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Bovinism

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A yoke, the symbol of Bovinism

Bovinism is a monotheistic religion based around the worship of Bous, a hypostatic union of the Butter Cow, Butter Bull, Butter Spirit, and Butter Man (known as the Holy Quadrate). It is the official religion of Natopia and Drak-Modan and has substantial numbers of followers in Shireroth, Constancia, Caputia and Drak-Modan. Bovics believe that our planet, Micras, is the celestial heaven granted to a cow and bull who lived on Earth. Bovinism has played a significant role in the development of Natopian culture. Bovinism can be regarded as the predominant major religion of Micras’ southern hemisphere. The religion considers the Tetrabiblios as its holy book.

Bovinism began as a small cult worshiping the Butter Cow, a strange being that transcends realities, having first revealed himself to the people of Natopia as a news anchor. When the Natopian state collapsed into anarchy in 1533, the cult of the Butter Cow gained popularity in Athlon, one of two Natopian successor states (the other being New South Mehlville) that survived the Natopian Dark Age. The cult reformed and established itself as a formalized religion based in Doza. Athlon, which was founded as a crusader kingdom of Emperor Nathan's personal army, soon began to worship the Butter Cow as a god and considered Nathan as chief prophet and priest. After the Natopian state was reformed in 1536, the Bovic religion forcefully integrated itself in Natopia's government and society.

Bovic theology is broadly defined, often left to personal interpretation of the Tetrabiblios or codified by officials of the Dozan Bovic Church. Bovics profess to the belief in Bous, willingly accept him into their hearts, believe in the resurrections of Nathan and Nathaniel, hold that Elijah was crucified by Sisera and that Sisera is an evil demon, and ultimately accept that Nathan Waffel-Paine was deified as the fourth element of Bous, joining the Cow, Bull, and Spirit, thus making the Quadrate complete. Various people important to the religion are venerated, even worshiped, as saints.

The religion was unified under a single organization, the Dozan Bovic Church, until the Bovinist Schism of 1676. Various sects, rites, and orders within the Church espouse a variety of avenues to worship Bous. Dhurists, Jaiesicans, Caprics, Phallics, and Elijahns are the largest sects that enjoy official recognition from the Church. In nations that have large populations of Bovics, the character of the religion is often influenced by local customs and even native gods. The Melusine faith is a sister-faith of Bovinism that has spread in Caputia. Bous, recognizing the need to expand, created a counterpart in a woman named Melusine, making her into a beautiful mermaid, or Sea Cow. Melusine was driven away by the Bovics of Thalassa toward Caputia.

Beliefs

WiP The cow and bull suffered greatly on Earth and Earth's God--known as Elohim--granted the righteous cow and bull their own celestial heaven which is the planet Micras. All creation is the child of God. And among the most righteous children of our Lord the Father was two cattle, a cow and a bull. They suffered horribly on Earth. They were the most righteous, pure creatures and they acended to godship and got their own planet, Micras But they hate humans. Because humans are awful. Humans slaughter cows. Humans keep cows in factories, slaughter them, milk them to oblivion... So Bous – the power of the Bull and the Cow together – hates humans. But loves the devotion the humans give... so there's a hate/love relationship So all of us on Micras are children of Bous and Bous can't hate us too much, because we are his spawn anyway so it's very difficult for him to interact with us because there is hate, and there is love... but if we, as Micrans, stay pure, live righteously, and truly... we too can ascend to the heavens after we die Elijah did it. Nathaniel too. Even Atheisticus. and as gods in our own names, we can too have our planets and create more spawn... and have all souls in the universe one day acend to godship and everything will be good but so many trillions of trillions of souls are waiting to live... waiting to be born... the Bovic bible, called the Tetrabiblios, is largely a collection of weird parables that we can't understand and some prophesies but we have a living prophet to interpret the will of Bous, who Bous communicates most with that is the Pentheros (our pope, ish) but Bous can communicate directly to the faitfhul (and the unfaithful too) usually to the unfaithful when he's bored there are souls, though, who want to destroy Bous's creation and the souls' path to ascension they are the evil ones led by the demon queen Sisera the sign of the faithful is the true and unsoiled butter but Sisera's sign is the evil margarine but she and her followers can also be identified by the grapefruit that is their fruit grapefruit and margarine are evil margarine is a corrupted form of the symbol of life (butter) and grapefruit is a corrupted form too. You take something sweet and wonderful (a citrus) and you remove all good from it, so it's just alkaline and sour at the same time and it's horrible and that leaves you the grapefruit so in Earth, man was created from dust... because that is the symbol of the earthly god, Yahwe, the wind-god of the Middle east who blew life into people but on Micras, man was made from churned butter sculpted into the perfect lifeform so all life stems from butter, from the milk of Bous...

Worship

History

Denominations

The primary divisions of Bovinism are the Dozan Bovic Church, the Church of Caputia, and the Benacian Bovic Church. The Dozan Bovic Church and Church of Caputia experienced an early schism when Bovics rejected the divinity of Melusine and chased her followers out of Tapfer and to Caputia. A series of councils between leaders of each church eventually agreed that Melusine was a sister of Bous, created by Bous to attract a wider base of converts. The two churches are now in full communion and consider each other sibling churches. The Benacian Bovic Church began as a special national church for Drak-Modan within the Dozan Bovic Church. However, increasing disagreements between the use of goat or cow butter lead to an insurmountable division.

Bovic culture

Bovinism seeks balance, as its central pantheon of four deities is balanced and composed of two sets of opposite pairs. When referred together as Bous, they are considered to be ideal and perfect. Governments and people can emulate Bovinist tenets by adopting systems that allow for these four perspectives to cooperate.

  • The Butter Cow: benevolence, creation, nurturing, growth, passive
  • The Butter Bull: malevolence, destruction, neglect, decay, assertive
  • The Butter Spirit: omnipresence, unknowableness of god, immortal perspective
  • The Butter Man: physical presence, knowing god, mortal understanding

Bovic attitudes towards the LGBT community

In the story, Vices of Mount Vice, within the Book of Doctrine in the Tetrabiblios, the Butter Cow is questioned by a follower about the debauchery on Mount Vice. The follower mentions specific acts considered as sins by other world religions such as homosexual acts and eating shellfish, and eating shellfish during homosexual acts. The Butter Cow notably replies "Well, that's just fine," which is considered a Bovic axiom for allowing others to do as they please as long as no one is hurt and everyone is consenting adults. The story concludes with the implication that the Butter Cow then participates in these activities. The implicit acceptance and implied experimentation with homosexuality by the Butter Cow has impacted the religion's extremely welcoming attitude towards LGBT people and greatly affected LGBT rights in Natopia.