Church of the Almighty God

The **Church of the Almighty God** is the national religion of the Venetiaan Holy Kingdom, as well as the religion practiced by 80% of the Riester Empire's population.

## Beliefs

> “Beloved believer, your middle name is something you should only share with close family members or your partner. At least, that is how it is in the Holy Kingdom. Is it different in the Empire?”
>
> I said things I had read in the < Biweekly Riester > as if they were my own words. Everybody on the continent has a middle name in between their first name and their family name, and this middle name was something you only shared with your family, spouse, fiance, or a very close friend.
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> — Jesse, in Chapter 11 – The Little Visitor

Middle names have significance in some regions of the continent of the rising moon, such as in the Riester Empire and the Venetiaan Holy Kingdom.

The rule is that boys are given female middle names while girls are given male middle names. This tradition was started by the ancestors of the continent in order to prevent the mischievous and capricious Almighty God from taking their children back to heaven. It was believed that in doing so, it would make the God confused about the child’s gender.

The importance of middle names also became so prevalent, that revealing it to someone you have just met is considered inappropriate and could even lead to misunderstandings if one does this carelessly, since it is something that only people important to a person should know.

It is not unheard of for parents to go to priests or other important figures in order to ask them to bestow a name for their child—though, considering the importance of it, it is still considered a rather shocking thing to be asked of, especially if the person asked is unrelated to the child.

Nonetheless, there are still some people who are skeptical of such beliefs, such as Sarah Belliard who named her grandson with a typically feminine name, since she thought it had nice meaning that suited the boy, with the initial agreement of other family members as well. That child ended up fainting and fell into a coma, however, and prompted Sarah to reconsider that truly must've been a consequence of the God's curse. Despite this, during Sarah Belliard's confession, Jesse gives empathetic reassurement with a sensitive outlook on the affair, since, while *"it might be a fake religion believed by the people inside a novel, [he] didn’t want to treat the faith and belief of the hard working people in front of [him] as something nonexistent,"* which eventually also leaves the reader questioning the validity of the Almighty God's curse. Whether or not it is the case, is still unclear.

### The Rules and Beliefs of the Church of the Almighty God

The rules and beliefs of the Church of the Almighty God can also fittingly be found in a book titled: *"The Rules and Beliefs of the Church of the Almighty God".*

> According to the second chapter of < The Rules and Beliefs of the Church of the Almighty God >, magic was not to be used inside temples as a way to show respect towards the Almighty God.
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> It was an old custom that most mages do not abide by in modern times, but it was still a rule.
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> — Jesse, in Chapter 31 – The Last and Only (3)

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 6
2. ↑ Chapter 11
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapter 31
4. ↑ Chapter 19
5. ↑ Chapter 21