SUMMARY:
Protectorism is the primary religion practiced by kunjels, and the religion that Drinna subscribed to and which motivated her throughout the novel Drinna. It is also the basis for the kunjels' theocratic government.
Protectorism is the belief in an almighty Protector who keeps watch over his faithful and who protects those who wish to do good and honorable things.
STRUCTURE:
The King:
The King is the highest priest. He is appointed from among Knights by a counsel of Bishops. He is chosen both based on his military prowess and his proven knowledge of the codes and ethics of his religion. The counsel of bishops establish laws, verify books and writings, and appoint priests. The king represents the counsel, is the face of the kingdom, and has veto powers against the counsel. He is considered the Protector's agent and can make some decisions without the counsel. Once a king is established, usually his successor is someone from his knight order if not his family. The kunjels still maintain a patriarchal society, though women in their society can hold comparable positions throughout the theocracy.
The Bishops:
Bishops represent a large portion of land, including at least one centralized city and its surrounding towns or wolches (a wolch is a particular town, village, or hamlet dedicated to a singular purpose or job). The bishops appoint rulers over the cities in the form of nobles (Dukes, Counts, etc), and appoint priests to rule in the wolches. The nobles are rulers of the military forces, including Knight Orders and other military organizations. The priests rule over the people. The Bishops are the centralized government, much like a federal government rules over a state government.
The Nobles and Knights:
The Nobles are usually the heads of Knight Orders in a particular area. A Count is over a large marketing city. A Duke is over a military city, a Baron is usually over a farming city. The Knights are divided into particular orders. The head of a knight order is either an officer of the military (depending on his rank), or an officer of law enforcement. The nobles keep castles, which are where most of the soldiers and military are quartered. These are called Halls or Keeps. The nobles are keepers of the law and students of the laws, though mostly they keep the peace. They patrol roads and the borders of the kingdom and inspect imports and exports.
Knights have the right to settle disputes found within their jurisdiction or to bring the offending and defending groups to trial at the nearest church. If necessary, knights are entitled to use deadly force to stop someone else from being harmed. They can also be called upon to duel on someone's behalf.
The Priests and Monks:
The word priest and monk is almost interchangeable among kunjelic clergy. Monks serve a priest and are helpers in the church. The Priest is the leader of a church and is the one who presides over it. Priests are trained to do different things depending on the needs of a town. Priests of Protectorism are allowed, and actually encouraged, to marry so they can be partners of opposite genders. Here is a list of the different roles a priest performs for a Protectorist church.
Trakist:
This is a calmist who deliberately tests people going through Trakia. They sign the documentation that someone is an officially recognized member of kunjelic society and who is capable of controlling their rage. The Trakist is one who puts a person through 'moving the sklunjia,' a rite of passage that finally confirms a person is through with Trakia.
Calmist:
This is a warrior monk. They tend to waywards (people who cannot control their rage). They are trained in subduing and calming people in the rage down. Often, they carry chemical tools that can help, but they are masters of wrestling and holds, and even breaking. They are absolutely in control of their own rage and are experts in using it to control others. Usually, they help people going through Trakia to get through Trakia. They serve as guides as Trakis (rage houses where people go through Trakia).
Keepers of the Laws:
This type of monk transcribes and translates established holy texts. These are experts in the laws of Thortinis and inter-species/inter-government laws. When an appeal is made to the decision of a Knight, the keeper of the law is usually consulted to find out what should have been done or what may be done. Executions in Thortinis cannot take place, nor can a person be subjected to public punishment until three or more keepers of the law have been consulted.
Teachers:
This is a monk who teaches students past Trakia in reading, writing, and arithmetic. All kunjels are ranked in society, and to successfully become a higher rank in society, they must learn to read and write. Before a person can be licensed to seek a mate or become betrothed, they must have read certain books. It is very like earning certain merit badges or rewards in a way. One cannot occupy certain jobs or positions in society without having been tested by teachers. The teachers are those who recommend people for certain jobs as well.
Appointers:
Appointers are those monks who decide who gets what jobs. Based on the recommendations of teachers, the observable talents of the child/student, etc. a child is sent to be apprenticed at a particular job. Usually, children follow in the footsteps of their parents, but in the case where they don't, they are sent to particular schools to learn their trade. This is how Drinna's parents were moved from their home to Westhunt Wolch to become transporters and merchants for the City of Waldoris on the Western Edge of Thortinis (the kunjelic kingdom). Drinna's parents showed ability with foreign languages and money, so they were trained as merchants.
Recorders:
Recorders collect stories about how or whether or not the Protector has interacted with the world or its people. They write these stories down and then transcribe them and see if the story matches known interactions or serves a purpose likely to be a purpose of the Protectors. Most of these stories never make it past the Recorder's pen, but some of them become part of the Kundarthor. These stories must be passed upwards through the ranks of recorder priests, confirmed, and voted on by the Counsel of Bishops. These also translate other works from elsewhere and accommodate/assimilate the religious philosophies, doctrines, notions of other people groups (basically figuring out how Protectorism should be considered now that other races and viewpoints are to be found).
THE SACRED TEXTS:
For the kunjels, the sacred texts are referred to as The Kundarthor. This holy writing is divided into the following main sections:
The History of the People of Gollithia:
These are the chronicles of the kunjels until the time when they were forced out of Gollithia into Trithofar by the Dragon and Murgs aligned against them. This mostly chronicles the lives of kings, famous knights, famous priests, or people who were known to have encountered the Protector in person. A listing of the kings and certain locations can be found here. This is considered one of the dead books, meaning nothing is added to it without serious scrutiny (as in someone would have to go to Gollithia and confirm kunjels are still living there, then come back and fetch a witness to go with them again). No prophecy or dream visions adds to this book.
The History of Drod:
This is a collection of different writings on what happened in a place called Drod, where humans lived before the kunjels came to Trithofar. For a while, the humans and kunjels lived together more or less agreeably, helping each other. However, as the king of Drod began to become more paranoid and crazy, the relationship between the kunjels and Drods grew strained, until finally the kunjels were forced to revolt. The history of Drod tells this story, both from humans' retellings and from the perspective of the kunjels who could remember living in Drod. This is what is called a 'Broken Section' of the Kundarthor, because the stories included within it are not all considered reliable. Some kunjels debate about whether or not to leave out certain sections due to unflattering portrayals and due to unconfirmed accounts. The debate rages on. Again, a dead book.
The Words of the Heart and Mind (aka The Books of the Laws; the Books of the Protector's Guidance; The Books of the Protector's Words; the Words of Law; The Protector's Laws; etc):
The kunjels believe that, every once in a while, the Protector gives certain members of their society visions, insight, or particularly good words to live by. These have been collected over the years in a section of the Kundarthor known as Words of the Heart and Mind. Sometimes, they are dreams recorded in the "Dream Journals" for later. Sometimes, they are actual rules for living written down by particularly wise thinkers. Think Confucius meets Aristotle meets Moses. The Words of the Prophets are directed at certain groups of people in certain situations. For instance, one of these books or scrolls is entitled "The Book of Hearths and Doorways" where etiquette for being a guest in a kunjelic house is established and recommended. There are the "Book of Wives," and the "Book of Husbands" which both genders read and discuss in order to get married. There is the "Book of Honor" where how one maintains one's honor or loses it is discussed. Kunjels in school must learn to read and to make copies of these texts for themselves to have in their homes. In as much as kunjels are trying to learn how to deal with other races and cultures and how to best accommodate guests in their land, etc., the Words of the Heart and Mind is considered a Living Book. The Counsel of Bishops amends some of the scriptures contained herein as they see a need to do so, and one might consider this very like a constitution for the people of Thortinis. This is where the laws of the land are and who gets to do what, etc. When a situation arises that the Counsel has never seen before, they will make a law about it here, based on previous laws and precedent as much as possible.
The Book of Sunsets:
This is a book where prophets have written predictions for the future they believe will come true. Many believe that these predictions are handed directly to prophets by the Protector. For instance, the kunjels believe one day the great Dragon Ollogriath will rise again and attempt to destroy the world again, as he tried to do in Gollithia, and they pray to the Protector to keep them from this fate. This is also considered a living book as it is sometimes amended, updated, retranslated, etc. Many scholars attempt to make sense of the prophecies entered in these texts.
DENOMINATIONS:
Gardenists:
The kunjels divide over a few issues in their religious beliefs. This causes a few minor schisms between them. The biggest issue the kunjels divide over is the nature of the Highest. As previously stated, the Highest is the name commonly given to the idea/manifestation/philosophical notion/thought of the SUPREME BEING, the most high, the biggest, most powerful, only God of the universe. Some kunjels do not believe there is such a thing, and that the Aaviriri (as defined and written about by the Eight before the First Qwadro Wars) are the only things there are beyond mortality. Therefore, for these kunjels, choosing a religion is like choosing a roommate for eternity -- whose heaven do you want to attend? Worship that god and do what it says. This is a common religious break off from many of the traditional religious ideals of the races entering Trithofar. It is commonly referred to as the Garden Theory: each god/aav is the keeper of his/her own garden, and will weed out the undesirables from their garden to live forever with those they desire to live with.
Many kunjels, therefore, believe in the Protector still, because so far as they can tell, he has continued to protect their people and lead them to what they believe is righteousness; however, these kunjels do not believe the Protector is the supreme being, but a being who will present them to the supreme being, the Highest. He is creating a garden he believes the Highest will love best, and to follow him is to be included in the Highest's pleasure. As is evident here, some believe the Protector is doing this for the supreme being, while others believe he cultivates his own to him.
The Phasists:
One branch of kunjels who still hold the Protector is the supreme being are called Phasists. These believe that anyone not holding exactly to kunjelic belief systems is wrong and will be excluded from heaven. Those who do not worship the Protector and seek shelter with him will be given over to destruction and ruin. They believe that the Protector and the Highest are the same being. Most hold to the idea that the Protector was once The Creator, but after originating everything that ever was, is, and will be, he stopped producing and became the Protector. These hold that the Creator also created evil, not because he was cruel or mean-spirited or incapable of stopping it, but to isolate evil and excise it from himself because the Creator created everything, all things. The creation of evil, according to Phasists, was to purify and exclude evil from itself. Phasists believe that mortals exist because their god chooses to exist in phases. Once, it was in the Creator Phase, now it is in the Protector Phase, and one day it will become the Destroyer phase, where it crushes and ultimately eliminates all evil from itself. Many kunjels hold to the teachings that this cycles over and over again and again. After the destruction, the Highest will return to being The Waiting Phase, having included within itself all the souls of the previous universe, the Highest will create a new universe, with new people, and new worlds and etc. where it can once again purge and get rid of the evil that has accumulated.
Tridists:
Some kunjel philosophers have taught that the Creator is the originator of all things, the Protector keeps what is good and worthy, as judged by the righteous laws, and the rest is thrown to the Destroyer. These three Aaviri are believed to be the only three in existence and form the ultimate power struggle of the universe. The Creator and the Protector dislike/hate/are enemies with the Destroyer, but cannot deny the necessity of its existence. Some Tridists even hold the Protector to be the only one of the three worth worshiping as some believe the Creator to not be capable of judging what it creates, but creates anything that it can think of or anything that it does think of. The Protector, therefore, becomes the only one of the three to have any real care about what is saved and what is let to be destroyed. They account the creation of Ollogriath, Evil, The Qwadro, and any of the demonic/monstrous things that have surfaced in Trithofar as evidence of this belief system. Some even go so far as to say the Creator and the Destroyer are in league with each other and the Protector battles against them. Here you have a division among even the Tridists.
Loyalists:
Many kunjels would fall into the category of being Loyalists. This means they don't care what has happened since coming to Trithofar. They believe in the traditional religious beliefs handed down from their forefathers. They hold to what scriptures have already been presented, as many were believed to have been handed down to the first kunjels who could write and nothing has really changed that for them. They believe the new things introduced to them do not change the relevance of their original teachings, and instead think that Protectorism is more a philosophical belief than a religion. Most of them think it better to worship as they have been taught, to worship as they know and who they know and let the pieces fall where they may after they're dead, when it is too late to worry about it anyway. They do not pretend to judge or understand how the Protector will handle people outside of their beliefs, or people outside of their species, but assumes that the Protector is good, and serves the highest good and truth and justice. They believe that whatever happens will be according to pure justice. They hold that most of the laws written in Gollithia were for Gollithians only and not for alien species that never had them.
Servists:
These are people who believe that the Protector is one of many servants to the Highest. Some servants have gone astray and are evil, while others still try and lead people to goodness. Servists (of which type Drinna's family tends to be), believe that the Protector is not the ultimate being, but a servant of the ultimate being. They believe that other 'deities' are not really gods, but are the aaviri selected to guide other races to the Highest, etc. They believe the Highest sent aaviri to best translate between the Highest and mortals.
WHAT'S THE TRUTH?
The Protector does not, in the entire Kundarthor, make one absolute, undeniable claim to godhood. He does speak of serving the Highest Good, or serving Ultimate Justice, etc. But never does he claim to be the originator of all material in the universe, nor claim all answers to all questions. He never claims omnipotence, nor omniscience. He makes predictions through prophets that have come to pass, established the means for the kunjels to survive the onslaught of the Sons of Ollogriath and to come to Trithofar. He arranged for them to overcome the Drods and to claim Thortinis as their homes in Trithofar.
The kunjels trust and listen to what they perceive are his commands because he has sheltered them and long been a friend to them. He has never made a prophecy he hasn't kept or which could be said to be a lie, and he advocates for peace, prosperity, understanding, and tolerance. The kunjels perceive him to be a good god, no matter whether he is the ultimate god or not.
Truthfully, he is an aav among aaviri, like an angel and help to mortals. He fights against the Qwadro and cultivates goodness in people where possible. However, he believes it should be done through willingness rather than through force.
I will not go into the names of particular famous kunjels here, but will do that as I write more about them, as best I can.
Anyway, that's what I have to say about that so far...
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