The Worldwide Church of Truth

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The Worldwide Church of Truth is a Saronid supremacist secret society and chiliast cult from the videogame The Creation of the Heavens and the Earth. It had disguised itself as a church in order to alleviate suspicion and receive government protection under freedom of religious expression. The group lasted for 13 years, with it being dissolved after all the members were killed by Elijah.

History

The cult was founded by Qaron shortly after the conquest of the Southern Continent of the Shadow Realm. Qaron was going through already tough times with the recent divorce of his wife and losing custody of his son Saron. With the event of Elijah's conquest, the sorrows he had faced drove him into insanity, with him eventually receiving a dream that he thought was a divine revelation, leading him into forming his own cult. His dream had shown him overthrowing Elijah, wielding a cross with a snake that had a lionhead on it, and the Saronids cheering him on. The goal of the cult was to topple Elijah's reign, establish a Saronid utopia, and eradicate all other races. Qaron planned to achieve this by summoning the Evil (who they view as Yaldabaoth) into the world in order to put an end to his rule. The cult had gained a massive amount of members, with about 100,00 before the group's dissolution, due to its extensive proselytization efforts. About 1 year before the group's dissolution, the Crown Prince Elijah Jr. had joined the cult, massively increasing the cult's publicity and membership. But after the cult had summoned the Evil, it had possessed Elijah Jr. and thus caused him to go missing. Another demon who was summoned as a result of a failed summoning of the evil was a witness to this, and after the announcement of a large bounty to whoever would bring justice to those responsible, he informed Elijah of what he saw. This caused Elijah to destroy the entire cult, killing every single member.

Beliefs

Theology

The cult believes in teachings similar to the Gnostics, believing in a dualist ideology of the Monad and the Demiurge. They believe the classic Christian trinity for the Monad and an unholy trinity for the Demiurge (Yaldabaoth, Satan, Blobby). Blobby is not considered to be a single entity like the other 2, but rather an evil manifestation that occurs in creation that is repeatedly reincarnated, believing that the current incarnation of Blobby is Elijah. They also have this similar belief for the Holy Spirit, believing that the current incarnation of the Holy Spirit is Qaron. They also believe the teachings of the Bible are not only a literal account of the events of the Gooey's Universe, but also a metaphorical account of the events of their universe. Some examples are the Roman Empire being correlated with the Blobby Empire, the martyrdom of Sher being correlated to the crucifixion of Christ, and God's chosen people of the Israelites being correlated with the Saronids. They believe that in order to realize a Saronid utopia, they must bring the salvation of the Monad to the Demiurge; which would cause a merge of the duality into forming one single unity, thus bringing God's chosen people a paradise in the afterlife. They believe that by summoning Yaldabaoth and forcing him to kill Elijah, the Monad will bring him salvation, thus causing the End Times to occur. The cult believes that the collapse of the Central Continent is a direct sign of the End Times.

Revelation

The cult believes that the Monad sends Divine Revelation to the people in the form of prophets, who they believe are incarnations of the Holy Spirit. The cult believes that revelations from Christians and Sheris are authentic, but that the law of their scriptures is outdated due to their new prophet Qaron. They believe Qaron is the final prophet who will bring an end to the duality of the world, symbolized in their main symbol being Yaldabaoth on a cross. They also have their own scripture called the True Testament, which are a series of teachings claimed to be Divine Revelation by Qaron.

Practices

Organization

The cult has a very clear and strict hierarchy, with Qaron at the top and members at the bottom. All members of the cult are required to reside in City of the Holy Spirit, a remote city located in an oasis far away from the main river. All converts must be personally baptized by Qaron, and these members generally do the rough work of the group. Then above members are missionaries, who are members that have shown loyalty to the cult and are well-versed in the cult's teachings. They have been granted permission to leave the city on the condition that they only engage in missionary activities; if they are caught being absent for too long, then a disciple is sent to locate them and forcibly take them back, where they will be permanently demoted to a member. Male missionaries engage in going door-to-door preaching, while female missionaries attempt to seduce uninitiated men into joining the cult. Once they have convinced at least one person into joining, they are required to come back to their city. Above missionaries are devouts, who have extensive knowledge of the cult's teachings and have shown great loyalty, and thus have the privilege having access to Saronet in order to preach the faith online. The penultimate highest rank of the cult are the disciples, 10 people who were close friends of Qaron before prophethood; unlike the other ranks, it is impossible for anyone who was not already a disciple to become a disciple. Then at the top there is Qaron, the head leader of the cult.

Worship

Everyday, there are 3 worship ceremonies that are obligatory for most cult members to attend: Sunrise Prayer, Noon Prayer, and Sunset Prayer. Prayer consists of bowing, chanting, and supplication; the prayer was originally only lead by Qaron with the members behind him, but with the large expansion of the cult, it was then made so that his disciples would also lead the prayer in a separate area fore the rest of the followers. For missionaries outside of the city, they are allowed to perform their prayers alone if they have no one else with them; but if they have a convert with them, they are required to lead prayer with them. Every Sunday, there is an extension of the Sunrise Prayer which consists of the Eucharist and a sermon given by Qaron; in the Sunset prayer, there is also an extension in which the followers participate in "ecstatic worship", which consists of them getting drunk and dancing erratically. They also share the same holidays as both Christians and Sheris.

See Also

https://wiki.conworld.org/w/Earth_(CHE) https://wiki.conworld.org/w/Saron