Crusader Kings 2 - The Road of Queens
Chapter Nine Hundred-Five : Seven Top Religions Of 935 AD
Medieval Religions
This chapter opens in mid September, of the year 935 AD, with the Empress pouting.
Seems even after her little war there were powerful Factions and a total of, no less than, six known plots. And, remember, those were only the KNOWN ones.
The plotters, in most cases, were not being very cooperative. Some refused to stop backing the schemes of others.
So the Empress, in a pissed off mood, wandered over to the Wall Map. At the moment silver and metal smiths were working on it. Fine gold wires moved about the map, showing major roads, while different colored gems showed mountain ranges, rivers, and valleys.
And it had to be updated almost weekly.
“Does it show religions?” asked the Empress.
One of the artists, a Master Ferris, looked up from the work he was doing on the Map Legend near the bottom of the Wall Map.
“Er…no, not really,” he pointed out as he adjusted his goggles and gave the Empress a weak smile.
“Add it,” she said before walking off.
Ferris and the other skilled artists and smiths and jewelers all sighed and started to remake the Wall Map from scratch.
And so Master Ferris went to the Royal Library to research the known world’s greatest religions.
Most of the books were not in the proper order and a few were on the floor. The librarians were not very helpful as they spent much of their time trying to put books back in their proper place and seemed to treat visitors to the Royal Library as invaders and not as welcomed visitors.
But Master Ferris finally found out which Religions were the Top Dogs in the world. As it were. The Number One Religion of the Known World was the Reformed Aztec Church.
The Reformed Aztec Religion, which worshiped Huitzilopochtli, also known as Uitzilopochtli, or Xiuhpilli, or Totec. He, it, was the Sun and War God. In Aztec art this deity was often shown as an hummingbird or an eagle.
Most of the religion seemed to center of keeping the sun moving by sacrificing to this deity. Even other Gods were sometimes sacrificed to keep the sun moving.
The Reformed Aztec Religion had a proper Holy Book, a formal church hierarchy, and everything. Due to their history of victories and pretty much crushing the Rome Church, their Authority was pretty high.
The Head of the Aztec Church was Tlatoni Yayauhqui “The Just”. Whose military skill was…wanting. Still, as one of the most powerful Religious Leaders of the Known World he had to be doing SOMETHING right.
The next most powerful Religion was called Hinduism. It wasn’t really a single religion as so much a blanket of successor faiths of Ancient Indian polytheism as recorded in Vedas. It had no Head.
In fact due to the many sects within it, as well as the thousands of years of co-existing with Jainism and Buddhism, has made it a somewhat tolerant and pluralistic towards other Indian Religions. But it was still the most war-like out of the three. Which was why Hinduism had held its own in India against the invading Religions.
The Third Religion on the list that Ferris studied was Sunni. The most wide spread form of Islam. With Allah as the center of the sect and the formal head was the Sunni Caliph.
Ferris didn’t understand about the split with the Shia but didn’t try to dive too deep into the two sects.
The current Sunni Caliph was the 8 year old Qawurd. It was unknown how long he would be the Religious Head or the Ruler of his own House.
The Fourth was Tengri. Which made sense as this was the Pagan Religion of the Horse Lords. Including the Mongol Empire. Though, lately, many had joined Hinduism.
Tengrism was a mixture of Shamanism, animism, and ancestor worship but had the core beings of the Heavenly-Father and Earth Mother. Once again Ferris didn’t dive in too deep. But he did find it a powerful Religion on the steppes.
The Fifth most powerful Religion in the known world was a Heresy much to Master Ferris’s surprise.
Paulician was a Orthodox Gnostic Heresy. The library had little details on Paulicianism but it did suggest that the infighting within the Byzantine Empire, and its Imperial Family, had done some long lasting damage to the Orthodox Church.
The Head of this Religion…or Heresy was Patriarch Nikephoroes “The Pious”.
The Sixth Religion was Buddhism. As he knew all about that he quickly moved on to research the Seventh Religion.
Which was Monothelite, another Orthodox Hersey, in which the followers said Jesus was both a human man and the Son of God BUT of one will. A somewhat confusing and dangerous position to take among Christians.
Its head was Patriach Dositheos “The Cruel”. Not the BEST name for a Religious Leader.
“Well, at least I have someplace to start,” Master Ferris said to himself as he took his notes back to the Throne Room to meet with the others. They needed to decide how to insert Religious Symbols onto the Wall Map.