The Aruhvian Church in Arc

Introduction

For much of its existence, Arc  was the centre of a political and military empire, but also a spiritual one. The Aruhvian religion was founded in Arc and the Aruhviad, the sacred text of the faith called the city the ‘Keeper’s Seat’, meaning that it was where the Aruhvianism ruled the rest of Aestis and the world from. Given the imperial nature of the faith, its laws were accepted by and imposed upon societies across Aestis. In the year 295, the religion has lost much of the hold it had over the city of Arc, and it now struggles to compete with newer and more extreme interpretations of the faith the emanate from Skaris. Notionally, the centre of the Aruhvian faith is the Tokaphki temple that towers over the land entrance to the city, the Durean Gates (three vast stone archways that lead from the Aruhval, Marahval and Dancaraval Roads). However, most Arcites have long stopped caring about whether their city is the home of Aruhvianism, and numerous other organisations, sects and churches have staked a claim on the ownership of the faith. The Skarisi now insist that the city of Arc has become irredeemably corrupt and that only Skaris can be considered devout and pure enough to be home to the religion.

The Tokaphki

The direct translation from High Vannic into Arcish Lower Vannic of the word Tokapkhi is 'The Temple of Prospects', and the concept of prospects is derived from Aruhvian religious doctrine and the many legends and fables that surround the faith. A prospect, according to the Aruhviad, is part of the essence of the Keeper that came from before the time of the Sundering, meaning that it is part of the Keeper that was freely given by the one god to bless the world or a particular part of it. The Graces brought the prospects to the Mortal World, burying five in the soil of the cliffs overlooking Arc. Each represented a virtue (in some non Arclander versions of the Aruhviad, the prospects are called virtues). They are described as being the most pure of diamonds, emitting the white light of the Keeper's wisdom, too beautiful and perfect for any flawed mortal to look upon. The Graces instructed the Vannic humans they had been communicating with to construct a great temple to the glory of the Keeper overlooking the new city of Arc and revealed to them the tenets of Aruhvianism, to which others would aspire, These were the core values of:
* Poverty: The love of riches was a form of poverty, and only in material poverty truth can be discovered.
* Piety: Complete devotion to the word of the Keeper, communicated through the Graces, was the only way to be chosen as one of the eternal celestial guardians who would serve at the Keeper's side for an eternity to keep Damnation at bay in the afterlife.
* Purge: The physical body was riven with weakness and corruption and only through endless and rigorous devotion, and physical and mental rituals of purging, could spiritual and moral purity be achieved.
At its height, the Tokaphki was home to some five hundred priests and monks, whose authority was felt in nearly every corner of the city. Aruhvian law was incorporated into Arcish law and gave the church immense power across the empire. Those who resented the control that the church had over civic and spiritual life in the city saw the fall of the empire as an ideal opportunity to overthrow the church itself. The protectors were supported by the merchants of the Azure chamber and the The Houses of Coin  who knew that their interests would be supported by the city's new rulers. Quickly, and with immense public support, the principles of piety, poverty and purge were consigned to the city's history books and the appetite for commerce, coin and excess changed the city overnight. Subsequent generations of Arcites have paid lip service to Aruhvianism, as long as it gave them a veneer of moral superiority, but on a far deeper level a majority of city dwellers have fiercely rejected any doctrine that curbs their own personal pleasures or wealth. This is a key reason why the Skarisi look upon Arc as a corrupted and filthy sewer and its people as weakened, decadent and lost.
Paradoxically, Arc is also a city of immense religious freedom and diversity. The fall of the Aruhvian Church in the city did not lead to widespread secularism, far from it. Instead, a profusion of smaller sects, churches and street corner preachers emerged, once the doctrinaire and repressive power of the Aruhvian Church was lifted. Carathenes, Dromites, Ashtarians and others are free to persue their own vision of the faith, but in most instances they are ignored by the populace. The Aruhvian Prelates of Arc observe this religious anarchy with disdain, but know that the time where they had any power to prevent it has long since gone.

The Temple of Prospects

The Graces Y'Luran, Y'Tran, Y'Kantu, Y'Dras and Y'Taura were sent by the Keeper to show his glory to mortalkind at the beginning of the Mortal Age. They brought with them the five prospects, which the Aruhviad states gave the city five virtues of Strength, Wealth, Justice, Charity and Wisdom. Twelve knights of the Vannic Empire were visited on the cliffs above the city (which was a small outpost at this point) and looked upon the servants of the Keeper in awe. It was these twelve knights who saw the prospects before they were consigned to the earth and were commanded to build a temple on the site where the shards of the Keeper's will were buried. They were known as the first Tokhaptrites, and when they built the huge temple, they lit five beacons that were never to be extinguished and which burn to this day from the rootfops of the temple itself, guiding ships sailing by night to the harbour, such is the intensity and brightness of their flames. Now the temple is barely inhabited, its great halls gather dust, its libraries fall into ruin and its chambers echo with sorrow and memory. Beneath it, the endless flow of humans and non humans into the city continues unabated. The archwas to the three sisters are scented with Oldyris oils, a sweet Del’Marahan incense. This is part of a ritual to ‘cleanse’ travellers from outside the city of their wickednesses and impurities before they set foot in the great city.

A Fire in the Heart of Knowing

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Type

Religious, Primacy