Church of Universal Harmony
by Marco Dalmonte English translation by Gary DaviesWorshipped in: Darokin
The Church of Universal Harmony is a religious order devoted to the principles of Good and Order, being born as a result of a reform of the Church of Darokin in the work of a dissident Bishop, Luther Martins, who wanted to change many of the founding bases of the Darokinian Temple. Unfortunately his ideas were not accepted by the Council of the Archbishops, and Martins was convinced to abandon the Church to found his own clerical order. From his original theories the Church of Universal Harmony, which don’t worship determined Immortals but rather with the Immortals known as the Custodians of Harmony, that Martins never defined, to the contrary forbidding the explicit association with divine figures recognised for being able to include all the benevolent Immortals without to make mischief to some (in this he came very influenced from his studies on doctrine of the Eternal Truth, spread also to Selenica).
The precepts of this order say that the way to perfection is given by work, praying and reciprocal tolerance. In order to succeed to being in communion with the universe and creating harmony, each person has to be first of all in peace with the same, so that can obtain only through work that ennobles his spirit. For being in communion with the Immortals he has to pray each day in private, and when possible participate in sacred ceremonies, even if the most important thing is the daily prayer. Finally, in order to be in communion with the neighbour tolerance and charity is necessary, so that what is made from one to the other will be exchanged in equal measure. The respect of these precepts creates a living community of elected legates of Harmony everywhere they live. It is not important to be Darokinian, since no promised or predetermined land exists, and anyone can become clergyman of the Universal Harmony, without distinction of race or sex. For these motives the doctrine of Martins are considered heretical by his old order.
The Church of Universal Harmony has its only temple situated in Selenica, and the patriarch is the octogenarian Father Martins. He invites his clergymen to roam the Known World to proclaim his word of truth, without paying heed to of having found churches and temples of stone, since the real Harmony is found in the spirit of the person, not in a worldly construction. The order has many followers throughout the nations of the Known World and of Alphatia, and all try to convert the unbelievers with simple persuasion and without the use of force.
According to the doctrine of Harmony moreover, the life is a wheel that turns: who does not succeed to enter in tune with the Universal Harmony will be reborn once dead and must again repeat the journey, until their soul becomes part of the wheel and is no longer forced to walk the edge. This naturally signifies that demonic creatures and undead they are simply of the obstacles, of the hidden dangers put in the way of the Harmony by those who want to promote Chaos and Disharmony. Because of this, it doesn't condemn them, but tries to redeem them, and free them from their fate, reintegrating them into the harmonic cycle. In the same way, the resurrection makes part of the divine design, is a power given in order to allow to whom still hasn’t completed his cycle of entering into harmony with the universe, and adequately encouraged in the cases in which the conversion to Harmony is positively probable. The clerics of the Church of Universal Harmony are all philosophers and among the faithful are given the appellation of Brethren (only the patriarch is the Padre). They always carry with themselves the symbol of the order, a golden wheel at the centre of a spiral galaxy, and they dress with normal tunics, shunning any type of ostentation of money or of social class. They do not have directives about the physical aspect to maintain (so that some of them really resemble the wanderers), but they can be recognised besides that by the holy symbol also by the fact that they never cover their face or head, therefore to be always visible to the others, in harmony with the look and the minds of the people.