Messianity
Messianity, also known as Sassanism, Messianism, and Mandachaeism, is a monotheistic Nohraic faith centred around the teachings and the history of the Sasan, and those of his disciples. Messianity believes that Sasan was adopted by God from a young age, and is the last of a long line of prophets who preached the true version of God's teachings, which includes Nohra, Paisos, and the Tathagata. Arising in the 1st century in the cosmopolitan region of ..., Messianity took on many aspects of other monotheistic religions, such as ideas of reincarnation and rebirth, the search for truth and meaning, and the eternal struggle between a dark material world and a holy spiritual one. Sasan travelled the world, spreading his word, before he was executed It has since spread to become one of the largest faiths in all of Eordus, with ... billion followers.
Messianity, after the death of the Prophet Sasan, spread through the commentaries of Sasan's disciples, which were eventually gathered into a holy book.
Emperor Martinian I of the ... Empire, which at that time ruled vast swathes of the Marenostro, converted to Messianity as a youth when his desperate mother sought to find a cure for his epileptic fits. When he grew up and took the leadership of the Empire from Emperor Saloninus, he recognised Messianity as the state religion of the Empire. Messianity, spreading across the Marenostro, came to dominate the religious landscape of southern Estere. It was also in this time that the first divergences between the Eastern and Western schools of Messianity began. After the Empire's collapse, the religion in Estere came under attack as several holy sites were raided, or were at risk of being raided, by various non-Messian and pagan groups migrating from the east and from the north. In the 6th century, invasions by the Qusayyad Caliphate physically split the Western and Eastern schools, laying ground for modern divisions of the faith. It was in reaction to all this that in the year 889, the Illuminated Symmachus declared the first of what would become many holy wars, the Crusades, or Holy Marches, to retake territories which had fallen to pagans. These Holy Marches achieved great success initially, solidifying the faith within its core lands of southern Estere, but after the Northern Reformations, in which various pagan religions borrowed from Messianity to establish a formal religious hierarchy and scripture, Holy Marches became more costly, and grew to have little effect against these reformed faiths. The decline of the Holy Marches also coincided with a mentality of maintaining Messianity, rather than expanding it further. However, discoveries and colonisation efforts by Esterian explorers on other continents during the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries allowed the spreading of Messianity into the New World, Mauria, Seria, and the Campes.
Entymology
The term Messianity arises from Latin "Messianus", a borrowing from Greek "Messī́ās", which in turn is borrowed from the Hebrew word "mashíakh", meaning "one who is annointed", or "Messiah". One old term for Messianity, "Mandachaeism", arises from the Aramaic "manda-ḥayyā", or "living knowledge".
Beliefs
Cosmogony and universal construction
The World of Darkness is led by the Prince of Darkness, Reman (from Middle Persian "Ahriman").
Sasan's life and resurrection
The most fundamental pillar of Messianity is the belief that Sasan was Adopted by God, and was the final in a series of divinely-inspired prophets, each of whom revealed and added their teachings to a primordial religion of light.
Over the course of many theological debates over the nature of Sasan in the first few centuries of Messianic history, generally, Messians believe that Sasan was born a man, rather than being born part-divine or being wholly divine, and was visited by archangels and visions from God over the course of his life, leading to his baptism and adoption by God at an early age. Sasan then wandered the world, learning and encountering the worst excesses of the material world, as well as avoiding temptations that the Prince of Darkness Reman placed to tempt him from the course of pure light. Over the course of these journeys, some of which were not-well documented, while others were made into popular gospels, Sasan took on several apostles, and taught them the word of God, encouraging them to follow a similar path to reach salvation.
Sasan was martyred, either through crucifixion or through being burnt at the stake. Sasan arose from the dead several days later and appeared to his apostles, informing them that he had been shed of his mortal nature, and was then raised up to Heaven.
Messians believe the death and resurrection of the Prophet Sasan to be one of the most important events in history, second only to the creation of the world itself; basing much theology, religious doctrines, canons, and teachings on the event. The resurrection of Sasan symbolises the power of God to bring his Adopted back from the dead and raise them up to Heaven to serve alongside him. The resurrection is also a symbol of humanity's suffering within the material world as well as being a sacrificial purification, where Sasan was shed of his base mortality and raised to Heaven's world of light to become one with God.
Practises
History
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The reasons for the beginnings of the Crusades/Holy Marches are widely debated, and are considered in academia to come about from a variety of sources. The loss of the cities of ..., as well as the regions of ... and ... in the 700s led to increasing separateness between both Eastern and Western Messianity, as well as furthering ideas of southern Estere being one of an increasingly few civilised places left. At the same time, many of the nobility of southern Estere were growing restless, and had shown increasing devoutness. The Illuminated Rabbeni were also increasingly asserting themselves over secular authorities, which led to many nobility to be more willing to serve under the Church. In 889, the city of Emona was sacked by Ogorian raiders, damaging the sacred Cathedral of St Cosmas and making off with the relics. It was in reaction to this that at the Council of Tortona, the Illuminated Symmachus declared the first of many Holy Marches or Crusades, instructing the nobility of southern Estere and all "good Messians" to take up arms against the Ogors, to push beyond the Claudian March into the lands of the Neretvians, and the Morvians to convert them to Messianity. The Symmachian Holy March ended with the conversion of King Zdeslav of the Neretvians to Messianity in the year 893, and was followed several decades later by the Sylvestrian Holy March of 921, which sought to expand these gains into the lands of the Morvians.
Organisation and Denominations
The head of faith for the Messianic Church is the Illuminated Rabbenus, (the title often simplified to "Illuminated") who is considered the ultimate authority in matters of faith, knowledge, scripture, and morality. The Illuminated Rabbenus and his bishops are seen as the successors to the Apostolic Disciple Marcus, of whom leadership of the faith was conferred to by Sasan before his death. Spiritual matters are the concern of the Illuminated Rabbenus, but since the 17th century and the Council of ..., the official representative of the church is the Secretary, who acts in the Rabbenus' name, and organises material affairs and the administration of the Church. He in turn is guided by Messianic Senate, comprising of high-ranking members of the church. Some have compared the organisation of the church to that of a constitutional monarchy, with the Illuminated Rabbenus as a figurehead, while real power is invested in the Secretary, elected by and responsible to the Messianic Senate.
When an Illuminated Rabbenus dies, is deposed by the Messianic Senate, or resigns, a successor is elected from the Conclave of Apostles, through a simple tally of votes. Slowly, candidates are eliminated if they have not received enough votes through additional rounds of voting, until the selection is narrowed down to three candidates. A final round ensues, and the man with the most votes, based on a two thirds majority, becomes the next Illuminated Rabbenus. The man with the second-most votes gains the office of Secretary.