew from the only living tree in the worst winter that befell Maev.

The Knight’s major cult, known as the **Regiis Clypeum**, is composed of warriors and knights often connected to larger military organizations. While these paladins and clerics see less and less time in active duty, they are tasked by various independent contractors and local governments to exorcise an area of it’s evil spirits.

*The Maid:* Being the only female aspect of the Five-Times King and the embodiment of the Bronze Crown, the Maid has to carry most of the positive associations for females, such as **virginity, love, motherhood,** and **medicine**. The first Maid was the mother of the Son, who gave virgin birth to him and raised him with the virtues he’d later extoll to others. The Pentarchy claims that the Maid was reborn in Lady Elizabeth of Regiónne, who popularized the concept of courtly love, Mother Ana Maria, who cared for the sickly during the Vampiric Plague, Queen Elenor of Sudia, who advised her husband King Charles until his untimely passing and then commanded her nation with dignity, and most recently in Santa Guadajalco, a primero virgin woman who taught hope and kindness to the people of Najálisco and was reported to have holy powers. The Maid’s holy relic is the **Matriarch's Rosary**, a bronze rosary said to have been used to pray with numerous queens, nuns, and important matriarchs of the Daveem.

The Maid’s cult, the **Virgo Gratia**, is focused around healing and caring for the community it is in at the moment. The most recognizable form of the Virgo Gratia is it’s work as medics and nurses during the Grande Tevran War and the Najáliscan Civil War.

*The Prophet:* The Prophet is the aspect of the Five-Times King that embodies the Copper Crown. He has the ancestral job of guiding the chosen people of the King through the troubles and tribulations that face them. Typically, this role has been filled by those proficient in divination; however, the Pentarchy has said that any “guide of the people” would qualify. The first incarnation was the great messiah, Hotes, who led the Daveem from the clutches of the Nemians. Later canonical incarnations are Justinian IV, Emperor of Yllantium, who foretold the armies of Maev of the attack on the Realm by the Shakhsan forces, and Emilio Argolo, the early 7th century explorer who traveled to Dongzhou. The Prophet’s holy relic is the **Dowsing Crook**, a copper shepherd’s crook that was made from Hotes’ original wooden one. He is associated with **discovery, leadership, divination**, and **judgement.**

The cult of the Prophet, the **Inventa**, is an order of monks and nuns that are committed to charting and describing the world. While originally they were charged with augury and other forms of seuth-saying, they became well-renowned for their missionary programs that were established on every continent in the world. A great number of explorers have been aided by or a part of the Inventa.

*The Scribe*: Being the lowest aspect of the Five-Times King, as the embodiment of the Brass Crown, the Scribe is often overlooked in rituals and ceremonies; however, the Scribe plays a crucial role in the Pentarchy. He is often associated with **knowledge, writing, faith,** and **practice.** The first great scribe was Saint Yohanan, a follower of the Son who is believed to have written down his teachings into the books that now comprised the Novel Witness of the King’s Gospel. According to the Pentarchy, the only other incarnation of the Scribe is Aster Penitent IV, who reorganized the canon to it’s modern position. The Scribe’s holy relic is the **Dragonquill,** a writing quill made from a dragon’s feather and used by Saint Yohanan to write down the Novel Witness.

The Scribe’s cult, the **Archeotum**, is devoted to reorganizing, pruning, and maintaining the canon of the Pentarchy. However, a large sect of the Archeotum has become devoted to finding knowledge of the natural and philosophical world through experimentation and the scientific method. These monks and clerics have become renowned throughout academia as a bridge between the two contrasting worlds of science and religion.

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*The Adversary:* The Adversary is the aspect of the Trimalum that best embodies the Shadowed Face. Unlike the aspects of the Pentarch, the aspects of the Three-Headed Beast are physical entities that control the Infernal Garrison. The Adversary is the entity that supposedly leads the triumvirate that controls the Garrison. He is a winged figure made of shadow dressed in hellish legionnaire's armor and wielding a contract in one hand and a glaive in the other. He is associated with **deception, temptation, wrath,** and **rebellion,** and his infernal artifact is the **Calamus Glaive**, a glaive that can disguise itself as an ordinary writing tool.

The cult of the Adversary, or **Hafakhe**, is primarily charged with attempting to corrupt Pentarchics and the Pentarchy itself, along with spreading sin throughout the Realm. They are also charged with being the militaristic aid to the fiendish forces that would seek the destruction of the world order.

*The Warden:* Being the Chained Head’s embodiment, the Warden is the entity that captures and punishes mortal sinners before stripping them of their flesh and converting them into devils. He is often depicted as a large, blue-furred, lupine man wrapped in lashing chains and covered in armor made from scrap metal. He is often associated with **imprisonment, punishment, torture,** and **pain.** His infernal artefact is the **Deciens Edge,** a warped cold-steel dagger that cuts with the pain of a blade tenfold it’s sharpness.

The Warden’s cult, the **Kavul**, is dedicated to punishing sinners and raising more devils for the Garrison. Not many people have met a member of the Kavul, and those who do rarely tell the tale, and so few things are known of their activities.

*The Flesh*: As the embodiment of the Blooded Head, the aspect known as the Flesh is the most obscure of all the aspects. It’s form isn’t well known, ranging from a bloodied corpse to a malformed and cancerous mass of flesh, and it’s motives are even more various, being as sophisticated as reducing human society to their id’s and as simple as birthing monsters and disease. It is associated with **change, disease, rot,** and **death**, and it’s infernal artefact is the **Ruby Putridum,** a cursed gem that causes the bearer's flesh to rot off their bones.

Those who participate in the Flesh’s cult, the **Raquv**, are just as enigmatic as their patron. They have been linked to the spread of infectious diseases into major population centers aillnd claims of high-grade necromancy.

## Apostles

The Apostles of the Pentarchy are a group of saints and holy figures that best represent the 5 Regal Virtues and are reaffirmed every 10 years by the current Aster and Cardinals.

*Aster Par I:* The first Aster of the Pentarchy, Aster Par I is the canon’s currently recognized Apostle of Justice. According  to the Pentarchy, Aster Par I represents this virtue because of his work in arbitrating and forming the Pentarchy itself, along with establishing the rule of *Moral Weight*, which assigns a rough, numeric, value to the sins of mortals.

*Santa Guadajalco:* Patron saint of the Holy Dominion of Najálisco, Santa Guadajalco, is Apostle of Hope, along with being a likely incarnation of the Maid. She was recognized for her work in the small rural towns in the Los Valles region of Najálisco, healing the sick and teaching the Gospel to the poor. She espoused hope despite her persecution by the Oroño government and so was recognized with the position of Apostle

*Charles Exaberri:* Charles Exaberri, the man who sailed along the coasts of Kypon and Talya to bring the Pentarchy to the region. Due to his work in mediation between the locals and missionaries along with his memoires detailing his many encounters with restraining and reforming from alcoholism, sexual deviancy, and other sins, he was awarded with the title of Apostle of Temperance.

*Santiago the Greater:* One of the original followers of the Son, Santiago the Greater was awarded the title of Apostle of Courage for what happened after the Son was martyred. Other followers fled, or renounced their faith; however, Santiago the Greater famously held his ground sustaining his faith and facing the blade of the Augnum Empire dying by flaying.

*Saint Ambrosia the Preacher:* Saint Ambrosia the Preacher, an original follower of the Son who settled in Daphria, Nemet, was awarded the title Apostle of Wisdom. His work in beginning the expansions of teachings on the Gospel and serving as a huge precursor to the modern Pentarchy, along with acting as a guiding figure in the community during the tumultuous times following the conquest of Nemet by the Augnum Empire.

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Unlike the Apostles of the Pentarchy, the Dark Apostles are spirits that reincarnate in new forms every couple of centuries in an attempt to summon the Aspects of the Trimalum and the Three-Headed Beast itself through the raising of the spirit of  Apocalypse. Very little is known of these spirits; however, they are tied to the Carnal Sins and often take on forms that represent those sins.

*The Snare:* The Snare is the first spirit to emerge into the public sphere. Representing the sin of lust, she takes the form of beautiful, younger, women in or close to positions of power. Traditionally she disguises herself as the mistress of people in high power and uses that to lead the people of the world astray and into hedonism and sin.

*The Hoard:* The Hoard emerges after the Snare often as a banker or other money manager and is tied to the sin of avarice. The Hoard uses its position to cause financial collapse and other monetary disasters across the land. Uniquely, the Hoard is never specified as either gender.

*The Stalking:* Emerging after the Hoard, the Stalking takes the form of a beast and preys upon the innocent and virtuous along with destroying the crops of the farmers so as to breed fear and hunger in the population. It embodies the sin of gluttony and often provide brief feasts of meat and fatty foods to promote cramming in the populace.

*The Burned:* As the spectre of wrath, the Burned takes the form of a soldier or general as to promote and cause war in the region. He often stokes the fires of religious or ethnic tensions to provoke a war of conquest against another group, with a proclivity for scorched-earth tactics.

*The Decay:* Appearing as a doctor, often one associated with infectious disease who poses as a helper in the community only to further the diseases. He isassociated with the sin of deceit and use lies and manipulation to trick the common folk into infecting themselves more.

*The Hound:* Emerging after the Decay, the Hound is an embodiment of death and the sin of cowardice, specifically being fearful of death. Despite its name, the Hound is an entity that never takes the same form twice and it works from the shadows to instill a fear of death and other horrors in the people of the land.

*The Tyrant:* The Tyrant is the spirit that embodies the sin of pride. He is the final of the Dark Apostles to arise and mostly takes the form of men in positions of power, often those who are charismatic and well-liked but with authoritarian streets. With his emergence, the Dark Apostles could summon the spirit of Apocalypse and begin the Infernal corruption of Tevrus. The only time things have gotten that bad was during the Vampiric Plague; whenever the nation’s of Maev were beset by the horrors of the *hemovirus lamia*. According to the Pentarchy’s official records, all the Dark Apostles were sited including; the Snare, Janine de Vere, a transgender duches (although never recognized as such) and likely mistress to Charles V of Saexlund, Hoard, Aaron Pittrici, head of the powerful, banking family the Pitrricis of Fiori, the Stalking, the Beast of Bayeux, a wolf-like beast murdering the citizens of Carrolus by night, the Burned, general of the Huriya armies, the Decay, Doctor Gregore McRa, a doctor in Pictlund, the Hound, Viktor Urbino, a politician who espoused isolationism, xenophobia, and fear in Tyrrheny, and the Tyrant, Eddard II of Saexlund who rallied the people to him only to lead them to battle with the vampires causing massive losses.