Al'Shahri

The Al'Shahri faith is one of the most prominent Illahic sects. Once the largest in both the homeland of the faith and communities across the world, over the past few hundred years the Al'Shahr have been marginalized within their core territories. Their influence has been limited to the coastal sultanates, disorganized tribes, and scattered villages across an increasingly Al'Fatimi region. In contrast, Al'Shahri communities overseas or outside the core lands have been thriving, as the faith and trade coexist in coastal cities thousands of miles away, maintaining its status as the Illahic sect with the most followers.

The Al'Shahri sect is named after Adar Illas Ali Shahr w Jafarid, colloquially known as Ali Shahr, and the uncle of the final undisputed Holy Successor Emperor. According to the Al'Shahri faithful, Ali Shahr was appointed Holy Successor by his nephew's will upon his death, while the Emperor's son inherited the temporal authority. They claim that the Emperor had become increasingly concerned about the power the state held over the Ilahic faith itself and that the two needed to be separated in order for it to retain its purity. Ali Shahr had, for many years, been one of the closest confidants of the Emperor Abdulhamid, his nephew. Despite being the uncle of the emperor, Ali Shahr was only a few years older, having been born to the Emperor Abdulhamid I and his much younger fourth wife. Ali Shahr was an unusually pious man, and this can be attributed to being largely raised by the priestly caste, so it was unsurprising that he entered the clergy at a young age. Thanks to his royal connections and close friendship with Abdulhamid II, alongside his clear devotion to the tenets of Illahism, Ali Shahr would eventually be raised to the position of second in command of the priesthood. It is here that he began coming into conflict with the young Durvar Illahar Al'Sakar w Jafarid, later crowned as Durvar II. Despite the increasing factionization of the court between these two, things probably would have stayed fairly calm if not for the assassination of Abdulhamid II in 1246. Both Durvar and Ali Shahr suspected the other of the killing, and the rift widened.

Shortly after his coronation, Durvar II would attempt to take his position as head of the Illahic faith and of the priesthood, but Ali Shahr refused to allow this. He produced a letter from the the Emperor's late father which declared that the temporal and spiritual positions of the Holy Successorship should be separated. This letter appointed Ali Shahr as the new head of the priesthood, and stated that after his death the position would become electoral. Durvar II, who had been told nothing of this, immediately assumed this was a plot by his great uncle to take control of the nation himself, and decreed that he was the new head of the priesthood, whether Ali Shahr agreed or not. Though the document presented by Ali Shahr was proven to be legitimately written by Abdulhamid II many centuries later, at the time Durvar refused to believe it, claiming that Shahr had manipulated or perhaps used dark magic to force his father to pen the letter before killing him. It is certainly true that Durvar should have been told about the changes made by his father, and that the letter was a breach in proper proceedings, and the fact that Ali Shahr was the only one to see the Holy Successor write the letter which empowered him specifically was suspect. The fact that Ali Shahr was a powerful enough mage that the charges brought by Durvar were plausible didn't help the matter, but Durvar's main argument was actually initially focused on how his father would certainly have known that such a letter would casuse strife and therefore would never have written it if he was in his right mind. The sorcery charges only became popular later, as the other factors faded from living memory. Despite the proven incorrectness of Durvar's argument, the actual legitimacy of the supposed changes cannot be proven, but the Al'Shahri believe the letter to be legitimate, based on the strength of Ali Shahr's character and his devotion to the faith. They reject Durvar's charges and believe that because the changes were sanctioned by the holy successor at the time, they are legitimate and must be followed.

With the clergy split between who to support, Durvar decreed that restrictions would be placed on the clergy. Ali Shahr used this opportunity to plead his case, appealing the clergy's desire for autonomy in worship of the lord, something which was much more appealing to the priesthood than Durvar's heavy handed actions. Therefore, most of the clergymen sided with him, and much of this sentiment spread to the devout among the populace. Durvar then decreed that all clergymen who backed Ali Shahr were in contempt of the imperial person, and that all must swear an oath of loyalty to him. He would be given little chance to actually do anything about this before a priest who came to do so murdered him in cold blood, thus passing the throne to his son, Hamidhal I. Hamidhal immediately declared that the assault was clearly from the clergy and that they must allow his men to search for evidence of the supposed conspiracy. Ali Shahr and the clergy vehemently protested, sticking to their claims of innocence and demanding to be allowed to conduct their own investigation, as they feared the new Emperor would use this opportunity to crack down on them.

By refusing to allow such an investigation, the clergy had clearly broken from the crown, and were thus effectively in open rebellion. Hamidhal declared a public blood feud with the clerical leaders, as well as declaring war on the institution itself. Such a declaration meant that the royalists and clergy were bound to come to blows, and full-scale war erupted. During this war, Hamidhal was slain in combat by priestly forces, shattering the royalist forces due to his lack of male offspring, and so his line was ended. This left the initiative on the side of the Al'shahri forces, who were easily able to capture most of the remaining empire. Ali Shahr personally selected a new dynasty, the Uthmarids, to rule over the empire, but the clergy would be forever autonomous and at many times, especially near the start and end of the Uthmarid dynasty, held more power than the Emperors themselves. During the Uthmarid period, a number of religious reforms were codified, and key institutions of the modern Al'Shahri faith were put into place. The faith would also begin to spread overseas, thanks to a golden age of trade during the first half of the Uthmarid Empire. This entrenched the faith as by far the largest of Illahic sects, and it seemed like the denialist (those who denied Ali Shahr as rightful Holy Successor) cause was dead forever.

However, on the edge of the Jafarid lands, mostly to the south, the denialists were slowly coming together, as petty warlords, Emirs, and self-declared sultanates slowly unified under the Fatim dynasty. The Fatim would soon codify the denialist sect into the Al'Fatimi faith, challenging the Uthmarids and beginning to chip away at their strength. Soon, they would declare the Fatimi Empire of the Holy Successor and sweep across the lands, conquering all but the rich coastal lands and the dryland tribes. This would shatter the Al'Shahri and leave them playing second fiddle to the Al'Fatimi in the very birthplace of Illahism, which has long infuriated the Al'Shahri Holy Successors. Al'Shahrism has been on the decline since the fall of the Uthmarids. Although the Fatimi Empire never managed to conquer a significant portion of the Sahib Khassal coastline or of the Khŭlmozhi region (and even parts of the interior), the later orcish invasions managed to uproot even more of the Al'Shahri control, leaving their populace scattered.

Despite the loss of central control over the Al'Shahri by an Emperor, there remains a network of priests throughout the lands, most of whom have contacts with the Al'Ukhan w Alzal'a. The Al'Ukhan w Alzal'a, a shadowy organization dedicated to keeping Al'Shahrism alive in the lost territories as well as expanding it, if possible, is most prominently known for its assassinations performed against Fatimi governors who proved too anti-Shahri or who aggressively expanded state control. In the 150 years since the orcish conquests, they have been slowly smoked out of a majority of their fortifications deeper inland, with the majority of their remaining strongholds being within Al'Shahri lands. Still, despite their loss of key strongholds, they retain a network of informants and assassins which have proven quite obnoxious to the orcish "occupiers".

Although not as human-centric or ethnically purist as the radicals of the Al'Uthami, the Al'Shahri nonetheless tend to take a paternalistic approach to other groups. In particular, Al'salaanic Al'shahri often see themselves as the rightful teachers or bringers of faith and see people of a different background as more recent converts and therefore less worthy. Looking down on other religions as backwards, this has led to a drive to convert outsiders and thus promoted the spread of the religion, but has also led to discrimination and forced conversions in some cases. Still, Al'shahrism is not necessarily an intolerant or expansionist religion- it all depends on the current ideology of the local ulema and of the Holy Successor, who sets general policy.

The Al'Shahri are much more prejudiced against other races, and orcs in particular thanks to their invasions. It's fairly common to use races such of orcs or giants as bogeymen to scare children, and attacks against other religions, most commonly towards the Al'Fatimi, emphasize their supposed or actual consorting with nonhumans as a talking point. In certain regions, such as in Khŭlmozhi, this attitude has boiled over into religious violence between the Al'Shahri and their rivals.

Al'Shahrism is in general a very factionalized religion, with various schools of though believing slightly different things, such as how strictly the word of Jafar must be followed and how different rites and rituals must be performed. Such factions have generally developed in parallel to the growth of factions of the College of Imams. The College of Imams, which is a multinational body whose members meet to elect a new Holy Successor upon the death of the previous one, was initially supposed to be a nonpolitical organization and which was intended to prevent factions was forming, would soon develop factions. Shortly after the death of Ali Shahr himself, disagreements emerged over the interpretation of Ali Shahr's own writings and on how they should be followed, which led to a divide in the College. From this one divide would grow over ten different factions, or 'schools' of the College, each of whom's leadership sees Al'Shahrism differently and whose allegiances change relatively often depending on the political situation. Although this means that the College itself and the even the lower ranks of the Al'Shahri ulema are full of infighting, it also means that a Holy Successor has always been chosen, that stability remains within the religion, and that no king or would-be emperor can warp its teaching for their own gain. For this reason, the Al'Shahri maintain faith. After all, if the True God must use factions to ensure his will, then so he must. A small price to pay for the assurance of a truly Holy Successor.

Due to the College of Imams being an organization which both leads the faithful and elects its own leadership internally, it is often a confusing and at times contradictory organization. The actual makeup of the College has changed greatly since its inception under the Uthmarids, as during that time it was generally composed of local representatives of the faith as well as a selection of higher ranked ulema who served in national positions. Later, it would include visiting scholars from outside of Uthmarid control who represented the Al'Shahari community overseas. However, with the fall of a centralized empire, there was no longer one single authority who could easily regulate that arriving representatives were who they claimed to be. For a time, this led to massive fraud and several instances of illegal Holy Successors and pretenders who were elected under questionable terms and later overthrown by the "proper Successor". This led to a standardized system which has, of course, favored the Al'Salaanic community and made it harder for overseas communities and those in the occupied lands from participating.