Cult of Yan

Properly, Order of Yan or Yan Order.

The premiere School / cult in the world that was a near monopolistic influence over culture and politics.

It is explicitly militaristic.

They are a group of enforcers of the social order, who are privy to strong magic that fills their ranks with super heroes. They really exist mostly for the Solfrey and not the commoners.

Origins & History

Started by C3 in her youth, 4055, when she was 9 years old. Perpetually overlooked by her parents due to the talent of C1 and C2 in necromancy, C3 and her supporters found their own path of magic. They were okay necromancers, who were capable of the basics though not much more. So C3 focused on magecraft. Rather than the spiritual world of life and death C3 focused on the physical world. She became a superlative mage of lighting and fire.

C3's followers were called the Cult of Yan, so named after her father, Yan Hui, who was a great necromancer and a great mage of fire and lighting. C3 fashioned the Cult of Yan into a group of supporters of her father and of course herself.

At 15 years old in 4061 C3 disappears. The Cult of Yan would have been purged at this point by R4 but they smartly reorganized themselves under a charismatic new leader, the Archmage Lenshu, who pledged to ally with R4 and the Solfrey.

In 4063, after 2 years of confusion where Kpor wages war on Sica, the Cult of Yan returns with a renewed purpose. Joining in with the Kporian leadership at the time of R4 and and C2, they declare themselves an anti-necromancy group. They stayed out of "human politics" but are opposed to necromancers, and used their magecraft to kill necromancers. They were the original "heroes" and are still the most respected ones.

They were instrumental in establishing the post-division world, and after the task of hunting down necromancers were largely completed, they formalized their supernational non-political ethos. They were tools of C2 to control magecraft and necromancy.

Governance Structure

The core of Yan is deeply cynical. Yan does not promote from within its own ranks of believers, its highest ranks of clergy do not believe in its own theology. Instead Yan theology is purpose-built to be a method of control, and its true origins and purpose obscure.

At the top of Yan is the Council of Descendants (8 people), lead by the "Scribe", who is supposed to write down the will of the Divine Council, of who the CoD is descendant of.

The Scribe also is supposed to be the deciding vote if tied, essentially counting for 2 votes in council decisions.

The CoD is not promoted from lower tier clergy, but from the children and relatives of political royalty. Children are donated to the Yan at birth and are raised to be loyal only to the Yan and forget about their family, taking the Yan as their only real family. They train to compete to be on the CoD, and they are supposed to swear off of politics and business forever.

These children are called the [Vessels of Heaven | This is a bad name, need a name that doesn't evoke a message of being a vessel like commoners are vessels of demons] in outward propaganda, but internally in the organization this is not taken seriously. However this is an honorable title that they will have for life.

If they don't make it in the CoD there are other executive positions, like leading the templars, or the demon hunters, or the School. But only joining the CoD lets you know the truth about the Demons, the Division, and the real history of Kpor.

The Miralei School is led by the Lilian Guides, a council of 8 Solfrey, mimicking the CoD that controls policy within the School. The prelates below them are generally commoners.

Theology

According to generally accepted official mythology, Solfrey are a race of super human immortals, angels, who brought magic to the world. Envious and coveting the glory of the Solfrey, some commoners began to worship demons, who are evil gods that only sought destruction on the world.

Quote from the Real History vs Lies Told document.

This theology was created by the Archmage Lenshu in the wake of the division. The Cult of Yan is therefore the source of magic, giving it out to civilian solfrey rulers.

The Divine Council is the equivalent of the pantheon of the Yan, people pray to the divine council, "May the divine council protect me".

In the Divine Council of 4070, in a sacred text known as the Lament of the Solfrey, Archmage Lenshu and his Last Council of the Divine wrote the authoritative sacred text of the Yan, where they lament giving up their divinity to save the world from the demons, harshly criticizing the commoners for being susceptible to demon influence and declaring eternal dominion of the solfrey over commoners.

This is a cynical and brazen rewriting of history that eventually came to be accepted as the truth by the world through the spreading armies of Kpor. Key to their actual belief is the utter secrecy around the Division. It is thought that if the commoners knew that they were demons they would purposefully get together to achieve their "fate". The Archmage thought that it was Yan's purpose to prevent Soul Reunification.

The original Lament was used to justify the existence of the Solfrey class system, but as time went on Yan also adapted their dogma to become a better tool of control by serving different spiritual needs.

In 4078, after the death of Archmage Lenshu, the Archmage Caoshai, published the Will of the Solfrey which laid out the Solfrey's role in the world of not just being a ruler, but a collector of souls. According to him, though Solfrey gave up their immortality, their souls are ultimately still immortal. Every Solfrey's existence on earth has a higher purpose and a meaning, and it is up to him to achieve it. However, when he has achieved it, upon death the soul breaks the cycle of rebirth and returns to Heaven, taking 3 commoners with him as pets or loyal servants. This is the ultimate goal of the Solfrey, to achieve the highest purpose and return to Heaven.

Commoners' purpose therefore is to seek to become a Solfrey's Miya, one of his "top 3". It is said that when Caoshai died, he was surrounded by 3 loyal commoner friends and servants, and all 4 died at the exact same time, going to Heaven. If you die and your top 3 doesn't die, then it just means you haven't achieved your purpose yet and must continue to be reborn to try again. (it's important to think about this reincarnation thing here, since it's a method of control we kinda want the alternative to being loyal to be suffering, not a zen retry situation. Maybe try to think of another system of punishment, or just go with the "hell".)

Many people no longer believe this literally but some Solfrey on their deathbeds would be visited by commoner friends who would die alongside them due to psychosomatic reasons.

Conversely, a Solfrey may condemn a commoner to hellish eternal suffering at any time by cursing them.

This theology is relevant in world building but is not believed by most of the main cast.

Role in Society

The main thing to understand is that they are far more trusted in this world than any School in our world by secular powers because they are the key to upholding world wide solfrey supremacy. This, more than anything else, is what all the secular rulers rely on the most. While most of them are not paranoid about commoner uprisings, the sheer population disparity is self evident and there is no inclination to rebel against the Yan. Also the Yan is also pretty amoral for basic behaviors, they don't care if a King is evil or whatever, their enforcement is rigidly held against the commoners, giving Kings no motivation to oppose them.

The only real point of contention comes in the matter of revenue, sometimes Kings would try to tax the Yan due to their own spending issues and this would cause conflict.

Heroes and Magecraft

Originally only the Order can certify heroes and had a monopoly on the most advanced magecraft, but in later centuries other entities caught up in mage-technology and the certification rights were sold to corporations and other wealthy entities. However solfrey still have a monopoly on the most advanced magecraft, especially ones related to combat.

Gender roles

While the Yan is a restrictive religion, do not equate its restrictions to IRL religions and its gender roles. For thousands of years magecraft has been available and accessible and has given women equal combat ability and personal safety. From there, generally women are a lot more confident in the presence of men.

The game is intended to be dual-gendered, where AI is used to rewrite the story from male MC to female MC and vice versa. When this happens all the other characters in the game, regardless of whether they are LIs or not, switch sex. AI is used to both adapt social and biological aspects to suit the new storyline, but also make the story more appealing to the opposite sex.

But on a fundamental level, the male MC will have a lot of women around him, but it is not a gender thing. The female MC will also have a lot of men around her. This is just how a demographically targeted market game works.

Slavery

Yan maintains a database of slaves. Only commoners can be slaves of course. Through necromancy, which works via identifying people based on their souls, they can perfectly tell whether someone is a slave or not. All slaves are registered in the database, and if you're not in the database you are legally free. Freeing someone is not a thing that exists.

Slavery had always existed in the ancient world, but closer to modern times Yan needed a doctrinal reason for slavery.

According to the Yan, slaves are the powerhorse of society, and being a slave is a closer connection to Solfrey. Some slaves do take it literally and believe themselves to be higher than commoners.

Birth

The Cult of Yan has the ability to certify Solfrey as Solfrey. It is understood that children of 2 Solfrey are generally always Solfrey. The children of a Solfrey and a non-Solfrey are never Solfrey. The children of 2 Commoners are typically Commoners. Commoners are carriers of demon souls, which is transferred to the children via the sperm and the egg.

The Yan detects the demon souls within the body of a babe, which delineates them as Commoner. If there is no demon soul, then the Yan performs a ritual of Aegium. The Yan then certifies the babe as Solfrey.

The Aegium birth rite is for every Solfrey. It's conducted by the parents and a third person, typically a Yan priest or a friend or grandparent holding the babe in their arms, with their arms crisscrossed with one another. Then they chant the "Behold the champion of Heaven, eternal ruler over the common.", and a symbolic magical spirit immunization spell.

The Yan priest/ess has the necromantic ability to inoculate the child against getting infested by a demon soul, and this is passively or magically done through this ritual. The ceremony may be performed by a parent of the child too, and the protection given is instinctual, but because they are not professionally trained they frequently (20% of the time) fail to actually protect the child. But it's better than nothing when you have to give birth without a Yan priest/ess around.

Saints and other Religious Figures

Archmage Lenshu, Archmage Caoshai, Queen Lylaesa - Blind Poet, R5's Granddaughter - Princess Miralei Gan

Sects and Denominations

The Cult of Yan is a loose organization, with many sects and sub-sects. The most important ones are:

• The main Yan Order
  • Demon Hunters
  • Hila, order of midwives?
  • Templars - Elite heroes
  • Normal Heroes Association
  • Slavers?

Yinxin

A fundamentalist denomination that does not believe Archmage Caoshai's teachings and the Will of the Solfrey and prefers to stick to the teachings of the Last Council of the Divine. For them, according to the

Subsect that believes commoners will rise up and kill all the solfrey one day. They believe in genociding the commoners and are the most opposed to the Loyalist system. They are Milirenists

Forest Academy - 20k disciples

A non-noble and voluntary admission rival to the Vahanlen Cloisters. People can pass a test to join, and generally admits people who are 14 or above. While there are some nobles who do join, it is mostly non-noble Solfrey.

The main difference is that people who join Forest Academy are generally more interested in education and theology, and tend to be more theologically fanatical. This is where Moglukai came from.

Vahanlen Cloisters - 4 thousand students at a time

Solfrey taken at birth from noble families that are anonymized and brought up in service of the Yan. This is seen as a sacred duty by the nobles and important to the governance of the Yan, as all CoD members ultimately come from the Cloisters.

They are deliberately indoctrinated in a globalist view, believing themselves to be the rulers of the world, above any King and to love no other than the Yan. They are taught the most advanced magecraft, honed to be scholars, rulers, and enforcers.

Vanhalen graduates are not allowed to marry nobles. If they marry someone outside of the Yan those people must leave their secular lives and become a Yan disciple, donating all their inheritance, children, and possessions to the Yan.

Rhebryaic Order of Celestors - 1.3 million soldiers

Led by the High Vicar Jui Su. The office of the Vicar is said to be a disciple of R3, the greatest warrior of legend.

The Rhebryaic Order is comprised of mixed Commoner and Solfrey templar divisions.

They are the public military arm of the Order and is pretty strong, comparable to most conventional armies.

These guys are trained as monastic warriors.

The celestors were the public security force of the Yan, originally policing the small territories that were under direct Yan control. However, after the last WCA against the Iexin they were greatly expanded into a full military force tasked with collecting the entitlements of the Yan and policing the world.

At the conclusion of the WCA the countries of the world agreed to give the Yan a greater say in world diplomacy, establishing a generally peaceful world order. The Celestors were given wide ranging official powers and funded by large entitlements that they collect on the threat of violence. They are generally recognized as the most powerful military force in the world.

Divinic Paxere - 10k Templars

The Divinic Paxere is comprised of only Solfrey Templars and are a step above in individual power but much smaller as a collective.

Led by Moglukai Hyundak.

Kuai Order - 50k demon hunters

The demon hunters. Born from commoner mages of the Miralei School who believed that the School was not active enough against Demons, they recruited templars and developed their own organization. Though they started as an unsanctioned sect they have since reconciled with the CoD and are now considered part of the mainstream orthodoxy.

Is under the direct control of the CoD much like the templars. Like the Celestors they are expanded in size and importance after the WCA.

Some doomsday sect interested in Eschatology

The Miralei School

Led by Chimao Se, the Mother Conveyer, a member of the CoD.

Around 4085 Princess Miralei Gan approves of the establishment of the Miralei School, so named after herself. The School came to be after the charismatic young Solfrey Feng Gengxin, so called "The Guide", claimed to remember his past life as a commoner and being sent back to Earth as a Solfrey to guide other commoners to Heaven. Many now believe Feng Gengxin to be a fictional character.

Unlike the Order which was explicitly militaristic and focused on domination, the School was ostensibly a pacifist organization that focused on teaching, and helping everyone achieve their fated purpose.

The School primarily ran hospitals and orphanages, and practiced using magecraft for healing and birth control. They are said to be responsible for commoner population control for the states that wanted that. They were also places of learning, somewhere commoner scholars could go to study before Solfrey institutions allowed them.

Unlike historical European Churches, the Miralei School did not have mandatory sermons. Rather they solely operated out of hospitals, which were also equipped with large ceremony and funeral halls. This was all part of hospitals because in this world, the School's magecraft is excellent at preventing the spread of infectious diseases as well being great at treating other ailments such as cancer.

There's also a tradition for priests to give psychological / spiritual healing, like confession for catholics or more like a therapist.

Unlike Europe there's also no concept of a week or weekend, and no "Sunday". Rather ceremonies are held at the School during the very regular national or cultural holidays. Sermons are frequently held during such holidays, and there are other ceremonies and liturgical worship as well.

Unlike the parent Order, the School's every day leadership and priesthood is mostly filled with commoners and not Solfrey. In short, this is a kinder version of the Order that was more inclusive of commoners and better served their spiritual needs.

Corporations

Including slave trading corps, schools, and many "public benefit corporations".

Office of Doctrinal Compliance - Colloquially called Sanctioners - 15000 strong

• Internal discipline, heresy investigations, basically inquisition
• Collaborates with the Heaven's Wing for major attacks, like against the Fukazor

Monks, religious orders, Hila

• They exist
• Monks and Hila also practice tantric stuff

Heaven's Wing Vanguard - 2000 fighters, 3000 support

• The paramilitary wing of the School, led by Deng Yu as the beloved protégé of Chimao Se and Moglukai.
• The Heaven's Wing