The Church of the Icons

The movement called the Church of the Icons is a faction both old and new, resting on a basis of ancient cults, but founded in the modern age, preaching the modern ways of the faith.   The exact origin of the Icon faith has been lost to time, but everyone knows that it was introduced to the Third Horizon by cultists and believers from the First Horizon. All but one of these cults, the Circle of Seekers, are dead today but their religious practices have been all but abandoned by the general population.   Instead, the Church of the Icons has become the dominant religious faction. They are the Horizon’s youngest faction, and have grown strong through collecting, canonizing and institutionalizing the wide, sprawling faith that has existed in the Horizon for centuries.   During a live Bulletin broadcast in CC 49, the nine sacred rites were put in writing in the Icon City on Mira, where the Church originally grew into a faction to begin with, during the darkness of the Long Night after the end of the war. A ruling matriarch and patriarch, assisted by an assembly of clergy, head the new faction. Today, the Seekers, whose presence was also strong on Mira, have been marginalized, looked upon as wise ascetics and prophets rather than actual figures of power within the faction.   The key difference between the Church’s doctrine and the Iconic folklore is that the faction denies the duality of the Icons’ temperaments and vengefulness. Instead, the Church preaches that evil exists within humans themselves, and that it is released when the Dark between the Stars enters someone’s life.  

THE CIRCLE OF SEEKERS

The Circle of Seekers remain, but are the strongest on Sadaal, on Mira and her sister systems, and on Dabaran, where they have both the Temple of the Circle and a monastery school in Lotus, the holy city. The Seeker title is only awarded someone upon initiation into one of their monasteries, which are always shaped like circles. It is said that the Seekers possess the same mystical powers as those afflicted with the mystic’s disease, but that they are in full control of them.   The Seekers have a reputation for being skillful negotiators. They have often been called upon to end bitter conflicts, such as the Geselem riots on Algol and in the aftermath of the bloody massacre on the Moon of Menkar. Apart from this, the Seekers generally keep a low profile. On Coriolis and in other places, they run meditative stone gardens where believers and Seekers can come to find peace.  

THE MISSIONARIES

The Church of the Icons’ calling is to unite all the peoples of the Horizon in the one true faith, and the mission is therefore the first of the sacred rites. Missionary expeditions depart regularly from the core systems out to the star arms, often carrying both missionaries and Seekers.   The most famous member of the Church is not the matriarch or the patriarch as one might expect, but the council member Wasimah Umm, a former Seeker turned Arch Herat. She has openly declared her views on many difficult questions of morality and ontology, the latest one being the intense debate about whether humanites have souls or not. Aside from Wasimah, the prophet Yesiel Marcos is a well-known face as he frequently appears on the morning shows of the Bulletin with a loud opinion on the “the Blight” and its impact on the Horizon. The father of the mission, Sharif Afta on Coriolis, has initiated the most missionary expeditions, and just recently came back alive from the disaster at Taoan.  

TALISMANS

The faithful often carry a talisman representing their favorite Icon, something the Church has been trying to change, instead encouraging believers to carry a silver sideways eight, the symbol of the Church. The sideways eight symbolizes the eight visible Icons, with the empty spaces representing the Faceless One, but it is also the symbol of infinity in Dabaran mathematics.   THE SACRED RITES ◆◆ The mission ◆◆ The life bond ◆◆ The creed ◆◆ The blessing ◆◆ The fast ◆◆ The confession ◆◆ The pilgrimage ◆◆ The giving of alms ◆◆ The prayer