Magopurism

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I am but a single thread in the tapestry that is all. All I am is the stuff of the most bright stars, the awe-inspiring blaze, the glow that could shine a thousand others... and yet I am but a single thread in the tapestry that is all. All I am.... - {{#switch:the mindless rambling of a magi evidently just woken up from an intense clairvoyance meditation in which he attempted to find the structure of life: source unknown, discovered in the margins of a book in vecys

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#default = The mindless rambling of a magi evidently just woken up from an intense clairvoyance meditation in which he attempted to find the structure of life: source unknown, discovered in the margins of a book in Vecys }}

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The Magopurist faith seeks to explain the universe in a way that is inherently logical yet accounts for divine power and the ability for things to not go as universal law dictates, via magic or simply sheer divine will. Originally based on The Dragonlord pantheon, the revolution of magic by the first stremagio and Strezici founder Vaelo meant that there was an entire realm of knowledge that was normally beyond human grasp. Before long, scrying and clairvoyance magic was employed to see into the tapestries of life itself, and while almost everyone who attempted to explain the universe in its entirety went mad in the process trying to account for almost all of creation, there were a few who escaped from their divination with some knowledge that proved useful. This formed the basis of a religion based on hard evidence, not just faith as had been previously been the foundation of all beliefs.

The enlightened magi (the only ones capable of such understanding their visions, as innate prophecy magic by the untrained gifted would not be enough to decipher it all) would often be mentally unstable and drained of most of their life force for days or weeks on end. This would often result in falling into a deep sleep from which one would not wake up from for weeks, or even months. Beyond a certain point, it was assumed that anyone who had not stirred had succumbed to a vegetative state, but a few conjectured that what they had seen was so vast and encompassing that they simply could not handle such knowledge on their mind and would die while still in the midst of processing it.

Their efforts were not in vain, however; the magi who were able to relay some of what they saw were able to talk at great length about the opposing but equal forces that govern the universe, reality itself being divine in the effect that life and death and all such processes are just part of an unbroken cycle, and talk of the number 15 holding special significance in every facet of creation -- how this final fact was achieved is unknown, as no one has been able to explain it. Before long, everyone who has attempted to peer into the very stuff of being soon went mad and was forced to be killed due to their newfound nature. Scholars of today have pointed out that the same behavior is reflected in men such as Nobilis Karthmere and Aeganar IV Dragomárus.

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Mere minds such as our own simply cannot process everything as these dreamers are wont to do, and to say otherwise is folly. When you next find yourself growing absent-minded during a conversation or forgetting a task you were assigned, take heart in the blessing that is human frailty; if we paid attention to every little detail, every little speck of dust and every mote that could possibly beckon our attention, all life would have destroyed itself out of desperation and incomprehension long ago. - {{#switch:talys, discoverer of manipulation magic, 4874 bc

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#default = Talys, discoverer of manipulation magic, 4874 BC }}

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Through these collective firmamental visions, or "efugeiuii", or as they came to be called in the circles of the stremagi, a foundation of the universe was created. For utilitarian purposes, the creators of the philosophy, known as Magopurists due to their magical background and their desire to 'purify' or reduce an explanation of the universe to its basest levels, decided to replace the names of the deities so that they may better hold all existing religions in respect. Miracles from all faiths were observed and duly noted, and this was taken into account in these efugeiuii -- some had reported, for example, that the ubiquitous Five Paragons were actually just five souls that combined to form the great-soul that came to be known as Nveryll; others, however, had conflicting dreams where the Five Paragons represented five separate entities alongside Nveryll and other unknown entities, or that the Five Paragons represented a deity that was certainly not Nveryll. This confusion is usually attributed to cultural differences in the subjects, and the truth of the matter is still unknown -- Magopurism has aided in establishing a philosophical school of thought, but it has done little to definitively prove anything about the nature of existence. Magopurism is all but extinct in the modern day, with few knowing of it and even fewer acknowledging it. After the Dragon Wars and the War of the Shadow, the world has regressed culturally and belief systems have reverted to simpler times -- even if the only true adherents of Magopurism were the thought-dreamers participating in reality's discovery themselves.

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When the clock strikes twoscore, and the frame moves ever closer to the endpoint, we will then see the end time come -- an error. It was an error, they will claim. Nothing ever happened that was in our reality; we can objectively prove so, also a claim that they will write down in the books as they remove its taint from history and disregard its happening. But the end times will still come. After His fall, He is out for vengeance, and will stop at nothing to overwhelm and dismantle. All is an aspect of the Other's make, but he gave himself to make it. Lose his make, lose his soul; now, we will finally see how His creation will fare, and even Time cannot guide it in a predictable path. You and I are products of this union, and as with all unions, they will eventually shatter. Soon, all we will be left with is ourselves; and the thought of being alone frightens the sane and winnows the meek. Only the Many can change our course. - {{#switch:anonymous

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#default = Anonymous }}

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Beliefs

As roughly gathered from the vague, metaphor-ridden tales of the thought-dreamers, reality is composed of:

Basics

• A dualistic presence in the universe, dictated by the Creator and The Shadow, equal and opposite forces
• The universe was created out of necessity, as the Creator in its infinite knowing realized that nothing would occur without a fusion of perfect creation and perfect chaos
• To this end, the universe was created and exposed to the Shadow, which made a barrier called the firmament, separating the heavens and the earth, and utilizing the same amount of power as the Creator did to create the universe, preventing the Creator from directly interacting with his creation
• The Shadow, however, made it so that he could pervade the universe, and with his essence, all things are made of both Creation and Shadow
• Drakonius is but one of many places in the universe where a battle between the two forces is occurring; in fact, one could say all of reality is just a struggle between the two, present in everything from man to the very earth below his feet
• All things in some part are composed of the essence of the Creator and the Shadow -- not in equal parts, as all living things are mostly Creator-based, with the essence of the Shadow coming to light when man commits things that would be seen as 'evil' or detrimental to the progression of life
• Mankind is unique in the effect that they demonstrate such a spectrum of morals in this way, perhaps the most morally malleable beings on Drakonius -- Dragons are mostly bound to their Nveryllic or Messenethic inclinations, and were evidently the Creator and Shadow's attempts at making perfect soldiers in their army.
• Many 'agents' of the Creator and the Shadow exist within the universe, and seem to represent a lower echelon of divinity than the omnipresence of the Duality -- the Five Paragons, alongside the Dragongods Nveryll and Messeneth, commonly fall into this grouping, and it is unknown just how many such agents exist or if some of them are portmanteaus of each other, as some dreamers have claimed;
• On their own the primordial forces cannot sway the battle between a perfect stalemate, so it depends on mortal life to break the deadlock and either defeat the Shadow (thus resulting in the Creator's victory) or make it so that the Shadow will win, either intentionally or inadvertently
• The effects of having either the Creator or the Shadow destroyed are not known, but the implications are dangerous for the continued existence of the universe
• It has been alleged that the universe will end immediately upon the 'death' of one of the two forces
• It is known that the universe is considered separate and unique from the other primordial forces -- it is the plane upon which all other things occur, but is known to act through forces attributed to natural phenomena or innate magic to sway the universal battle in its favor, which means that ultimately, free will exists due to the inability of good and evil to meddle, merely influence; as part of creation, mortals are free to decide which side they partake in, since they are not perfect beings derived from the Creator or the Shadow as the agents are
• The universe, despite being considered divine, has no perception or higher thought, at least as far as mortal minds can perceive -- it merely is, and as such only participates in the Creator-Shadow war due to its existence. It has been described as a catalyst upon which everything else may be done.
• Without the firmament in place, this is believed to initiate the apocalypse described in the Profezana Finis Caencelis, where the Shadow conjoins with its avatar Faranohr and utilizes all of its power at once to simultaneously strike at the universe and the Creator
• Mankind is a production of three parents -- the union of Creation and Shadow, alongside the natural processes of the 'biological' universe such as the formation of life, reproduction, birth, and death

The firmament and the particular influence of the Creator and the Shadow

• The Creator, due to the firmament that the Shadow created upon being exposed to the universe, is not permitted to directly interact with the universe without bringing some heightened level of risk to both Itself and the universe
• To this end, it is believed that the Creator forms a 'tear' in the firmament, which makes it more unstable and potentially gives the Shadow the upper hand in their battle, but allows the essence of their divine conflict to seep into the universe; this is where Magic originates
• Because of his power, the Shadow is able to nullify magic, and is the only known entity that can do this, given the divine nature of magic
• These tears are both spatial and temporal, and cosmic errors of space and time are known to occur where one is present
• It is not known how many there are or how to precisely locate one outside of mathemagical study, but it is implied the Creator is continuously creating holes in the firmament and actively channeling Its power through them
• It can be assumed that just as the essence of the heavens leaks into the universe through these tears, so too does the essence of the universe leak into the heavens; the consequences of this are also unknown, but some have implied that time has 'infected' the heavens and caused the battle to exist in a way that mortals can understand
• If the firmament were ever removed, this would initiate what scholars of Magopurism have dubbed Finis Caencelis -- a Drakonian term which encompasses the possible events of what may happen if this occurs. It is universally accepted that the consequences would be alien at best, and catastrophic at worst for the universe.

Cycles

• It is theorized that because the Shadow has a direct footprint on Drakonius, It is able to act with far more effect on the world and the universe at large than the Creator is
• The Shadowlands are a testament to the Shadow's destructive power, but it is not known for certain if the Shadowlands were made such to act as the Shadow's home on Drakonius, or if they were previously inhabited by others
• Those who gave accounts of their journey to the Shadowlands during the War of the Shadow reported seeing strange structures which, although were unlike any of those found in the known world, stood out as being distinctively human as opposed to being constructs of Faranohr
• The theory held by Magopurists is that the Shadow previously wiped out the inhabitants of the Shadowlands, and in fact has done this many times over, in an effort to prevent the universe from assisting in the Shadow's defeat
• Since the universe will be the deciding factor in the battle, it is of utmost importance to the Shadow that it cannot be utilized by the Creator

Heroes, prophets, traitors, and military analogies

• From each cycle is what the thought-dreamers have referred to as heroes, prophets, and a wealth of military analogies such as generals
• The Shadow is believed to create or corrupt his own designated individual or group of individuals referred to as Traitors, who actively work to undermine the heroes and prophets
• It is believed that a successful cycle will involve the prophet becoming aware of the hero(es), informing the hero of their task, and helping the hero comprehend what it is that they face
• The military analogies seem to continue the implication that the battle will not be won without force, and that actual fighting must take place in order to cause this change -- what kind of force is unknown
• Generally, the Shadow attempts to corrupt the hero and prophet as well, but it is not known from previous cycles if this was always true or successful

Creator-Designates

• According to the thought-dreamers, the Creator will designate a particular group as the champions of that cycle, and choose the aforementioned heroes and prophets from this group, and have been dubbed Creator-Designates as a whole
• One thing that many thought-dreamers were able to correlate with reasonable certainty was that the dragons were the first Creator-Designates, but failed due to being pure creations of the Creator and Shadow; they were unable to bring in the new, chaotic influence that the universe provides
• As a result of their defeat, dragons became mortal but still retained their divine essence, and it is proposed that some of them eventually turned into Drakonians and merged their drakonic essence with that of the universe, creating a chaotic mixture of essence that mirrors the creation of the universe itself

The importance of Drakonians

• As is well known and widely accepted, Draqipane Dragomarus defeated the physical manifestation of the Shadow at the end of the War of the Shadow, utilizing his entire lifeblood as a magical conduit to destroy what should have been invulnerable
• Scholars are still not sure why this was possible, but many testimonies from thought-dreamers points to the importance of the Drakonian race, who possess (or are believed to possess) some trace dragonblood owing to their lineage
• With this in mind, it is entirely possible that Draqipane was the only one capable of defeating Faranohr in such a manner

WIP