The Theology of the Order
Divine Purpose and the Apocalyptic Mysteries
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The religious doctrine of the Numinous Order is very convoluted and sometimes contradictory, having developed organically over the course of centuries. The Order reveres a tetrad of gods known to them as the Three and One, but called Tyr, Ilmater, Torm and Helm across greater Faerûn. According to the Order's dogma, these gods bestowed prophetic visions upon their chosen servants through the divine agency that most denizens of the Archipelago call the Mist. The "Heterodox" adherants to the worship of the Triad (as they are disdainfully known to the Order) are denounced as the heresies spread to the mainland by exiled dissenters millenia past.
The truths that the mystics of the Order have learned are kept secret from the uninitiated, as nothing less than the fate of the world rests upon the Order's collective shoulders. All that the common man know of the Order's aims and goals are resigned to the terrible cries of the Order's street-preachers : the Masters have foreseen nothing else than the End of the World.
The newly-expanded Numinous Order has undertaken its task with desperate zeal; the Apocalypses say that the Three's chosen servants must be prepared to go to any length if they wish to preserve Abeir-Toril.
Dogma of the Three:
The celestial makeup of the Divine Three & of their Cousin the Dreamer.
Men, or ‘The Children’ are the chosen sons of Tyr, the Unbroken. They stand above all other beings of the Prime Material in the eyes and hearts of the Three. The mortal cycle of Man is mirrored in the divine trinity, The Three. The Risen represents man in his youth: tenacious, quick to anger and joyful in battle. The Dead, Illmater, represents the inevitable end that man must face and come to terms with. And finally, the Unbroken represents the eternal soul of man, and the paradise that awaits him in the divine afterlife.
The Numinous Order's records make it clear that faith in the Three arose on Ymph, and that the worship of the Three elsewhere in Faerûn has been corrupted over centuries of divorce from the Grand Master's leadership.
The Unbroken God (Tyr)
Depicted as an ageless man wearing a voluminous cloak.
(http://img687.imageshack.us/i/theunbrokengod.jpg/)Dogma: Strive to be just in life, so that when you arise unto the celestial realms, you can be judged to have given your life meaning. Never strike a foe in anger in the stead of what is just. Forever strive to protect The Children, and drive back the foes of the Three.
The Risen God (Torm)
Depicted as a young man arising from water.
(http://img521.imageshack.us/i/therisengod.jpg/)Dogma: March joyously into battle, and give your foes no quarter upon the field. Never break an oath once given, and protect thy Lords, be they mortal or divine. Celebrate births and life, for it is too often snuffed out before it may flourish. Give the bodies of the fallen to the Lake of Steam.
The Dead God (Ilmater)
Depicted as an aged man in the throes of death.
(http://img33.imageshack.us/i/thedeadgod.jpg/)
(http://img33.imageshack.us/i/thedeadgod.jpg/)Dogma: Embrace suffering as it brings you closer to the death which comes, and thus drives away your fear. Do not deny others suffering for fear of them growing soft and coddled, but do not stand by whilst others suffer unduly. Death is a happiness, for the dead are delivered into the arms of the Unbroken.
The Dreaming God, Helm:
Depicted as a man in a blissful sleep.
Dogma: One can only truly be vigilant if one knows the future. When one bears a sword in his left hand, and the words of prophecy in his right, he may best any foe, be they now or in the distant future. While not one of the Three, the Dreamer has taken a leading role in delivering visions and prophecies to the Apostles of the Numinous Order. Accordingly, his faith is paramount among their number, with references sometimes made to the "Three and One".
(http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4845/thethreec.jpg)
Originally penned by Iron_Oligarch & Secutor.