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What are the Blessings of Earendel?

The Blessings of Earendel, or more commonly known as Earendelism, is the name given to the collections of tales, chants and scripts that together form the religious texts of Earendelism.

Earendelism is based on the fables and tales of the Architect, the creator of the known universe; her mortal husband and prophet of the Architect, Earendel.

The Blessings of Earendel date back to the early 5th Century, though the scriptures themselves state that the world was created at an incalculable time in the distant past.

Comprising of several sections, the Blessings of Earendel are separated into four main sections known as scripts: Emergence, Earendel, Transpositions and Anticipations.

Over time, more scripts that coincide or expand upon the teachings of Earendel have emerged, with most of these scriptures discovered prior to the 16th Century.

Who or what is the Architect?

The Architect, who also referred to as the Architect of the World and the Architect of Life, is the deity worshipped by followers of Earendelism.

She is referred to as a female, and the prophet Earendel, who inspired the foundation of the Blessings of Earendel, is considered to be her mortal husband.

While followers of Earendel believe that the Architect is an all-powerful deity, they also believe that She has abandoned her creations on the planet; though some modern believers expand this "abandonment" to the known universe or even dimension.

Earendelists believes this to be because of the faults of Her creations; that She will not answer prayers, grant wishes or do anything of the sort until humanity proves itself worthy of Her attention again.

As such, Earendelists believe that the Architect can be described as a creator that does not wish to communicate the created world.

Why did the Architect abandon Her creations?

It is written that long ago, the Architect created the known universe as a place of refuge and paradise for Her future offspring, as a primary plain of existence before transcending to heaven to be at her side.

As she created the universe, she planted the seeds of life on Earth, watching from afar as humanity and a variety of creatures flourished on the planet.

Fascinated by the development of human-kind, she disguised herself as one of them in order to watch and admire her creations up close.

It was during her travels amongst humans, that she fell in love with a man, known as Earendel.

Her true nature unbeknown to him, they became lovers and soon planned to be wed - however, the Architect did not wish to go through the ritual without revealing her true nature to Earendel.

Fearing Earendel's potential reaction, she reluctantly showed him her true form - but Earendel's love for her was pure; her true form did not scare him.

Unknown to the happy couple, a man - said to be called Argusius- was horrified by the union of mortal and deity.

When the Architect and Earendel's wedding day arrived, both were said to be standing beneath the stars on a clear, moonlit night, when an angry mob - enraged by Argusius' revelation - tore Earendel from the Architect's arms.

Despite Earendel's pleas of mercy to the crowd, the mob remained enraged and burnt him there at the stake.

Enraged by the actions of Argusius and humanity, she sealed-off the connection between the heavens and her creations - and turned her back on her creations.

No longer would she answer the prayers of her creations; no saving failing crops, healing the terminally sick or saving entire civilisations from disasters.

What is the organisation of Earendelism?

Earendelism is primary organised by the Athenaeum, which remains the dominant religious organisation within Altera.

Preachers from the Athenaeum, who have been bestowed the title of Athenists, make it their primary mission to teach the word of the Architect and Earendel.

The majority of their teachings comes from the scripts and tales written down by many disciples of Earendel - who were moved by Earendel's teachings and blessings prior to and after his death.

These scriptures were collected into a document known as the Blessings of Earendel, which in turn formed the basis of the modern religious document; the Lantea Scriptures.

Is there a religious heirarchy?

With the Athenaeum, there is a clear hierarchy amongst its worshipers and religious leaders.

Since its inception, the role of Athenists only granted to women, as Argusius demonstrated that men were too quick to resort to violence and madness - and thus could not be trusted as religious leaders.

The head of the Athenaeum is known as the Seraphic, whose role is to oversee the important issues facing Earendelism, the Athenaeum and lead blessings at major religious festivals.

The seat of the Seraphic is located in the Grand Athenium in Nova Lantea, Altera.

Within each nation will sit a representative of the Seraphic and the leader of the national branch of the Athenaeum; these leaders are known as the Grand Athenist.

On a lower rung of the hierarchy will sit the Holy Athenist - the equivalent of a Rabbi, Imman or Priest - who will be based as a local Athenaeum, which would serve a local collection of towns, villages or a city.

How many followers of Earendelism are there?

Whilst it is difficult for the Athenaeum to collect statistics from each and every district and nation is prescides within, statistics collected from Office of Data and Statistics and the Citizen Social Score system in Altera state that, as of March 2020, there are 16,350,024 registered Earendelists within Altera.

Figures for worshipers of Earendelism outside of Altera vary, as not all nations collect reliable statistics.

However, numbers of international worshipers are stated to be in the millions.

Merito non pareret. | By merit, not birth.