Vavrinec Vykopal

Vavrinec
Portrait of Vavrinec of Valdavia-Rheigen attributed to Beppo, c. 1734
Voivode of Levigorsk and Mărăbia
Reign	1705–1749
Coronation	11 April 1705 in Levigorsk
Predecessor	Sauromaces Vykopal
Successor	Beryx Decian-Bartosz
King of Valdavia-Rheigen
Reign	1729-1768
Coronation	8 November 1729 in Karsko
Predecessor	Aurel III Belododia
Successor	Aliana Vykopal
Emperor of Transkarminia
Reign	1740-1768
Coronation	1 January 1740 in Valegoria
Predecessor	Title creator
Successor	Aliana Vykopal
Born	29 November 1694 Levigorsk, Kingdom of Valdavia-Rheigen
Died	16 April 1768(1768-04-16) (aged 73) Valegoria, Empire of Transkarminia
Burial	Duchy of Valdavia (exact location disputed)
Spouse	ONE TWO
Issue	Aliana Vykopal Princess Emilia of Transkarminia Princess Valerica of Transkarminia Princess Daria of Transkarminia
House	Vykopal
Father	Sauromaces Vykopal
Mother	Wulfhilde Garþansdöttir
Religion	Alban Nazarism Lutheran Christianity Karminianism

Vavrinec I (Vavrinec Octavian Vykopal; 29 November 1694 – 16 April 1768) was King of Valdavia-Rheigen from 8 November 1729 until his coronation as Emperor of Transkarminia on 1 January 1740, after which he held both titles until his death in 1768. He was concurrently Domnitor of the Grand Guild of Masons and Grand Emeritus of The Pneumatic Church of Karminia. He was a monarch of the House of Vykopal but, unlike his two predecessors, he was Ostrozavan, educated in Karsko as a hostage, and spoke both High Ostrozavan and Valdavian fluently, and held a common grasp on Courtly Latin, High Magnish, and several other languages.

Vavrinec came to power after recieving the endorsement of the King Aurel III of the house of Belododia, who had renounced his only son Bohus in his favor after the latter was excommunicated by Pope NAME. Having proven himself as a competent administrator and strategist as Duke of Levigorsk and Mărăbia in the First Unification War, Vavrinec oversaw a radical restructuring of Ostrozavan society, encouraging and guiding syncretism while consolidating power with the help of diplomatic contacts from throughout Belisaria. After crowning himself as Emperor of Transkarminia, Vavrinec ensured the codification of his new religious sect, which came to be known as Karminianism.

In the latter part of his life, Vavrinec had recurrent seizures which many have now suggested were attributable to temporal lobe epilepsy. Vavrinec was widely seen as a religious icon by many of his followers, and notably incorporated a cult of personality within Karminian dogma, butting heads with Pope Florentine over the legitimacy of his beliefs as he continued to incorporate more Nazarist, Protestant, and esoteric doctrine.

Biography

Early life

Born a member of the influential Siecobian House of Vykopal, Vavrinec spent much of his early childhood in the important trade city of Levigorsk, which his father Sauromaces controlled alongside large swathes of the cosmopolitan coastal regions bridging the newly-reunited polities of Valdavia and Ostrozava. In court at Levigorsk, Vavrinec became exposed to many cultures from the neighboring Triple Crown as well as various religious traditions. The ruling Belododia dynasty, though Fabrian, had taken a notably more relaxed stance on religious intermingling with the Nazarist south and growing Protestant presence throughout the region in an effort to avoid repeating the religious tensions that had marred inner Ostrozavan relations for many years and caused the Declension a century before.

Consequently, Vavrinec was educated in many traditions simultaneously, notably in Docetic Nazarism as well as Alban and Fabrian tradition, a noted first for any future monarch of the Transkarminian region. This complex upbringing led to a sense of identity in the young Vavrinec that many have called a precursor to more contemporary Ostrozavan ideals of nationalism, with the boy's ideals focusing more on the region as a common cultural nexus than on religious or ethnic background specifically. When he was 13 years old, his father secured an important position as Grand Marshal of the Realm to Aurel III Belododia; this put the Vykopal family in a period of heightened tensions with their main political rivlals, the Alban Kostra dynasty of Valdavia. In the winter of 1707, the young Vavrinec survived an assassination attempt by a group of assassins wielding crossbows, but his mentor, Protohegumen Karaleci of the Grand Laurate of Karsko, and his mother Sybil of Virinia were both killed. Though the assassins were never identified at the time, it has been assumed since the event that the Duke Baltozor Kostra of Valdavia had organized the attempt with the goal of killing Sauromaces.

Views and Teaching

Cosmology

Vavrinec asserted a mixture of various idealistic and materialistic spiritual doctrines, saying that all existence was material, albeit multi layered in a 'collection of celestial spheres', including a world of "spirit matter" which permeated reality and kept the demiurge at bay by infusing certain places, people, and groups infused with a 'spiritual lens' which enabled these spiritual beings to penetrate regular reality and inform others decisions. Energy, in the Karminian view, could neither be created nor destroyed; the creation involved only the reorganization of existing matter.

Building on Nazarist theory, Karminianism taught a nontrinitarian view of Sarpetic theology, in which the Holy Spirit is the ultimate manifestation of God, and the Father and Son are phantasms generated from this spirit, rendering it similar to Docetic teachings. Influence from Magnish theology integrated the motif of the world tree more concretely into the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, building on existing syncretic interpretations of the faith in order to demonize the Hvalheimers as Satanists. Magical exaltation, despite being considered occult by other religions at the time, was embraced as a battleground of spirituality by Karminianism, with Vavrinec notably advocating for every spiritual leader in his congregation to commit to the right-hand path.

Vavrinec held baptism in high regard, but in a change of unknown origin, changed the substance of the ritual from holy water to Eucharistic wine.