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Holy Church

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The Holy Church (聖（せい）教（きょう）教（きょう）会（かい）, Seikyō Kyōkai?) is the largest sect of religion in Tortus. It was previously known as the Church of Light (聖（せい）光（こう）教（きょう）会（かい）, Seikō Kyōkai?).[1]


Ideology

The Holy Church followed a doctrine that stated humans were above all other beings, and preached that humanity should reign supreme. Those who were discovered to have the power to use Ancient Magic from the age of the gods, or special magic that only monsters could use, were once considered to be god’s descendants and taken under its protection and control. Anyone caught insulting the church would be tabled a heretic and immediately be executed. In addition, anyone that would protect them would also be considered a heretic.

Ehit's Illustration (Anime)

The main purpose of the Holy Church was to manipulate every human in Tortus to be the pawns for their god's twisted game. Because of this, most of the conflicts that happened in Tortus's history were caused by the church. This includes the suffering and near extinguish of many races such as the beastmen, vampires and dragonmen. They would likewise enforce their control over everyone on Tortus, not allowing anyone who's extremely powerful to live outside of their dominance. This is shown when they declared Hajime Nagumo and his companions as heretics.

Many of the high ranking members of the Holy Church were extremely devoted to Ehit and wouldn't hesitate to use the lives of many innocent people just for the sake of their own agenda.

After hearing the truth about Ehit, many of the church's members renounced their faith. Even after Ehit's death, the church still worshipped him due to many rulers of Tortus falsifying that it had been a different god that impersonated Ehit to commit such heinous acts. And while the people still worshipped Ehit, they completely abandoned the church's original teachings to establish better relationships with beastmen.

The reorganized church also regarded the leader of the Liberators Miledi Reisen as the "Protector of the World," and canonized her and the Liberators' six other Ancient Magic users as saints. They also regarded each of the Great Labyrinths as sacred grounds.[2]

Many of the church's followers began to worship Aiko as their "Goddess of Harvest & Victory," in addition to her mother Akiko as the "Holy Mother."

Structure

The Holy Church was the dominant authority throughout most of Tortus's northern hemisphere, which was primarily populated by humans. They would have a cathedral built in the major cities of every nation under their dominion.

The Templar Knights were the church’s regular army. They were split into three division during the age of the Liberators. Those who showed exceptional promise were promoted to one of the orders that comprised the "Three Pillars of Radiance".

The first order was the Paladins. They were responsible for guarding the pope and other important religious figures. Though they were the smallest of the orders, each member of the Paladins possessed powerful special magic that could rival even ancient magic. They were the most secretive of the three orders, with the identities of its members unknown to even the rest of the church's knights. Their emblem is a shield surrounded by a shimmering halo.

The second order was the Paragons of Light. They were in charge of capturing, taming and raising powerful beasts that the other orders used as mounts. They were the weakest of the three pillars, but also the most versatile.

The third order was the Holy Templar Knights. They were the most powerful and had roughly 300 members. They were described as the "Incarnation of God's Will", and were only active whenever they would receive Ehit's decree. The Holy Templar Knights had a unique organization system separate from other armies. Because of how powerful each individual knight was, their groups were all smaller denominations. A platoon was around 4-6 people, a troop around 12 people, a squad about 25, a brigade around 50, and a division 100. Altogether there was a total of around 300 knights.

In order to mitigate the threat of possible deserters within their ranks, the church required each of its members to place a drop of their blood within a powerful artifact called the "Heretic’s Stained Goblet", which then enabled their soul to be tracked at all times. The only way to stop the goblet from tracking someone was either for that person to die, or to use spirit magic to hide one's soul.

History

It was unknown how the church came into existence, but it eventually became the dominant religious and political entity among the humans of Tortus.

As the church was charged with enacting Ehit's will, they had orchestrated the rise and fall of many nations throughout history. They even committed many heinous acts of murder to just to achieve their goals. During the age of the Liberators, they even had their own nation called Elbard Theocracy, where the pope also served as its monarch. The church's forces were nearly wiped out after they were attacked by the anti-church organization, the Liberators, but they ultimately prevailed when Ehit summoned an army of apostles in retaliation, and resulted in their overall defeat. Even so, the theocracy would eventually fall in accordance with Ehit's will.

With each passing era, the church maintained its authority, but the strength of its forces had dwindled considerable due to the increasing rarity of those born with special magic over the years. When the heroes of Earth were summoned to Tortus, over 90% of humanity were still worshiping the church and Ehit.

When one of the heroes, Hajime Nagumo, struck out on his own, the church branded him a heretic due to his refusal to cooperate, while also in possession of tremendous power.

During the demon invasion on Heiligh Kingdom, the high ranking members of the church chose to abandoned the kingdom because of Ehit's role in supporting it. During the fight with Noint, the pope and the choir utilized debuff chants that, for a time, put Hajime on a disadvantage. As the church's main cathedral was protected by a powerful magical barrier that can tank even dragon's breath, Tio Klarus and Aiko Hatayama came up with a way to counter - which Aiko used her skillset to generate a fog of methane gas that envelope the cathedral, follow by Tio's breath to detonate the gas. The resultant massive thermobaric detonation levelled the entire cathedral, with the pope and his bishops having been killed as a result. Furthermore, the kingdom was saved thanks to the intervention of Hajime.

Following the invasion of the kingdom, the church's leaders were replenished by those who were banished for opposing the church's doctrines, with the new pope now being Simon Levellair.

When Ehit was planning to wipe out all life on Tortus, the church sided with the rest of the world that banded together to fight back. As the allied forces fought against Ehit's army of apostles, Pope Simon and the church's clergy managed to weaken them using the spell "Hymn of Ruin". Despite their best efforts, the apostles managed to breakthrough the enemy's defences and killed half of the clergy. However, before they could finish off the remaining forces, they ceased all movements and became motionless when Hajime managed to Kill Ehit.

In the aftermath of the battle against Ehit, which would come to be known as "Ragnarok", the church revised much of this ideals. In order to protect the masses' faith, they devised a fake story crafted by Hajime, in which Tortus' true god "Ehichlibre" had been usurped by the evil god "Ehitruje" and manipulated the people of Tortus to worship him. Furthermore, the church repealed their old doctrine of discrimination against the other races of Tortus, and sought to co-exist with them. To help with this transition, Pope Simon travelled around Tortus in order to better interact with the people as a way to ease their minds.

Positions

  • Pope - The leader of the Holy Church.
  • Divine Priestess/Oracle - A person who had received a revelation directly from Ehit. They were among the highest ranked members of the Holy Church. They held no direct political power, but their influence was as great as the pope’s.
  • Cardinal - A high-ranking position that was held by four people at any given time.
  • Archbishop - A high-ranking position that was held by seven people at any given time.
  • Bishop - A high-ranking position that was held by thirty people at any given time.
  • Templar Knight - The elite group of soldiers who swore loyalty to the Holy Church.
  • Inquisitor - A position that involved the investigating and interrogation of suspected heretics.
  • Nun - A common position that is held by women. Many nuns were actually Ehit's apostles in disguise.

Known Members

Note: †; deceased

Latest rank prior to their deaths

Trivia

  • The Holy Church has employed necromancers to act as spiritual mediums. They use their powers to converse with the dead and relay their final moments to their families and friends.
  • Originally, the Holy Church's previous name was spelled (光（こう）教（きょう）教（きょう）会（かい）, Kōkyō Kyōkai?).[3] In Arifureta Zero, however, it was changed to (聖（せい）光（こう）教（きょう）会（かい）, Seikō Kyōkai?).
  • Despite it being known as the Church of Light in Arifureta Zero, it was still referred to as the "Holy Church" in the English version.
  • Many members of the church in Arifureta Zero are named after various demons and other evil supernatural beings from Earth mythology.
  • Prior to the invention of Status Plates, the church would determine a person's job, stats and skills by using a magical tool in the form of a portrait of Ehit that could only be created through a special forge in the Divine Mountain. These portraits were placed in each of the church's cathedrals, and each person was required to be examined by it once they reached a certain age. When someone touched it, their mana went into the portrait, and determined how much total mana they had, what their aptitudes for the various fields of magic were, and what their job was. There were mana inhibitors spread out in a line across the edges of the portraits that were used to make these estimations. Because each person had a unique mana signature they went through the inhibitors at different rates and in different ways. If someone didn’t have an aptitude for a certain kind of magic, their mana wouldn’t be able to make it through that inhibitor at all and stop there. In addition, all jobs were classifications made by the church, and the only time new jobs were added to the list was when someone accomplished great deeds in a new field that didn’t already have a job assigned to it.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Light Novel Volume 05
  2. ↑ Web Novel - Chapter 438
  3. ↑ Web Novel - Chapter 96
  4. ↑ Light Novel (Zero) Volume 06
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