Life of Ilhaduel

At the heart of the religion of **Ortueism** is the life of a single man who was born unto a virgin and pronounced himself the son of the Living God. After he lived a life without the mar of wickedness in any form, he was slain by the king of the most powerful empire at the time. He returned from death after three days, and declared the method by which all could follow him back to his Heavenly Father's arms.

## Background

### Ancient Times

Many millennia ago, the **Cassumite** people were chosen by the Living God as the heralds of His love for the peoples of **Anfang** that **He had created**. They were a shrewd, scheming people however and profited off of this position for as long as they could, positioning themselves as the sole arbiters of spiritual truth and thus forcing all other nations to resort to **primitive forms of spiritualism**, such as shamanism and animism and polytheism. Their hard-heartedness risked plunging the entire world into the darkness of sin, and so the Living God shaped history as His prophets predicted time and time again, to ensure that the Cassumites would form a mighty empire which would then serve as the example of His power and mercy for all time.

### Jovidian Empire

Around 100 years before the birth of Ilhaduel, the largest empire on the planet of Anfang was the ruled by the Cassumite people, a tribe of desert travelers who had previously been subjects of the Midean Kingdom in the region. After gaining the ear of King Tiespes I, ruler of the Midean Kingdom, one Cassumite by the name of Jovid provided correct advice to store food for times of hardship ahead, and when a terrible drought hit the region he was promoted to royal advisor. Over the next several years, Jovid managed to convince King Tiespes I that his own sons were unfit to rule after his death, and was appointed as the new heir of the kingdom.

After taking the throne upon the late king's death, in 163 BR (Before Reconciliation), King Jovid put the previous royal family to death, and lead the Midean Kingdom in a number of expansionist wars against its neighbors, who were suffering from crippling starvation at the time. One by one, King Jovid added new territories to his borders, each of them being governed by a family member and with other Cassumite tribes taking on administrative positions and judicial roles throughout the Jovidian Empire. By King Jovid's death in 127 BR, the Jovidian Empire's conquered territory contained more land than any other governing body on the planet, eventually growing to rule over nearly half of the world's population through much of Western Wassia and Southern Uropa and the island of Daglarus.

## The Manifestation of the Living God

### Birth of the Savior

The beginning of the new calendar is Year 0 AR (After Redemption), marked by the birth of a miraculous baby to a woman living within the Jovidian Empire's borders. In a small village, a young woman by the name of Annah was visited by an apparition of a man made entirely of light and flame. He told her not to fear, and that she would be the door by which the Living God wreathed Himself in the form of man, to enter the world and reforge His relationship with His estranged children.

Although terrified, she agreed, and gave birth to a child she named Ilhaduel, meaning "God walks among us." He grew up a perfect child, patient and obedient and helpful, but extremely studious. He spent his youth learning how to fish and sail and farm, but also studying the ancient Cassumite religious scrolls normally only accessible by the Unsullied Scholars. When they attempted to stop him, he would ask them questions respectfully and debate their incoherent dogma and incompatible legalism until they would permit him to enter under the guise of their tutelage, simply to avoid being publicly rebuked by a child.

### A Perfect Life

After reaching the age of adulthood, Ilhaduel spent his time ministering to the people within the Jovidian Empire, both Cassumite and otherwise. When speaking to the former, Ilhaduel aimed to correct the misguided contractual understanding of the divine that the Cassumite tribes had fallen into. This legalism had hardened their hearts and kept them from following the meaning of the Law given to them out of a manipulative attempt to outsmart the Living God. When preaching to those who were not ethnically Cassumite, Ilhaduel told them of the Living God who had made them and kept them safe through the dark past and wanted them to come to Him now.

He performed many miracles during his life, from feeding enormous crowds to healing countless injuries and sicknesses to raising the dead. He commanded the clouds to rain on wilting crops, and parted a river to allow a shepherd to retrieve his son stranded on the other side. Miracles aside, he also taught of simple and earnest morality toward one's kin and neighbors, and of the importance of loving the Heavenly Father who sent him. During this time, he repeatedly stumped the Unsullied Scholars who attempted to catch him in moral traps based on absurd situations regarding the labyrinthine behavioral codes of the Jovidian system of law.

At the age of 28, Ilhaduel was brought before the royal court. The previous king of the Jovidian Empire had died of suspicious causes a year earlier, believed to have been poisoned but never proven. The current ruler was King Revahem and he sought to solidify his reign by gaining the approval of this holy man he had heard about. He offered Ilhaduel every form of wealth and power, a ruling seat at his right hand, governorship over any territory within his empire, a magnificent palace full of beautiful concubines, anything that this preacher who had won the hearts of the people desired. But each offer was met with a gracious but firm refusal from Ilhaduel. His Kingdom was in Heaven, he responded. His Father had more power than King Revahem could ever dream of attaining.

## The Undeserved Execution of Ilhaduel

The refusal to lend approval to his reign drove King Revahem to a fit of rage. He declared that if Ilhaduel would not support the monarch of the Jovidian Empire, he was a traitor to it, and would be executed as such. After three days of nonstop torture within the dungeons in a vain attempt to earn a coerced endorsement from the self-proclaimed Son of the Living God, Ilhaduel was dragged before the court one more time. He was told to proclaim King Revahem the god of this world and to denounce his claim to divinity. Despite being flayed bloody and unrecognizable, Ilhaduel remained silent, his gaze set and unflinching.

In a state of ruthless fury, King Revahem drew his own sword and swung at the chained Ilhaduel, beheading him in one stroke before the entire court and the assembled courtiers. His body was dragged through the streets with servants of the Highest Unsullied Scholar shouting "Here is your Teacher, Son of the Dead God." They rode to the cemetery where criminals and the poor were discarded, and placed his body in a shallow grave to be smothered by a massive boulder rolled into place by several teams of oxen.

Thinking the matter over, King Revahem began to round up followers of Ilhaduel to force them to disavow their former preacher. He personally executed two who refused, using the same sword that had beheaded Ilhaduel, but in both cases the slain men calmly stood after being cut down, and walked away while all looked on in shock and horror.

## The Return of Ilhaduel

### The Tree of Life

The next day however, Ilhaduel appeared in the barn where survivors were hiding from the king's men. He showed them his scarred neck, where the sword had cut his flesh. He let them touch the lines that the whips of the king's torturers had drawn across his body. And when they finally believed him, he told them to carry word of what he had said and done through all the nations. That all who believed in him and the Living God who sent him would not die for good, but be welcome in the Lands of Eternal Peace after death.

And to King Revahem, Ilhaduel appeared on that day as well. Still in the depths of his fury, Revahem had his sword drawn to slay a man protecting believers who were attempting to flee the king's guards. Ilhaduel took the sword from his hand without any struggle, and he planted it into the ground, right in the middle of the street. The paved road cracked and splintered as roots grew out from the blade, and the hilt grew taller and became full of life, a trunk for a new tree that budded with vibrant green leaves. Any who attempted to chop down this sword-turned-tree were struck as if by lightning, and the king was so terrified that he fled to his palace, and refused to leave.

Standing before the throngs of civilians and soldiers alike, Ilhaduel revealed to them his true nature once more. He told them that he was the son of the Living God, and that he had come to pave the way for them to return to their Heavenly Father's side. The Cassumites had once been tasked with stewarding knowledge of the Living God, but they had turned to wickedness and lost His favor. Now all could be reunited with Ortues, simply by trusting in Ilhaduel's guidance from the bottom of their heart, and following in his footsteps.

And before their eyes, he became as light and stepped inside the Tree, never to be seen again in the flesh by Man, though the Half-Horses hold that they were **saved by Ilhaduel** taking on the form of one of their own to defend them when they were being exterminated for their barbarous ways.

### Downfall of the Jovidian Empire

After the death and resurrection of Ilhaduel, the Jovidian Empire was thrown into chaos. Without clear leadership, a dozen external threats rose up to attack its borders, and rebellions within its territory went unpunished. The powerful island nation of **Umbria**- the largest military threat outside of the Jovidian Empire- invaded its capital one year after Ilhaduel's death in 29 AR. They found King Revahem dead by his own hands, and burned his palace and the temple that stored the countless scrolls of religious legal codes, taking back countless treasures of gold and silver and many thousand captives back with them to Umbria.

This mass exodus of people would help to **spread Ortueism** and the message of Ilhaduel's life across Uropa and eventually the entire world.