Ketherism

Ketherism is the established religion of Kalgachia. It is a gnostic evolution of Minarborian Shrub-worship which is itself a variant of the horticultural belief system practised by the Deep Singers, a race of genetically modified beings who once lived in central Brookshire. Certain elements of Ketherist liturgy and dogma have also been absorbed from Benacian Judaism, as practised in antiquity by the population of Ashkenatza and its descended disapora.

The Ketherist Creed

The essential precepts of Ketherism can be summed up as follows:

• 1. All human souls originate in an immaterial realm of absolute (but not necessarily orderly) symbiosis known as the Garden Ketheric.

• 2. A portion of the Garden Ketheric has been infringed upon by the Wastes of Irredeemable Corruption, a cancerous realm sustained by a psychopathic creed of mechanist powerlust which must constantly expand to survive and seeks to trick and enslave vulnerable human souls into its service, mainly by appealing to the baser human vices and concealing the path to Ketheric enlightenment with relentless appeals to cynicism. The physical universe is that portion of the Garden Ketheric which has been tainted by the Wastes of Irredeemable Corruption, creating an imperfect simulacrum of the Garden Ketheric which, while appearing convincing to unwary seekers of Ketheric purity, is in fact constructed to lead them away from such a path and unwittingly into the service of the Wastes of Irredeemable Corruption.

• 3. The Garden Ketheric is a realm of absolute solidity, whereas The Wastes of Irredeemable Corruption are a realm of absolute permeability: the influence of the Wastes of Irredeemable Corruption therefore prevails the easiest where physical matter is sparsest; all causes of suffering and human vice ultimately originate in the heavens - conversely, Ketheric salvation can be found within the ground, beneath the sea, or buried in distant celestial bodies.

• 4. By the efforts of the Ketherist faithful, a portion of the material world known as the Garden Physical, corresponding to the territory of Kalgachia, has been wrested back from the Agents of Irredeemable Corruption and their masters, the Archons of Irredeemable Corruption (foremost among whom are the gods of other Micran religions with a certain emphasis on Cedrism). All other parts of the material universe, enthralled to those Agents and Archons in varying degrees, are known as the Tumultuous Wastes.

• 5. The seeds of the Garden Physical were sown by agents of the Garden Ketheric known as the Benefactors (comprised of the bio-modified Deep Singers and the undead Liches) who were immune to the very limitations of life and death respectively (control of these two phenomena, coincidentally, being kept from humanity's grasp by the two highest gods in Cedrism, Mors and Viviantia). The Benefactors, originating in Shirerithian Brookshire, were led by a powerful host known as the Salvators - namely the Liches Queen Lyssansa the Blue and Lord Toastypops the Jolly, along with the Deep Singers Celestine the Broodmother and Fleurette the Thoughtseeker. These unified around the rustling personage of Minarbor the Shrub, who in Ketherism holds the title of Radix Salvator and whose first emergence marks the start of the Anno Libertatis calendar. Fortified in him, the Salvators and Benefactors led millions of followers to escape Shireroth - which had been utterly compromised by the Archons of Irredeemable Corruption and was no longer defensible - and establish Minarboria, from which they could work for the purification and return of the tainted physical world to its place in the Garden Ketheric.

• 6. Whether they served their purpose, or were driven away by the Archons of Irredeemable Corruption (the cause is much debated by Kalgachi theologians) the Benefactors suddenly withdrew from the material world around the year 141 AL - the Liches crumbled to dust and the Deep Singers disappeared into their burrows, except for the half-breed Nezeni. Now the continuation of their mission relies on the initiative and work ethic of the faithful masses they left behind. In the absence of the Benefactors, supplication and genuflection have been reduced to the misguided vice of the feeble and submissive - the collapse of Minarboria in the wake of the Benefactors' departure was a necessary event to cull the spiritually prostrate and advance those of more pro-active faith.

• 7. The souls of the redeemed dead return to the Garden Ketheric, although some return as spectral Benefactors. The souls of the irredeemable dead end up in the Wastes of Irredeemable Corruption, although some return as spectral Agents of Irredeemable Corruption. The Wastes of Irredeemable Corruption will be forced apart from the Garden Ketheric when a critical mass of humanity becomes immune to its deceptions through Ketheric gnosis. At this point the material world will cease to exist and the souls of all redeemable humanity will be returned to the Garden Ketheric, while the souls of the irredeemable will be committed forever to the Wastes of Irredeemable Corruption.

• 8. The chief weapon of the Ketherist faithful against the Archons and Agents of Irredeemable Corruption, is jollity in the face of cynicism. A jolly soul is a saved soul.

Social Role

The practice of the Ketherist faith is guided and promoted by the Church of Kalgachia, which maintains a place of worship in every Kalgachi town. These hold religious services daily, the principal service being held on a Byeday (except those in the Lieutenancy of Bergburg which are held on a Thanksday in deference to local sensibilities). Attendance at Byeday services is scrupulously monitored by the officiating clergy and filed against a central record maintained by the Church of Kalgachia for each Kalgachi citizen. This record is frequently called upon by organs of Kalgachi state and Church-licensed employers, with any gaps or other inconsistencies having a disastrous effect on the subject's career prospects and/or welfare eligibility equalled only by the absence or loss of an Urchaginka. Although the attention of church congregations to the finer points of liturgy and sermon cannot be guaranteed, the consequences of non-attendance generally ensure that at the very least, Kalgachi citizens make themselves present for church services once a week and absorb a decent amount of Ketherism's memetic power through subconscious and sensory means - indeed certain phases of the liturgy are tailored toward those who are fast asleep in the pews.

As the Kalgachi standard of living moved beyond the perilous subsistence of its foundational years, an enthusiastic Sabbatarianism spread from its ancient origins in the Lieutenancy of Bergburg and took hold throughout Kalgachi society. The hallowed day of rest, whether it be Thanksday or Byeday, forbids strenuous physical activity along a spectrum which broadly widens the further west in Kalgachia one proceeds - in Eastern Schlepogora it is considered sufficient to take the day off one's paid employment, but in the more remote valleys of Western Bergburg it is frowned upon to tear bread or toilet paper, or operate anything with moving parts including light switches and door handles. Accordingly, the demand for shabbos goyim to perform these tasks has provided an important source of paid menial work for Kalgachia's population of Froyalaners. The only accepted exemptions from the sabbatical imperative of rest are considered to be church attendance and military service - the latter exemption has assisted greatly in the recruitment of Church partisans who can enthusiastically take part in weekend sports under the pretext of 'physical training', to the extent that a number of partisan-administered sporting leagues and tournaments exist across the country.

People of Nezeni ethnicity, being the only surviving descendants of the Benefactors in Kalgachia, are generally inferred to have a holy quality about them. This elevation of social standing, a well-ingrained phenomenon dating from their Deep Singer ancestors' exclusive stewardship of the Minarborian Church, is demonstrated by their almost complete domination of the Ketherist clergy in the modern day - although the Minarborian prohibition on other ethnicities ministering to the population no longer stands in Kalgachia, allowing sufficiently dedicated clergy of other races (most commonly Lywallers due to their innate jollity) to advance through the Church's ranks.

Liturgy

Ketherist churches are built in the manner of amphitheatres and are always located below the level of the local ground, often as roofed bowls cut out of the surface but in many cases carved out of spaces deeper underground, sometimes at a depth of several kilometres. The main sanctum of each church comprises concentric rings of seats, varying across different churches from unadorned steps carved out of rock to upholstered wooden pews, descending toward a central arena which serves as the altar space. This space is always the lowest point of the church, and most usually the lowest point of the village or town in which it is located. Carved into the middle of the altar floor is usually a shaft full of fertile soil, from which grows a shrub or similar plant of modest proportions. This is kept alive by ultraviolet lighting and its soil is enriched with the contents of the putrefact, a vessel traditionally located inside the church's entrance door in which penitents leave assorted offerings of biomass to rot down, such transmutation being said to induce a purifying resonance with the wayward soul of the donator and return them to the grace of the Garden Ketheric.

With the exception of the ultraviolet lights, electrical items are forbidden within the main sanctum of Ketherist churches; the use of candles in their stead, burning for long enough in the church's underground confinement, generates sufficient carbon monoxide to transport the congregation into a state of liminality wherein the assorted Agents, Benefactors and Salvators of the Garden Ketheric can better communicate with them through the medium of vestibular, auditory and visual hallucination. The Church of Kalgachia has, over the course of many years and the loss of several whole congregations to fatal levels of air poisoning, determined the optimal level of candle fumes to balance the intensity of spiritual experience against the physical survival of the faithful.

Services in a Ketherist church are conducted by its resident Credent, moving around the central shrub in an anti-clockwise direction as he goes about the various components of liturgy, usually assisted by a musician or choir stationed at the edge of the altar space.

The most common example of Ketherist liturgy is the Byeday Service. Its subject rituals, each divided from the other by the solemn rustling of liturgical foliage, progress as follows:

• A period of contemplative silence in the presence of the altar shrub by the Credent and anyone else involved in the service such as ushers or choristers, before the church doors are opened to the general congregation.

• The opening of the church doors and the entry of the congregation, accompanied by music - most often a pipe organ voluntary to invite the spirits of the Lich Benefactors, or an a capella choral offering with dance to draw up the Deep Singer Benefactors, or else a combination of the two styles.

• The singing of a jolly-toned hymn - usually dedicated to the Lord Toastypops the mirthful undead gift-bringer of Minarborian lore, considered in Ketherism to be a gatekeeper between realms whose affirmation must be sought to commune with the Garden Ketheric.

• A prayer to the wider Ketheric Host:

Above is below. Below is above. Below is above. Above is below. Hear us who assemble by this sign.
Hear us in the Greatest Garden, that we in this corrupted world stand unyoked.
Forsake not our sacred ground, nor judge it indefensible.
As you rendered unto us the light of revelation, so may we render it unto our children assembled here.
Behold us one and all, we whom the Wastes have not yet devoured.

• The Credent's sermon.

• A prayer appropriate to the subject of the sermon.

• A short mystery play about a holy historical event, usually performed by children who have rehearsed it during the week.

• Holy communion, accompanied by music: the congregation line up before the Credent who uses an aspergillum to spatter each communicant with a mist of sludge collected from the bottom of the putrefact.

• The singing of a second, more solemn hymn.

• The Credent's closing benediction:

Hold fast in your trials, for the Garden remains.
Heed not stricken flags, for the Garden remains.
By the sweat of your toil, the Garden remains.
Your forebears shall smile, while the Garden remains.
If there be one of you left, the Garden remains.

Partake of its fruits, and go forth in its grace.

• The departure of the congregation to music.

Although high-church Minarborealism is officially proscribed in Kalgachia, efforts to eradicate its substantial ritual legacy from Ketherist liturgy have proven stubbornly difficult and ultimately counterproductive to the morale and attendance rate of Ketherist congregations. Such holdovers from the old country have fuelled conspiracy theories in certain quarters - most famously articulated by Shirekeep-based 'analyst' Offistrolli Gett-DeBirzin in his books New Shrubs for Old and The Harvestfall Deception - that the Garden of Kalgachia is in fact an elaborate long-con operation by the supposedly-defunct Minarborian intelligence service, the Bureau Passifloral, to fake the demise of the Empire of Minarboria and allow its immense chthonarchy to undermine the rest of the world from a position of nefarious occlusion. The Church of Kalgachia, however, ascribes the phenomenon to its frankly-admitted theological difficulty in substituting the memetic radiance of the shrub Minarbor in the hearts of the faithful.

The Blurtations

The Blurtations are the collected observations of one Credent Dubbs Blurton, theologian and monastic luminary, from his sparely-appointed cell some distance beneath the Abbey of Fort Candycane. Their concise but irregular themes have gained a popular following among Ketherist clergy as a useful means to convey their creed to the countless thousands of attention-deficit Kalgachi citizens for whom church attendance is a mere formality to maintain a respectable resumé. The fleeting and disjointed nature of Bluton's utterances have, it seems, been interpreted at the most senior levels of the Church as a manifestation of divine revelation unencumbered by human notions of narrative structure. Selected Blurtations are as follows:

• "Think not of the Garden Ketheric as a place without misfortune - rather a place where no vice goes unpunished, and no virtue goes unrewarded. About its winding paths one may sometimes hear a yelp of consternation, but never the wailing lamentation of open-ended despair. All torments there are transitory; every pain arrives at a redemptive end. Hope may at times recede, but it stays forever before the horizon."

• "The anguish of the innocent is the nectar of the Archons. Wherever their talons descend, it is found. Wherever it is found, their talons are revealed."

• "Renounce all materiality at your peril - all joyful things in this world are simulacra of the Garden Ketheric's bounty, wrought by an Archonic talon. Were it not for this borrowing, even the imbecile would see through the deception. And so rejoice in those worldly things which gladden the heart and know that their purer forms await the righteous, but forever reject those who would be their gatekeeper - no gift of the Garden Ketheric is conditional upon the flattery of those outside it."

• "The Archons are not interested in your obedience - only your suffering. How many dupes have offered up the former, thinking it to suffice as the latter, and wondered why celestial wrath is poured down upon them and their cheapness?"

• "Are we of this world, emergent from the Garden Ketheric as we are, cast out from that place in penance? Or did our prenatal souls volunteer to sally forth from its righteous shrubberies to the aid of our incarnate kin? No matter, say I, for the path back to the Garden is clear either way. Keep the Garden Physical and keep it well. Banish the Archonic talons of sadism and avarice to the skies whence they came, turn their cynical creed back upon them, and grant refuge from their taint to all who might be cleansed of it. The salvation of your benighted neighbour shall be yours also."

• "Turn the other cheek as the Nazarenes would have it, and the Archons will howl with amusement - but so too will they be pleased if you draw out and savour the pain of their duped agents - in both cases they obtain pleasure without labour. Eradicate their work without hesitation or ceremony, take up the hoe of righteousness and return to the cultivation of the Garden at hand. All else is flattery, conferring nourishment where starvation is needed."

• "The Archonic talon is not confined to the halls of Raynor's Keep, nor the tendrils of the Garden Ketheric to the chambers of the Perfecti. One can find tendrils in that keep and talons in those chambers, and all of us who stand between have known the conflicting caresses of both. Within each of us grows a Garden of our own, with flowers to be cultivated and pests to be eradicated. Render this service also to the Garden of your neighbour, and allow it to be rendered unto you."

• "Do not strain to convert the unbeliever - one does not find faith at the barrel of a gun, nor a preacher's silver tongue. Revelation will bring to us those whom the Garden has chosen."

• "No apparition ever shone from an unwatched mountaintop."

• "Many a fool has beheld the amnesia of our false celestial overlords and thought it to be mercy, warned too late when their lot is finally remembered."

• "The Garden will deliver you from nothing until you strive to deliver yourself."

• "Many have asked me where the Tee-al, as the spawn of the Benefactors, fits among the Garden's righteous glades. I once asked the opinion of a learned Pesakhnik from Kossarstadt on the matter, and he told me exactly of their place. 'The Litovine Forest!' he said. 'It's crawling with the great furry bastards! Don't ever go there!' Only over time did the wisdom of his words become apparent to me - nobody asks why Malarbor, the gnarly totem of Shirekeep city, betrayed the Garden and entered into league with the Archons. Similarly it is of no use to ponder the purpose of the Tee-al in particular, but better to answer the anguish behind the question itself. And so I say unto you - for every traitor to chthonic creation there is a star which has fallen from the heavens, a lackey whom the Archons sold short one too many times and found themselves compelled to cast off the celestial yoke. We know five of them as the Salvators of our faith - for their service alone, for the Garden of Shrubdom and all that came after it, for the very life you and your children enjoy today, are the shriek of the Tee-al and the cackle of Malarbor such a price to pay?"

• "Hubris is the eternal weakness of the Archons - should your faith and work be misread by their irredeemable agents, do not hasten in correction - their delusions can grow like weeds through pavement. Verily shall they step forth in final reckoning, only to flail at ghosts of their own making."

• "A gram of hope for your neighbour is worth a kilo of hope for yourself."

• "Lead from the front, and be first through the Garden gates."

Monasticism

The Church of Kalgachia operates a wide network of monasteries across Kalgachia, although these more commonly resemble large villages or towns - built half-underground in the usual Kalgachi fashion - which are closed to all but serving monks. Although the monks' primary function is to cultivate their link with the Garden Ketheric from the silence of their underground cells and thereby obtain useful revelation for the Ketherist faithful, many spend a portion of their day working in one of their monastery's industrial or agricultural concerns. Others look after the administration of their monastery's subordinate parishes, work which constitutes the bedrock of Kalgachi provincial governance.

The Kalgachi monastic tradition is perhaps the most salient difference of the Ketherist faith from its Minarborealist origins, the latter having considered any form of spiritual seclusion to be an inherently selfish and degenerate habit amounting to an act of spiritual theft from the pervasively social Garden of Minarbor. Ketherist monasteries retain the general idea that revelation should be shared with the wider faithful, but rather than frontload such insights through church liturgy as occurred in Minarboria, monastic Ketherists disseminate the greater part of their spiritual treasures through occulted and memetically encoded means via the Troglodyti, ostensibly to imbue the Kalgachi people with Ketherist gnosis before the Archons of Irredeemable Corruption can intercept, co-opt and pervert the message. This is most often achieved through selected organs of the Kalgachi media although it can be manifested in almost any sensory form from architecture to horticultural displays to municipally-funded wind chimes. In return for providing this service the Troglodyti are permitted to recruit, transfer and initiate the more insightful Ketherist monks into their own ranks at will - a will which occasionally contradicts that of the monk concerned, although the subject is generally blessed with enough intelligence to know the value of co-operation.

The Yehudi Conundrum and its Resolution

The ancient insularity and cultural intransigence of the Bergburger community has led to a seperate strain of Ketherist tradition arising within their homeland on Kalgachia's western fringe. Although mainstream Ketherism has freely borrowed many elements - including its very name - from the Benacian Judaic tradition, the descendants of Ashkenatzan Jewry residing in Kalgachia have been rather more cautious about placing their ancient beliefs in syncretic subordination to the Ketherist faith as practised elsewhere in Kalgachia; not least due to previous attempts by the Minarborian church to do similarly, only for that empire to collapse and leave its newer converts spiritually bereft.

Despite this, the Church of Kalgachia has been able to bring a sizeble portion of the Bergburger population under its auspices with a locally-themed liturgy which defers as much as theologically possible to ancient Ashkenatzan temple ritual. The Parish Credents presiding over such services retain the ancient title of Kohen and recite the more critical elements of their service in Hebrew, the invocatory power of which is considered the greatest of any language on Micras and charges the Ketherist temples of Bergburg with an arcane energy rarely seen outside the ritual workings of the Troglodyti, who themselves owe a great deal of their methods to the more esoteric filaments of the Benacian Judaic tradition.

Theologically the reconciliation of a faith demanding diligent tribute to an all-powerful god in heaven, and one which does everything in its power to kill him, has been spearheaded by a faction of learned Kohanim known as the Pesakhniks who hold that the innumerable regulations of dress, diet and conduct in the Judaic tradition are in fact intended as a deceptive simulation of love and submission toward the demiurgic, self-proclaimed divinity which calls itself Jehovah - an entity which, through the 'Afflictions of Job' and other such folk tales, is recognised to be sadistic, petulant, duplicitous and manifestly evil. With Jehovah thus fooled, and the circumvention of his supposed omniscience disproving his divinity entirely, the path is cleared for those armed with such enlightenment to subvert the spirit of his commandments to whatever extent they wish, provided they maintain a suitably-convincing apprarance of compliance; a practice colloquially known as Chutzpah Untergot, a cause to which the finer points of Judeo-Ketherist mitzvot are devoted. In this manner, lavish prostrations of the kind which would be considered heretical in other parts of the Church are permitted in Bergburg as an acceptable act of mass deception which, quite possibly, spares the entire body of Ketherist faithful from the wrath of the Archons of Irredeemable Corruption who, by their feigned benevolence, continue to prevail in the heavens.