Hollism

History

Life of a Shepard

The Hollist Religion found its start in the Barqian Shepard communities with a woman named Róisín, a Barq woman, the story of Róisín would be one of tragedy and heartbreak. Born into a family of Shepherds, she would suffer her first tragedy when at the age of 4, her father would be killed by a wolf when he tried to ward off a pack from his flock of sheep, only two years later her mother would die to plague and she would find herself almost entirely alone without family or support, if not for the aid of her uncle, but even then tragedy would continue as he would be conscripted to fight for his local lord and went to fight, dying when she was 12.

With the death of her entire family, Róisín would go on to travel the mountains as a roaming shepard, selling most she owned she and her flock of sheep and her shepherd Dog set out, and she would live within the Mountains of Barqa for nearly a decade, and it was here she was granted a revelation. While leading her flock through a narrow valley, a storm set in and flooded a nearby river, driving Róisín into a nearby cave with her herd until the water levels returned to normal and her herd was able to carry on.

Trapped within this Cave, Róisín would be granted a Divine Revelation, in Barqian Society they held spiritual beliefs in a monotheistic deity, though there was little consistency or joint theology among the Barqa, but one common theme was that of Divine Revelation and prophetic visions, and in that cave she would be given one. She was spoken to directly by a heavenly light, an overwhelming feeling that drove away all shadows and made the hollow cave feel cramped and filled as if by 1000 voices speaking 1000 tongues. And then they spoke to her, and she fell to her knees before the Light.

It was known by many names, and many titles, every town and city knew him differently, every Lord and Peasant gave daily prayer to her, but they did not truly know them. Their words had become forgotten and Hollow, its decrees without adherence, his children having almost entirely forgotten him and her love for them so infinite that she sought to bring them back into the Light. This God, The Holy One, charged Róisín with the monumental task of seeing It's will done, tasking her to travel the land with her flock and spreading his teachings to all who would listen. A monumental task, but the voice of God filled the women with such energy and determination that she would dedicate the next seven decades of her life to that goal.

Spreading the Word

Róisín would spend the next decade in the Barqian Mountains spreading the Divine Revelation granted upon her, here she would spread what became known as the three key aspects of Hollism. The First Aspect was Community, in which communities were more than just villages or people living near each other, but a living and breathing family, a united body whose spiritual and material needs were everyone's concern. The Second Aspect was that of Charity, much like one would take care of a family member, one must provide for their fellow man for we are all family and thus obligated to aid each other. The Third and Final Aspect was Fairness, which was centered around a concept of treating all fairly, not casting undo judgment and seeking the best course for all.

During her time preaching in the Barqia mountain range, Róisín would come to convert many of the shepherd communities of the mountains, her talk of family communities and welfare speaking deeply to the lived experiences of these communities, her own life pouring into her words, creating a fiery way of speaking that enraptured all those who listened to her sermons. After nearly a decade preaching in the Mountains, Róisín would travel south to preach alongside several of her closet followers in Southern Barqa and the lands of Zuza, here she would engage in countless form of theological debates and challenges to her theology.

Spending half a decade in these lands, Róisín would hone her debate skills before being forced to flee east back into Barqian Lands after a Zuza King called for her head after she dared say His patron God was false. Dodging the King's execution squads, she would travel further east into other Barqian Lands, spreading her faith further for another 7 years, until once more return west then north past the mountains into the lands of the Hornwichia and Northern Barqia, directly coming into conflict with other local faiths and spending 2 decades here, often becoming Ill or forced to spend time in almost every town and city she was in until she converted them and got medical attention.

Once Róisín finally crossed the mountains back south, she set out south, past the Lands of the Zuza into the Lands of the Kanathelon where she spent the next decade cross the modern lands of the Kanathelon and north into the lands of the Dorrans spreading the Word, even establishing some of the first proper churches of the Hollist faith in the region, but in her single greatest triumph so far, converting the then King of the Kanathelon to the faith and seeing the construction of a grand Cathedral in the City of Pulla. This decade would end with her growing caravan crossing north into the Lands of the Rhar, but would find herself seized and her caravan broken as a local lord decried her as a heretic and decreed her death.

Perhaps she should have died then and there, but it seemed her countless decades of work had born fruit across the Land, word of her capture and planned execution spread far and wide, Lords in Hornwichia and Barqia decried the arrest, while the King of Kanathelon and Prince of Dorran announced their intention to march north to punish the Rhar, and even other Rhar lords pressed the Lord to release her before the suffered a massive invasion they could not resist. He refused and within the week of his refusal ordered her death, only to find her cell empty and several servants missing, having spirited Róisín away before she could be killed. Later that year the Lords'a castle would be sacked by his rivals, while Róisín crossed the Rhar lands spreading the good word of her faith, thanking the Holy One for saving her.

After another decade among the Rahr and traveling back east to once more preach to the Hornwich, she would embark on her last attempt to travel and preach to other peoples. She crossed west into the Lands of the Besk and found a people ripe for conversion, lacking strong religious convictions and a people going through the crisis of plague, they took like moths to a flame with her Faith, openly embracing the Hollist Ideals with Lords and Peasants alike. By the End the lands of the Besk had been almost entirely converted, and she traveled back east to the Barqian Mountains.

The Return of Róisín to the Barqian Mountains would be a quiet one, she was old now and sickly from road sickness, she never traveled after her return to the mountains, remaining in the valleys among barqian communities for a year, before passing in her sleep to illness and her age, the end of the Prophet of Hollism would mark a turning point for the Religion and it's followers.

Modern Hollism

Churchs

The Hollist Faith lacks any organized center, despite several attempts over it's long and storied history, the Many Hollist Churches have instead consolidated and divided themselves along national lines, these national churches developing united theologies around joint interests and cultural practices, due to this different Hollist churches have developed slightly different practices, rituals and rites based on what culture they established themselves among.

While many differences can be regarded as superficial. or mundane, others are radically different, especially along divisive lines related to the teachings of Gender Nonconformity and the concepts of power and politics. Such Divisions would only solidify as national boundaries formed and early Kings and Queens tied themselves to the Church and Worship of the Holy One to legitimize their rule.

The Modern Churchs of Hollism are as Follows: The Church of the Holy One in Barqa along with Barqian Lands in Lexan, The Jakobist Church of Hornwichia, the United Hollist Church of Besk, The Church of Penance in Rharia, the Church of Unity in the United Kingdoms, and the currently Illegal Hollist Reform Church in the lands of the Zuza.

Social Teachings

Modern Hollism is often described as Socially Conservative, believing in maintaining many social norms and practices, with two glaring exceptions that to this day are a cause of controversy not only between Hollist Churches but Hollists and non Hollists. The First is the Rights of Women, due to many Hollist traditions and beliefs being based in Barqian Culture practices and the fact Róisín was herself a women, Women were viewed as equal to men, being fully capable of most things men were, though their remains a taboo on women wielding weapons and a certain expectation that Women would voluntarily dedicate themselves to their families once married and settled down. While these rights of women remain consistent between different Hollist Churches, with some influencing the politics of nations to have greater female involvement in the political sphere, the second great exception would to this day split churches and congregations.

Jakob Arragayo, a Hornwich follower and Maria Tiernan a Barqian are two of the most divisive figures in early Hollism, Jakob had been born a man, but would by the time they followed Róisín rejected the notion of being male, insisting that they were not a man or women, and were much like God beyond such barriers. Maria meanwhile, like Jakob, was born a man, but had come to identify themselves as a woman by the time she fell in with Róisín, wearing dresses, growing out her hair and even marrying and assuming the role of a women in her marriage with a Barqian Shepard.

These two followers of Róisín would be the first in a growing idea among early Hollists that the barriers of what Sex you were born as were something to overcome, those born men could be women, those born women could be men and those born as either could become neither and in some cases both. Such a radical theology was not easily embraced, even to this day many Hollists are split over the idea if these nonconforming people are deviants or valid members of Society. Among the Southern Church in modern Kanathelon and Dorran, such ideas are fully rejected and stories related to Jakob and Maria are decried as false. Meanwhile in the Northern Churches of the Besk and That, such people are accepted as readily as natural born men and women, while further east among the Barqians and Hornwich, such people are expected to keep such things to themselves, public demonstrations of their way of living seen as offensive to many.

Outside the Issue of Gender and equality, a key teaching of Modern Hollism is that of charity and welfare, Hollist nations and communities consistently rank the highest on indexes for the largest charities and the most donated by private citizens, while also having some of the largest and most robust social security systems, with Hollist faithful citing the Aspect of Charity applying not just to individuals or communities, but nations, afterall nations were a large community, and thus a large family and thus those at the head and with the most wealth must provide for the poorer members of the family.

Theological Teachings

In accordance with Hollist teachings and principles, all people are children of God or the Holy One, he created all mankind and let them loose upon the world to flourish and multiple, but as time passed and older generations gave way to younger ones, they slowly forgot God and much of his teachings, with some wholly forgetting him while others lost who she truly was and only knew them in the abstract.

With the rise of Hollism, it ia now known that God loves all their creations, and wishes nothing more then for them to flourish and prosper under their watchful eye, with it believed all those who live by the Three Aspects of Hollism, following good lives and believing in God, they can attain eternal life and entry into a afterlife known as Heaven.

Heaven is described as a place one's soul departs for after death, but first one must escape the mortal plain, those who have lived good and holy lives will be free of their mortal bounds and burdens and rise to the skies into heaven, but those who are weighed down by Sin and their lack of belief shall find their souls trapped upon the mortal world, cursed to travel the bounds of the world. However Hollist teachings also say that those souls can, after death, find forgiveness and a way to Heaven, with special rituals conducted by priests and followers to aid such souls along the path.

For those Souls that rise to Heaven, they find a Paradise beyond the imagination of any man, to even put the paradise into words is impossible, even for the most well educated and learned men of the Faith would struggle to truly comprehend and explain its majesty, where one exists within the very presence of God, the Light radiating from them blinding beyond compare. To even attempt to describe it anymore is impossible, so that is where this text will end describing it.

Hollist Theology places a strong aspect on the concept of the Family, both regular family units and communities are the most important aspect to Hollist society, with people within family units expected to care for each other and see to each other's material and spiritual needs. This idea would directly lead to the rise of Nationalism in Hollist societies, with the idea of nations being a community of communities, and since the community was family, the nation was a family of families.