Difference between revisions of "Immaculate Heresies"

Revision as of 21:46, 25 April 2015

The Immaculate Order's outer face is one of austere faith, a life of abstinence and contemplation demonstrating devotion to the Immaculates. This is the face which is seen across the Threshold amongst village and itinerant priests. It is seen in the secluded monasteries and the monks who dwell there. It is even seen in the heart of the Palace Sublime... partly, some who know of such things might muse, due to the mind-controlling magics of the Sidereal Exalted, but mostly because it is the true face of the Order.

But it is not the only face. There is another face, shrouded in the shadows of the Dynasty, which profanes all that the Order claims to hold dear: purity, as it seems is always the case, suffers a taint.

Corpulent Abbot Heresy

Within the myriad temples and villages of the Blessed Isle, Immaculate faith tends for the most part to be genuine... the people believe, and support the clergy accordingly. In some Threshold satrapies, the faith is not internal to the people but imposed: along with the Realm's Legions come its monks. In areas where Immaculate faith is an enforced obligation, Immaculate clergy can find themselves corrupted, slipping to exploit those beneath them for personal or Order gain. Justifications for this have been found within the Immaculate Texts and the structure of the Perfected Hierarchy, for is not the exploited soul advanced when it follows the commands of the Immaculate Order and its elemental bodhisattvas the Dragonblooded? And, as those souls have reached the most advanced stages of spiritual development, is it not right that minor burdens be eased so they can devote their energies to the more difficult ones?

House Mnemon in particular dominates the Immaculate Order, as much as any House can, and portrays itself as one of the most devout on the Immaculate path. For many, this is a truth, their faith is genuine: for others it is merely another tool in the great game that is Dynastic politics. The latter, even when ordained in the Order, tend to live in luxury, wearing unshaven heads, adornments and jewels, indulging in sex and gluttony, breaking their Immaculate vows in public at parties and galas... openly embracing the Corpulent Abbot Heresy. They invariably live either in the grander Threshold temples or in the luxury of the Imperial City, where their lapses risk less wrath from the Palace Sublime.

Used to fighting corruption amongst spirits, the Palace Sublime is well trained to recognize it amongst its own, and several monks serving as Paragons or Mouth of Peace have decried such practices, moving to purge them from the Order, albeit never managing to do so on a permanent basis. With the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress and the Great Houses increasingly concerned more with civil war than with the missteps of useful tonsured members, some are seeing worrying signs of this heresy's encroachment further onto the Isle itself.

Diabolist Debate

Within the Immaculate Order, demons remain a highly contentious matter. All certainly agree that demons are dangerous, that they cannot be allowed to roam free, and that mortals should not truck with them... the Immaculate Texts speak grave warnings on such matters. But the sorcerous practice of summoning and binding demons with the oaths they made in surrender requires more detailed consideration.

Some (particularly those monks drawn from House Cathak) believe that demons were imprisoned in Hell by the Unconquered Sun, and that it is not the place of any, including the enlightened Dragonblooded, to remove them, even if bound in service. Some (tending to be found in monks originating from House Ledaal) believe that demon summoning is a responsibility, that the oaths sworn by the Yozi promising service were meant to be exercised, that binding those sworn is justly punishing them as Sol Invictus intended. And some (most often monks rooted in House Mnemon) see the summoning of demons as a right, the oaths that bind them imposed not for their effect on demons but their use to the Princes of the Earth. The use of demons by the Dragonblooded, hold such monks, allows the faithful to devote themselves more fully to their own enlightenment.

Melaism

For each Immaculate Dragon, there are extremes of emulation moving into heresy. The most common of these, and the most accepted by the Immaculate Order, is Melaism, the belief that all things without exception ought be perfect. A Melaist is driven to achieve perfection within and without, absent of restraint, though definitions of perfection can of course vary... as can the toleration Immaculates show for such a one-sided course.

Cult of Sextes Jylis

Amongst the common folk of the Realm, who face starvation should a harvest fail, worship of the Wood Immaculate Sextes Jylis must be constantly suppressed. Amongst the Scarlet Dynasty, it is far rarer, though come-by-night orgiastic societies often claim a religious mantle to appear more forbidden and risqué.

Melodic Insight Heresy

The Melodic Insight Heresy was an Immaculate sect which rose and fell during the Shogunate Era, focused on enlightenment not through emulation of behaviour through the Immaculate Texts but of thought through musical expression, deemed heretical by the Mouth of Peace before the coming of the Great Contagion.

Transcendent Heresy

The Transcendent Heresy, promulgated by the former monk Ragara Ikkyu, is an interpretation of the Immaculate quest for enlightenment of the soul which rejects the Immaculate Texts and privation as paths to emulating the Immaculate Dragons, instead holding that the improvement of the soul occurs through the embrace of Creation's nature and the soul's passions.

The Blessed Heresy of Regent Fokuf

In RY766, responding to rumbling complaints amongst the Order's monks and devout scions of the Scarlet Dynasty about Regent Fokuf's aberrant predilictions, the Mouth of Peace came to the Imperial Palace and announced a new interpretation of doctrine: pleasuring oneself to the Immaculate Texts was a holy act of faith... masturbatory orgasm from the doctrines of the Order a sign of devotion that would advance one's place in the Perfected Hierarchy in the manner of prayer, meditation, and martial arts.

Few who know of it take that pronouncement seriously, and most clergy continue to view such sensual acts as degrading one's place in the Hierarchy. The Order does not promulgate news of the decision actively amongst the peasantry and common folk, though it has increasingly found itself forced to explain the matter to lay adherents whose ears have heard whispered and troublesome rumours.