Law (ideoligion)

The One, the All, the Intangible Infinite

COME, WORM OF MAN, AND LISTEN TO THE GOD THAT DOES NOT SPEAK. THROUGH HIM WE SHALL STRANGLE THE CHAOS INHERENT. THROUGH HIM ORDER SHALL BE BORNE WHERE THERE WAS ONCE TREACHERY, ONCE ANARCHY, UNTIL THERE IS NAUGHT LEFT BUT HIS WORD WITHOUT WORDS.

HE IS LAW. HE IS ALL.

MAY WE DIE IN HIS SCRUTINY.

—Lexator Janus, Codex of a Convert

Alignment: LE (LE, NE or LN)
Divine Domains: Artifice, Evil, Law, Scrutiny, Strength, War
Anathema: Chaos, Good, Healing, Magic
Favored Weapon: Whip, heavy or light flail
Symbol: Blue and white eye suspended in gold
Demonym: Lexator, lit. Law[wo]man in High Cordovan

New as His followership may be to the Realms of Terror, lexators portend that Law has existed since Chaos first gave way to the material world upon which all men now dwell. Law, then, is the guardian of the spiritual ether some call Astral, who will only admit to rejoin Him in death those who cast aside their chaotic nature in life. In this way Law is infinite, for Chaos is infinite; there can be no order without Him, no salvation without His Scrutiny.

The Word portends every man is born with Chaos in his soul, as the material world was altogether wrought from it. At times this Chaos Inherent may even manifest as sorcerous abilities—miracles and magics not of Law are derived from this chaotic sorcery, therefore anathema to Holy Order. Those who die in Chaos are likewise doomed to return to it, reincarnating into this accursed material forever until repentance. For this reason followers are encouraged to spread the Word of Law to as many as will hear, even should they encounter social or armed resistance.

Origin Myth and History

Law originates on Primus, the Cordovan word for their world prior to its wrenching into the Core. He is as old as time itself, requiring no great enlightenment or revelation. For as long as Primus has existed, so has Law; ever silent and ever watchful.

It is said that the annals written by those who received the Original Transmission were suppressed by the Cordan Republic, only to be rediscovered centuries later by Nona Velius, a young Cordan born during the Black Reign of the ten immortal, Tirimisce sorcerer-kings called the Dziesieciu in Skyalis, Cordan's oldest city. Velius instructed her followers that the material world as they understood it was constructed from primordial Chaos, their divine spirits anchored to this plane in physical bodies from which there would be no escape unless they pursued Holy Order—the Astral and intangible—and brought it forth into the material plane.

The Dziesieciu, she taught, were crystallizations of this Chaos, able to warp reality with sorcery only because there were none before them to speak the Word of Law and to do so ferociously, so absolutely that He would, without speaking, grant them the miracles necessary to speak for Him and in His name as divine edicts. Velius would take up arms with her followers for the war that would become known as the Refutation, where she would be immortalized as an epithet of Law as the Liberator and the Teacher. Cordans and Tirimisce alike would coalesce into the imperial peoples who today compose the Cordovans, with the Word of Law mandated as the state religion administered by its eponymous Church ever since.

Now the beating heart of an entire empire, Cordovans wasted little time in pressing the attack against their ancient enemies—the remaining Dziesieciu and their pagan adherents. The Word of Law provides that every captured pagan should be provided their chance to convert peacefully, with those that refuse being sent away to monasteries in faraway locales to experience what may only be described as rigorous, systemic re-education.

Though the so-anointed Axiomatic Inquest has done a great deal to dominate modern Cordovan society, Tirimisce who forsake Law in favor of their old paganistic ways are still plentiful in their ancestral moors, the Tirimisce Lands. The complete absolution of these pagans and any other heathen encountered by Cordovans remains the primary directive of the Inquest and devout Cordovans as a whole. Since the country's introduction among the Eastern Core into an entire plane of said heathens, it has become clear that their work may well never be finished.

Dogma

The Chaos Inherent exists in all men. To embrace Chaos is to be cursed to return to the folly of material creation. Thought, word and vision are the divine implements from which Chaos may be suppressed. Law is the One, the All, and the intangible Infinite. He blessed us with our spirits so that we may rejoin Him in death so long as we embrace Him and only Him in life. Lawful ideoligions are but epithets of Law. Enlighten these heathens to His truths so that they may also be saved. There is no greater condemnation than to be forced to walk the material forever. Kill no souls who embody Chaos, for they will only return stronger. Monsters and beasts wearing the mien of man may try to deceive you into believing they are soulful, but their souls have already departed. Kill them with exacting jurisprudence. When we sleep we receive Transmissions of the great Astral and intangible in our dreams—through them He speaks without speaking, and we should catalogue as such into codices and tomes to speak as divine edicts.

Though the material world may be composed of Chaos, pursue Law while here anyway. Create vast works of order and reasoned invention. Reject the seduction of arcane magic and heathen miracles. He is the Artificer, and we honor Him to apply sacred geometries and formulae than submit to the tyranny and illusion of arcane power.

Clergy, Hierarchy and Temples

There is no singular voice of Law, as all followers may experience Transmissions from Him which they alone must articulate and interpret. Not even Velius the Teacher prescribed to her people her absolute authority—it was granted to her for her heroism as the Liberator. Likewise no-one can claim to be His embodiment or avatar, as to suggest such a thing is impossible for all mortal shells are expressions of the Chaos Inherent and therefore unsuitable for Him. He can only be experienced in His sum totality in the Astral and the intangible.

Though this may imply a horizontal hierarchical structure, in keeping with Cordovan culture reality permits a Church of Law that is strictly regimented anyway, though all followers carry the base title lexator and any gender may ascend within its ranks.