Cardinal Cleric

The Cardinal Clerics are the oldest-known religous order and are responsible for training a type of Cleric by the same name. The order has its roots in the early-to-mid First Chaotic Period but the religion is far older.

Terminology

Officially called The Order of the Cardinal Clerics. Clerics of the order are called simply Clerics or Cardinal Clerics. Non-cleric practitioners are called Cardinals. The religion is sometimes refered to as Cardinalism. The head of the religion is known as the Doseu(pronounced "doci") which means "He who speaks with no mouth". The Doseu was created shortly after the Mage Wars when the Cardinal Clerics swore fealty to the Pendragon of Slayer Dragons. Though never written as law, the Doseu is expected to act as the voice of the Pendragon to the Order of the Cardinal Clerics, making the Pendragon effectively the leader. During the Long Night with no Pendragon, it became customary for the the Doseu to take a vow of silence, effectively rendering him a figurehead and leaving the organization leaderless.

Influence

The Cardinal Clerics(who's practitioners are called Cardinals) have followers all throughout the known worlds and held signficant influence both during the first two Ages of the the Alliance and during the Long Night and New Day.

History

Mage Wars

The religion practiced by the Cardinal Clerics dates back to the early Age of Darkness and may have roots in Antiquity. It is known to have been practiced by several of the old Clans and many draw their names from portions of it. Cardinal Clerics worship the One King, and were originally called the Westpoint Clerics or the Clerics of the Setting Sun.

During the First Chaotic Period, the Westpoint Clerics solidified into a cohesive group, and began training Clerics to help fight the rise of wizard kings. The order was, at the time, closely aligned with the Wizard Breakers and may still hold many of their secrets(including the technique to create Mobiru weapons and armor). It was during this time that the warrior clerics, using the religion as a front, began to create the Templars, a clandestine intelligence network that was later used by Uther.

By the Dynastic Period the Westpoint Clerics held significant political and millitary power, but found themselves at war with the Marcon Alliance. The clerics fought them on many fronts and lent their warriors to whatever armies would have them. They shared technological and magical knowledge with any of the Marcon's enemies, and were even responsible for copying and destribituing stolen dark-magic spellbooks(as the order had many scribes). The Westpoint Clerics felt they existed in a state of "total war" with the Marcon Alliance.

Eventually, the order became severely fractured as their power bases and various headquarters were destroyed. Many factions carried on, often times fighting gorilla wars that lasted for generations.

Near the end of the Dynastic Period, a cleric by the name of Shahol Dreamstrife reformed the order, bringing together several desperate bands into the Order of the Cardinal Clerics, or simply the Cardinal Clerics. Shahol would be recognized as the first Doseu(lit. He who speaks with no mouth), the religious leader of the Cardinal Clerics.

Ages of the Alliance

The Cardinal Clerics would go on to back Uther and became closely aligned with the Order of the Cardinal Star. Clerics and paladins being so closely related as to be nearly indistinguishable(indeed, in many cases the difference is in name only). Following the end of the Mage Wars, the Cardinal Clerics swore feilty to the Pendragon, and used their vast political and economic power to serve the new Alliance. The Alliance even modeled its Rangers on the Cardinal's Templar network.

While the order continued to train clerics, mostly to fight in the First File, the religion spread heavily during the Golden Age. While the Alliance recognized no official religion, it was by far the most popular, and grew to heavy prominence during the Second Age. However, the religion suffered terribly during the [[Ages#The Third Age|Third Age due to the Necromanic Wars. By the end of the Third Age, it had lost many followers and much of it's political and economic power. At the dawn of the Fourth Age, the Cardinals were viewed as being "no different from the multitude of other religions", except that it was still the most widely-practiced fiath, and they still maintained the secretive Templar network.

The Cardinal Clerics continued throughout the Ages of the Alliance, presenting themselves more and more as a simple religious order, while continuing to train Clerics as warrior mages for the First File and to back the Templar network.

Long Night

With the death of Hunter Jusenkyou(the final Pendragon of Slayer Dragons and the end of the Age of the Dragon, the Alliance itself, and the beginning of the Long Night, the Cardinal Clerics truly emerged as a force for good. Because they appeared on the surface as a religious order, the armies of Samuel Fate left them largely untouched(while ostensibly the Emperor required everyone worship him, allowing his subjects practical freedom of religion was part of how he kept them in line). In this way, the Cardinal Clerics were able to absorb the Order of the Cardinal Star and protect many paladins from execution for serving the old Alliance.

Meanwhile, the Templars worked in secret. With now thousands of years of experience to draw on and a highly segmented network, they were able to operate almost unchecked throughout the multi-verse. Working with the order on the surface, their primary function was to help spread the religion of the Cardinal Clerics, ostensibly in preparation for the return of the Pendragon.

While the Pendragon's eminent return was originally a deep secret, it eventually worked its way into the basic tenants of the religion. While the One King was still worshiped as the King of Kings, the Pendragon grew in prominence and was essentially worshiped alongside. In particular, the beliefs of the Cardinals focused around the authority of the Pendragon. While during the Ages of the Alliance they listened to the Pendragon, only God could command them. By the end of the Long Night, the Pendragon was considered to be the only mortal capable of speaking with the authority of God.

It was some time during the Long Night that the Doseu took his vow of silence, waiting to respond only to the true Pendragon.

New Day

The major problem with the Cardindal Clerics began during the Long Night. They emerged from that period with very significant military and political power, having many devout followers and great nations who practiced Cardinalism as their state religion. Many nations that had no official religion still had many followers, and those with democratically elected governments often had a voting majority of cardinals.

However, during the Long Night it had become customary for the Doseu(the leader of the Cardinal Clerics) to take up a vow of silence as soon as he accepted the role of leadership. This

As they respected only the