Doctrine Absolute

The War of Hubris destroyed the Academies and Libraries of the Arcane across Talahaea, and killed most of the wizards in the realm. The Cult of Magic in particular deployed their countermagics and commissioned the ‘mage-killer’ items for their troops. Losses were great, but the wizards were all but eliminated, and alongside the other decrees of foundation, the Church Octaval issued the decree absolute. The Church holds that the Arcane Magic of the wizards is an abomination which inevitably leads to corruption and disaster. A similar ruling holds over druidic magic, which is deemed irredeemably contaminated by the horrors of the Primal Wild, and the powers granted by unsanctioned deities.

The Doctrine Absolute

This is the Church creed, set down in the decree absolute, which forbids the study of Arcane lore and proscribes the worship of gods outside of the eight cults of the Church. The decree absolute is the simplest of all the decrees of foundation, setting out in concrete and expansive terms the criminality of arcane practice. It declared that arcane magic is the supreme source of evil and corruption, which continues to be accepted doctrine despite the lack of a sound theoretical base. It emerged from a widespread distrust of the arcane, catalysed by the reign of the Mage Sovereigns.
The decree and the Doctrine were developed in the aftermath of the war as part of the First Ecumenical Council of the Synod of the Eightfold Church, which also defined the Eight Faces of the Divine. A key part of the Doctrine was the establishment of the legal status of all varieties of magic.
Magic, the Union decreed, belonged to the gods alone. It was well to wield such power in the gods' name, but arcane magic was an offence. Of course, having made common cause with the bards and the artificers, this could not be a hard-line position. In the end, at the founding of the Sacred Republic, the great Synod of the Eightfold Church convened the First Ecumenical Council, to define the Eight Faces of the Divine, and to establish the position of all magics.

• Godly magic, the divine magic of the Eight Gods' clerics, is righteous, a gift given to be used as both a reward for pretty and a demonstration of divinity.
• Theurgy, divine magic from other sources, is a lesser power and for citizens of the Republic a heresy. It is acceptable for foreigners, and is not a crime, although causing harm by any magical means is a specific civil offence.
• Thanks to the erstwhile God Queen of Ardheim, the Church has a particular distrust of the Primal Wild and its trappings, and for the druidic faith as a whole. Primal magic, the divine power of druids and rangers, is deemed 'folk magic' and is permitted within the bounds of accepted traditional practice, but subject to scrutiny and local constraint.
  Druidic worship, on the other hand, is considered heretical. The Question takes a particular interest in folk cults, to ensure that they are not too far from orthodoxy, and too close to the druidic path. This distrust also clings to the Oath of the Ancients, which is not considered appropriate for respectable exemplars of the Church.
• Artifice is deemed an arcane science, acceptable so long as it serves the public good under the regulation of an approved guild. Artificers operate under the authority of the cult of crafts, and have secured an odd status as ‘safe’ practitioners of magical study. In large part, this is because the Artificers’ Guilds supplied, and still supply, enchanted items to the Church, including antimagical artefacts. Despite their sanction to practice, artificers are subject to constant scrutiny and assessment by the Cult of Ilmar.
• Bardic magic is also considered folk magic, and accepted if practiced under the auspices of a chartered college. They are tolerated under the auspices of the cult of joy, so long as they adhere to the teachings of the approved colleges, but distrusted, and every use of magic is a cause for scrutiny and investigation. In particular, the College of Lore’s magical secrets are viewed with suspicion, as they are too close for comfort to the studies of wizards.
• Wizardry, the specific study of arcane mage without the trappings of a College or guild, is vainglory and both a heresy and a crime. The Doctrine Absolute holds that wizards are misguided and dangerous, consumed by ambition. The study of magic leads inevitably to corruption, and the teaching of magic is an act of sedition. Its practice is entirely forbidden.
  Possession and study of arcane texts is proscribed, and punishable by fine or imprisonment. Casting any arcane spell is punishable by imprisonment, while the organised study of magic, the keeping of an arcane library, creation of magical texts, the practices of demonology, diabolism or necromancy, or maleficium (causing harm by magic) are punishable by death.
• Diabolism is any form of pact magic, and is deemed a blight on the world. Warlocks are held to be irredeemable by the Doctrine Absolute, their souls damned by the pacts into which they enter.
• Sorcery is treated as an affliction. Possession of sorcerous power is treated as if it were a hereditary disease, and practice of those powers is permitted only in service of the Church.
  Sorcerers who are found by the Search as young children are pressed into the service of the Church for their own well-being, usually as some form of specialist: Negators specialise in countermagic, Senders in communication and transportation, and Enchanters working alongside the Artificers. Sorcerers in the service of the Church are discouraged from exploring the limits of their abilities.
  Sorcerers who are discovered older, as they come into their full powers, are more likely to be imprisoned or killed.

The chief vector of transmission for forbidden magic was identified to be books of magic. This was why the Union seized the libraries of the Sovereigns and their followers and burned - so the records say - every book of magic, and a great deal besides.
The terms of the degree are enforced by the agencies of the Office for the Doctrine Absolute: The Search, the Hunt and the Question.

• The Search is the largest of the offices, responsible for conducting routine investigations into suspected arcane practice. A large part of their work is tracking down neophyte sorcerers before their power manifests, and they employ many Negators to enable them to peacefully subdue their quarry and bring them into the fold.
  The Search has no business with warlocks, save to report them to the Hunt for persecution of the most extreme kind.
• The Hunt takes over from the Search when a more aggressive stance is called for. They are the ones who hunt down practicing wizards and most particularly warlocks.
• The Question is the office responsible for enforcing orthodoxy of ritual and worship, and for tracking down druidic and non-comforming worshipers.

Magic Items

Magical items are subject to strict licensing and regulation.