Ariston the Thinker

Written for Prompt 18 (2019 Summer Camp)

Written by David_Ulph

Bishop Ariston of Land's End

It is the nature of all religions that radicalisation of one or more core beliefs will take hold, culminating in a reformation or a sect to be cast out from the original priesthood. The Order of Saint Vortarius has been no exception of this fact, despite the extremely unified portrayal the religion has in the eyes of the common lowborn and even many faithful highborn. The Primordial Cult, known by the end of the Third Age as a hypocritical band of extremists maddened by the blood of faith who skulk in the shadows of the Imperial Capital's abandoned districts, is this sect and it's founder was a Bishop known as Ariston.

Early History

While not much information before his "radicalisation" have been recovered from the Order's purge of information, it is known that he was originally a well respected member of the Upper Priesthood, being a Bishop based in the Dagorland region of Land's End. It was here, that the Bishop gained access to once forbidden tomes and scriptures held in a Librarius Extremis in the city of Portjaw, which rivalled the anti-Order Librarius destroyed in the Imperial Capital.

As a Bishop of the Upper Priesthood, Ariston had access to the true information behind the Order's faith, that the blood and body of their One True God is actually that of a Great Old One asleep at the bottom of the sea off of Elgerlor's eastern coast and south of the Untamed Lands, who grants the faithful of Saint Vortarius to healing qualities akin to divine intervention. The Order became the Imperial Religion after the "underground" war known as the Great Schism between the Order and the Faiths of the Survivor Gods, where Ariston is known to have served on the front lines and because of this, was allowed access to tend to the Librarius Extremis with ultimate freedom and no need to comply with the duties of other Bishops.

It was in this intelectual freedom, that Ariston was allowed to develop his own theories and philosophies about the world Terralba, the Saints, the One True God and - the most impactful - of life and reality itself.

Main Theory - The Extremis Allegory

When a priest of the Order of Saint Vortarius reaches the ranks of the Upper Priesthood, they become privy to the deceit and truth of the physical elements of their religion. It is commonly seen by many in the Order as having the veil lifted away from your face, but Ariston feared it was something more than a flimsy mask. Previously, the communion blood was believed to be a fermented alchemical potion that represented the sacrifices of their patron Saint Vortarius and that is - for the majority of Order faithful - reality.

So, with the knowledge that it is the actual blood of an unknown god-like being which would be heretical according to the Lesser Priesthood, Ariston connected this to being like the fabrics of your perceived reality to be burned before your eyes. So, he extrapolated this idea and projected it to the very world asking the question that how does one know what they perceive to be entirely true, to just be another piece of fabric in a false reality. With the new knowledge of this so-called Great Old One named Gar-Gakhozal, Ariston found in the Librarius Extremis reference to other godly beings attributed to the phrase "Great Old One" rather than the Aelf Gods the pagan Temples of the Survivor Gods believed in: The Winter Queen; The Chainmaker; The Eternal Ferryman; The Time-Distorted Wyrm; The Flayed King; and most importantly, the Undying.

The Undying was a Great Old One seemingly asleep, and it was trapped in a realm beyond the Void where the sun was it's window into the mortal realm Terralba. While asleep, it still chooses out magical champions known as Undying Warlocks by dreaming of their family and dreaming the interactions the warlock will make as blessings. Artison questioned that, in the Undying's dreams, the being could mend the reality of any individual or bloodline it chose, what would stop it from dreaming up every single part of the very reality that we all "know" to be true?

He speaks in his theory of a cave, and to imagine that you were trapped in the cave for all of your life and only ever knew the cave. For all intents and purposes, that was your reality because you would never know anything of the world outside of the cave. Now imagine there was a gap in the cave that no one within could see out of, but light from a fire could reach inside. Sometimes, people outside walk past the fire and cast their shadows into the cave and what are you to believe that the shadows you see are not just a new understanding of your reality? Magical beings without form but seem to do amazing things? What would they be to you? Ariston proposes that this may be the Order's perception of Saints; the shadows and creations cast by this fire who would be the cave-dwellers perception of a One True God. If the sun truly was where the Undying sleeps, and the sun casts shadows over everything we see.. what is there to say that the very world is just our perceptions of a false reality dreamt up by this Great Old One?

The Effects of Ariston's Theory

Ariston became obsessed with his theory, the fears of not knowing what can or what cannot be just a thin disguise of a fake reality dreamt up by an all-powerful being. He would lock himself in the Librarius Extremis for months on end, seemingly without food or water except the communion blood to research the Undying and experiment if the needs of the body were just perceptions of a dream reality. When he returned to other Bishops, alive and well with his written copies of the Extremis Allegory, not everyone heeded the warning written at the front.

A very small group of Bishops and Archdeacons became enthralled by the notion as much or moreso than Ariston, believing this sun deity, this Undying One to be the real One True God and became taking the communion in it's name. Against Ariston's request, they shared their beliefs with the Lower Priesthood below them and started a death cult with the aims to commit mass suicide and killing sprees to free themselves and others from the dreamt reality, to join their Undying One in the sun.

Ariston was branded by the Archbishop as a heretic, and all those that believe in this heretical text known as the Extremis Allegory to be the same. Ariston was hung, drawn and quartered and the rest were cast out into the recluses of society; the abandoned sections of the Imperial Capital to infest their madness in the shadows and reduce the backalley crime risks in their fanatical killing sprees. The indulgence of communion blood of Gar-Gakhozal, as well as the bloodshed, released the animalistic rage within their cult's members and turned the majority into senseless killing brutes and the name the Primordial Cult was born by Order Paladins sent down into the depths to hunt them, seeing similarities in Old Blood affliction as Bishop Primord and the Primordial Crusader Knights of the Great Schism.

Beware the frailty of a mortal soul, for it is our blood of old which preserves us. Soothes us through the night.

— Common inscription in Saint Vortarius texts.

I implore the readers of this Allegory to not disclose the contents of which you read, on any member of our beloved priesthood below the ranks of Bishop. This will test the fabric of our very perceptions, which all of you will understand the feelings of as we have all been privy to the secrets of the communion blood and body. I am fearful that the spread of my theory to those not privy to this emotion will not effectively comprehend reality and evoke the bestial nature of our blood and cause a rift between our beloved faith.

— The personal notes of Ariston, which the emergence of the Primordial Cult shows the warnings were not heeded