The faith is a monotheistic religion practiced by the races of Edelweiss which is centered around the worship of the God King Elior, a winged white lion wreathed by a crown of gold, who was summoned to the mortal world by the summoner-priests of Edelweiss on the first hour of the first day of the 4300th year of creation. It is the largest religion on the continent of Leiren, though the Commandments of Elior have not spread far outside the kingdoms of the west.
The worship of Elior can measured by two distinct periods, before the Summoning and after it. While the Faith was characterized by a powerful devotion to a series of Virtues, which included bravery, honesty, and charity. The period following the Summoning to the modern day has seen a change in the tenets of the Faith to a religion that holds obedience and piety sacred above all else. This change has mostly been felt in the knightly class of the peoples of Edelweiss, whereas the clergy still largely holds to the old ways of the Faith.
The Old Ways, and the New
Before the Summoning, the Faithful followed a series of commandments handed down by Elior to the first knights of the Kingdom. It was a simple creed, but one which spread easily throughout Leiren in the mountains and in the weald. These commandments focused on the Old Virtues, and how every knight who fought in Elior's name must conduct themselves. They were as follows:
- I am the LORD thy God, and thou shall be faithful to me in all ways.
- All creatures thy LORD hath made art thy kin, and thou shall honour them in all ways.
- Life is sacred, and thou shall not take it in vain.
- Thou shall show greatness in thy virtue. To forsake thine virtue is to forsake thine LORD.
- Keep holy the light of thy LORD, and share of it with all.
However, after the Summoning these became Virtues only for the clergy. For knights, or to any who hoped for greatness, there was now but one commandment.
- I am the LORD thy God, and thou shall serve thy LORD.
In this commandment the nobility and the knights found a new way of life. No longer was selflessness and humility of utmost importance, but only the loud and public worship of Elior was valued. Knights sought out greater challenges, fought greater foes for glory and favour, but not for duty or honour. Nobles assembled the greatest heroes as though they were toys to parade in front of Elior, in the hopes he might turn his Godly eye to them.
Now the Old Virtues are only followed by the priest-summoners behind their cloistered halls. They tend to the poor and the sick and the Faithful masses with little notice by their God off in the fringes of the Kingdom. They work and live in roughhewn stone abbeys and wear sack cloth, while gaudy nobles prance in silk and make a playhouse of their ancient cathedrals.
The Martyrs
Martyrdom is among the most important ideas among the Faithful. There is, or at least was before the Summoning, no higher honour than to give one's life for his faith. There are no ends of ways to achieve martyrdom. Knights have been slain by dragons while defending the weak, sacrificed in vile rites by the witches of the dark forests of the west, impaled on the orders of Tcharnovogian princes, had blood eagles drawn on their backs by Volsun warlords. They have been beheaded, hung, broken, drawn and quartered. They have been disemboweled and flayed alive. They have drowned on pilgrimages, fallen from mountain roads, and starved or frozen to death in fast and prayer. And, after the Dwarves came, were thrown to lions or executed in their abominable colosseum, or more often than not crucified and left on a hill somewhere as a warning.
These are the greatest men of Edelweiss, and their sacrifice is taught to all children of the kingdom in hopes that they too might one day be martyrs.
The Summoners
The priesthood of Edelweiss is made up of a class of Summoner-Priests. These summoners are exclusively Human, and any child who shows magical talent at birth are watched closely to see if they will become a Summoner. They are a cloistered, secretive people who are forbidden from communing with the common folk lest their spiritual ties be tainted. Only an anointed Paladin may interact with a Summoner on pain of death. Any summoner who attempts to leave the Order is guilty of apostasy and must be burned at the stake, and any man or woman who ignores or hides their calling as a Summoner is guilty of blasphemy and must likewise be burnt.
It is the duty of all Paladins to protect these holy mages, and also to burn them if needs must.
It was a small group of summoners who called out to their Lord, Elior, and summoned him from Heaven. Despite this, though they are revered by the people of Edelweiss, they hold little power in the kingdom and are no more than puppets of the nobility.
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