Chapter 100 — Religious History and Power Mechanisms
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
At Mingcen Peak the various sects signed the agreement later known as the "Sacred Covenant," declaring the abandonment of all religious disputes. The sects would no longer oppose one another, and would devote all their strength to the continuation of human civilization. And it seemed this act truly pleased the gods, for in the second month after the Sacred Covenant was signed—on the very anniversary of the magic tide's outbreak, one full year later—the gods once again looked upon humanity with favor.
Once more the believers could hear the voices of the gods.
This was the historical event, as Gao Yang knew it, that had brought about the present state of this continent—many sects standing in profusion, yet maintaining a relatively peaceful situation.
This historical event changed many things:
It ended the strife among the continent's various faiths, and united the clergy of the different sects to jointly help human civilization withstand the magic tide and rebuild their homes. But some sects, too stubborn to accept this reality, chose to fall. They set themselves against all the sects that had signed the "Sacred Covenant," becoming various twisted heretical faiths, and gradually evolved into the most feared dark organizations in the world today. The divine arts they wield are also called "dark divine arts"...
To this day, those fallen and twisted fanatics remain one of the most chilling shadows in this world.
As a man with normal logic and a sound mind, Gao Yang naturally held the "Sacred Covenant" in high regard. Though he was not religious, he deeply admired the efforts of the faithful to set aside their disputes, unite, and preserve civilization at a moment of dire crisis—regardless of whether those efforts were made because the gods commanded it.
But he also knew that for a race with such short lifespans as humans (relative to elves), even the Sacred Covenant could not be permanent.
Now seven hundred years had passed. Though the covenant of that year was still engraved upon the foundation stones of the various sects, like the "Brotherhood Pact" between Typhon and Ansul that had long since vanished into nothing, later generations had gradually forgotten the meaning of the covenant concluded at the foot of Mingcen Peak.
Today, though the many god-cults of the continent still maintained a peaceful situation, in private there was never any shortage of veiled hostility, exclusion, and squeezing out. Some sects with vastly divergent doctrines had even reached the point where only an outright declaration of war was missing.
After all, no one could truly hear clearly what the gods were actually saying to them. Even the pontiff of the Blazing Sun sect heard nothing from the gods but vague whispers. And the vagueness of divine revelation gave people room to improvise.
"What if the gods want us to go have a fight with the heretics? That's what I think anyway—and it definitely has nothing to do with me smoking too much dreamgrass before my prayers..." Many people thought this way.
But regardless, the Sacred Covenant did, after all, carry a bit more authority than an alliance pact between a few human kingdoms (it was in the name of the gods, after all). Even as private friction among the sects grew ever fiercer, at least on the surface everyone still maintained a "you're fine, I'm fine, everyone's fine" situation. It was very common in large towns for several churches to cluster together, with clergy of various sects seeing each other so often they could not avoid one another. Of course, it was also very common for the clergy to exchange greetings and then, the moment they turned away, spit on the ground and go home to stick pins in effigies.
Only no one would ever say such things openly—especially not the high-ranking clergy of the various sects, who were even less likely to declare in public something like "There may be many gods, but my boss is more badass than all of yours."
Yet Viroday said exactly that.