Treesian Unorthodox Church
The Treesian Unorthodox Church was a religion based in the Barony of Treesia and Fabon. It flourished until the 15th Century after Norton, and is currently represented in its offshoots in the Church of Elwynn.
The name of the religion stems from the vernicular name of the first church in Treesia and Fabon. It is said that "unorthodox" was a label that the Babkhans gave to the religion, as an opposition to its own Orthodoxy, when Treesian missionaries arrived in Eura.
Theology
TUC was a fundamentally polytheistic religion, but borrowed some elements from the Nazarenes, including an apocalyptic worldview and an afterlife in Heaven or Hell. Its most important deities were the four Faldia: Aeon the god of time, Laguna the Mother of All, Ilass the goddess of magic, and Utas the god of light. After a cataclysmic war in heaven, Laguna was blinded, Utas was slain, Ilass turned evil and was banished to Hell, and Aeon begat Mandorel, the warrior-king of the gods.
Along with the four Faldia, TUC worshipped the four Irdia (gods of the elements), the various divine servants of Irdia, the various divine servants of the Faldia, and a host of lesser deities.
Orchid-Lore
Later Treesian Unorthodox theology often centred around two younger gods called the Kwendia, first introduced in the Book of the Orchids. Elwynn was the goddess of Good; Lest the god of Evil; according to the prophecy the two would bear a child, Andan, who would go on to destroy the universe. In order to prevent this disaster, the gods hid Elwynn away; Lest and his army of demons then tried various more or less complicated plots to discover and abduct her. Much of early-modern history was retroactively explained as behind-the-scenes plotting by the forces of evil to bring about this apocalypse, especially the actions of Ardashir Khan.
Church Hierarchy
The TUC differed from other religions in its success as a hierarchical organization. New adherents were invited to join the clergy at the lowest rank, Giolla, and move up through Marach, Sagart, Ard-Sagart, and eventually to become Ardeaspag, the equivalent of the Pope. Clergy with a rank of Sagart or above were assigned responsibility for a foreign country, which they generally tried to convert to the faith via a mission forum, or retain in the faith through sermons and exhortations on a temple forum.
Rise and Fall of the Church
At its height, the Treesian Unorthodox Church had successful missions in Ascalon, Babkha and Baracão in addition to its base in Treesia. Despite early resistance from each of these countries, it made several converts, most importantly Shah Ardashir of Babkha, and even won a crusade that gave it the right to preach freely in Babkha. During this era, the religion had ten or fifteen significant overseas congregations, of whose total number at least a third were initiated into the hierarchies of the clergy.
After the Barony of Treesia became moribund, the Church declined alongside its parent country. As demoralisation set in, a significant body of clergymen and their congregations had come to the conclusion that the end times were upon them. Although thwarted in their attempt to trigger the Apocalypse, they nonetheless were to share in the demise of the ancestral culture of the home island, where the Craitish rose up so comprehensively to establish their rule over the Fifth Isle that the Treesian legacy has been almost entirely expunged there.
Amidst this collapse the Church of Elwynn separated from the Treesian Unorthodox Church through the Schism of 1490. The TUC had one active bishopric in the world, also in Elwynn, known as the Remnant Church of Treesian Unorthodoxy, which endured until it was finally dissolved upon the conclusion of the year 1692 AN.
