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Mendala is a world where most people are deeply spiritual, and even those who aren’t all have a fundamental knowledge of God and the heavens, having been taught at an early age that such things exist. For them, it’s not a belief but merely a fact. The Almighty, as God is typically referred to, exists, created this world, populated it with people, and, in general, left them to their own devices to grow and prosper however they saw fit. There is no Mendalian that you can talk to who won’t assert this as easily as they would assert that the land beneath their feet exists.
However, in stark contrast to this, the world of Mendala has no organized religion. There are no churches, no priests, no religious leaders gathering flocks of followers, or anything of the kind. Such a concept is foreign to this world. In addition, spiritual beliefs are not a point of contention. People do not fight holy wars, and spirituality is not at odds against science, in fact, quite the opposite, scientific research grows as spiritual insight deepens.
So how does this all work? How does spirituality exist without religion, and how can science and spirituality not only coexist but thrive together? The answer can be found by looking back to the very beginning of Mendala’s almost 10,000 years of known history.
It's not really a matter of whether or not God exists. Everyone knows that! But how does knowing that help put bread on the table?— Able Konstin, the Rogue Scholar
The Twelve Epouranals
Thousands of years ago, before the time of recorded history, the world was a dark and unforgiving place. People constantly fought one another over scarce resources, everyone struggled and starved, and progress was stagnant. The state of the world was blamed on the loss of the caretakers. Though very few people even remembered who they were, it was believed that the caretakers were responsible for helping the world grow and prosper, but they had somehow shirked their responsibility and were destroyed because of it.
All of mankind was lost and stagnant, and the prevailing spiritual belief was that if heavenly beings did exist, then they had completely forsaken the world. Things were too far gone, and there was no turning back. Of course, many people tried to claim that they alone could turn things around. They rallied support and stated things like they had received a grand prophecy from the heavens and that they would be the ones to bring salvation. Various cults and dark theologies sprang from this as people clamored for hope, willing to follow anyone who could shed even a glint of light.
High Mage Seraphina Goodall by eexad00 It was during this dark time, that the twelve epouranal mages appeared. Their origins were slightly obfuscated, but what is known is that they found the Caretaker Sanctum, the fabled place that only caretakers could visit, and from there they unlocked the door to the heavens. Because they were able to do this, the Almighty bestowed upon them the role of divine prophets.
The twelve epouranals were the first to use mentus and understand the adimus. They went around the world teaching people mentus and other adimus based abilities as well as spreading the word that the planet had not been forsaken by the Almighty. They, the epouranal mages, would now be able to pass revelation from the heavens to the world at large and help mankind grow and prosper.
Their amazing abilities were such that the vast majority of people believed them, and word of the epouranal mages spread rapidly around the world. The epouranals announced throughout the lands that a new year had started and with it a new era, known as “Priori Mandamus” or the PM era. It would be an era where adimus abilities, and mentus specifically, would spread around the world, allowing people to grow and prosper in new ways.
Of course, there were many over the first few years who did not believe the claims of the epouranals or worse, outright opposed them. Though the epouranals never sought political power, and didn’t even allow followers, some leaders still felt threatened by them. They sought to put a stop to them by either preventing them from teaching in their realms or raising arms against them. However, opponents of the epouranals quickly learned that their power was far above anything normal mentus could accomplish, and their connection with the beasts of the heavens made them practically invulnerable.
These supernatural beasts, known as epourtherions, were proof of the epouranals claims. Each epouranal was linked to one of these twelve beasts who guarded the heavenly gates, and it was through that link that they gained their divine insight. The epourtherions only showed in the mortal realm when an epouranal was in true peril, and they manifested as unimaginably huge beasts, sentient natural disasters that could destroy anyone or anything. Anyone who tried to attack an epouranal met a swift and immediate death from the power of the heavenly beasts. Even massive armies were wiped out in a blink of an eye without the epouranal having to raise a hand in their own defense.
It only took a few displays of this power before people realized that there was nothing to be gained from attacking an epouranal. After a while, even the most determined and stubborn of leaders realized that the epouranals posed no threat. They had no desire to upend nations or rulers and their teachings and prophecies rarely concerned anything as trivial as the politics of a specific nation. If anything, such revelation would be given in private to the ruler in question for them to do with what they wanted.
Over the first 150 years of the PM era, the epouranals taught mentus in addition to revealing prophecy and heavenly guidance, but then people began to teach themselves and the first official schools of mentus opened. With this initial job done, the epouranals became far less visible. They would appear to the public several times over the years but the rest of the time they were either in private meditation or tending to specific areas of need as they felt led.
As time went on, the epouranal mages became a permanent fixture in Mendalian society and their existence was part of the culture of the world, so much so that many prominent landmarks—and even the four continents themselves—were renamed after the epourtherions. The epouranals were revered as the high prophets of the land, never breaking from their custom of political non-intervention, and always following their own divine code of duties and ethics.
To challenge an epouranal is to challenge the Almighty itself, neither is terribly wise or profitable. A wise merchant sticks to things more mundane.— Kenneth Pogston, Merchant
How Spirituality Reshaped the World
Before the epouranals, people followed anyone who seemed to have insight into the divine. There was no way to know the truth of their claims, they just needed to have faith. After the rise of the epouranals though, it was no longer a matter of faith but rather fact. Their claim that they were the divinely appointed prophets of the land was proven time and time again. It couldn’t be denied because the proof was always available.
In addition, the epouranals never tried to garner followers or rise to lofty leadership positions. They had one main function, to spread knowledge given from the heavens to the people of the world. At first this mostly pertained to teaching mentus and adimus based skills, but then it spread to giving insight into how the world worked, how best to live life, and a myriad of other topics, though always from a spiritual point of view. They would give prophetic word, and spiritually mentor people, but one thing remained the same, the epouranals never made people do anything. They were conduits of information. They would sometimes tell people the pros or cons of taking a certain action, but after that, the choice was up to them.
The epouranals constantly taught that the only way to find out the will of the Almighty was to seek it out for oneself. They could offer teachings and guidance, but in the end, everyone was different, and so therefore everyone’s spiritual journey was different. Though a few people did disciple under epouranals, they would never allow vast followings, this is why they would spend most of their time away from the public eye, so that people would not rely on their words for everything. People needed to live their own lives and find their own path, that was how the epouranals taught, and that mindset permeated throughout the world.
Of course, there were still others, especially in the beginning, who sought to capitalize off the trust garnered by the epouranals. Many other so-called prophets or spiritual leaders popped up, claiming to have insight from the heavens, but they quickly realized that was a mistake.
While the epouranals had no qualms with people claiming to have insight into how to live a better life, and gathering followers, they absolutely forbade false prophecy of any kind. To falsely claim to speak for the heavens or on behalf of the Almighty was an act that was punished by a swift and immediate death, typically one done by an epouranal’s epourtherion. It soon became clear that false prophecy was not allowed, nor was claiming to speak on behalf of the heavens. No longer could rulers claim to be “divinely appointed by God to take over the lands” because that was tantamount to blasphemy. As a result, such claims completely stopped, and war-hungry tyrants had to use more practical reasoning to draw people into battle.
Even for those would-be spiritual leaders not skirting the line of false prophecy, they quickly found that they gathered very few followers, if any. Unless someone was explicitly endorsed by an epouranal, something that rarely happened, people had no reason to listen to them. The rationale was simple: when you already had twelve proven legitimate divine prophets walking the world, why would you take spiritual insight from anyone who couldn’t prove their claims? In addition, the epouranals’ constant refrain that one’s spiritual path was something they ultimately had to find on their own meant that people didn’t actively seek out any external spiritual insight. Within a few centuries of the epouranals arrival on Mendala, virtually all other spiritual leaders became non-existent.
As the presence of the epouranals became commonplace, spirituality became a far more mundane concept. It was no longer a question of “Do God and the heavens exist,” but instead the main spiritual question people asked, if any, was “how does that impact my day-to-day life?” Though the epouranals offered insight and wisdom to help answer that question, only some people were interested, as they still had more immediate problems. Though the world had become significantly better, war was still prevalent, and many people had hard lives. If it was true that the Almighty wanted mankind to flourish and prosper, it appeared they would need more help.
Mankind can never truly advance when they are unable to first meet their basic needs.— Lenora Megsworth, Parmeo Epouranal Mage
In The Years of the Sun
The advent of the epouranal mages brought with it a new era to the world of Mendala, and 4000 years later, another new era would begin with the appointing of the first Fantasma. Not only was he chosen to be the first leader of world government, but he had been gifted a new adimus ability known as mandamus. Mandamus was considered to be the last great gift from the heavens, an ability far more powerful and versatile than mentus, but it could only be used by a chosen few.
Though the appointment of the first world leader was an event that reverberated throughout the world, forever changing the political landscape of Mendala, it completely overshadowed another, equally important, new figure to enter the world: The Daughter of the Sun.
The Daughter of the Sun came into being the same night as the first Fantasma, and in fact, Ester Fantas was the first Fantasma’s wife. No one knew that while Jerimiah Fantas was moving a mountain (literally), Ester Fantas was standing in the Caretaker Sanctum before the rumored door to the heavens that had granted the first epouranals their powers. Ester, however, did not receive overwhelming might, but rather a solemn duty that only she could take on: help the people of the world find balance, purpose, and fulfillment.
Though most people would not make the connection, it was the influence of the Daughter of the Sun that allowed the world to progress even quicker than it had done before. Through her efforts, the world saw an increase in education, and a decrease in famine, poverty, and unemployment. Even war started to slowly decrease as each successive Daughter of the Sun worked to build bridges between bickering domains. Over several centuries, quality of life improved for the majority of people on the small planet. This allowed advancement in many fields including adimus sciences and mentant engineering, and spirituality played a unique role in this.
Epouranals often explained the complex mysteries of the world from a spiritual point of view based on their insight and connection to the heavens. Through these lessons, clever scientists and engineers were often able to reverse engineer spiritual principles to further scientific discovery and experimentation as well as invent and engineer new tools and devices using quartz and mentus. Epouranal wisdom combined with scientific curiosity led to many advancements. Significant among them was the theory behind teleportation that led to the invention of the quickener staff.
People began to find more significance in unraveling the spiritual teachings of the epouranals. As always, the epouranals emphasized that they were merely guides and prophets and that the best way to find purpose and meaning was to develop their own spiritual connection with the heavens through study, prayer and meditation. Of course, everyone interpreted this a different way, which was probably by design. Some people wanted to unravel more scientific mysteries, others sought to be scholars on various topics, and still many believed that living a decent life day-to-day was all the Almighty expected of them. There were dozens of different paths to take, but it seemed that bit by bit, the world was slowly regaining balance, and there would soon be a time where all people could live a fulfilled life.
Unfortunately, things drastically changed after the Great War…but that’s an explanation for a later article.
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