Gemstone 03/29/2007 (Thursday) 18:23:07 #27532767

The Bible Belt is a region of thirteen states and a large portion of eight more (although the exact dimensions of it vary depending on who you ask). Composed of the majority of the southeastern United States, this region is known for Christianity's extreme presence, mainly right leaning and Protestant. I'm not sure about the exact numbers, but as there are 700 churches in Nashville alone, there are bound to be hundreds of thousands of churches throughout this region, and millions of people going to them. There are some exceptions though, and I'd like to talk about one that stuck out to me.

It wasn't too long ago that I learned about Piety, Tennessee. Thinking about it now, I'm not sure how I did, because there was barely any info about it online. I just heard offhand from my sister that a town in Tennessee was celebrating halloween for the first time, due to a large shift in the population from predominantly Christian to a separate, really vague religion. I looked it up later, and there were only a few articles about it. Starting a few months ago, a guy named Jude Vieux-Pont founded a temple somewhere in the city.

Membership grew slowly at first, but it was exponential, until about 24,000 out of the 30,000 people in the town joined the new temple. This left a bit over 4,000 people going to churches, and maybe 2,000 people going to neither. The numbers for the temple are still going up though. Harassment towards non-christians quickly dipped as this new religion became the majority.

What struck me as odd was the lack of details about this new religion. Naturally, you'd think it was just another well known religion, but it was so vague. They never said the name of it, and the title of the building was a temple, which is a very all encompassing term for religious buildings. I thought it had to be something familiar, like Islam or Judaism or Buddhism or Sikhism or something, but then why not just say it? Were these articles hiding something, or were they just reporting as a sort of "What do you know?" type article? I decided I would find out.

I took a road trip all the way down to Piety. I'm not really religious at all, but this was such an intriguing story that I had to check it out. I'd interview a few people on the streets, ask around the biggest Christian church still there, and then check out this new religion and learn from them. Did I expect this to really accomplish anything? No. Did I know that it was probably just something normal and there was nothing to it? Yes. Did I still want to try to get to the bottom of this, in case it was something? Yes.

Funnily enough, I arrived the day of Hallows Eve itself. So that was fun. As soon as I got there, I noticed all the churches. When I was doing my research, it said this place had about 40 churches, give or take. Standing tall, they looked as if they had been here for a hundred years or more. As I began driving through, I noticed something else. They were empty. There were many there, but they were all completely silent. Some had a few priests and other workers, some had a few people attending, but for so many large churches, they were just husks. This would be weird enough anywhere else, but in the big bible belt of the US? This was impossible.

There was also an abundance of halloween decorations. Most of the houses around were decorated to the max, with every possible halloween decoration you could think of, and shops selling halloween stuff were packed. This town was originally composed of a variety of christian sects, the majority of which were against celebrating holidays such as birthdays and halloween. Whatever this new religion was, it seemed way more relaxed when it came to celebrations, enough so that people who were originally in strict christian sects were free to celebrate and were interested in doing so.

I checked myself into the hotel, dropped off my stuff, and then left with my interviewing equipment. I went out and began asking the people on the streets what they had to say about it all. The few christians I talked with said that it was disheartening how everyone abandoned the church, and the more aggressive ones described it as satanic in nature.

The minority that still participated in neither was a bit more varied, as it included Atheists and religious minorities alike. They seemed as confused as I was about it, describing how vehemently non-religious or otherwise religious people so quickly and confidently joined this religion. A lot of their friends cited proof/evidence of a higher power that they were looking for in Atheism or that they allegedly lacked in previous religions. It wasn't just former christians converting, it was everyone.

Among them was a woman named Rachel, who told me about hate crimes and aggression between groups in Piety. For centuries, non-christians were often harassed for not being a part of the christian majority. Once the town mainly converted to this new religion, this harassment almost vanished completely. When the new religion was still small and young, a lot of Christians were very aggressive towards members, but retaliation from the Temple quickly led to the end of the attacks. Now, in a bible belt town of all places, Christianity is no longer the dominant religious group.

The main group of people I encountered were members of this new religion. Like the other groups said, these people claimed that this religion gave them irrefutable proof of god. Talking with these people, I was finally able to put a name to the religion: Ivhesionism. It sounded like a cult, but out of context any religion is a cult, so I suspended my disbelief.

The people said that Ivhesionism operates out of the Risen Kingdom Temple, which was originally the biggest church in Piety before being bought out by Jude Vieux-Pont's newfound donations. Due to the size of the temple and the number of people who believe in the faith, there are sermons held multiple times everyday. The temple had hour long sermons and the last started at 8 PM, so I set a reminder for 7.

One of these people, a man named Steve, told me I had to come to services that day. Jude Vieux-Pont had been talking about a special event regarding their religion falling on that day, and if I wanted to learn more, I wouldn't want to miss this. He looked pretty happy when I agreed. Might as well.

With the general interviews out of the way, I got some lunch, looked around Piety a bit, and then got ready to go to one of the remaining churches. Following the acquisition of the Risen Kingdom Church by Jude Vieux-Pont, the Peaceful Father Chapel became the go-to place for the remaining christians in the area. I was hoping to interview the pastor when he was free and see what he had to say about everything.

I showed up at the Chapel right as services were ending. Unlike most of the other churches I have seen in the area, this one still seemed kinda active. There were about 200 people still there, give or take. As I began walking in, I could see a staircase leading to a balcony with double the seating, which was almost completely devoid of churchgoers. I took a seat and waited as the normal visitors left, until I was free to talk with the priest. For simplicity, I'll refer to the priest as Cee and myself as Jay. I wrote out the interview and I'll post another comment with it in a sec.

Gemstone 03/29/2007 (Thursday) 18:27:46 #27532867

(removed some intro to keep it to important stuff)

Jay: Alright, so, Cee, I was hoping to ask you about, uh, Ivhesionism, I think it's called? I found out that a lot of people in this area switched from Christianity to some new religion, and as they were pretty vague, I came here to maybe learn something about it.

Cee: Right, them, yeah.

Jay: If you know anything about their leader, or what their religion is like, or why people are flocking to it, or anything, I'd love to hear about it.

Cee: I get that, it's human to be curious. Just wondering though, what exactly caught your interest about this?

Jay: Oh, I, uh…how to explain this…you could say I'm a kind of journalist, who generally investigates unexplained events? Christianity is such a monumental part of this region, and seeing so many people convert from it so quickly is attention-grabbing.

Cee: Ok, I think I get it. Back to your questions, though: I'm trying to remember when the religion started. I think it was a few months ago, around late June I think. Naturally, Jude was raised Christian in this area, but he also always seemed to, um, deviate from it, I guess. Jude was never really invested in the faith. The people in this area tried everything they could, myself included, to try to make him understand, but he wouldn't listen.

Cee: Like a lot of other younger people now, Jude, he was acting like we were attacking him. He grew further away from the religion the more we tried to help him. He began rejecting the gospel and acting coldly towards us.

Jay: Did anything happen to him, maybe? No offense, but I've heard a lot about harassment and hate towards non-christians and I was wondering if that put him off the religion.

Cee: We were not harassing him. Like I said, we wanted to show him the beauty of God's word, and like a lot of young people, he refused to listen.

Jay: Um…if you say so. Do you know if that might've led to the formation of Ivhesionism? Generally when someone identifies as non-religious, they aren't attracted to any form of religion, so I can't see why such a person would want to start their own.

Cee: I'm worried that it isn't as simple as Atheism. My theory is that he strayed so far past Christianity, past salvation, that he has turned to Satanism, and now he's spreading the word of Satan under the cover of a new religion.

Cee: I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but Jude and his temple have some type of demon in their possession.

Jay: Are you sure? Even for someone you disagree with, that's quite a bold claim.

Cee: I'm certain. As his temple grew, Jude began inviting influential figures from all over Piety to visit. As his biggest opponents are the churches here, and I manage this chapel, I was invited. This temple was already so busy, and yet he cleared it out just for us.

Jay: What happened?

Cee: There was some awkward small talk, and then he directed us to the pulpit. Right at the front of everything was this…I don't even know how to describe it. It was metal, and it was solid and liquid, and it was alive.

Jay: Wait, what? What do you mean? Like a robot or something?

Cee: No, not a robot. It wasn't electronic, it wasn't wired, there was no technology. It was just a pure mass of metal. And it was alive. It…it was about a cubic foot or two, and it solidified into any form and liquified at will. Jude asked me to touch it, and when I refused, he…

Cee: I don't know what he did but something came over me. My body began working against my will, and I touched the metal. Everything went dark, and I got the feeling that something was watching me.

Cee: I was tormented with visions of hell, with demons. I was praying, but nothing saved me from the visions. There was a big devil, made from the same metal as the one Jude had. It was the size of a mountain, and it towered above everything. Its eyes were like an angel, and I watched as it ruled this landscape with an iron fist.

Cee: At first it was just it and me, staring at each other. It kept changing in front of me. It was still pure metal, but it kept changing from liquid to solid, human-like to spider-like to snake-like to a great tidal wave of silver to a thousand other forms. Its eyes would disappear but I could tell it could still see me. It wrapped around me, talked to me, ripped me apart and put me back together.

Cee: It…it had great power over dark magic, which it used to morph the world at its will, like it morphed itself. The smaller demons, looking almost like humans, were massacred by this thing, and it took thousands of years and millions of demons for the large one to fall.

Cee: But it isn't dead. It's shattered, but it isn't dead. The millions of shards were still alive, still thinking, but solely dependent on others for help. Some were transported to other worlds, and at least one came to earth. And now it's here, in Piety, in Jude's hands. Now 80% of the town obeys it, and serves it, and the numbers are growing. The demon rules Piety, and we can't stop it. I still see it.

Gemstone 03/29/2007 (Thursday) 18:34:53 #27533174

Following my conversation with C, I went back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit. I got some dinner at a local diner, and then made my way to the temple a bit after. Even in the middle of a sermon, the entrance was already kinda crowded. People were waiting like me, outside, just for it to open an hour later. I watched the kids trick or treat throughout all of the houses and their spooky decorations as I waited for my chance to figure out what was going on with this temple.

The temple itself was intriguing. It looked damn old, maybe older than the other churches in Piety, but it also seemed recently changed. It had some old english and french influences in its architecture, and as Piety is a pretty old town, I was sure it was at least 200 years old. The woods were painted turquoise and purple, and the stones black and red. Stained glass windows that likely depicted biblical events were replaced with murals of odd creatures and alien plants. Most of all, there was art of large, yellow eyes.

I didn't waste my spot in the temple, so I just stayed on my phone and earbuds for a bit until the doors opened. I entered alongside the religious crowds, and I just looked around in awe. The thing had three balconies, and the whole thing was about 50 feet tall. The Peaceful Father Chapel was so big, and yet it paled in comparison to this. The same construction choices made on the outside were on the inside too, the majority of surfaces being repainted to turquoise, purple, red, and black. I quickly shuffled into a seat and waited for the service to start.

The temple filled with people. I couldn't tell the exact number, but it had to be somewhere from 500 to 1000. The temple came alive with voices, and yet it all hushed when a man went onstage. He seemed to be in his early twenties, and he was tall, lanky, and had long black hair. He wore a purple dress shirt with black pants, shoes, and vest. This had to be Jude Vieux-Pont.

He began his sermon, and although I had no context to what he was talking about, the rest of the temple hung onto his every word. This continued for a bit before he called for the knowingly faithful to kneel, and for all that were new to stand. I don't know whether it was my drive to get to the bottom of this, my honesty in not being a follower of the religion, or if it just caught me off guard, but I didn't kneel as most of the temple shifted. I looked around, and I saw about a dozen people standing in total.

Jude looked at us, looked at me, and commanded us to approach him. I say commanded because I felt myself beginning to walk before I could even decide whether I wanted to or not. I looked around, and I saw the entire temple watching with me as the dozen of us new people were moving. Some of them were talking, questioning what was happening to them. I just stayed silent. I looked back, and I saw Jude with his arms outstretched. He looked and pointed from moving person to moving person, until we were all at the altar. Once I got closer, I could see that Jude had several scars on the back of his right hand. The cuts were in the shape of an eye, with a half-circle of five eyes and several lines right above it. They were glowing yellow.

Sitting on some kinda pedestal/cauldron thing was a pure, smooth metal. It looked like silver, but I wasn't sure. The metal shifted and moved and shaped and reshaped on the pedestal, despite the fact that just isn't how any sort of physics works.

Jude pointed to each of us, one by one, and commanded us to touch the metal. Some of the people there tried to fight it, but it didn't take long for each person to come into contact with the thing. Their eyes would go blank, they'd go motionless and silent for about a minute, and then they'd be back. Some looked calm, some looked scared, but none moved or spoke. Eventually, it got to me. I tried to pry myself away, but nothing helped. Once my hand was within a few inches of the cauldron, the metal shifted towards me, wrapping around my hand. I felt it, both cold and hot, and everything went black.

Gemstone 03/29/2007 (Thursday) 18:40:57 #27534007

I was no longer in the temple, or Piety, or even earth. I was in a great expanse, with red sands, distant red mountains, and a purple sky. Straight ahead, rushing towards me, was a great silver tidal wave. I tried to outrun it, but it overtook me, and I closed my eyes again. For a moment, right before the liquid metal engulfed me, I took its place, and I watched as the waves enveloped me. I was back in my body, and everything went dark.

I was back in that strange landscape, and the wave was gone. I looked up, and saw it, this behemoth thing in the distance. Rising taller than the mountains, it made me look like an ant. Not even an ant. Just a speck of dust. It was in a human-like form, I guess, but this thing seemed beyond humanity. It had no features on its face, just smooth metal. I was the behemoth for a moment, and I could see the little insignificant thing I was from a million angles. It didn't need eyes, or a mouth, or ears, or anything. It was better. It shifted to face me, and it began to glow until it created a face. One light coalesced into a large eye, in the center of what would equate to its forehead. A half-circle of five smaller eyes arranged in the air above the main eye and the head, and several rays of light shot up past the crown. It looked down on me. I took its place again, and I judged myself.

I couldn't understand how it was working, because it was neither an animal or a machine. There were no organs or bones, nor was there electricity and wiring. It was metallic, but it was neither a refined mechanism or a hunk of raw metal. It was a smooth and simplistic material, liquifying and solidifying and reshaping and living and thinking.

Its arms, legs, and head sank into its body, becoming a serpent with the glowing crown of eyes at its helm. I was myself as it descended on me, the ground trembling as it circled. Its face came near, and its main eye alone was over five times my size. I found myself as the being, and I grew thousands of legs for myself as I shook the world of this tiny person.

I was myself again as the millipedal entity shaped itself into a giant tarantula. I was the giant once more, and I lowered to face myself. I was still so small, so weak, so hopeful, so mortal. I was back to human as it thinned into a bird-like shape, soaring above me. It shifted into a spherical mass, covered in tentacles and still masked by the crown of eyes. We watched each other wordlessly as it took hundreds of shapes and we swapped back and forth. Cee was wrong. This wasn't a demon. This was a God.

In the last indescribable form it showed me, its appendages reached out to me, grabbing me and lifting me into the air. As we looked into each other's eyes, we heard each other's thoughts, and it told me I needed to see. I didn't blink, and yet, darkness reappeared.

I was still in this odd world. I was still there, and so was the God, but it wasn't just us anymore. I watched as it travelled the world. All across the world, there were different species, all so similar to humans yet strong and magical and impossible. This deity, it created two, and enslaved another, making idle servants out of these creatures. These people.

Free for all war broke out, and the God's empire spread like flames. Civilizations fell and species were completely killed off. It even killed another god, and birthed a whole species of followers from its corpse. At the peak of its rule, at the peak of a battle for an enemy city, it lost. Three factions, sworn enemies themselves, knew what they had to do. Nature, magic, technology, and combat expertise were all weaponised in order to keep the deity at bay.

It rained hell on the bastion, killing off hundreds of thousands of foes and followers alike. They were crumbling beneath it, and it was then that it lost. The combined forces unleashed a powerful blast, shooting the God through the chest and upholding fire. It came undone, its shards breaking off as soldiers crashed into the God to keep it from fighting back. The crown of eyes flicked as it fell apart, and soon, as it lay in pieces, the crown broke.

I found myself in the body in a shard, every now and then seeing flashes from the other million fractions. I saw everything. The flimsy allies went out to secure the shards, when disagreement rang out between them. Two sides wanted the god buried and hidden and locked away, and the stronger third wanted its strength. Battle broke out again, soldiers who fought alongside one another minutes ago now tearing each other apart.

A druid teleported the shard I was inhabiting, and suddenly I couldn't see any of the others. I found myself in what seemed like a forest. I was on earth now. I was weak, scared, and hungry for power. I sat there for millions of years, undiscovered. World affairs passed me by, towns rose and fell, and I was left there. Until a bruised and bloodied young human with long black hair found me.

I was no longer seeing from the perspective of the God, nor was I on earth or in that other world. I was in a void, and in front of me was not the God, but a miniscule fraction of its true self. It said my name. It told me, "Find my other pieces. Make me whole."

Gemstone 03/29/2007 (Thursday) 18:47:53 #27534074

And then I was back at the temple. Once each of the other people were finished with their visions, Jude looked from us to the crowd. He told the temple that using the shard, he had seen a prophecy of the start of the rebuilding of "Ivhes", taking place "in the forests of Genem". The event was beginning soon, and the shard would show us once it began. He picked up the shifting metal in his scarred hand and aimed it at the people in the pews. Soon, I felt that cold and hot feeling, and everything went dark again.

I was in a forest, back in that red world. All around me were unfamiliar plants and creatures, which I soon realised were many of the subjects of the stained glass murals. There was a large gathering of humanoid organisms, some of which I saw in my earlier vision and some of which were unknown. Many were hidden by the blue and purple flora, but there were bound to be thousands. And they had thousands of shards.

I was another shard, a bigger one. I was a big shifting mass of metal, maybe the size of a desk. The people approached the large shard, kneeling as they offered their own. Silver tendrils lashed at these separate parts, the smaller pieces joining the larger mass as one. What appeared to be robots stood nearby, and the warlocks ripped them apart to remove the metallic shards from their apparatuses. The shards did not combine like pieces of metal would, but rather as water does when one pool is poured into another.

With each shard incorporated, the mass grew and grew. Soon, it began to act on its own, tentacles dashing through the forest to take the other shards before the warlocks could even approach and offer them. It tore the robots apart, and anyone that withheld their shards was killed in a similar fashion. It kept growing and growing, until it was nine times the size of the smallest person, and three times the size of the largest.

It kept shifting and shaping until it took a human form, with multiple tentacles extending from its back. The light appeared and shifted, until its crown of eyes was once again on its head. The hands of the mortals began to glow with the same light, their hands all marked by the same scars Jude has, the same eyes as the god. They kneeled before it, as it took a cylindrical form and launched a pillar of white light into the sky. In the distance, millions of other beacons lit up in the sky. Everything was white, and then everything was black.

I was back at the temple again, and I looked around. Every person at the temple, save for Jude and the twelve of us, were kneeling and praying. The shard was writhing like crazy, suddenly flashing white and yellow while emitting an odd musical chord that kept looping. Jude spoke above it all. Although we were far from its home world, he preached, we would serve this deity and bring it back to its true might.

He looked back to us, and he gave us control again. He said "Now, you can make your choice. Know that we will not hold a grudge, but Ivhes acts beyond our understanding or our control." One person ran. One person kneeled. Two other people left, and everyone else remained, kneeling. They looked back at me, and I just slowly walked out.

It wasn't until I was out of the temple that I ran to my car. Costumed kids were still dashing from door to door, collecting candy, as their parents sat inside this temple and worshipped this thing. I didn't want to be anywhere near any of that shit, but I was afraid something would happen if I ran in front of all of them. They didn't seem violent, or malicious, but still. Their leader, Jude, had some sort of magic. It came from their god. I wanted to get as far away from that as I could.

I drove back to the hotel and packed up as quickly as I could. I ran back down to my car and began driving out of Piety when I saw him. Jude was standing there, right at the edge of the city, holding something in his hands. As I drove past, I realized it was a metallic orb. As I drove closer, I saw the metal melt and reshape as a staff. I drove faster, but I stopped when I heard what I thought was thunder, and saw what I thought was lightning. But the sound didn't go away, and neither did the light.

I looked back, and I saw lights forming in the sky. They formed into six circles and several rays above them, and from there I realised it was the gods' eyes. The dark halloween night, originally lit solely by the various halloween ornaments, illuminated with the face of a god. It studied me. It judged me. It saw me.

I just kept driving, until either the eyes went away or I was just too far. The drive was longer than I was ready for, but I didn't stop until I was at home around 5 AM. I got home, and I resumed my life, doing my best to not think about it. Once your mind starts thinking about something though, it can't stop.

I haven't been able to escape it since then. I still see its eyes everywhere, day or night. When I dream, I see it. I see everything it's done, everything it's doing, everything it plans to do. I've felt myself shatter into millions of pieces, only to wake again. It isn't angry, it isn't proud, it simply sees me. I would go to a doctor, but I doubt any prescription would stop this thing, and I know that I am not insane. I want it to stop.

I went to Piety about 5 months ago now. Recently, I decided I would quickly go back to see how the scenario in Piety has changed, to see if I could end this once and for all. When I got there, though, things were different. There were large walls blocking any sight into the city. Government workers were wandering outside, especially at the entrance gate where I found myself. They told me that there were several large chemical leaks inside the town, and that I had to turn back around. No matter what theories I had, I had no choice but to turn back like they said, as they had several armed soldiers patrolling. It told me they knew, but shutting down Piety would do nothing.

Once I got home, I began looking up anything related to this. I couldn't find any news reports about Piety, and even older pages about them were gone. That didn't seem to mean the end of Ivhesionism, though. The news reports I found were vague, like the ones I originally found about Piety. But they were definitely real, and definitely related. Several articles described similar events in which small towns and cities converted to a new religion at unusual speeds, all across the globe. They were sparse, but everywhere I looked, I saw metal, and eyes.
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