Despite the stereotype that Kordites favor bold action over forethought, from a theological perspective Kordism is just as philosophical as other religions. All religions of good are essentially involved with the question: What is Good? The answer of Kordites is that Good is the best actions and being of the self - arguing that all goodness, badness, and in between starts and ends with individuals, no matter the total scale. Kordites would say that to be Good is to be the Best person one can be.
There are many people who serve Kord in one way or another, but not all hold powers either endowed by him or discovered through his worship, and amongst those who do hold such powers, their roles as devotees of Kord and actors in the world differ. Kord has three kinds of followers, which can be broadly grouped as Clerics, Monks, and Warriors.
Clerics are the vehicles of the religion, and its public face to the masses. Their purpose is to spread Kord's tenets alongside their healing and aid, and to assist in the defense and advancement of causes of justice wherever they find them.
Warriors in Kordite religion fall in to two categories: those bound by oaths and those not so. Oathbound Kordite warriors are paladins, and follow an Oath of Vengence, vowing to destroy evil and defend just causes in the name of Kord and service of the cosmic cause of good.
Warriors not bound by oaths are Barbarians following the Path of the Zealot, and are called Immoratls. Kord is a god of war and battle, and their souls are forged for the same. In death their souls are ready and eager to return to life, and the strongest of them continue to battle even past the brink of death.
Monks serve unique and niche role. They can fight, and thus have a role alongside other warriors. But fighting is not their only purpose.
They also have the purpose to seek the highest degrees of excellence in their worship of Kord - their purpose is to perfect the teachings and practice of the religion. Because Kord focuses on physical prowess, this necessarily involves a great degree of physical training, and monks see themselves as perfecting themselves as much as they are perfecting their religious practice.
ᚢᚦᛇᛊ
"She spoke the word of power given to her by Kord. Her word appeared in the sky with fire, and it was UTHEIS, but its letters were the runes shaped by the gods: ᚢᚦᛇᛊ. ᚢ, Uruz, the Rune of strength and speed, and freedom, courage, and tenacity: Strength of Body. ᚦ, Thurisaz, rune of destruction and conflict, but catharsis, cleansing fire: Purity of Spirit. The lightning of Thor, Kord's first son, now given in word. ᛇ, Eihwaz, rune of reliability and trust, of enlightenment, of endurance and defense, of motivation and purpose: Strength of Mind. ᛊ, Sowilo, rune of victory, of solace in success, of honor, and of wholeness and the higher self: Honor in Bearing. The word echoed from the ground, and each echo grew louder, for her voice was great, and her shout reached every house. Where the primodrial had given way to the mortal, ᛊ and ᛚ gave ᛚᛟᛜᛃᚠ Life to mortals, Kord gave them ᚢᚦᛇᛊ Freedom, that they would be unburdened by the conflicts of heaven, and their names untethered from their creators, though they were yet unformed" -- Kord's greatest work as a deity is giving free will to mortals. When the gods dispersed the elemental chaos to create the material plane and the mortal races, each god gave mortals something -- Eldath gave life and continuity through renewal, Pelor tied life to the body, and Ioun gave intelligence.
Kord was tasked with giving them spirits, which was itself controversial among the gods, as prior to this the only beings that existed were purely spiritual or purely primordial, and this new mortal life was not to be *at essence* either one, but was to have spirits, or now, souls, nontheless. Kord used a part of his own energy so that every mortal would be driven by a soul. His energy was inherently chaotic, and thus the soul drives the mind, which drives the body, all independent of the will of the gods. Thus, crucially, mortal creatures were freed from the moral alignments of the outer planes, and could act as they pleased. Thus, for example, tieflings need not be bound by evil, nor aasimar by good. Dragonborn are not constrained to the morals of true dragons, and so on for every race, freedom from inherent alignment to the outer planes. This energy is now called Ki by most monks, and it is the energy that binds the soul to the body.
This is a critical theological facet for most religions, called the Essence Distinction. It explains how the ethics and actions of mortals are not tied to, and therefore not governed by the same prescriptions, as those of spiritual beings from the Beyond.
In order to realize this great feat, Kord endowed one of his Seraphs with a divine word of power, which she shouted into the material plane. Her entire energy was consumed in doing so, and she endowed that free energy directly into the material plane itself. She dispersed into the air with that shout, never to be re-formed.
The runes of that divine word (in the ancient language of Ionian, which is only spoken by the gods) became the basis of an important Kordite recitation, and became important in Kordite spiritualism: "Strength of Body, Purity of Spirit, Strength of Mind, Honor in Bearing"
Monastic Theology
not all decisions and arguments are deductive, therefore philosophy is incomplete when it contains only deduction, or indeed simply critical thinking, or indeed simply rationalism. Seeking truth means seeking truth in its fullest form, understanding truth in its fullest form is enlightenment. Arriving at actions and thoughts that are not only True, but Right, and also Good, relies on judgement. Arriving at right and good judgement is Ethics.
One mind controls one being with one soul. The judgements, thoughts, and actions of a being are those of one. In making good and right judgement, one must seek an ultimate good. When enlightenment is the end state, there is no reason to seek any but the greatest good. If one seeks a lesser good, there must be a greater good which can be sought, and following a greater good will result in one being more ethical. Because one is enlightening oneself, there is no reason to wish to be less eithical rather than more. Therefore, seek the greatest good. Seek perfection.
Determining the greatest good is the domain of ethical belief. Ethics relies on judgement. Judgement must be accompanied by action, for ideas hold no power except by being impulsions. Perfection is the union of perfect judgement and perfect action. Although others may influence one's thoughts, one's thoughts are one's own. The weight of morality, too, falls on the shoulders of those who act. The weight of one's actions is one's own. Ethics is a personal matter - the personal union of ethical judgement and action.
Seeking perfection is ethics, and ethics is personal. Therefore to be enlightened, and therefore Good, and Right, and True, is to perfect oneself. This is Strength. Those that seek strength seek nothing less than the complete perfection of every aspect of their being. For bodily strength is nothing if the mind is feeble, and a brilliant mind brings nothing to the world if it cannot act. Action is not simply physical, but it often is physical.
It remains to examine the chain of thought that leads to this place. In the simplest construction, ethics involves being a good and right person, and this is commensurate with the more complex construction of perfecting oneself. But on a distinctive level a principle must also satisfy the foundations which make it rational. This is an important factor. Ethics is rational. It is not a matter of simple belief, or of decree. It is born of the purity of thought itself. One would not be unethical any more than one would be irrational, for ethics is rational and it is rational to be ethical. Thus the rational principles of ethics must be satisfied. Ethics is seeking an ultimate good, and the decision of that good is what must bear rational satisfaction. It must be the greatest good, and it must be personally and rationally indiscriminate. An ultimate good must be something sought for its own sake. If it were sought for the sake of a further purpose, that would be the greatest good. It must be achievable by any being. If it were unattainable by some beings, it would not be personally indiscriminate. It must be something any rational being might rationally desire to attain.
If rational beings might rationally ignore it, or seek something else, it is not rationally universal. Perfection one's self is enlightenment, they are one and the same, and satisfy these conditions.
Enlightenment is not sought for any further reason, for a perfect being cannot attain any *more* perfection. It is the pinnacle, and therefore nothing higher can be sought. Any creature can seek enlightenment. Many creatures are created specifically with evil in their core nature, but even the core nature of beings can change, just as one does not remain the same personally, mentally, or rationally, from birth through death. Only the soul is constant, and the soul merely tethers the being, it does not drive them. Finally, enlightenment would rationally be sought by any being. Even if that being had other goals, perfection allows one to advance any goal perfectly, and therefore is desirable to anyone. Thus, self-perfection, enlightenment, strength, are the greatest good, and should be sought by anyone rational.
What then is self-perfection? It has already been stated that it is the perfection of every element of one's self. But what are these elements, and how to perfect them? Furthermore, just as we seek a fundamental good, is there a fundamental part of one's self that ought to be perfected? Indeed this is at the core of the task of developing one's self.
Those who study themselves deeply find that the connection between the soul and the body is not a mere tether, with one or the other pulling the other about. While the body contains all of the activity of a being, and that being's nature, its soul contains its essence, and its energy. The body fuels the soul and the soul drives the body. All things are matter or energy, and thus for there to be influence between the soul and the body, there must be some exchange of matter or energy. This energy is Ki, and it is not beyond the will of the individual.
Control of one's ki is the ultimate in self-control. One must master every aspect of self-control in order to reach their ki. One must expunge every whim and urge that leads one astray from perfect solitude in the control of one's self. Control is a form of mastery, and mastery of any thing comes through strength. Thus when one is strong of body, and of mind, and of will, one can master one's self. To *fully* master the self, the ki, is to become stronger than one's self. Those that attain enlightenment are stronger than themselves. The good, and right, and true person uses their body, and mind, and will, to turn the course of the world.
Strength of body is the perfection of physical form. It is physical prowess and athletics. Athleticism is the virtue of the body. It is the mean between the primal, but merely instinctual, physicality of lesser beasts, and the physical waywardness of those who only hone their minds. Sad in the eyes of the enlightened are those who pass on from life without seeing the incredible feats of which their bodies are capable. The tangible is the basis of reality, thus tangible strength is the basis of all strength. Strength of body is not merely the power itself, the muscular ability and endurance. It is the speed and flexibility, the dexterity and lithe movement. These distinguish the body from that of an instinctual beast by tempering its power with mindful and intelligent speed. The strength of the body is also innate, in health and fortitude.
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