Goroesgi - The Way of the Builders (the 3rd faction)

 

Over the last few months I have been posting the various chapters of my world building exercise on my fictional world of Goroesgi.

While I think I was able to use it as an example of how I go about trying to build my own world which I hope can become a setting for games and stories I plan to make in future, there seems to be a few people following along with the world I've been building.

The World Building blog series is over for the purpose of talking about how I am creating a world, but the exercise continues for me, and for anyone that is following the world I'm creating.

This means I need to write more about it for me to continue to expand the ideas and rules of the world I'm creating.  For the World Building series I posted the chapters that were written before I restarted my blog and trying to focus more on my own creative projects.  This means it has been a few months since I last picked up the project other than making the blog posts and tidying up what I had already written.

So if you're following along, here is something new.  This chapter describes the last of the three main factions in the society aboard the Great Ark, the religion of The Way of the Builders.  This has been freshly written to present to you.  Part of me thinks I kind of avoided writing about this faction until now because I felt it was more difficult one to think about.  The faction is a religion, has beliefs that contradict the ongoings of the Guild and Academy, and it needs to both fit into the world so far, but also have scope to be antagonistic.  Then there's structuring the organisation, considering how the history of the religion, and the teachings and texts of the religion.  While the chapter is supposed to describe these different aspects, I think I made it work.

Let me know what you think.

My current plans for this moving forwards is to keep aiming to do weekly posts as much as possible under the "Goroesgi" title, and still for late Sunday into Monday morning.  I will also shortly consolidate everything written so far into two or three posts to allow people to catch up with the world, or to just be able to read more than one passage at a time.

Thanks for reading.

The Way of the Builders

The Way of the Builders is the primary religion for the people living aboard the Great Ark. Unlike the old religions of the surface world before the time of the Great Ark, The Way of the Builders was formed after the creation of the Ark. The Gods of their religion are the Architects that created the Ark and all of its workings.

The formation of the religion however came after the death of the Architects. Following their passing, and over the generations that followed, no one remembered the true history of the Great Ark or the world below. The story of how the structure came to be a great myth and legend. The only world anybody could remember was that of the Great Ark. So as the society aboard the Ark matured, the twisted myths and legends began to be believed, by some, as the work of Gods. The story of the Great Ark’s creation became the creation myth of The Way of the Builders, and over time more and more people chose to believe in the stories told by the clerics of The Way of the Builders.

Like most forgotten religions, The Way of the Builders allowed people the chance to try to understand the world they lived in. It provided a way for society to self regulate itself on its ethics and traditions, even for those without any reasonable level of education. In times of plight, The Way of the Builders served as a pillar of hope for society, giving aid and shelter to those in need. In turn, the followers of the faith would make donations, be it financial, resources, or work, to support the clerics and the eventual temples and institutions that The Way of the Builders came to manage.

As The Way of the Builders deified the original Architects of the Great Ark, the followers of the religion believe that everything aboard the Great Ark, its workings and the distribution of people throughout the Ark are, as a matter of course, the work and will of the Gods. Likewise, the upper levels of the Ark, the Great City, the Library, and the upper most level where the Architects lived, are believed to be the realm of the Gods and, according to The Way of the Builders, should never be encroached upon. To do so is heresy, and while the religion does not directly have the means to punish people for breaking their doctrine, anyone known to break their doctrine is likely to be subject to violent social justice from followers of the religion.

This also means that, currently, The Way of the Builders is constantly at odds with the Guild and the Academy in their efforts to explore and understand the Ark. Before the creation of the Academy, the Guild mostly worked in tandem with The Way of the Builders. As an institution aimed at giving people work, and providing urgent jobs to assist with emergencies, the Guild had a similar objective as The Way of the Builders during times of strife. However, since the creation of the Academy, the Guild and the Academy are actively working to better understand the Great Ark and its workings. This work is heretical to the religion and creates a great deal of tension between The Way of the Builders and the other main factions aboard the Ark.

This tension currently simmers due to the powers and capabilities of the people who work with the Guild and the Academy, as there is no way for The Way of the Builders to directly challenge or object to the work of either the Guild or the Academy. This does not however prevent the clerics of the religion from protesting on the expeditions and activities of the Guild and Academy. With the religion being the second oldest faction aboard the Ark, it has a wide reach across the structure and communities aboard the Ark, including people of influence, that can help it persuade key officials in an attempt to subvert the actions of the Guild and Academy, but not stop them entirely.

While The Way of the builders decries most of the activities of the Academy as heretical, the religion does not take a wholly negative view to the Academy advancing the understanding of magical abilities as, through the Academy’s research, healing magic has both become known and continues to be researched and better understood. The religion actively tries to recruit users of healing magic to support their humanitarian activities, and while other schools of magical abilities might normally be destructive in nature, The Way of the Builders will engage with them for other purposes where those other types of abilities might be of assistance, such as the use of kinetic abilities for removing rubble, or water abilities for putting out fires or providing drinking water. The recognition of the benefit of these abilities creates a tenuous relationship with the Academy because to consider it heretical outright would deprive The Way of the Builders of these useful abilities.

Organisationally, The Way of the Builders is structured in chapters. Each town, and most villages have a temple run by the religion. The temples in the towns are larger, both to support the larger population, but also to operate as the regional centre for the management of the priests and clerics in that chapter that spread the philosophies of the religion. In a village, the temple will normally be run by a single priest who may have an apprentice cleric working with them. In the larger towns, the temples will be run by a high priest, with a handful of priests and numerous clerics, apprentice or fully fledged working under them. While the high priests mostly work as a committee to discuss and oversee the daily workings of the religion across the chapters of the religion, the committee of high priests is also governed by the Architect Supreme. The position of the Architect Supreme is the pinnacle of the religion. The person ordained as the Architect Supreme is chosen by the committee of high priests and holds the post until they die. The position is generally considered symbolic however as the high priests run all matters of circumstance within the religion.

The gospel for the religion, formed from the half remembered history of the Ark is known as the Architect’s Design. It serves as the primary resource for the priests and clerics in telling the stories of the religion. It starts with the creation myth of the Great Ark, explaining how the world around them was gifted to the people aboard the Ark today, and how the Architects saved the people from a time of great horror and darkness in the time before. While this idea is the basis for the religion, throughout the time of the religion, the Architect’s Design has been expanded to tell stories about the structure of the Ark, the realm of the Gods, and the need to maintain the current traditions aboard the Ark. Through these stories, lessons in ethics and social norms are also recorded and communicated to help people learn how to live a normal life aboard the structure.

The Architect’s Design is also written to include warnings about encroaching on the realm of the Gods, or breaking tradition and doctrine. The Architect’s Design also describes a story about how the known world might end. It explains how the Architects will return, test the faith and existence of the people aboard the Ark and, in finding that people have lost their way, the Ark will be taken back by the Architects and the people exiled to the void for failing to follow the Architect’s Design.

The stories, lessons and warnings included in the Architect’s Design help give people reason to live their lives, even if ignorant of reality, hope to outlast times of strife, and fear should they not adhere to the religion’s teachings. This both attracts followers to the religion, and helps to ensure that they continue to believe in the faith. When viewed like this, it can make the religion seem sinister, however the religion was formed with the intention of supporting people and helping them understand their place in the world. As with any religion, there is both good and bad that exists within its design, but the primary reason for people to believe in such a religion is to give hope and understanding where none might be found elsewhere.