Church of the Divine King
Islik the Divine King was once a deity within the pantheon of the Old Faith. Originally the god responsible for overseeing the ascension of mortals into semi-divine immortals, he became much more than an intercessor between the will of mortals and the great cycle of the divine. His rebellion against the most basic edict of the Creator Goddess sparked both warfare and revolution in all creation. What resulted became a source of hope and respite for mortals everywhere, and Creation itself would never be the same. The Church of the Divine King is the name of the religion devoted to the Divine King and the alternative to the cycle of life and death decreed by the Queen of Heaven and enforced by all the other deities of her pantheon. While the accoutrements and dressings of this faith may change from place to place, these are the central aspects of Islik's Way.
Origin
Islik was born in tandem with the advent of the Wild Hunt. The primal goddess Arma had grown bored. Her experiences limited by the rules set in motion before her very existence came to be. Without speaking a word, she acted. Seducing the Prince of Heaven, she exhausted him and took advantage of the time inbetween day and night to create the ultimate hunting grounds. She dwelt in that time and space inbetween Creation and returned to the Heavens with more than her prize hunting trophies, but also a new son whom she named Islik after his father. Defiant to the last, Arma was never punished for her transgression and the son she bore from Islan became his own shinging light in the Heavens.
The Divine Intercessor
A god without a purpose was unthinkable. In addition to the beginning of the Wild Hunt, the coming of Islik was concurrent to the ascension of Urza the Orange and just before the coming of Nymarga the Green and Mishra the Purple. His would be to guide the souls of mortals who transcended their limitations into immortality and to ensure that the infusion of divinity with those souls would not disrupt the great cycle of life and death. Just as Islik was given a task, so too would these demigods. In performing his duties, however, Islik was permitted to interact with his charges. Not only that, he had the ability to project avatars to approximate the mortal form just as his mother. And rather than appearing as a twelve foot tall giant, Islik chose the proportions and aesthetics of a natural mortal form.
Exploring Mortality
Not only did Islik take on the form of a mortal. In time, his encounters with the various Sages convinced him to attempt something even more audacious. For a time, he stepped away from the Heavens and the Earth to enter the Underworld. There, he spoke with his grandfather, Seedrik the Exiled King. After completing several tests of his clarity and his conviction, the God of the Underworld granted Islik his desire: to be reincarnated as a mortal. Thus, Islik would be born into the life of an elf, an orc and a man. He would be born, grow, live, sire children, grow old, and die. This cycle repeating ten times before Urza the Orange and Mishra the Purple put a stop to it with the help of Yaro incognito.
Imprisoned
Seedrik had been all too eager to accept Islik's entreaties for the mortal form. While he allowed Islik to live out his lives, Seedrik also took control of the mortal vessel capable of bearing a divine spark from time to time. While in control, Seedrik laid the groundwork for the eventual creation of the Bridges from Below -- a means by which his agents, the Neverborne, could enter Creation undetected and unfettered by the protections put in place at the time of his Exile. In a place between Heaven, Creation and the Underworld, Seedrik created the Other Place, a prison designed to erase its prisoners from the hearts and minds of all beings save Seedrik himself. There, Seedrik imprisoned his grandson and went about taking further steps to enrich his plot.
Escape
Islik was not without aide. With help from an ever-watchful Yaro, the combined efforts of all five Sages were able to locate and free Islik from his oubliette. Once freed, the first true sparks of his Divine King aspect came to the fore. He burned his way back into the Underworld, assailed the Judge of the Dead and wrought from him the knowledge necessary to upend the Great Cycle. He was confronted by an enraged Seedrik, but would manage to harness the sheer potential of this moment to convince the King in Exile to allow this, the greatest affront to the Queen of Heaven ever devised.
An Afterlife
Islik would repurpose and reconstruct the Other Place. He would take several misfit Neverborne and infuse them with a portion of his divinity and charge them with the defence and upkeep of his new Kingdom. Half of the cosmic prison would be reshaped into the golden halls of Whiteflame, the eternal reward; and the other half would be formed into the eternal punishment, Shadowmoor. From the Eternal Throne, Islik would reign as the Divine King. At once separate from the Heavens, but also inextricably linked to that of Creation and the Underworld.The Church of the Divine King has two main sects:
The Church Proper
The first is known as the Church Proper which places primacy on the creation of the eternal Afterlife by the immortal Islik. Led by an organized and hierarchal clergy, the Church Proper focuses its lessons on what it takes to achieve the Divine Reward. It emphasizes adherence to a certain lifestyle thought to be favoured by the Divine King, extreme loyalty to the Church Proper and its supporters, and deference to a dogmatic approach to achieving ascension in but one lifetime. The Church Proper is the principal faith of the Lakelands and most of those who follow the Divine King in the Free Realms.
The One Faith
The second is known as the One Faith. It places the greatest importance on the things Islik did as a mortal being. Its tenets underline the importance of every life lived, and that each person is responsible for their own choices in pursuit of the eternal reward. This sect still believes that the great cycle of rebirth is still needed for souls to ultimately reach ascension and escape from the grief and rage, pain and death of never-ending reincarnation. It also believes that the best shepherds and guides on the path to that ascension are those rare souls who have chosen to delay their escape and be reborn to help others along the way. These are the Prophets of the One Faith, and they tend to be singular souls striding upon the Earth. The One Faith is the principal religion of the Steppelands, the Badlands, and around the Eye of Getima.
Type
Religious, Organised Religion
Subsidiary Organizations
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