Saints of Lausain

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Church of the Saints of Lausain is the dominant religion of Ivarind. Over three thousand years old, it originates from the continent of Zaeren and shares a number of aesthetic similarities with some other powerful religions of the Galaxy, including Monadism and Christianity. One of the most oppressive religions in the known space, practice of it outside Ivarind is regulated by the Gnadra Accords.

Beliefs[edit | edit source]

As most other faiths on Ivarind, followers of the Saints believe the Titans to be gods, and (rightly) believe they're dead. The actual divine role in this religion is taken up by a group of former mortals who ascended to godhood through mortal worship, though Ivarindians do not use the term "god" for them. Anyone claiming to follow other gods is deemed a heretic (as their holy scripture states that "gods are dead and no man shall bend their knee to them"). Ever since Ivarind's contact with other worlds, aliens who worship gods have been tolerated but an occasional incident of violence still happens. Followers of the Saints are much less tolerant towards other Ivarindian religions, such as dragon cults, ancestor or nature worshipers.

Outré-Saints, as the followers call themselves (literally, "want to be saints"), believe to lead a good, happy life one should follow the seven virtues espoused by the seven saints: humility, honesty, chastity, chivalry, generosity, diligence and faith. The religion's holy scripture is divided into two main divisions: Books of the Saints and the Hagiographies. Books of the Saints are seven books, each corresponding to the various saints, containing various sermons and sayings attributed to them (or occasionally, the whole book is purportedly authored by the saint). The Hagiographies are a later book by Heuron the Chronicler, detailing the lives of each saint, leading up to their martyrdom. Per the origin myth and the Book of Poutlac, sinners are given a chance to convert and turn away from sin and upon refusal are to be killed to purify the world.

Despite the common rumor, the followers of this religion (nor any other Ivarindians) honestly believed the world was flat. It was, however, presented as a perfect sphere in the center of a geocentric model, with the sun and planets believed to orbit it. Like the pre-Lausain cults, stars (and therefore planets) are believed to be spirits of the ancestors, with some bright stars ascribed to specific ancient kings and men of virtue. Arrival of aliens originally confused the smallfolk who took these travelers to be sent by these ancestors but knowledge of the true shape of the universe is quickly spreading.

Organisation[edit | edit source]

Originally without a central structure, the Church merely acknowledged the moral authority of the bishop of Saint-Lausain. Over 1200 years ago, the church was reformed and the bishop of Saint-Lausain was proclaimed as the Anointed, the mouth-piece of the saints. The Anointed, unlike many other heads of religion, directly contacts the saints and brings forth their orders and proclamations. Under him serve seven cardinals, originally meant to represent one virtue each, but they have since become a more generic council of high-ranking clergy. Under the cardinals serve bishops and archbishops of various churches throughout Ivarind.

Background[edit | edit source]

Before the beginnings of the Saints of Lausain, most of Ivarind's humans followed various forms of decentralized ancestor or nature worship. Elementals, ancestral spirits and fey enjoyed an equal and mixed reception. Occasionally, hermits and ascetics would claim to embody a virtue and wholly dedicate themselves to it. At this time, these "men of virtue" would rarely claim guidance from any particular divine authority and would merely follow the virtues on their own. What those virtues were varied from region to region, and virtues of one land were sometimes considered grave sins for other lands. The Saints of Lausain arose from this "men of virtue" tradition, and their appearance canonized the current set of virtues worshiped on Zaeren.

Originally, the men of virtue and the worship of other spirits were not seen as contradictory and indeed, some early men of virtue even speak occasional praises to virtuous fey or ancestors. Only since the beginnings of this particular religion, the persecution began.

Origin myth[edit | edit source]

According to the common belief on Ivarind, the Saints of Lausain was a group of seven men of virtue who, through various means, arrived in the city of Lausain by 3134 BP. Some were natives, some lived in the neighboring area, and Saint Reman was even said to come from a far away land. All of them were said to be former sinners who by some stroke of luck lost all of their past, sinful fortunes and turned to life of virtue. The saints, according to legend, were:

  • Saint Carcon of humility. Once a tyrant, a proud and arrogant lord who branded his subjects like cattle. One day, brigands robbed his household and killed his family. In despair, Carcon turned to virtue and found a more fulfilling life in it.
  • Saint Rouald of honesty. Once an oath-breaker and a cheat, he conned lords of a few cities to give him their fortunes in exchange for fake magical trinkets. Finally, one lord retaliated, robbed him of all his ill-gained possessions and dumped his body in the river. Rouald emerged a changed man and swore to never tell a lie again.
  • Saint Lamiere of chastity. Once a harlot, she lived a life of easy luxury, selling her body for earthly gains. One day, a group of four men took her body without paying and killed her three sons who tried to defend her. Lamiere promised to never lie with another man and began to preach for others to do the same.
  • Saint Gevours of chivalry. Once a knave and a common bandit, he sat in a canyon and forced everyone passing to pay a toll, and those he found rich enough killed anyway. One day, a lord's entourage proved too challenging to his band and Gevours was left to bleed out in the snow. He came to a changed man and promised to uphold a code of honor.
  • Saint Lidiocque of generosity. Once a covetous noblewoman and a black widow, she killed two husbands to gain their possessions. Her third husband not only survived her attempt on his life, but tried to kill her as well. Surviving by a miracle, she gave away all she owned and promised to never again covet anyone's possession.
  • Saint Reman of diligence. Once a rich merchant who gained a fortune on the work of others, his ships were accosted at sea by pirates. Reman survived by hanging onto a single plank of wood and washed up on the shores of Zaeren. When he woke up, he promised to live a life of diligence from now on.
  • Saint Poutlac of faith. Once an iconoclastic madman, he took pride in destroying temples and killing priests and robbing their possessions. Finally, a priest cursed him to lose his sight. Poutlac fell into despair, until he found a new faith in the virtues.

In said year, they began preaching as a group and imploring the people of Lausain, known for their sinfulness, to convert and abandon their sins. Although their sermons mostly fell on deaf ears, they gathered a small group of fervent followers and the magnates behind Lausain began to fear them. Finally, they hired ruffians to get rid of the leaders of this nascent revolution. The men of virtue were robbed, raped and brutally murdered, not necessarily in that order, by an angry crowd paid off by the leaders of Lausain. This was not, however, their end.

Over the following month, the virtuous men in the city would see dreams and visions of the men of virtue who kept imploring them to leave the city by the end of the month. Most of their former followers did so, but some chose not to believe in those dreams. After the month has passed, the followers gathered in the mountains above Lausain with all their families and possessions. As the sun set over the city, earth shook and split, swallowing the town. What survived was destroyed by fire raining from the sky. In the end, Lausain was gone and its remaining citizens from then on worshiped the Saints of Lausain, found a new city in their new home in the mountains, Saint-Lausain, and promised to spread the new religion.

Speculation[edit | edit source]

Because disputing facts written in the holy scripture is considered one of the highest heresies, there is very little native research into the truth behind the religion. In the short time of alien activity on Ivarind, some facts have been uncovered. There is considerable amount of anachronistic elements in the stories of various saints. Although Ivarind's society is unusually stagnant, even here there were cultural changes and stories in the Hagiographies reflect the society of a later era by nearly a thousand years.

Additionally, some saints appear to come from different time period, and therefore couldn't have all been killed in one night. Saint Poutlac is first attested three centuries after the original event and is speculated to be the main author behind the formalization of Church's scripture. In the time before the Saints, there were hardly any temples he could destroy, or a faith he could espouse without being what his followers term a pagan. Saint Lidiocque appears to be a conflation of three separate women who lived over the space of four hundred years. Saint Gevours is sometimes said to be an outright fabrication, as there is little specificity in all stories about him and few of his deed match up with recorded historical events.

The biggest point of interest for aliens is Saint Reman. A visitor from a distant and unspecified realm, he allegedly carried with him cargo of exotic and dangerous beasts and plants, none of which match anything found on Ivarind in the present day. The pirates who attacked his ship are gaunt and corpse-like in appearance. His ship goes up in a purple flame, which is typically associated with an overloaded arcane machinery. These facts all point to Reman being an alien, possibly Remus Midian, the lost human captain of a vessel from the Gnadra world of Midialoss.