The Divine Church

The flag of the Divine Church.

**The Divine Church** is one of the primary religious organisations in Stormbound.

## Description

Commonly known as Primordialism, Elementalism, or just The Church.

### Core Beliefs

The church follows the guide of attempting to seek out and restore a dead creation god known as the Prime Divinity. They oppose the work of what they call the Corruption, an evil divinity. They also follow a loose pantheon of Elementals, one for each of the six primary elements: Metal, Wood, Air, Ice, Fire, Earth, and Water.

### Creation Story & Religious Views

The church holds that earlier in time, there were only two prime elementals, one of all things good and the other of all things evil. The good is known by the church as the Divine, and the other is known by many names, most commonly as the Wicked One.

These two elements did battle many times and eventually came to destroy each other. The remnants of these elementals' blood combined and transfigured into the eight modern elements: Metal, Wood, Air, Ice, Fire, Earth, Water and Chaos.

These elements formed the world as we know it, as well as the peoples of the world. Each kingdom is associated with one of the elements: the Ironclad Union with Metal, the Tribes of Shadowfen with Wood, the Swarm with Air, the Winter Pact with Ice, the Ashland Trust with Fire, the People of the Desert with Earth, the Marine Concordant with Water, and the Central Alliance with Chaos.

The Church holds that within everything still lies some of the element of good, and some of evil. They see it as their divine task to accumulate as much of the good element in the world. As far as they are concerned, magic (from any source other than the divine) collates the evil element. As far as they are concerned, this was confirmed with the destruction in the Mage Wars, where their dislike of magic was taken as official church doctrine. On holy order, they saw that any centres of magic within their control were destroyed, and the use, teaching, study, and research of arcane and primordial magic was decreed an act of heresy.

## History

### Foundation

Church records posit that they have existed since the ghost of the first element formed them on the first day of the world. The church are the creators of the main calendar. By their count, it is currently the year 1248.

The continent of Stormbound was invaded by the people of the Arratyne continent to the south in the year 417, which saw the newfolk (Dwarf, Human, Goblin, Orc, and Cats) bring the church of the first element to the continent of Stormbound.

## Role in the Modern World

The church has a position of incredible power in most of the kingdoms. There are four Pontiffs, which are of the highest rank in the church. These are the Dwarf Pontiff of the North, Elder Kallack, the Human Pontiff of the South, Alexander II, the Rodent Pontiff of the East, High Deacon Stirrack, and finally, the Pontiff of the West, a Human who goes by Shepard Marabella.

### The Winter Pact

The Winter Pact probably has the most church presence, at least within the dwarven kingdoms that hold the King as being chosen by the First Element. There are dwarven clerics in every court, and they see the Pontiff of the North, Elder Kallack as equally important to King Olf The Hammer.

### Central Allies

The Central Allies also have a strong presence of the church, with both the Pontiff of the West and the Pontiff of the South residing within the borders; Alexander II resides within the capital city of Nerridum and Shepard Marabella in the westerly city of Delane. There are pockets of the allies that do not follow the ways of the church as fanatically as others, but it is a part of everyday life for most people.

### Ironclad Union

The Ironclad Union has a strong church presence, but it varies from city to city. The capital has High Deacon Stirrack, who sits upon the Council of Fi, but they lack the absolute power that other Pontiffs hold. Deacon is a common rank of many high-status members within cities.

### Marine Concordant

The Marine Concordant has elements of church power, though most keep to the far older Sleeping God. The church has some cultural place and is overseen by Patriarch Bollious, who is technically under the flock of Alexander II but has more or less the supreme authority of the church underwater. While some pirates keep faith, their fundamentally disordered structure means there are no real high-ranking order members.

### Ashland Trust

The Ashland Trust has a small amount of church presance. The Eldari Houses keep to their own faith, but some Orc groups have churches for cultural or political purposes.

### Swarm, Arid Frontier, and Tribes of Shadowfen

The Swarm, Tribes of Shadowfen, and Arid Frontier have effectively no church presence. While the Swarm and Arid Frontier lack the church, they are not enemies of the faith in the same way that the various Tribes of Shadowfen are considered to be. The Swarm has a small degree of church presence in some Undead cities, but with almost no political power. Their very serious adherence to the Avist Treaty means that the church has little interest in the Swarmlands. The same can be said for the Arid Frontier, though there are no known churches present in the desert.

The Tribes of Shadowfen, being one of the few places left in which magic is practised often, attracts the wrath of the church.