Reverent Path

Lawful Kivishta

The Reverent Path of Kivishta is a religious sect that values structure and order as a necessary component to finding enlightenment. 
Like all Kivish sects, the Reverent Path preaches that the world is a dream or illusion. Ederstone is a demonstration of the illusory nature of reality - it turns the world to malleable clay and defies all earthly logic. Kobolds, as the only things in the world immune to Ederstone and other transformation magic, are the only entirely-real people inhabiting the shared dream of reality. Similarly, while other people go to various afterlives (enduring in the dream for eternity), Kobold souls vanish after death to re-enter the cycle of reincarnation (or so the priests claim). As the real people within the shared dream, Kobolds have a special calling to seek enlightenment to escape the dream and become 'Awakened'. Until the believer has reached this ideal spiritual and mental state, they will be trapped in the cycle of suffering that is reality. Only the blessed few will fully transcend reality and suffering, while most people will have to wait until the coming of the messiah - called the Irunek - to usher in an age of enlightenment.
Unlike the other Kivish sects, the Reverent Path preaches that enlightenment is a gradual process tied to order, hierarchy, and structure. The Reverent Path believes that the world must be made ready for enlightenment and the Irunek by putting it into proper order. Ederstone, the essence of magical chaos, may be a useful tool for philosophy but it is also (according to this Path) a symptom of mental unwellness within the dream. To create an environment conductive for an ordered mind and ordered society, the Reverent Path argues that Ederstone must be brought under control. To this end, the Reverent Path operates the Holy City of Rumakel: a city made of dead Kobolds (whose bodies work as insulation against chaos magic) that acts as a prison containing as much Ederstone as the Path can acquire. To accomplish this, the Reverent Path generally supports the Empire of Kizen as a dominant political structure - as the keepers of Rumakel, they are the vehicle through which order will triumph over chaos.
The Reverent Path's fixation with order and structure goes far beyond their literal quest to de-chaos the chaos wastelands. The Reverent Path also teaches that it is through repeated lifetimes of training, discipline, restraint, and learning that a person achieves enlightenment. To this end, the Reverent Path teaches that Kobolds should marry only other Kobolds and that they should strictly raise their children within the Path: pure-blooded Kobolds are prime vessels for reincarnated souls, and their continuous rebirth in orderly environments must be encouraged to allow them to eventually awaken.

Structure

The Reverent Path, more than any other sect of Kivishta, preaches that Kivish Priests must exist in a structured hierarchy and must be licensed or verified by the formal Reverent Path hierarchy. 

Rank	Role
Reverent Grandmaster	Sit on the Star Chamber, act as supreme judges of the Reverent Path and Empire of Kizen, make executive decisions with the other eight Grandmasters
Reverent Master	Reverent Masters are often assigned roles as religious overseers, prominent judges, political advisors, and the leaders of holy orders. There are nine ranks of Reverent Master
Reverent Elder	Reverent Elders manage well-established temples, teach new priests, and generally act as local religious authorities. There are nine ranks of Reverent Elder.
Kivish Priest	Reverent Kivish priests handle community mediation, write scholarly texts, teach layfolk, and operate smaller temples. There are nine ranks of Reverent Priesthood.

At the top of the Reverent Path hierarchy is the Star Chamber also called the Chamber of Nine. This is a group of Nine Reverent Grandmasters, the most respected and elite Reverent Path priests, who act as the supreme religious and judicial body of the Reverent Path. The Reverent Grandmasters are selected from among the highest ranks of the Reverent Masters. This selection process involves both tests of their aptitude and selection by committees in the upper priesthood. Reverent Grandmasters are generally old lineages of Kivish priests and are often identified as reincarnated former Grandmasters. 
Beneath the Star Chamber, is the Reverent Body - the organized bureaucracy of the priesthood. There are numerous offices and positions within the Reverent Body, which priests often move between over the course of their career. Priests are promoted gradually within the bureaucracy - there are twenty eight total ranks. Generally speaking, the most important promotions are between the main three categories of the priesthood - from Priest to Elder to Master. Beyond the Reverent Body are the Sacred Orders, monastic and bureaucratic groups specialized for certain tasks and given a certain level of autonomy. 
There are also Kivish Gurus, or Teacher-Scholars, who are licensed or "confirmed" by the priesthood but generally operate on the outside of it. Gurus are essentially anyone who embraces a holy calling outside of the formal clerical ranks. Many gurus are ascetic monks who wander among the layfolk and teach people correct living. Other gurus are highly specialized scholars, doctors, artisans, or lawyers who follow a holy calling through their work. All Reverent gurus must pass a doctrinal exam to confirm their knowledge of dogma and scripture to be "confirmed" - though the slippery and extra-bureaucratic nature of gurus mean that there are a number who slip by without official confirmation. While some priests go out of their way to sue rogue gurus, others generally ignore them as long as they don't stray into dangerous heresies.

Culture

Species Preference: Kobolds Above All

The Reverent Path is fundamentally a religion geared towards Kobolds. Kobolds alone have the capacity to reach enlightenment and only Kobolds are 100% real. All other species are either figments of The Dream or are so polluted by the fictional world that they cannot possibly escape from it. Given that other species may not even be people at all, they are not the focus of Reverent Path teaching or resources. Kobolds are also discouraged from intermarrying or interbreeding with other species, as this is seen as a threat to the purity of their children's vessels. Pure lineages are sacred in the Reverent Path, as the children of a pure lineage attract the reborn souls of old generations. Reverent Path nobility are under great scrutiny and pressure to refrain from extra-species sexuality and to generally intermarry with other pure Reverent Path families. Even for everyday Reverent Path members, comingling with the other species is a sin. Not only does extra-species sexuality produce "confusing" vessels less likely to attract the learned souls of the Reverent Path, but it creates excessive material attachment to the illusory world. As Kobolds that intermarry with other sentient species produce species-randomized offspring, these unions are a clear product of chaos magic - and create tragic circumstances in which Kivish faithful develop delusional parental attachments to illusory offspring. When these unions do occur, it is considered merciful by priests to separate these false-children from their parents, to be adopted by some other illusory family. 
The Reverent Path may consider Kobold lives more real than others, but they do not preach violence towards non-Kobolds. The existence of other illusion-people is considered a trial of wisdom and an opportunity to develop good and sociable virtues. You should treat your fake neighbors well, because compassion is good and they are effectively real within the fiction of our world. Do not become attached to non-Kobolds because they can't join you in waking up, but the same can be said for sinful or heathenous Kobolds. And besides, some non-Kobolds do not go to afterlives, and some scholars argue that "real" people deeply degraded by attachment to reality are mixed into the vast number of fake people. Still, Kobold lives are generally prioritized when it comes to moments of crisis and resource distribution.
Given the belief that some non-Kobolds are rare "real people" who are just horribly spiritually degraded, it is allowed for certain non-Kobolds to become Kivish Gurus or even (in extremely rare cases) Kivish Priests - but they can never be promoted to the ranks of Elder, Master, or Grandmaster. Generally, any formal rank of priesthood beyond being a guru is seen as the sole domain of Kobolds, as the clergy should generally be people undergoing the multi-life cycle of enlightenment and growth. A soul so spiritually degraded as to be contorted by The Dream is not in a position to teach other people. 

Discipline and Humility

The Reverent Path is, as the name suggests, a spiritual path that centers reverence - solemn appreciation and respect - as a core emotion and concept. Law and order are important concepts for society, but individuals should operate by respecting others and restraining one's own ego and passions. Even the mighty are expected to retain a level of humility, though they can also demand appropriate respect for their station. Detachment from material reality is an important part of Reverent Path belief and practice. The world being a dream isn't just an observation on physical conditions, but a moral observation: things like food, wealth, sex, fame, and political power are temptations to forget reality for a pleasant illusion. And the pleasant illusion is always attached to suffering. All material things end and all material pleasures create yearning, want, and expectation. Your fellow souls seeking enlightenment can join you, but even they will be stripped of their memories; even interpersonal attachment must be moderated, for even the Kobold body is fiction at its core. 
Emotional and physical restraint are valued in the Reverent Path, and excess is tied to spiritual corruption and foolishness. There are very strong ascetic undercurrents in the Reverent Path, as those who master their own body and mind are seen as engaging in spiritual purification and study. Reverent Path members are encouraged to reject all forms of intoxication (which cloud the mind and pollute it with the influence of The Dream). 
Unlike other forms of Kivish thought, the Reverent Path does encourage the careful study of the material world and mastery of material knowledge. Ordering The Dream is seen as spiritually significant. Personal discipline is a key part of this Ordering process, but extending one's personal mastery to the broader world is done through knowledge. Knowledge traps the Dream, forces it to adhere to more consistent rules. Knowledge of those rules de-mystifies the dream and takes away its power over you; it binds the dream and empowers individual minds to shape it into more virtuous forms. Education and knowledge are seen as great virtues on the Reverent Path, for both Kobolds and non-Kobolds.

History

The history of the Reverent Path is largely the history of the Empire of Kizen. While other kingdoms than Kizen walk this Path, Kizen is the political heart of this sect. 

Founding the Reverent Path (500 - 1150)

Before the Reverent Path, there was the Truthful Path - the first formalization of Kivish religion founded by the warlord-prophet Verkohn the Honest. The Truthful Path sought to expose the truth of the world through violence, mastery, and destruction. It was a terrible force, which drove the First Kivish Scouring and the Second Kivish Scouring across Northern Stildane. But, eventually, the Kivish Horde settled into the First Empire of Kizen in 850 ME. Destruction and conquest could not go on forever, and the former Horde set about ordering people into their new empire. Mass chattel slavery and a punitive caste system defined this early empire's order, but it was less horrifically violent than what came before it. 
There were those among the Truthful Path who did not see truth in destruction, but who believed that such destruction polluted the faithful. So much death seemed to have produced more suffering than enlightenment. These were old criticisms (as old as Kivishta itself), but they were easy to suppress and sideline under the old militaristic order. In the more stable empire, they became more vocal and attracted more followers in the bureaucratic and commercial classes. The Reverent Sisters, a pacifist monastic group that formed in the early 800s ME, were the first group of imperial critics to call themselves "Reverent". The Sisters were martyred publicly, but they became symbols of critique and resistance across the Empire. When the Mageplague began rampaging across Kizen in the late 920s and 930s ME, critics of the Empire and the Truthful Path blamed the plague on the violent excess of the endless Truthful wars and Scourings. In 988 ME, the Empire finally broke into civil war. The same year, a group of scholars, priests, and authors gathered in semi-secret to hold the Reverent Synod in which they formally articulated their theological and political criticisms and outlined their proposal for a new religious-imperial order. The Synod officially declared that they walked the "Reverent Path" and formally denounced the Truthful Path as false. There were great disagreements within the early sect, but all of them were united by a shared vision of a unified, benevolent empire that could bring learning and safety to the people of Stildane. Many were associates of the fabled Kivish rebel Okerta the Ageless; this included the famous orator, thief, and courier Ralta. With these powerful allies, the Reverent Path gained power, influence, and followers rapidly. 
The Reverent Path joined forces with the other major rebel sect, the Liberated Path, and together they set about dismantling the Empire of Kizen. In 999 ME, the two sects seized control of the imperial palace, slaughtered the Truthful Path leadership, and established a co-rule over the Empire. But the two sects soon found their differences too great to rule together. The Liberated Path wanted to dissolve the Empire and release Ederstone into the world in small amounts to enter "harmony" with chaos magic. The Reverent Path recognized this as a continuation of the old Truthful Path's fixation on destruction. When the Liberated Path attempted to carve apart the Whispering Star (a massive Ederstone deposit held by the Empire) to carry its fragments across the land, the Reverent Path declared that the Liberated Path was a threat to the order and safety of all the continent. The two sects waged terrible war - known now as the Schism Wars - from 1005 to 1100. By 1100, the Reverent Path won control over the imperial heartlands and managed to drive most of the Liberated Path into the wastelands. The Reverent Path's victory did not instantly translate to a revived empire, though, and the various political factions formed numerous kingdoms across the former empire. The Reverent Path formed the first Star Chamber of elite priests in 1105, to coordinate the containment of Ederstone between the kingdoms. Their city, Eveko, was eventually absorbed into one of these kingdoms in 1150, but the Council endured and began to slowly build a bureaucracy outwards from it. 

The Reverent Empires

From 1150 to 1300, the Empire of Kizen slowly reformed from the fragmented Reverent kingdoms of the North. The new Empress, Kazalim the Phoenix, launched a series of terrible wars of conquest from 1300 to 1390, which became known as the Third Kivish Scouring. Her descendants continued these wars until 1419, when the entire dynasty was destroyed by its incessant warring. Kazalim and the Second Kizen Empire may have fit the stereotype of earlier Truthful Path conquerors, but she and her kin embraced the Reverent Path in her laws and conquests. The Reverent Path generally supported her conquests, though it would be wrong to frame this shift purely in theological terms - the rising imperial military elites worked to promote their own allies in the priesthood and in many ways used their entanglement with the religious bureaucracy to use the Reverent Path as a tool of conquest. Reverent Path histories remain proud of Kazalim, despite the apparent religious hypocrisy of their priesthood supporting such terrible wars. Reverent Path scholars generally paint Kazalim as the "good Emperor" who conquered the "right way, for the right reasons". She did not enslave and she did not intentionally engage in ethnic cleansing (according to Kivish historians she used Ederstone as a "controlled weapon" and an instrument of order. Not all Reverent Path scholars are so quick to whitewash the Third Kivish Scouring, but these are minority voices.
Regardless, the Third Kivish Scouring both militarized the Reverent Path and eventually fragmented the faith. After the empire fell into chaos in 1419, new sects began to emerge, fueled by the contradictions of the empire. The Promised Path formed from dynasties that sought to tie the Reverent Path to their bloodlines and the Exalted Path formed from mystics and arcanists who sought enlightenment in the excessive violence unleashed by conquest. Reverent and Liberated Path priests rallied together to fight these new emergent sects, though they also occasionally fought each other. This chaos raged on from 1420 to 1440, when the Reverent Path was able to consolidate power and exile the Promised and Exalted Kivish. This began the Third Kizen Empire, which ruled from 1440 to 1680. The Third Empire was a long period of peace in which the Reverent Path "matured": hierarchies became more intricate, bureaucracies expanded, pure bloodlines were established, and rituals became entrenched. In 1680, this empire was overthrown by a cult of Truthful Path radicals known as the Children of Verkohn, beginning a terrible conflict known as the Fifth Scouring. Despite notable Reverent Path elites accepting the new government and profitting from this period of violence, modern Reverent Path elites frame themselves as the heroic resistance against these bloodthirsty heretics.

Modern History

The Fifth Scouring ended in 1750, with the complete slaughter and elimination of the last of the Children of Verkohn. The supremacy of the Star Chamber was restored in the new Fourth Kizen Empire, which continues to reign today. For nearly a century after the war, the Reverent Path was disorganized, fragmented, and scarred by the Scouring. The Children of Verkohn had reorganized the bureaucracy to serve their own ends and had deeply divided many of those who remained after 1750. It took until the 1870s for the Reverent Path to fully reorganize and begin to re-assert its organizational power over its old communities outside the Kizen heartlands. The rise of Kizen's "Invisible Empire" of trade and influence did wonders to restore the power of the Reverent Path over its old communities over the 1880s, 1890s, and 1900s. 
The marriage of imperial political power and Reverent Path bureaucracy in the 1870s has in many ways limited the full scope of the Reverent Path and created new problems for it. From the 1910s to the 1960s, Reverent Path bureaucrats were associated with the commercial and imperializing influence of the Empire of Kizen and have faced resistance from Uvaran militias and foreign elites. The royals of the Kingdom of Verzavek, a Reverent Path kingdom in the South, even threatened to form their own Reverent Path priesthood to block out invasive imperial influence. The Reverent Path has had to become more accomodating to avoid potential schism and harassment, and has generally moved towards a less top-down and dogmatic model since 1960 as part of this shift. The controversial syncretic doctrine of Guru Otberna, who argued that Uvaran religion should be studied by Reverent Path Kobolds, that some non-Kobolds are people (but are still heavily polluted), and that Kobold-outsider friendships should be encouraged, was even made canonical. Guru Otberna had been one of the early Reverent Path thinkers back in the 900s ME (when the Path was still being formally articulated), and her writings had been ignored for centuries before they resurfaced in the 1500s ME. The Third Empire had declared Otberna non-canonical and excluded her from the Great Sages at the time (though they didn't formally condemn her writings as full heresy). When the Reverent Path priesthood lost its direct line of control over the Southlands in 1750, Guru Otberna's works were preached as a way to legitimize the priests who collaborated with the Kingdom of Ustavet. Even after Ustavet fell in 1904, the doctrine remained popular South of Kizen but was derided as impure and non-canonical in the North. But, in 1963, Guru Otberna was officially declared a Reverent Path sage and thinker worthy of study. 
As the Reverent Path loosened its dogma and sought to appeal to kingdoms and communities outside the Empire itself, a group of reactionaries condemned the shift as a dilution of religious purity. They argued that tying the priesthood to the empire had ironically forced materialism into the realm of the sacred. These reactionaries, labelled Hardliners by the government (a name the group has since embraced), have combined critiques of accomodation, imperial control over the priesthood, and the rising commodification inherent in early proto-capitalism into a single grand spiritual rebellion against the modern. Over the last few decades, Hardliners have won more and more support among both the commonfolk and the elites. This reactionary cultural-religious movement has influenced the highest levels of the priesthood, which has its own conservative leanings and sympathies for the movement. It seems likely that, unless "liberalizing" factions of the priesthood rally for their own cultural movement, the Hardliners may usher in a new, more fundamentalist era of Reverent Kivishta.

Let Us Wake

Founding Date

988 ME

Type

Religious, Sect

Demonym

Reverent Path Kivish

Founders

• Ralta

Parent Organization

Kivishta

Subsidiary Organizations

• Kivish Hardliner
• Star Chamber

Permeated Organizations

• Empire of Kizen
• Kingdom of Verzavek

Location

Stildane

Related Ranks & Titles

• Irunek
• Kivish Priest
• Reverent Elder
• Reverent Master
• Reverent Overseer

Related Species

• Kobold