Arcane Journey

Chapter 136 The Church
Oghma, a powerful deity of the absolute neutral camp, also known as the god of inspiration, invention and knowledge, also known as: the namer and the lord of knowledge, the shape of the holy symbol is an open scroll.

First of all, Oghma is not a god born in Toril in mythology. His followers spread a myth about the creation of the world.

Shortly after the creation of the world of Toril by Suren, the goddess of the moon, and Shar, the goddess of the night, and the birth of Chauntia, the mother of the earth, a traveler ventured here from a faraway land.

When this traveler came to this world, he found that this new world was chaotic, and many basic concepts were still changing and forming, and these changing concepts desperately needed to be settled and fixed.

Therefore, the traveler defined and named each concept in the following long years.

The name given by the traveler produced power, fixing all the originally unpredictable concepts of transformation, thus forming a materialized natural world.

This traveler is Oghma, the binder of all knowledge, who brings order to the chaotic world. This legend also explains why Oghma is called: the Namer.

Although for the sake of personal philosophy, Brian would not dedicate his belief to a certain god, but this does not mean that he would be as eccentric and arrogant as the great arcanist in the Netheril period.

It is said that in the time of Netheril, these arcanists would rather use healing potions than accept priests' healing spells.

Because they think that accepting the treatment of God's servant priest is a kind of abandonment of their chance to become a god, or a blasphemy of their belief in becoming a god.

It's as if a god disdains to accept another god's treatment for him.

It can be seen from this that they are already arrogant to such a desperate degree.

As for potion bottles, because they believed that these were created by magic, they did not reject potions.

After all, if this is repulsed again, my life will not be saved.

Not only is Bryan not as pedantic as they are, on the contrary, he even takes the initiative to contact some kind of god that matches his philosophy.

Oghma, the God of Knowledge, is one of them. If his beliefs are forcibly divided, he believes that he is definitely a pan-believer of Oghma, the God of Knowledge.

His original plan was to wait until his territory was stabilized before contacting the Church of Oghma. Who would have thought that they would come here on their own initiative.

In this regard, he naturally would not let go of the opportunity to win over the church to serve his territory.

After all, Oghma, the god of knowledge, is a very influential deity in the realm.

Myril, god of poetry, eloquence, and singing, and Dinir, lord of words and images, god of literature and language, were considered Oghma-like subordinate gods.

And at present, that is, after the end of the Arcane catastrophe, Oghma's belief has been further developed.

He not only holds inspiration, invention, and knowledge, but also represents the highest and most primitive form of knowledge—idea.

As the priests of Oghma say in their hymn: Ideas have no weight, but they can shake mountains, Ideas have no rights, but they can command, ideas have no power, but they can destroy empires, before anything can exist , the idea must exist.

Followers of Oghma firmly believe that knowledge is the greatest tool of mortal man, superior to anything created by human hands.

In the words of a famous mage from another plane: what lures the body is money and extravagant hopes, and what attracts the soul is knowledge and ideas.

Therefore, followers of Oghma will spread and preserve knowledge as much as possible, and eradicating illiteracy is also an important task of the Oghma Church.

However, the Church of Oghma's attitude of extreme maintenance and protection of knowledge makes them often have conflicts and contradictions with other churches and forces.

The Church of Oghma believes that no knowledge should be destroyed. Knowledge itself is not a problem. In the words of another famous archmage from another plane: Power itself is not terrible, but its owner is terrible.

Some Oghma believers even believe that all knowledge should be spread, and that nothing good can come from hiding knowledge.

No matter how illusory or crazy a new idea may seem, don't hide or cover it up, leave it to the public to judge.

This makes many Oghma temples usually contain a large amount of 'forbidden knowledge' or 'knowledge that should be destroyed' that are identified by other churches and organizations.

The most typical of these is necromancy, and on the other hand, the Church of Oghma will also take the initiative to crack down on organizations that spread false knowledge, rumors, and lies.

Anyone who encourages deception, deceit, and the idea that ignorance is a good thing is considered an enemy of Oghma, so members of the Church of Oghma don't have much to do.

Followers of Oghma are primarily wizards, cartographers, bards, artists, scribes, inventors, sages, scribes, and all manner of people who discover, preserve, and create knowledge and lore.

At the same time, Oghma is well respected even among the common people.

His name is often talked about, after all, no matter where you work or what industry you are in, knowledge is a necessity for you.

Brian knew very well that if he wanted to establish a magical kingdom, the first thing he needed to do was to enlighten the common people in the territory. The so-called enlightenment was to let them learn to read and write, and impart knowledge related to various fields.

This seems to be a very simple thing, but if it is really admired, let alone the difficulty of implementation, the wealth just spent is immeasurable.

But getting help from the Oghma Church is different. With the support of the priests of the God of Knowledge, it is equivalent to getting many free tutors who specialize in art, invention, drawing and other fields of knowledge for no reason.

This is a win-win choice for Oghma Church and himself.

Brian motioned for Balleris to wait outside the door, and entered the study alone.

The moment he entered the room, Oghma's priest immediately noticed his arrival, put down the book in his hand, and got up to signal.

This is a middle-aged priest, tall and thin, but shorter than himself, with a hawk-like nose protruding from his bony face, eyes like steel, and a few strands of white beard hanging down to his waist .

Doctorate Tyson.

Bryan recalled some information about the priest of Oghma and the organization he belonged to, the Gilded Laurels.

The system of the Oghma Church used to depend on the will of one person, the archbishop of Oghma, Curran Codment, who has been living in the city of knowledge 'Procampur' and is recognized as 'Oghma's Voters and Speakers'.

Until the turbulent years of the catastrophe of the saints, the archbishop disappeared and was not heard from again.

Oghma's answers to what happened to him were contradictory and confusing.

Because of this, the church has not had a supreme leader, so that it has split into multiple factions and branches.

The largest sect is the Orthodox Church of Oghma.

It does not recognize anyone using the title of Bishop, as its ruling circle believes that the High Bishop who disappeared during the Troubled Years still serves Oghma.

Perhaps the Archbishop is on another plane or sublimated to a demigod state, but either way, until Oghma says otherwise, he is the only legitimate Archbishop.

The "gilded laurel" organization of the Temple of Knowledge in Araby City is also not recognized by the Orthodox Church of Oghma.

Priests of Oghma of the 'Gilded Laurels' faction preach the idea that one should be armed with knowledge, not scrap metal.

The second largest sect is the Church of Oghma of Sambia, the commercial kingdom east of Cormyr, whose main difference is that it believes that a new archbishop has been appointed and that all knowledge should be tested before it is released to the public The proof is worth spreading.

This faction is made up of purely intellectual seekers in Mindan Island, and it takes the standpoint of the church ruling group rather than the standpoint of theology.

The idea they preach is exactly the opposite of the 'gilded laurel wreath'. These priests believe that the most efficient way to promote the truth is the sword rather than the scroll.

It probably means that knowledge is not the only sacred thing, there is one thing far more sacred than this, and that is truth.Knowledge comes from books, but there is only one way to bring the truth to the people, and that is action, which is a relatively paranoid method of spreading knowledge.

Until now, most local churches have maintained a fragile synergy.

But the dissension between the Oghma Church and the Komi Church in Sambia has led to a complete breakdown of church relations in these kingdoms.

Masters of lore in one kingdom are not welcome in temples of other kingdoms, and vice versa.

At the heart of the problem is the assumption behind a Sambian scholar's keynote address at a Sambian arts festival.

At that time, the Cormyr Oghma sect delegation led by the polymath Tysander happened to be attending.

So a point-to-point debate (trash talking to each other) completely broke the relationship between the two churches.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting, Bishop Tyson." Brian met the priest's gaze, and greeted the priest in the study with a smile on his face, "My name is Brian, the newly appointed lord of Mokou Town, Kingdom of Cormyr .”

The priest wears a white shirt and trousers, and a brocade waistcoat that depicts numerous hieroglyphs, symbols, runes, and symbols of magical power and arcane meaning.

These symbols seem to run through the realms of all ages on the entire continent, and then all the marks are stitched together by golden braid.

Doctor Tysonde was surprised when the strange and young lord called out his name directly, then he bowed slightly, saluted him, and said kindly, "Your lord, you are welcome, thank you for your hospitality, I will do it for myself I apologize for your sudden visit, and may Oghma protect you."

The pastor's voice sounded a little hoarse, and Brian guessed that the other party might be the aftereffect of the debate.

"Thank you for your compliment." He stopped talking nonsense, but chose to go straight to the point:

"In fact, I also believe that there is great indestructible energy hidden in books. Although knowledge is weightless, it can move entire mountains if you use it well. Bishop Tyson, I already know why you are here, and I hope we can cooperate joy."

Faced with Brian's confession, the pastor looked slightly surprised, and if he gave him a meaningful look, he said: "My lord's pursuit of knowledge is respectable, and Oghma, the god of knowledge, will help every soul who is passionate about knowledge. Hail to Lord Cormyr of wisdom and strength."

After finishing the polite words, Brian stopped circling around, "If that's the case, I'll be blunt, Bishop Tyson."

"As the lord of Mokou Town, I agree with the Church of the God of Knowledge to gain a foothold here." He thought for a moment and expressed his thoughts to the pastor.

"Not only am I willing to allocate a piece of land for your church in Mokou Town for free, but I will also fund the establishment of a monastery and a temple of the God of Knowledge for you. What you need to do is to popularize education for the people in the territory and teach them to read. Literacy, and imparting knowledge related to various fields. At the same time, assist me in defending the order of the territory."

After listening to Brian's words, the polymath Tysander was shocked to the spot, with an exaggerated expression on his face.

In fact, his purpose of coming here was mainly to observe the situation of this small town reconquered by the Kingdom of Cormyr, and whether it was suitable for spreading the belief in the God of Knowledge.

Who would have thought that when he came to Mokou Town, the new lord here not only welcomed him very much, but also offered him a condition that he didn't even dare to think about.

For a moment, Tysonde felt that happiness was so unexpected.

He could even imagine what kind of appreciation he would receive from the archbishop of Araby City if he told the conditions of the new lord to the archbishop.

However, as a polymath who is over half a century old and has experienced many storms, Tysander quickly regained his sanity from the shock.

He glanced at the confident lord of Mokou Town, calmed down immediately, and said to him,
"I'm very sorry, Lord Lord. Oghma, I can feel your enthusiasm for knowledge, but this matter is beyond the scope of my decision. I must return to Araby City and report to the Archbishop. He will do it. Make this decision."

"Understandable." Brian didn't care, because he had already guessed that this would be the case.

Although the conditions he put forward seemed to be very beneficial to the Church of Oghma, allowing them to take advantage of him, but he also played a little word game in these words.

That is the words 'my territory'.

In Tysander's cognition, he must instinctively think that this so-called lord refers to Mokou Town, but Brian's vision is not just a simple Mokou Town.

If you let him know that he still has a small world
"I understand what you mean." He continued, with a hint of coldness in his tone involuntarily, "So I also hope you can understand a sentence: It is easy to add flowers to the cake, but it is difficult to give charcoal in the snow."

It’s easy to add icing on the cake, but hard to give charcoal in the snow?
Tysonde, the polymath, secretly kept Brian's words in his heart, and immediately understood the true meaning of what he expressed.

The current Mokou Town has only been conquered by the Kingdom of Cormyr, and has not been completely occupied in the true sense. If it wants to get the support of Mokou Town, the temple, which has always maintained absolute neutrality, has to make a choice.

Today's Church of the God of Knowledge is no longer an era in which the Supreme Leader unified command and obeyed one will. If the "Golden Laurel" wants to become the most orthodox temple of knowledge, the fastest shortcut is to spread the God of Knowledge to more people Doctrine, expanding the influence of the church.

"My lord, don't worry."

The pastor pondered for a while, and said to Brian respectfully, "When I return to the Arab Temple, I will definitely convince the archbishop to agree to your conditions."

In fact, he is also selfish.

If the archbishop agrees to the conditions proposed by the new lord, it means that Mokou Town needs a bishop who manages the temple, and as an envoy to Mokou Town, he is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate.

In this case, he will completely break away from the shadow of the archbishop and develop his own temple power in Mokou Town.

At the same time, from the conversation between the two, he could clearly feel that the universal education proposed by the new lord just now showed the emphasis on the belief in the God of Knowledge.

He has traveled the mainland to preach for so many years, and he has never met a lord who attaches so much importance to knowledge.

This is undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the polymath Tysonde, and he must firmly grasp it in his hands.

"Then I look forward to your good news, Bishop Tyson."

Brian smiled, stretched out his right hand to the priest of the God of Knowledge, and emphasized the word 'bishop' without any trace.

"May Oghma protect you!" The polymath Tysonde shook hands with Bryan, sincerely blessed him, then turned and left respectfully.

Seeing the back of the pastor leaving in a hurry, Brian knew that the other party would definitely not leave immediately, and it was very likely that he would secretly observe the development of the entire town before considering the conditions he proposed.

However, he is confident that the other party will take it seriously.

From the moment Bryan decided to build the Magic Kingdom, he knew that knowledge is power, and it was true.

What's more, this is an era where gods and arcane arts coexist. In his view, magical knowledge is the primary productive force.

Only by popularizing education and imparting magical knowledge to the people in one's own territory can it play a leading and overall role in realizing the revival of the great arcane empire.

Because the fundamental purpose of education is to create high-quality wizard apprentices, professional wizards, and a large number of top-notch spellcasters with a huge population base.

This is the basis for the establishment of the magical kingdom.

In this regard, Brian has also conducted research and investigation.

According to the results of the investigation, based on data deduction, the intelligence attributes of ordinary civilians living in a civilized society are almost all maintained at around 10 points.

In the group of spellcasters, most people's natural intelligence attributes need to be kept above 16 points to be able to go further on the path of wizards.

Because the intelligence attribute of 16 points means that he has the possibility of touching the nine-ring spell.

With an attribute of 14 points, you can only touch 7-level spells at most, with 12 points, you can only master 10-level magic, and with [-] points, you can only master zero-level tricks.

This is the convenience that the magic net brings to the disadvantaged.

If a commoner's intelligence attribute reaches more than 10 points, it means that he only needs to go through systematic magic education to learn the simplest zero-ring tricks.

As the weakest magic in the spell table, zero-ring tricks may rarely have the opportunity to use the spells for the caster group.

But this does not mean that these spells are useless.

If he can make the whole people popularize magic knowledge and master zero-ring tricks, it will bring unimaginable changes to the whole society.

Give the simplest example.

The zero-ring cantrip "repair" works to physically repair a break or crack in a normal or magic item.

Examples include repairing a broken chain, or a key that was broken in half, a torn cloak, a leaky wineskin, etc.

As long as the damage or fracture does not exceed 1 foot (33 cm) in any direction, it can be repaired without leaving a trace.

If most ordinary farmers or workers master this zero-ring trick, it will definitely bring great changes to their daily life.

Putting it into the real world, then this civilian who has mastered the "restoration technique" is the most skilled tinkerer.

This is just a change brought about by a zero-ring "prosthetic".

Therefore, when these magic tricks, such as cleaning, structure restoration, copying, communication, switching, etc., are mastered by the general public, it means that this country has begun Advance to magical civilization.

And the premise of all this is to open up the wisdom of the people, let them read and write systematically like nine years of compulsory education from an early age, and then improve step by step until they master professional magic knowledge.

During the entire learning process, in addition to enabling those with less talent to master magic, they will also screen out spellcasters with outstanding talents to make greater contributions to society.

Considering the dissemination of knowledge, Brian understands that there is no more suitable candidate than the pastor of Oghma Church for the matter of popularizing education.

This allowed him to directly obtain a strong teaching force, which was completely free.

Just like if you want to open up a large area of ​​wasteland and cultivate land, choosing the priest of the Mother Earth Goddess Chauntia is the most correct choice.

The Earth Mother, Chantia, is one of the oldest deities on the world of Toril.

Chauntea is a good-aligned deity who is extremely popular among gardeners, farmers, and common people in many kingdoms, and thanks to her protection, most of the continent is rich and productive.

It is said that after the world was created, the moon goddess Su Lun and the night goddess Shar jointly created the stars in the world.

During the creation of the celestial bodies by the two goddesses, the earth goddess Chauntea begged the moon goddess to provide her with light and heat, but the night goddess strongly opposed this suggestion.

The Goddess of the Night believes that the original chaos and darkness of the world are the essence, and any behavior that breaks the pure essence is a blasphemy to the world, even the creation of life is no exception.

The Moon Goddess disagreed with her idea of ​​sisters born of darkness.

So Su Lun created the sun with pure fire, which brought warmth to the entire earth mother Goddess Chauntia, thereby promoting the production and growth of life on the earth, but this also made darkness and light oppose each other.

In the countless years that followed, the goddess of the earth, Chauntia, continued to increase her priesthood as the goddess of the earth because of the gradual enrichment of life objects.

With the emergence of intelligent creatures, the original wild and unrestrained character of the goddess of the earth began to be affected.

In ancient times, Mother Earth had a vigorous figure, wild and full of wild vitality. She was a wild god who loved to run with animals and rejoice for the prosperity of nature.

But with the increase of intelligent races, people used the richness of the land to plant crops and domesticate livestock, so the goddess of the earth, who was originally famous for nature and wildness, began to become docile and full of maternal breath.

In recent centuries, the Earth Mother has become more fond of intelligent beings, especially human beings who use the earth.

Therefore, she put in more effort than before to help her people with farming activities.

The nature of Chauntia, Mother Earth, also began to change, causing the sentient beings who believed in her to become divided.

The Druid sect is a sect that believes in the original goddess of the earth.

Every druid respects and protects nature, obeys the guidance of the wild heart of the forest, and is good at using and protecting natural resources, so that the race can multiply and develop.

The Earth Mother Goddess Chauntia's preference for humans has led to humans occupying large areas of natural land such as forests. The belief of the Druids even believes that the Earth Mother Goddess has abandoned nature and has become a production tool for intelligent races to eat.

This is indeed the case.

A long time ago, the Mother Earth had transferred the priesthood of the wilderness area to other gods, and firmly moved towards human agricultural civilization.

This changed the image of Chauntea into a plump, middle-aged woman with an amiable smile and white hair, exuding a maternal radiance.

Chauntea was thus worshiped as a deity by rounders, farmers, and all humans who farmed or produced natural goods for them, even spending their wedding night on newly plowed land.

Because they believe that spending the first night on the earth will make them have many children and grandchildren.

The earth mother Goddess Chauntia does not object to cutting and harvesting, she believes that it is part of the cycle of life, and people will start new sowing in the spring of the coming year.

Of course, if it is eternal destruction, it will make Mother Earth very angry. The poisonous lady Tarona is one of the most hated enemies of Mother Earth.

The deity's hobby of spreading withering, poison, and disease in nature directly destroys the regeneration ability of life, making it impossible for new life to re-breed in the highly poisonous land.

If you want to sacrifice to the goddess of the earth, Chauntia, you only need to create and cultivate life to please the goddess.

And when people who believe in the Mother Earth cast magic on the earth, there will even be additional bonuses, and they can use the earth or plants to detect traces of people on the earth.

Therefore, when Brian thought of opening up wasteland and farming, the first thing he considered was the Church of the Mother Earth.

After all, the entire continent of Toril is the body of the Mother Earth.

If he only relies on the bit of modern knowledge he has mastered, trying to show off his farming skills in front of the priests of the Mother Earth who specialize in farming magic, it is simply a trick.

This is as ridiculous as you are dividing up Chantia's body with her followers.

You must know that the technology in this world is not inferior to the real world at all. The Shoulong Empire on Kara Tu Continent and the Elves' Eternal Gathering Island both have complete interstellar fleets.

Skull Harbor in Waterdeep City even established a space port for parking starships.

The world seems like a paradoxical amalgam of the Middle Ages and a future interstellar age.

But you only need to think of modern technology in the real world and primitive tribes in Africa to understand this truth.

There is such a big gap in the real world without gods, let alone a world with gods and magic.

If you want to play the farming style and draw matt on the body of the Mother Earth, you must have the strength and means to surpass the Mother Earth.

If you want to change the way of playing and climb the technology, you first need to pass the level of the Xianglong Empire's guns, cannons, aircraft, and space fleet.

After figuring out these issues, Brian realized that he should study magic honestly, and based on magic, building a magic kingdom was the most correct choice for him.

Just as he was thinking about the next plan, his mind moved and he sensed a magic alarm.

Brian immediately realized that with the seal of the Purple Dragon, in the name of the Kingdom of Cormyr and the lord of Mokou Town, the pastor of the Church of the Mother of the Earth that he had invited had come to Mokou Town.

So he activated the teleportation circle and came to the castle garden to welcome the priest.

On a forest path, when Brian heard the clear and rhythmic sound of horse bells, a figure on a horse was walking towards him.

The man was wearing a blue and black sand-proof travel cloak, and the black horse on his crotch was undoubtedly well-cared for.

Seeing him, the mysterious rider raised his gloved hands, pushed back the hood of his thick traveling cloak, and smiled in greeting.

Brian could see clearly that the pastor from the Mother Earth Church was a beautiful human woman, her hair was as black and shiny as her mount, and it was draped over her shoulders like a waterfall. Against the background of her dark green riding uniform Down, it is particularly eye-catching.

Although her face was pale, her facial features were as perfect as an exotic beauty.

This woman must be a nobleman or something, Brian thought to himself after he couldn't recognize her identity.

However, he could at least see that the other party was a priest, not a druid.

The Church of Chauntia has two branches: the standard priests who serve the faithful in towns, cities, and civilized areas, and the druids who work in more remote areas.

With the success of town priests, the area of ​​activity of druids is becoming more and more remote.

The relationship between the druids who call themselves 'the true priests of Chauntia' and the more civilized clerics is cordial, but sometimes tense.

Because the druids have always admired Chantia, and regard the disciples of the priests living in the town as the new upstarts.

More civilized priests believe that the era of druids is over. Although druids still have their value in the wilderness, what the rising nations need is a more reasonable and rational clergy to control and organize , professional beliefs.

Among the subdivided proportions of clergy, priests account for about [-]%, druids account for about [-]%, ascetics and shamans are independent of the two branches, and they are only responsible to the creator of all things, accounting for [-]% in total.

As for monks, they are always allied with the leader of a particular temple or druid ring, making up the remaining [-]%.

As the lord, Brian is naturally more willing to cooperate with the priests of Chauntia than the group of stubborn druids.

Let the druids organize civilians to open up wasteland and farm land in their own territories, and if they don't disturb him, they will burn incense.

"You are the new lord of Mokou Town."

The priest of the Mother Earth got off his horse, walked up to Brian, took off his gloves, stretched out his white right hand, and said to him, "I am Karina, a priest from Morning Star Town, nice to meet you, may the Mother Earth God bless you."

"On behalf of Mokou Town, I welcome Ms. Karina. I'm Brian." Brian briefly shook hands with the female pastor and introduced himself.

Although his territory is only a town like Mokou Town, the area under his jurisdiction is about 3.5 square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of ​​Wanwan Island.

Moreover, affected by climate change, the rocky wasteland has become a land dominated by hills and plains, which is completely suitable for land reclamation and farming.

"I've checked the surroundings of the territory in advance." Priest Karina brushed her hair and said to him in a professional tone:
"At the same time, I also tested the fertility of the soil. Facts have proved that your territory is indeed suitable for farming. Of course, the premise is that if you can clean up the wandering evil humanoid creatures."

"Okay, Lord Lord, please arrange a guide for me. I need to observe the situation inside the town." The pastor smiled slightly, and continued, "In this way, I can report the truth to the church."

"I understand your idea."

Brian was not surprised, took out a sheepskin scroll that he had written in advance, and said to her, "Praise the Mother Earth, this is the details of my plan to cooperate with your religion, if necessary, you can check it carefully , and consider my conditions."

After finishing speaking, he stopped talking nonsense and arranged for a subordinate to lead the dusty female priest away from the castle.

The conditions on the scroll are not much different from those of the Church of the God of Knowledge.

As long as these two churches are willing to carry out in-depth cooperation with him, the education and production of the territory will gradually get on the right track.

Next, he still needs to deal with the most important issue, which is how to solve the population problem when education and production are both satisfied.

After all, no matter how well planned it is, it is useless without a population.

(End of this chapter)