Vaalbaran

Vaalbaran is the largest religion among the Creatures of Earth/Rodinians, with 45% of Rodinia's, the Weave of Worlds', and the Enclaves' populations classifying themselves as adherents. The faith's name is derived from the first supercontinent in Earth’s history, the supercontinent of Vaalbara, which formed during the Archeon Eon, 3.6 to 2.8 billion years ago. With precise reasoning for Vaalbara's naming now lost to the depths of deep time alongside the faith's exact origins, people believe through the scriptures that its name was chosen to symbolize the birth period of the Earth's own soul. The Earth’s soul is the bedrock of Vaalbaran faith.   In Vaalbaran, Earth is a deity and a recipient of worship, rituals of devotion, and prayer. A hierarchy of saints exist, who are individuals believed to be resurrected from death by the Earth itself. It's also believed the Earth will in some cases claim some Rodinians for their exceptional talents or powers. These individuals will simply vanish one day without a trace following a length of time exhibiting specific and well-known charismata. The most widely known are the Saints Sovereign, who exist within the Vaalbaran canon of saints as the mightiest lifeforms of Earth who have ever lived – former emperors, empresses and great house lords and matrons of Rodinia who were reincarnated after their deaths or claimed in life. The qualifications for canonization are ultimately known only to the Earth itself, but patterns exist in the overlapping degree of spiritual power, ideological adherence to the faith, and love for the Earth and its life.   Vaalbaran is widely known to produce miraculous acts, mostly around the usage of Rodinian psikinetics. Common examples are greatly enhanced psikinetic and spiritual power far beyond what an individual's soul could produce alone, supposedly delivered from the Earth itself. This excess power then better enables the devotee in tackling challenges normally outwith their own personal talent or capability. The aforementioned resurrection from death is another well-known phenomenon possible within Vaalbaran. Due to the strength of Vaalbaran's miracles and the near certainty people have in the existence of its deity figure (the Earth), many Rodinians don’t view it as a religion but instead as an extension of Rodinian psikinetics.   However, Vaalbaran contains myriad moral and philosophical instructions, and prescribed behaviours and attitudes, taking it beyond a mere system of psikinetic extension. Central to Vaalbaran's teachings is the idea of greater adherence to the faith's philosophy, morals and instructions bestowing greater favour from Earth, and therefore greater power. The core messages of Vaalbaran are the need to protect the Earth above all else, preserve its biosphere, encourage a large population of Rodinians, encourage the development of intelligent life from the Earth and welcome them into the fold, and most controversially of all, spread the Earth’s biosphere (and hence lifeforms) throughout the cosmos. These implied aims are all understood to possess the intention of growing the size and power of Earth’s soul, which thereby increases the vitality and power of all its life and all the life that traces its origins back to it.   These ambitions sound palatable on the surface, even noble in many respects, but digging deeper into them to ponder the consequences of these objectives leads one to several problematic challenges most Rodinians are no longer comfortable following. Most Rodinians classifying themselves as adherents of Vaalbaran do so very loosely, ignoring most of its teachings and instructions.   Specifically, problematic aspects concern spreading Earth’s biosphere at the expense of other planets’ alien biospheres (such as through destructive terraforming), the explosive population growth of Rodinians (which is unsustainable in a civilisation of immortals), and the creation of a universe-spanning Empire of the Creatures of the Earth. Many view Vaalbaran as being intrinsically imperialistic, warmongering and Earth-life supremacist. Its most fanatical members care nothing for other civilisations, viewing them as a speed-bump on the road to spreading Mother Earth’s life to every corner of the cosmos. The prophesized conclusion to the ambitions of Vaalbaran is the ascension of the Earth’s soul to godhood, carrying all Rodinians with it to escape the Billowing.  

The Mother, the Prophet and the Gaias

  Vaalbaran elevates three specific entities above all others:  

• Earth, usually referred to as the Mother.
 
• Vicar Uros Illynar, often referred to as Saint Uros or the Prophet Uros.
 
• The Gaias, a prophesized messianic figure, supposedly the mind of the Earth made flesh, and a perfect hypostatic union of Rodinian and Earth.

   

The Mother, Earth

  It's a truism to say the Earth is the highest authority for the eponymous Creatures of Earth. For most, this sentiment is merely symbolic, and reflects the nature of all Rodinian power uncovering its foundations within the colossal maelstrom of spiritual dyne swirling around the planet's gravity well. Not just their power finds its beginning and end there, but their very lives do so too. The continuation of the Earth is paramount for the survival of the soul of every living thing tracing its ancestry from the planet.   Politically and spiritually however, Earth commands less direct influence upon the affairs of Rodinia and its citizens. The sword Bequethor remains the fullest extent of its involvement in politics, screening prospective candidates for the position of Imperial Majesty during the position's rare vacancies. Beyond this, Imperial Majesties are expected to operate in a secular fashion, maintaining a separation between the offices of the Imperial Government and the functions, ambitions and beliefs of the Vaalbaran faith. This divergence is a recent development in the politics of Rodinia where beforehand Vaalbaran enjoyed millions of years of political dominance, and it eventually led to a series of civil skirmishes and finally a schism in the faith.   Even though now insulated from the political machinery of Rodinia, Vaalbaran still strictly teaches that Earth is the highest authority governing the foundations of Rodinian spiritual power through demanding its own desires be appeased. And the planet is very much alive, self-aware, and aware of all else that goes on around it.   It's not alive in the same sense an animal, plant, or bacterium is alive however. The planet fundamentally remains a ball almost entirely composed of inanimate silicates and iron. Its biosphere, as tenacious, productive and dangerous as it is, remains but a fragile skin contributing only a sliver to the planet's overall animate state. That which gives it agency and awareness emerges not from the rock or the biosphere, but from a far greater scale hurricane of spiritual dyne racing around the planet with frighting speed and incomprehensible power. Composing this storm of spiritual dyne are the souls of everything that has ever lived on the Earth, from the Earth or by the Earth. All things that trace their ancestry back to the primordial oceans of this pale blue dot take their initial soul from it, and return their soul to it upon death. And emerging from this spiritual ocean of souls is a gestalt intelligence metonymically referred to as the Earth.   This intelligence is vast, beyond the scope of anyone's ability to define either its boundaries, its limitations, or its depth of knowledge and experience. Even a Rodinian mind can't grasp its scale or scope. Its presence upon the mind attempting communion is often described as an oppressive and suffocating weight that somehow evokes both a feeling of inescapable claustrophobia and agoraphobia – like being submerged at the bottom of an ocean without air supply. No chance for escape. It's thoughts are alien; too grand, too powerful, and operating at a level beyond even a Rodinian's fierce intellect. Yet despite being unknowable in intent, it's both totally in control yet completely uncontrollable. It controls the levers and dials of Rodinian spiritual power, and bows to none of the creatures it's physical form has birthed into this world. It is the ultimate master of all the life that names the Earth as its ancestral home.   In Vaalbaran, the mind of Earth is worshipped as the supreme deity of the Gaiacosm, the sphere of all life ever derived from Earth life. Its ambitions, intentions, thoughts and feelings are divined only over eons of prayer, communion, praxis, research and philosophical evaluation by Rodinia's greatest theologians. Through this ponderous rigor, the Vaalbaran faith developed a set of scriptures, beliefs, rituals and praxis' believed to best exalt, revere, reflect and pursue the wishes of the mind of Earth.    

The Prophet, Vicar Uros Illynar

  The second major entity in Vaalbaran is regarded as the founding father of the faith in the form it currently takes today. Uros Illynar's impact was transformative in the religion's organization and structure, its purpose and ambitions, and its ultimate end goal. Following his work in leading as reformed Vaalbaran's first Vicar, he vanished without a trace before millions of onlookers and was never seen again. Beforehand, his display of profound charismata, planetary scale psikinetic prowess, and accurate predictions of the future, lead to the belief he was deeply in tune with Earth's wishes. Therefore it's widely believed he was taken by Earth once his work was complete, and thereby became canonized as Vaalbaran's first saint.   Prior to Uros' reformations, Vaalbaran existed more like an extension to Rodinian psikinetics where, through meditation and a deeper connection to the Earth, one could potentially enhance their spiritual development and understanding. It contained or espoused no greater ambitions or politics, and made no attempts to chart or clarify the future. What Uros did was take the myriad of distinct practices developed over the eons within Vaalbaran and explained how and why they granted increased psikinetic power and increased spiritual development. By explaining these phenomenon as emerging from a specific lifestyle and system of beliefs all in concordance with the wishes of Earth, he provided a framework for both explaining and reliably reproducing these phenomena. This was in contrast to what came before, where the boons of Vaalbaran were obtained through trial and error, and mysticism.   The key to Uros' success wasn't merely how he could explain and reproduce the miracles and boons of Vaalbaran, but how he possessed so many himself. This included the Eyes of Earth, the most sacred and difficult state to achieve in Vaalbaran. This charismata is only seen in those who possess a profound state of spiritual alignment with the Earth, and are therefore blessed by the Earth. Their eyes glow with an ethereal blue and green light, and accompanying this gaze is profound psikinetic and spiritual power few can match.   He quickly united Vaalbaran from a loose community of related sects into an organized religion with a central set of scriptures based upon understanding and pleasing the Earth, and from this emerged the first tendril of political ambition. As his followers grew in number, so too did his political outreach and lobbying power. Many councilors were elected to the Grand Court of the Creatures of Earth who espoused the beliefs and ambitions of Uros' reformed Vaalbaran, including a few Archministers. Whilst the aristocratic Great Houses remained wary and resistant towards a potential new challenger to the power they retained for themselves, the Imperial Government was more susceptible. As primarily elected by the people, it swayed with the capricious desires of the people. As reformed Vaalbaran increasingly spread through the pre-existing follower-base, the more the Imperial Government became influenced by Vicar Uros. It wasn't too much longer after that when the Imperial Majesty at the time, Empress Nekrash Toucor, was forced to acknowledge reformed Vaalbaran and incorporate some of its beliefs and teachings into her rule, such as the spread of Earth life throughout the cosmos. This is widely regarded as the moment the Rodinians' imperial ambitions began, setting them on a collision course with the Nadrakians that would result in millions of years of on-and-off conflict with the divine aliens.   Another of his key abilities that proved crucial to his conversion of countless Vaalbaran adherents to his reformations was his prescience. Uros knew things that weren't possible. He could recall and relay memories in exact detail that weren't his own, explaining people's own lives to them in exquisite detail. He knew other Rodinian's innermost thoughts as they occurred inside their heads, in real time. This was during a time when Rodinians didn't possess telepathy, and even if they did, it still wouldn't account for his knowledge. This is now understood as accessing memories stored within Earth's gestalt spiritual aura, accumulated from all the creatures that have ever lived, past and present. At the time however, this was a novel ability. He described it as the spiritual manifestation of the mystical concept known as the Blood of the Earth, and solid proof of the unity of all Earth life into one cohesive body, the Gaiacosm.   Mere months prior to his disappearance, Vicar Uros took his prescience one step further by making three prophetic predictions of the future. Even though precognition is possessed by most Rodinians today, back then it was unheard of. The means by which Uros obtained this power remain a mystery, as even the Earth shouldn't have been capable of this power before the Nadrakians donated their powers to it during the Blood Harvest. These predictions were as follows:  

• Archnadrakian Balaine shall at first fall to madness, then fall again to a Rodinian's blade. Rodinia will then rule unopposed, and unopposable, for as long as our ambitions last.
 
• There shall be a great civil war among Rodinians to finally quench the strife that exists at the heart of our society. Tired of our petty divisions and lost sense of purpose, our very Earth shall be born as a Rodinian and lead us to unity and renewed ambition. This being shall be known as the Gaias.
 
• Final appeasement of our Earth, for perfect hypostatic union, must inevitably come from its release. As Earth made flesh, the Gaias shall allow Earth to become purely spiritual, unbound from its mortal stone. Our salvation is tied to it; whatever challenges we face in future, our salvation will all come down to trusting in that which gave us our lives in the first place. So long as we have faith in the Earth, it will not let us fall. Not to Balaine, not to infinite darkness, and not to the fate that awaits all life.

   

The Gaias, Last Child of Earth

  The final proclamations of Vicar Uros spoke of a being called the Gaias, who was described as "Earth made flesh" and a the Earth "born as a Rodinian". There are a few interpretations of what this means, from the literal to the metaphorical.   The literal interpretation takes the description as is, and assumes a Rodinian will be born with the actual mind of the Earth, including its spiritual power. Such a Rodinian would be a god among other Rodinians, with the memories and knowledge of every single Earth-based lifeform that's ever lived, including every Rodinian and the ability to know the thoughts of other Rodinians – perhaps even control them. Their psikinetic power would be difficult to even remotely comprehend.   More metaphorical interpretations with less messianic bents to them view this as Rodinians awakening a greater collective consciousness and becoming one with the soul of the Earth. In this view, each and every Rodinian would gain the memories and knowledge of all current and ancestral Earth life, and the ability to know each other's thought and motives. This somewhat nightmare scenario for the privacy of one's own mind is believed to lead Rodinians to a state where they finally achieve inner peace amongst themselves. All Rodinians would also gain unfathomable psikinetic power, elevating each one to godhood status.   Other aspects of the Gaias include their unifying influence upon the Rodinians, and their renewal of Rodinia's lost ambitions. In the current era, many look at the Rodinian Empire's collapse and Rodinia's general disinterest in the cosmos at large as a sign of that need for renewed ambition, and a sign that the Gaias may be close. The deteriorating political situation at the heart of Rodinia's government, and the escalation of the rhetoric between Rodinia and the Enclaves is viewed as another sign of the division that brings the Gaias into existence.   The final act of the Gaias is said to be releasing the Earth from its mortal stone, assumed by many faithful to mean the existence of the Earth's soul independent of any physical tether (such as the planet's matter and gravity well). How this could be accomplished is a total mystery and flies in the face of everything known about how souls and spiritual auras develop. However many have latched onto this as describing a way by which life can survive the Billowing, interpreting the phrase "infinite darkness" as the Billowing itself.   The Billowing terrifies Rodinians. It describes a situation of unavoidable, complete and final death not even their power or immortality can circumvent. As it draws nearer with every revision made from newer, more accurate astronomical measurements, the Vaalbaran faith's numbers swell with new devotees desperate for some guidance and hope. They reason, afterall, that Vicar Uros was correct in his first prediction concerning the fall of Archnadrakian Balaine. Therefore he's probably right about the final prediction too.   He's going to be correct, isn't he? Right?   Rodinians pray, and have faith, that he is.