Cult of the Oracle
The Cult of the Oracle, also known as the Church of the Oracle, is the predominant religion in the world today, having spread over most of the known world in only a century. It focuses on the worship and guidance of The Oracle, an enigmatic entity that has somehow enabled the Empire of Shar to massively expand in a short amount of time.
Cosmological Views
Followers of the Oracle are strangely atheistic, being taught that the gods as they have been known thus far are not gods, but simply beings in a larger universe. Details on that universe are vague and varying in availability (depending on your edition of Insight), mostly being preached as an unknowably vast sea beyond the sun.
Tenets of Faith
Each of the books of Insight are titled by, and discuss in some amount of detail, the primary concepts and tenets of the Cult of the Oracle. While they vary in specificity and interpretation (and availability), each of the books are meant to guide the faithful along the path of the Oracle. The books are, in order: knowledge, communion, cunning, strength, truth, perception, balance, death and the universe.
Ethics
The Cult of the Oracle is notable by many for being a fairly amoral belief system, if not at least a pro-societal one. Concepts such as good and evil are heavily discouraged, in favor of the power of causality and the effects of one's actions. They promote the concept of the individual as an element of society, and that actions which promote and expand a single society are good, while divergents and isolationists are condemned.
Priesthood
The Cult of the Oracle is lead by its nine apostles, each of whom lead a different sect of the church. These sects vary wildly in function, from military to diplomatic to scientific, and have had numerous shake-ups in their command structure since their inception.
Political Influence & Intrigue
The Empire of Shar, by all official accounts to date, owes the secret of its massive expansion and implacable prowess to the Cult of the Oracle and the mysterious entity by which they were named. As a result, the Cult has its fingers in every facet of Imperial life and even beyond the current borders of the Empire. Even villages with very little presence from the Imperial government or military will have at least some kind of shrine to the Oracle, and the spread of the Cult often precedes the reach of the Empire.
Relationships
Permeated Organizations
Notable Members
Symbiotic
The rise of the Cult of the Oracle has been synonymous with the rise of the Empire of Shar, and many attribute the Oracle itself to both of their success.
