Hadradanism

The Pagan Beginning

Originally, the Hadradans were a hunting and gathering culture. Even at this stage they believed in one god who gave life to the world and protected them from harm. This god was called Helian and He was the Sun. Helian had created the world and all things in it. It is possible that the Hadradans of this time had some relation to the long-dead Custodians of Concordance. The Hadradans revered dragons as emissaries of Helian, but they did not worship dragons as gods, nor did they pray to a dragon god such as Io. It is possible that the origins of sects such as The Order of the Dragon come from these times. Even the churches of 204 LE use the Sun as the symbol of God.

Elyassanism

While the Hadradans were under the yoke of Vikallian masters, their common religious believes of one God and their own endemic uniquity led to the creation of a coherent set of beliefs. The proponent of this was the prophet, Elyas. He was a gentle man who believed in living in peace with the world. He could also cast magical spells and was believed to have a direct line to god. He laid down the Laws of Hadrada, often referred to as the Thirteen Laws of Elyas. They stated the following:

Vandanism

Following the Hadradans' disastrous foray in the Great War, the laws of Elyas were deemed to be at fault. They were largely rewritten by the prophet Vanda. This caused a schism in the church that eventually led to a witch-hunt against the Elyassanites. Vandanism was the official religion of the Hadradan Empire for a thousand years, and still exists today, although it has largely been supplanted by Timinism. The Laws of Hadrada, as amended by Vanda, and adopted by the church, read as follows:

Very soon after Vandanism became the national religion of Hadrada The Velvet Canto saw publication. The Velvet Canto, despite the name, was not a pleasant book. It was taken as the literal Word of God, and placed a more secular interpretation of the Laws of Hadrada. The mortal author of the Canto was the prophet and King, Ekamon. What Ekamon did in his work was to connect the Church and the State together as never before. The King (and later the Emperor) was also head of the church. The Velvet Canto was the first official appearance in Hadradan history of The Moiety – the principle by which one seventh of all worldly goods are given to the church. This also set aside a day of worship for God as one day in seven, although no specific day of the week was named as the holy day.

Vanda's modified Laws of Hadrada was also taken up by Cassiah in his publication of Treatise on Humanity, The Lesser Races and God's Divine Plan in 625 PL. The Treatise expanded upon the Sixth Law and declared all races that were not human should be defined as Beasts and treated accordingly.

Timinism

Following the final rout of the Mannenites from Hadrada in 13 PL, the time was ripe for a new religion to rise and tear down the corrupt Vandanism. Timon first appeared in 4 PL. He was roughly five years old. Timon declared that he had no mother and no father. That he was the will of god made flesh and that he had come to rectify the evils of the Empire and the perversion of Hadradanism from Elyas's time. At first he was dismissed as a harmless crank, but with the Elyassanites gone to the deaths and the Vandantes in chaos many began to flock to his banner.

Timon did not restate the Thirteen Laws of Elyas, neither did he even refer to the Laws as changed by Vanda. His doctrine was simple, as he said in a rally in the Great Gallery in Hadras in 1 PL:

Peace with no prejudice, no violence and no deception. This was inward looking. This was what people wanted to hear. The Vandanian church declared Timon a heretic and had him hunted down. The problem was that there was more to Timon that met the eye. Many believed he was indeed God's will made flesh and perhaps he was. The Vandanian authority captured Timon a number of times. He was hanged, burned twice and even pulled apart by wild horses, but he kept coming back. Timon lived for twenty years, and in that time he did not age a day. No body was ever found after he passed, and by that stage the Emperor was a Timinite and his religion had been established.

When the moons appeared in the sky, Timon said that it was punishment from God. He was never very clear on how it was a punishment, but that was enough for most people. It took thirteen years but eventually the emperor declared himself a Timinite and the Vandanian church was no longer the empire's official religion. To this day Timinite and Vandanian churches exist side-by-side in Hadras, by the Timinites are much the stronger. The Emperor is always a Timinite. The Vandanians have more success plying their version of Hadradanism in far off parts of the land. The Timinites have no missionaries, it is against their nature after all.

Timinism saved the empire from self-destruction. Arguably, it also doomed it. By looking inwards rather than outwards the Hadradan Empire crumbled. After a millennia of empire building the Hadradans have many enemies: the Urovans, the dwarves, the Érewhoi, the Mannenites, the Vikallians….. the Hadrada of today is vulnerable to all these enemies. How much longer it can stand is open to debate.

See also:

• History of the Hadradan Empire