Corps

The Corps is the religious tradition of most of the former territories of the Omban Empire, and many adjacent areas. It emerged almost eight hundred years ago out of the earlier ancestor-worship traditions of the region. It is non-theistic, ancestor-focused, and centered around death and what comes after death as central foci of interest.

Cosmogony

There are no gods or beings like gods as part of the Corps tradition. The universe is eternal and self-created, and is in constant tension between Coherence (that which brings the universe together and causes entities to have permanence) and Unfolding (that which causes the universe to change and decay). Coherence does not meant that everything stays the same and Unfolding does not mean that everything is constantly changing - only in the balance can the world be meaningful for people.

Before there was the universe, there was no time. Perhaps there was merely a formless mass, without any Coherence. If things changed, no one could sense it, and time itself had no meaning in the absence of form or of change. Coherence and Unfolding have always existed and co-constitute the universe. Coherence brings together that which is changing into a stable form, for a time. It is a process of change-by-stability, allowing us to perceive the world as it is. Coherence tells us that there are patterns in the universe and that by observing what is the same, we can come to a better understanding of what to expect.

But at the same time, if everything were coherent, everything would be the same forever, and that is a contradiction. Not a single step could be taken, nor a single breath. So amidst the Coherence there must also be Unfolding, change-by-flow, which is the unraveling of the mystery of what will be in the future. We talk about Unfolding as the flow of a river or the unwinding of a knot. Unfolding can never be fully predicted, but neither can it be completely chaotic, or else nothing could ever be sensible. Unfolding is the gradual revelation of Coherence, just as Coherence is the ultimate expression of Unfolding.

Source is an energy that underlies both Coherence and Unfolding. Source is stored in coherent patterns, and then is released to change the world. If Unfolding is always going on, and if it is influenced by human action, then Source is a way by which those skilled in its use create minor new folds / alterations in the Unfolding. Source does not simply exist on the surface, but must be tapped through fos or other means.

Some believe that at the end of the Unfolding, everything will collapse back into chaos / disorder. However, this is not central to the theology as currently understood. Rather, most hold that the ultimate goal or endpoint of the Unfolding is unknowable, if it exists at all.

Religious Practitioners

The Corps is divided into two complementary sex-segregated priesthoods, each with their own temples, traditions, and roles, the male Voice of the Dead and the female Hand of the Dead. Both the Hand and the Voice are celibate, and while they are permitted to have sex, may neither marry nor are they supposed to have children once they take their vows. Priests who marry must leave their order. The aim is for Hands and Voices to commit to their specific order, above ties of family. Each branch has its own leader - the high priest of the Voice is known as the Head, and the high priestess of the Hand is known as the Heart. The intention, and usually the practice, of the two branches is that they should be complementary, but inevitably conflicts do occur. Adherents use the services of both priesthoods and it would be nonsensical to describe oneself as a believer in one but not the other.

The Voice of the Dead are male priests in charge of communication with ancestors, the care of the dead, the preservation of knowledge, the keeping of ancestries, care of saints, jurisprudence over inheritance, and the resurrection of the dead. They are more monastic, separated from the world, and contemplative. They live in large communal temples, largely on the outskirts of major communities, where they tend to the burial vaults of the dead, and where people come to consult their ancestors. Preservation of and curation of the Ancestors is one of their most central roles. Families will play some role in deciding which temple of the Voice holds the remains of important ancestors. The Voice speak to the ancestors and thus acquire great knowledge about the past, which they record in great libraries. They do so not only at the behest of families, but also speak to the long-dead who have no descendants to visit them. They are the only ones who can resurrect the dead, although this privilege is not bestowed automatically or lightly, and they are primarily responsible for the care of the saints as well.

The Hand of the Dead is the female priesthood who create and control bubun (animated corpses), mete out criminal punishments, oversee birth and marriage, and perform public works. They are outwardly-focused and more engaged with the daily life of people. Because they control enormous pools of labor through the bubun, they supervise large amounts of public works and monumental construction, agricultural labour, mining, and military work. In theory, the bubun are to serve without the Hand profiting from the dead, but in practice they hold enormous power and wealth from these activities. In most of the former Empire they control the meting out of justice, particularly capital punishment. After battles and plagues, they are responsible for collecting bodies and determining their disposal - whether to be handed to the Voice to become ancestors, or rendered bubun. The Hand cares for women in childbirth and conducts rituals involving birth, including those unfortunate cases where a mother dies in childbirth and her child is Corpseborn - the Hand supervises the transfer of Corpseborn children to their communities and receiving in turn the children of corpseborn, who make up a significant proportion of the priesthood.

Both the Hand and the Voice engage in conversion activities and missionary work. Of particular interest is reducing the influence of the Hulti (Old Folk) who follow the old shamanic tradition that preceded them, and which still exercises some power in the former Omban countries, especially Malfan. Both Hands and Voices are also involved in social and pastoral care for those who come to them for aid. Both male and female believers use the services of both the Hand and the Voice.

The Afterlife and the Ancestors

Within the Corps, there is a belief in the First Ancestors. The First Ancestors emerged out of the primordial chaos but do not themselves have an ancestor / creator. They are unnamed (at least, by humans) mythical entities that may have been extremely powerful, and who gave rise to the entirety of their species today. Species that have First Ancestors are persons and are capable of sentience; other species, including most nonhuman animals, are not persons, do not have spirits, and are thus secondary creations.

After death, humans normally become Ancestors (abasse) - their body remains linked to their spirit, neither good nor bad, subject neither to reward or punishment. Ancestors are not capable of commenting on their state of being. From this state as Ancestor, a being can be awakened as a saint, reborn as a revenant, or rendered bubun. The only other immediate outcome for a person upon death is to become a haunt (shoror), a creature of chaos and disquiet whose spirit is separated from its body.

As long as they have their bodies, the Voice of the Dead can speak with the Ancestors about anything they knew when alive, although they do not acquire new knowledge after death. Bodies are kept in large vaults in their temples, where their descendants can visit to consult them (usually after an appropriate donation). If an unidentified dead body is found, the Voice would attempt to speak with it in order to determine where it should be sent or how to deal with it. There is no limit in principle to the amount of time a being can be an ancestor. The loss of a temple to fire, earthquake, or other destruction is an inestimable loss since those ancestors can never again be contacted. Ancestors are consulted for their knowledge of their time, or for general advice.

History and Spread

The early history of the Corps is linked directly to Zunuga and her early teachings between 16 BE and 6 BE, the time when her Maxims were proclaimed (although many of them were not written down during her life). Spread alongside the conquering Omban armies, the ability of the early priests to speak to ancestors, animate dead corpses to fight as bubun, or even to resurrect the dead, were highly motivating factors to abandon what is now called the Old Faith or the Hulti tradition. By Zunuga's final death in 6 BE, the Corps had at least reached large parts of what would become the Empire.

However, it was not until the awakening of the first Emperor, Eluli Gandachi, as the saint Eluli Ula in 22 IE that the Corps became linked firmly to the Omban Empire. The great Temple of the Voice had just opened the year previously, and Eluli's awakening turned the minds of many of the noble lineages to the potential of the Corps. The Gandachi dynasty, while initially respectful of the old faith, soon turned against it as it became clear that revenants and saints were considered monstrosities by the shamans. In 63 IE, the Hand and Voice were recognized as co-equal and official throughout the Empire. In the decades that followed, the Jemosine purge and Atamurine purge sought to limit the influence of the Hulti and expel infidels out of the Empire, largely to Malfan.

By the third century, Malfan itself fell under Omban attack, and while the conquest of Malfan succeeded politically, the Corps never reached fully there as it did elsewhere in the Empire, and the Treaty of Romaz in 271 affirmed religious freedom for the Old Folk in the southern part of the province. But the Battle of Burafa in 242 solidified permanently that nobles and citizens would need to follow the Corps to enjoy the right to hold lands in the remainder of the Empire, further cementing the dominance of the Corps.

In the fourth century, the two Osnabi campaigns brought the Corps (along with many Ombesh speakers) west of the Filija Mountains into what is now Ashnabis. Contact was never fully severed between Ashnabis in the years after the Empire's fall, and the Corps continued to be followed eagerly by the new society of Aummesh speakers developing as a mixture of Omban and indigenous traditions. The establishment of Eluli Ula as the sainted monarch of Khutu established, for the first time, a link between saintly power and secular political power, and in Hasmala, the powerful Hand of the Dead and their armies of bubun could, either as soldiers or as farmers, ensure the power of that half of the Corps.