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Eden War Saints

A delve into Eden Culture, by Francis "Argus" Bors

A note for The Archivist: My upbringing was awkward, to say the least. Not only was I adopted by someone who isn't human, but they were also a religious icon to their species. The real problem however was communication.   Communication was the hardest to learn for all parties involved. Universal translators often fail when it comes to the Eden language. Translators choose words that don't fit in context, or are simply incorrect.   Since I can infer their intent easily enough, throughout this three-part delve into Matriarchal Eden culture you'll find direct quotes with corrections made to the best of my ability. These corrections will be colored in red in tooltips activated by hovering the cursor over the word which will be struck through.
   

Divine Titles

A saint bears a title that signifies their level of faith, as well as their claim to divinity. Titles are gained through a ritual called exaltation, and afterwards they are not just a religious official. They become divine beings.   A saint is given the best equipment available. They have weapons no one else can use, access to equipment that no one else may bear. They can do things that defy our logic and science.   The saints have divine authority, each an active member of their own pantheon. During exaltation, they are chosen by a god and receive their purview. This title will define the saint for the rest of their lives, which is basically forever. A saint has never been successfully killed, at least not permanently.

The Eden pantheon

In human history, we forged gods to explain that which we failed to understand. The Eden did this in reverse.   They don't believe that their gods are responsible for what they represent, rather they believe their gods are members of their species who mastered their purview in a way no one else could.   For example: Dhilvua, their deity of war, does not cause war, or seek to wage it. They simply understand it in all its complexities, and in so doing, became the embodiment of war. In other words, eden gods are not born, they ascend.
 

Saints

The saints are exalted for their actions, alone. It is not a title they can gain through political manipulation or wealth. It can't be bought. Saints are chosen by the Matriarchs, who do so with great care. Saints answer to the gods alone, and therefore outrank the matriarchs who are the head of government.   It's not just in matters of war. There are saints of all kinds. When chosen, they are brought before their gods, but what that means is still something I fail to understand. The gods determine their purview, and it's always based on the actions they perform.   It's widely known that the eden are contradictory and vague when it comes to their religion. They believe their ships to be avatars of their gods yet recognize that to be impossible and actively claim that their species is atheistic. I may be able to shed some light on this.


Power

The war saints are considered the highest on the ladder. It's the greatest honor and the highest title one can hold. Even other saints are considered inferior.   Saints use technology I can barely fathom. I've seen them do impossible things, from teleportation across vast distances, to the decimation of entire armies with minimal effort.   Their weapons are unique, each a legendary artifact housed in a reliquary. These reliquaries are kept aboard the ships they see as gods.

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Cover image: by Grandfailure

Comments

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Jul 25, 2021 14:37 by C. B. Ash

Oof this is such good content! :D I love this and the depth it gave into much more than the title!

Jul 25, 2021 14:53 by R. Dylon Elder

Why thank ya!

Jul 25, 2021 17:30

I wonder whether there's some sort of ultra-powerful AI aboard the Eden starships that they refer to as their gods through some translation error.   I'm also wondering how the Eden's religous philosophy will be compared to the philosophies of both Dawn and New Charlotte.

Jul 25, 2021 17:38

oh, and also that last bit... Is mouse gonna get an epic Eden-level Prosthetic after all? 8D

Jul 25, 2021 22:13 by R. Dylon Elder

Oooooo so I've actually been debating that. Its definitely a translation issue for sure, and one that neither species can actually fix. This goes into what the term god means to different cultures. It could be an AI. They do have super advanced at. The Eden see gods the same way we do, but their definition would be much more broad. A hyper advanced jupiter brain would be a god to them, though not necessarily one they'd want to worship.

Jul 25, 2021 22:14 by R. Dylon Elder

And we shall see. The Eden tend to be stingy with more advanced tech, especially for one person.

Jul 25, 2021 20:17 by Time Bender

I love this so much! I love learning about this universe. The Eden are so cool, I just can't even put it into words! :)

Jul 30, 2021 09:40

That is a very interesting take on this prompt! I have so many questions: how often do they get new saints? how many saints are there currently? what does one do during the ritual of exaltation? and is there a reason not everyone attempts it?   I have to say I was very confused by the "A note for The Archivist" section at the very top. I do not know if there is formatting ongoing right now, but if there isn't, you may have forgotten to add things (?).

Jul 30, 2021 19:10 by R. Dylon Elder

Ohhhh so I can hit many of these question with a single answer. The void between has an ongoing story from the first article on. The worldbuilding and the prose all work to both give worldbuilding and to further the plot. The archivist is usually the narrator for worldbuilding, but in this case it's a submission by another character. This is one article that has trouble standing on it's own without that context and I apologize for that XD For those same reasons, alot of questions are left unanswered and will be as the story progresses allowing those articles (exaltation, for example) to be written in line with plot.   As far as their numbers, there's not many, but that's relative. There are likely thousands but maybe even tens of thousands but they are spread out across... oof. Many many lightyears of space. Not everyone attempts it cause not everyone qualifies (this applies both to the position but also in their own mind. Not every Eden seems themselves worthy.)   The Matriarchs are pretty conservative when allowing it cause they're literally assigning a rank higher themselves. That's something you do in moderation. Thanks so much for the comment and like. I'm glad you enjoyed it despite the confusion and I apologize for it profusely. Thanks so much!

Jul 30, 2021 19:14 by R. Dylon Elder

Sorry for double notifications but in hindsight I realized you may be confused at the three parts comment made, asnopposed to the meta of the article. Sorry. On used to it being the latter. The comment refers to the next two articles, which continue where this left off. So sorry

Jul 30, 2021 20:45 by Avalon Arcana

This is very interesting, I really like the concept :)

You should check out the The 5 Shudake, if you want of course.
Aug 15, 2021 13:42 by Wendy Vlemings (Rynn19)

I'm glad to learn more about the Eden and their Saints. I hope we get some more insights into their culture in the future. Also, I am curious about that last sentence. Who are they going to help? I'm so far behind with notification, so the answer may already be written. :)

Author of Ealdwyll, a fantasy world full of mystery.
Aug 24, 2021 18:41 by Dr Emily Vair-Turnbull

The eden are so fascinating to me. I feel as though gods aren't the right word either, that something different is going on but we can't quite get the word for it.

Emy x
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