Disciples of the Peerless Sun: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:22, 3 December 2023

The Disciples of the Peerless Sun, sometimes referred to derogatorily as the Image-Breakers by their opponents, are an iconoclastic sect within the church of Harinna. They hold strong prohibitions against the worship of saints and the veneration of holy relics, believing that to do so is to worship mortals or objects over their goddess. Largely an urban phenomenon, the Disciples are mostly prevalent in the cities of the Viridian provinces of Casabon, Andera, and Penmaerd.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts: Same as Harinna, destroy images and relics of supposed saints
Anathema: Same as Harinna, venerate any saint or physical being

Beliefs

To a significant degree the Disciples emerged as a response to what some saw as heretical practices within the rural populations in central Thadria. Prior to the spread of the Chaskan pantheon to the region, the peoples there primarily engaged in hero-worship, the veneration of deceased great figures like powerful kings, chiefs, warriors, and mages. Although the Harrinan church has long attempted to to suppress these practices, they have endured for centuries, with the heroes simply transformed into saints. The first of the Disciples, primarily urban intellectuals and clergy, observed the modern-day elevation of saints in rural Thadria, done outside the leadership of the central church, and began to connect it to these historical beliefs.

From these first seeds, the tenets of the Disciples began to take shape. Their opposition to rural sainthood grew to an objection against all saints, as they began to see the entire concept of the veneration of saints to be an affront to worshiping Harinna herself. How could one claim to be a devotee of the Two Horizons, they asked, while praying to a dead mortal? Operating largely separate and without orders from the Keeper of the Light in Mesollonia, they began to actively destroy images, idols, and relics of claimed saints in an attempt to stop their worship. Across the central Viridian provinces shrine-churches and the paintings they contained were burned, statues were smashed, and sacred relics like holy swords were deformed or melted down. By Y9800^* the movement had reached its peak in activity, a mix of intellectuals decrying the mortal-worship of the religiously misguided and the masses energized to act on their behalf.

Since that time the sect has cooled somewhat. Their activities today are mostly limited to the continued writing and publication of their iconoclastic beliefs, traveling missionaries, and other efforts to bring more to their cause. Active destruction of images and relics is a rare event in the modern day, largely only undertaken by opportunistic zealots - that many of the rural populations they targeted have gone underground with their practices has also caused the Disciples to quiet somewhat.

Though the Disciples speak and act most strongly against the worship of claimed Harrinite saints, they are averse to the elevation of any mortal to sainthood, no matter the patron deity in question. Amongst the Disciples some express almost henotheistic beliefs in their hostility to divine figures other than Harinna, whether saint, god, or otherwise. This usually takes the form of seeing the other pantheonic gods as inherently subordinate to the Indomitable Sun; only a rare few, whose writings are widely disavowed, make the step to full Harrinite monotheism.

Followers

Unlike the rest of the Harinnan church, the Disciples of the Peerless Sun are without formal leaders. The most outspoken are theologians and scholars of other matters, though the movement has also spread into the mercantile and lower classes of central Thadria. Some clerics within the church also profess beliefs consistent with the Disciples, though they tend to keep quiet the degree of their involvement with the sect, lest it attract unwanted attention and condemnation from Mesollonia.

Nearly all Disciples are city-dwellers; the sect has been overwhelmingly repudiated within the small towns and villages whose practices they have denounced.

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 To a significant degree the Disciples emerged as a response to what some saw as heretical practices within the rural populations in central [[Thadria]]. Prior to the spread of the [[Chaskan pantheon]] to the region, the peoples there primarily engaged in [[Thadrian hero-worship|hero-worship]], the veneration of deceased great figures like powerful kings, chiefs, warriors, and mages. Although the Harrinan church has long attempted to to suppress these practices, they have endured for centuries, with the heroes simply transformed into saints. The first of the Disciples, primarily urban intellectuals and clergy, observed the modern-day elevation of saints in rural Thadria, done outside the leadership of the central church, and began to connect it to these historical beliefs.
-From these first seeds, the tenets of the Disciples began to take shape. Their opposition to rural sainthood grew to an objection against all saints, as they began to see the entire concept of the veneration of saints to be an affront to worshiping Harinna herself. How could one claim to be a devotee of the Two Horizons, they asked, while praying to a dead mortal? Operating largely separate and without orders from the [[Keeper of the Light]] in [[Mesollonia]], they began to actively destroy images, idols, and relics of claimed saints in an attempt to stop their worship. Across the central Viridian provinces shrine-churches and the paintings they contained were burned, statues were smashed, and sacred relics like holy swords were deformed. By {{Year|6800}} the movement had reached its peak in activity, a mix of intellectuals decrying the mortal-worship of the religiously misguided and the masses energized to act on their behalf.
+From these first seeds, the tenets of the Disciples began to take shape. Their opposition to rural sainthood grew to an objection against all saints, as they began to see the entire concept of the veneration of saints to be an affront to worshiping Harinna herself. How could one claim to be a devotee of the Two Horizons, they asked, while praying to a dead mortal? Operating largely separate and without orders from the [[Keeper of the Light]] in [[Mesollonia]], they began to actively destroy images, idols, and relics of claimed saints in an attempt to stop their worship. Across the central Viridian provinces shrine-churches and the paintings they contained were burned, statues were smashed, and sacred relics like holy swords were deformed or melted down. By {{Year|6800}} the movement had reached its peak in activity, a mix of intellectuals decrying the mortal-worship of the religiously misguided and the masses energized to act on their behalf.
 Since that time the sect has cooled somewhat. Their activities today are mostly limited to the continued writing and publication of their iconoclastic beliefs, traveling missionaries, and other efforts to bring more to their cause. Active destruction of images and relics is a rare event in the modern day, largely only undertaken by opportunistic zealots - that many of the rural populations they targeted have gone underground with their practices has also caused the Disciples to quiet somewhat.