Church of the Allfather

"This religion should be founded in D'Hara in a few months. This is to be considered as a description of the religion to be used as a reference for discussions in D'Hara regarding the religion."

Below is an impartial treatise on the Chruch of the Allfther

The Church of the Allfather is an ancient religion that flourished in the more rustic of the noble families of the world and amongst isolated peasant communities. Its followers do not draw attention to themselves with the exception of the group in D’Hara. They are jointly led by Asriel Octavius and Mathias Rider who are working on founding the religion in the city of Paisly.

The Allfather

The Allfather is the religion’s sole deity, He represents all gods and worshippers believe that all other deities are merely aspects of the Allfather Himself. He is worshipped as the supreme creator of the world and as the entity whose angels taught the first men how to farm and how to hunt. In terms of temperament His worshippers view him as the benevolent father of all as opposed to a bloodthirsty war god. This is undoubtedly what attracts so many peasants used to war destroying their livelihoods to worship Him.

The Holy Writ and Word

Worshippers draw spiritual guidance from two sources, those who are literate may read the religion’s holy book known as the Holy Writ, and all followers may listen to the Word as taught by the wandering priesthood. The Word is a collection of holy stories and fables, passed down from older priests to younger priests. As such the Word changes slightly over time whereas the Holy Writ is fixed and immutable. At the core of the Holy Writ are the Eight Teachings. These are followed by stories of the creation of the world, the earthly appearances of the Allfather, the founding of the Church of the Allfather and the early history of the church, all of these are found in the Holy Writ in that order. Appended to every copy of the Holy Writ is a series of writings known as the Apocrypha. This consists of a mixture of prophecies, stories of latter day martyrs and, chiefly, a set of Edicts written by an unknown head of the church from ages past who apparently reformed a decadent and overly powerful priesthood and laid out the strict Edicts concerning priestly conduct to prevent a return to the Age of Zealous Terror.

The Apocrypha contains numerous description of the Age of Zealous Terror but these are a confusing jumbled mess with several segments missing. All that is clear is that at some point in the past the Church of the Allfather was far more powerful, indeed there are tales of Kings and entire noble dynasties being wiped out by the priests for “heresy against the Allfather”, apparently during this time the priesthood grew rich and decadent while the people lived in squalor, some priests amassing vast personal fortunes and waging private wars against rival priests. There are also some references to a terrible shadowy organisation of warrior-priests known as the Ordo Inquistiono. This period was brought to an end by the pious priest whose Edicts form the core of the Apocrypha.

In order to give some idea of the beliefs of the Church of the Allfather the Eight Teachings are to be found below:

One - Thou shalt not worship the False Gods.

Two - Thou shalt not steal.

Three - Thou shalt honour the Allfather.

Four - Thou shalt defend His Holy Church.

Five - Thou shalt not harm a priest of the Allfather.

Six - Thou shalt defend the innocent from harm.

Seven - Thou shalt not kill unless the lives of others are in danger.

Eight – Thou shalt not break an oath until freed from it.

History

The Holy Writ is unclear in its descriptions of where the Church of the Allfather was founded since all the places referred to in it are no longer to be found on any maps. This also makes it impossible to date the age of the faith and whether it originated in Atamara where the Octavius family hail from or whether it was brought there by immigrants fleeing their own realms. Indeed, it is entirely possible that maybe just one priest arrived in Atamara and spread the faith whilst the Church of the Allfather was replaced entirely by other religions in the areas where it had originated, it is impossible to say for certain.

After the faith seemed on the verge of extinction a follower named Asriel Octavius travelled to D’Hara on Dwilight after being led there by strange dreams and what he described as “something tugging at my heart”. Whilst in D’Hara he underwent a spiritual awakening and became convinced that the founding of a Second Church was at hand. Since that day he is purported to have been far wiser and more confident and it was possibly this which made the famed hero and former Scarlet Emperor of Shadovar Mathias Rider listen to Asriel’s descriptions of the beliefs of Allfatherism. Indeed Mathias became an eager convert and pledged that he would help build the Second Church’s first cathedral in the city of Paisly.

After they founded the Second Church of the Allfather in Paisly, and after many negotiations with D’Hara’s rulers who followed a different faith, they began to spread the faith. And so in this new world the faith was reborn and though much more would happen in its future it would always owe all to the men whom the Church of the Allfather later proclaimed as Saints of the Allfather.

The Priesthood

At the core of Allfatherism is the wandering priesthood. After the fall of Allfatherism from its position as a dominant religion the priesthood became wandering in order to cater for followers who were spread thinly over large areas. As a result the priests are mainly low ranking in terms of the potential hierarchy and are mostly either the children of priests or the assistants of priests who take over their duties when they die. Nevertheless there is a quite clear hierarchy amongst the priests of both position and duties which is displayed below:

Position	Type of Temple (location)	Duties
Archfather	Huge Cathedral	Head of faith for realm
Highfather	Cathedral	Head of faith for city and duchy
Abbot	Abbey	Head of faith for townsland
Patriarch	Large Church	Head of faith for region
Layfather	Church/Local shrine(s)	Head of local parish and shrine attendant

As is shown the highest position within Allfatherism is that of Archfather who is in charge of the Church of the Allfather in his or her particular realm, however, all the Archfathers form a council with which earthly control of the faith rests. A point worth noting is that, though the position titles remain the same, all ranks of the clergy are open to both males and females.

Priestly conduct is limited by the Edicts which place a vast number of restrictions on them. The overall aim of the Edicts, however, is to prevent priests from amassing large personal fortunes and from becoming out of touch with the people. The basic core of the Edicts is that no priest may own or rent their own home and, though they may marry, they may not live in any property owned or rented by their spouse or offspring. There are also regulations regulating their diet to ensure that they do not enjoy levels of luxury that would distract them from their faith.

Religious Ceremonies

There are various religious ceremonies that may be performed by any priest and these are listed below along with explanations:

Wedding – A simple ceremony performed by a priest on the closest thing to holy ground available in which the bride and groom exchange oaths of loyalty in front of witnesses and exchange symbolic rings before receiving a blessing from the priest. As the newly-weds leave it is normal for a hymn to be sung.

Consecration – A priest blesses an area of land, clearing it of malign influences to make a fitting site for a shrine, burial ground or any type of holy building. The priest walks around the ground whilst making the sign of the Allfather and praying for the Allfather to cleanse the land of evil.

Burial Service – The priest performs a service to mark a death along with the actual burial. Normally friends and relatives of the deceased will say a few choice words before the priest leads those present in prayer for the soul of the deceased. This is sometimes followed by the singing of hymns.

Note: Divorce is allowed in Allfatherism since, although breaking of oaths are forbidden by the Eighth Teaching, if one of the couple rescinds the other's obligation to them then the marriage may be considered null and void.

Afterlife

The Holy Writ describes the journey a soul takes after death. It says that the dead person must relive their whole life and only when they truly repent all the bad they have done in life will the dead person be permitted to move on to the Plains of Peace where they shall spend the rest of eternity in a perfect paradise the nature of which may not be revealed to living mortals. Of course there is much speculation as to the nature of the Plains of Peace and some have claimed to have had visions of it although the main word used to describe it is unfortunately ‘indescribable’.