The Church of Zhakata and heresy of the Provider

[Speedwagon]

Well, I'm not an eternal optimist for nothing so I have some degree of hope that I'll see it before my hair turns gray ! Regardless, keep up the amazing work!

[tomokaicho]

The gnostics are an interesting case, especially Christian gnosticism. It's quite possible (I think very likely) that Christian gnostics were influenced by Marcion, whose ideas in a different timeline could have become the mainstream version of Christianity.

Marcion noticed that the god of Christianity, or rather the compassionate deity as presented by Christians, is at odds with the violent god of the Hebrews, as presented in the old testament. So he came to the somewhat logical conclusion that these are different gods.

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Marcion of Sinope believed that the God of the Old Testament, as described in the Hebrew Scriptures, was a harsh and vengeful deity who was distinct from the loving and merciful God revealed in the New Testament. He believed that the God of the Old Testament was the creator of the physical world and was responsible for the laws and rituals of the Jewish religion, while the God of the New Testament was a higher deity who had revealed himself through Jesus Christ and was not connected to the physical world or the Jewish law. Marcion argued that the two gods were incompatible and that the God of the Old Testament was inferior to the God of the New Testament. His beliefs were considered heretical by many in the early Christian church and he was excommunicated as a result.

You could have a similar heresy in the Church of Zhakata, subverting this trope. The Church of Zhakata in this scenario is dualist, presenting Zhakata in two incarnations, while the heretics claim that these are two different gods entirely, and that the god worshipped by Yagno is the evil one.

Unfortunately, there is a lot we don't know about the Zhakata religion, including whether they have scriptures or not. My favourite version thus far was the G'henna that appeared in an issue of QtR, that had G'henna as some sort of pre communist Tibet, which is was as far from a religious utopia as you can conceive, in real world history.

Yagno is a potentially tragic figure. I'd say he is mentally ill, but also being punished because mental illness is not an excuse for being a jerk.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

The gnostics are an interesting case, especially Christian gnosticism. It's quite possible (I think very likely) that Christian gnostics were influenced by Marcion, whose ideas in a different timeline could have become the mainstream version of Christianity.

Scholars debate Gnosticism's origins as having roots in Neoplatonism and Buddhism, due to similarities in beliefs, but ultimately, its origins are unknown. Did the chicken make the egg or the egg the chicken? Well we know that the egg for first, but then again who is the chicken and who is the egg?

There is also Manichaeism founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian prophet Mani (AD 216–274). Manichaeism teaches an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness.Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light, whence it came. Its beliefs are based on local Mesopotamian religious movements and Gnosticism.It reveres Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, and Jesus.

In Manichaeism the human person is seen as a battle-ground for these powers: the soul defines the person, but it is under the influence of both light and dark. This contention plays out over the world as well as the human body—neither the Earth nor the flesh were seen as intrinsically evil, but rather possessed portions of both light and dark. Natural phenomena (such as rain) were seen as the physical manifestation of this spiritual contention. Therefore, the Manichaean view explained the existence of evil by positing a flawed creation in the formation of which God took no part and which constituted rather the product of a battle by the devil against God.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

The notion that light is gradually disappearing from the material world to return to its origin is a bit frightening. It implies we who are still here are left with ever more evil and ever less good...
There's the seed for a Ravenloft domain / cosmlogy in there, I think.

[IanFordam]

Unfortunately, there is a lot we don't know about the Zhakata religion, including whether they have scriptures or not.

From Circle of Darkness, p.22:
Zhukar Library of Enlightenment: This building holds the largest collection of books and scripture about Zhakata, including verse supposedly penned in the blood of the false gods that once dwelt in G'Henna. before Zhakata arrived: Zhakata himself wrote the verses. Many other books on a myriad of subjects scholarly and gentile can also be found here. Scribes diligently copy books for distribution to wealthy patrons and other temples.

Later, on p.49, we are told that "the Library stores 'blasphemous' texts and papers by heretics".

So we do have evidence of Zhakatan scripture and recorded heresies.

[IanFordam]

The notion that light is gradually disappearing from the material world to return to its origin is a bit frightening. It implies we who are still here are left with ever more evil and ever less good...
There's the seed for a Ravenloft domain / cosmlogy in there, I think.

Well, that's why so many good-aligned Outlanders are drawn in. You need that occasional heroic injection to dilute the thickening evil.

[The Lesser Evil]

The notion that light is gradually disappearing from the material world to return to its origin is a bit frightening. It implies we who are still here are left with ever more evil and ever less good...
There's the seed for a Ravenloft domain / cosmlogy in there, I think.

The Church of the Lawgiver kinda has elements of this in their Four Judgements theology. Another variant might be the Dustmen philosophy from Planescape, who posit that we are all living in various states of the afterlife for deeds we performed in Life before. The task of such a religion would thus be to escape the conditions that bind us to this dead world.

You could also make it like a more gradual, iterative version of the Rapture, with multiple chances for people to escape the destruction of the world.