Alexandrian Church

The Omnity watches the heavens, we defend the earth, and I stand guard against myself.
- A Common Children's Prayer

The Alexandrian Church is the primary religious institution on the mainland and is a monotheistic faith centered around the veneration of Alexandria Omnity. Although the church was nominally created by Alexandria herself shortly before her battle with the Dark Fiend, the institution itself was largely a product of the efforts and compromises of Steros Merroand and Mythrian Arabelle. Theology and doctrine, while still broadly if glacially malleable, began to finalize around 200 years after inception, when the final Canon of Orthodoxy was established after the Second Council of Ubreckt.

Priory to the Calamity the people of the mainland were united in their devotion to the church, but since the 15th century the church has splintered.

Eastern Alexandrianism

Eastern Alexandrianism still maintains a (tremendously diminished) Arch-Warden, tight hierarchy, and direct investiture. Arch-Wardens since The Calamity have always been human, though most of the Curia are Dwarven. The Eastern Church still maintains control of the coinage of most of the East and maintains the same basic structure as before the calamity. The church-proper is divided up into regional episcopacies which all answer to the Arch-Warden and their Stand. Several manifest episcopacies also exist in a somewhat separate hierarchy.

Western Alexandrianism

Western Alexandrianism is more decentralized in the wake of the Calamity, and Western Alexandrian priests no longer answer to the Arch-Warden. Indeed, most Western Alexandrians see themselves as the true heirs of Alexandria's legacy, while they see the Eastern Alexandrian faith as a puppet religion used by the Gilden to control the humans of the East.

Theoretically the Church and the Crown are co-equal; the Crown appoints new Hadriarchs (see also "lay investiture") while the Odessan Hadriarch anoints the new monarch. Each major Western Alexandrian polity has their own Hadriarch that annoits the monarch. Odessa, Flannary, Celstia, Ubrekt, Wydmoor, [WALES PLACE], and [The Various Rump States of The Old Alexian Heartland] each have an Hadriarch. The Seven Hadriarch are the collective heads of what might be called Western Alexandrianism.

Over the past 20 or so years, a hyper-reactionary movement has taken root among the super-religious W. Alexandrians, especially in Celstia, [WALESLAND], Wydmoor, and [RUMP STATES]. These heretic movements reject the theological connection between The Stand an the current roster of Hadriarchs and totally deny the same of the Eastern Alexandrian Arch-Warden. These "Protest-Stand" Faiths are a direct challenge to both the religious and secular authorities of the Western faith. They are heavily persecuted wherever they are found, and Odessa is particularly active in exporting Witch Hunters to western Alexandrian states to root out the ""Protest-Stands." The Radicals take a dim view of the Petaran's faith overall and sometimes cause problems even in tolerant areas by murdering Petarans.

Other Alexandrian faiths

Other religions exist, particularly in the Peteran Empire and Ulan, but all derive from Alexandria in one form or another. Additionally, there are several known cults, and frequently heresies spring up across the mainland. Prior to Alexandria's assumption of the Omnity, the world was served by the Demi-Pantheon, who themselves received divinity from the Eight Makers after the Battle of Sacrifice that ended the First War.