The Priest Grand Hall shimred with golden light, and the volcanic rock ceiling reflected a blood-red hue. The Sun Hummingbird sculpture of the Chief Divine stood tall, seemingly benevolent yet rcilessly overlooking all life.
The muffled voice of the High Priest softly fell upon Xiulote’s ears, causing him to shiver. Xiulote looked up and exclaid in surprise.
"Grandfather, you..."
"We’ll talk when we get back!"
The High Priest waved his hand, his expression unchanged, then affectionately patted Xiulote on the shoulder.
"My child, keep your heart at peace, and stay with to handle today’s matters first."
Observing this, Xiulote silently nodded, standing by the side and waiting patiently. He had too many confusions, too many things to understand about everything that happened today.
Authority and solemnity returned to the Priest Grand Hall. Soon, the High Priests returned to the hall and busied themselves with daily matters. At the command of the High Priest, newly written scrolls and reports were brought into the hall to be reviewed by both the High Priest and Xiulote.
"Xiulote, sit here and carefully go through the books and docunts of the High Priesthood,"
the High Priest commanded with a smile, gently instructing him.
"In the books, the first two volus compare pictorial texts with block characters, the middle volus organize the myths and legends from around the world, and the last few volus contain the doctrines of the Chief Divine Religion to date. In the docunts, the first few are about last year’s village tributes in the Alliance, the middle ones are about the religious beliefs within the Alliance, and the last concern missionary activities outside the Alliance... You must thoroughly understand these,"
"Yes,"
Xiulote respectfully nodded, filled with anticipation.
The books were the cultural repository of the High Priesthood, and the docunts were the crucial secrets of the Alliance. The vast Priesthood worked day and night, extending its reach throughout the Alliance territories, to gather these details. Only here, in this supre Great Temple and with the permission of the High Priest, was he allowed to access such top-secret information.
Xiulote first opened the books and quickly looked through them.
The creation of the Alliance’s script had been ongoing for years and was increasingly refined. Under the frawork of "Divine Revelation" in Chinese characters, there were not only transliterated Celestial Empire characters but also many phonetic xica kana. The priests of the Alliance, according to everyday grammatical habits, had reshaped a consistent system of language and script, leading to the initial forms of simplification.
Upon seeing this, Xiulote reflected silently. Language and script must complent each other. With Chinese characters as the mainstay, localized kana was inevitable. The eventual xica script system would be akin to Japanese and Korean. The culturally adept priests could read Chapters in Chinese characters but spoke in reorganized Nava language.
Xiulote then began to read the organized world myths and legends. Situated at the center of the world, the xica Alliance had collected depictions from surrounding regions’ engraved stones. According to the newly born unitary thought of the Kingdom of the Lake, not only was the history of xica origins completely revised, but the myths and legends of different regions were also recompiled.
"Unified origins from the Tar people... Ol, Teo, Tol, Tec, inherited by the Alliance... Chief Divine promises, divine blessings upon the Royal Family... Sun’s light shines, wars blaze... All regions of the world, reunited under one... "
As Xiulote read this, his heart surged. The world originated from the Tar people, passing through the Olc, Teotihuacan, Toltec, Tepanec, inherited by the xica Alliance... Chief Divine promised the xica Valley to the Alliance, divine spirits blessed the Royal Family as the supre rulers of the world... The Alliance, following the will of the Sun God and War God, waged divine wars to subdue all regions, reuniting them under a unified rule... This was the mythical epic of the Alliance!
He pondered for a while and couldn’t resist adding a line at the end of the mythical epic.
"... The mandate of heaven, everlasting and unceasing!"
The High Priest glanced over it and a hint of a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.
"What do you think?"
"Very good! It should be widely circulated throughout the world!"
"Indeed, then print it out in tens of thousands of copies. Distribute them across the Alliance, let children and youths study them as a foundation for selecting priests and Samurai. Spread them to all the states in the world, so even the farthest Mayan rchants wishing to trade must be familiar with this docunt."
The High Priest nodded with a smile, making a decision.
"The other books should be handled in the sa way. If you have ti these days, you could help review and revise them."
"I dare not disobey!"
Xiulote nodded in agreent, his expression invigorated.
The Alliance, in possession of printing technology and paper, and having a well-established writing system, held absolute advantage in the cultural dissemination among the tribes of Central Arica. As these revised mythological epics spread and were deeply rooted in people’s hearts, a unified ideological consciousness would gradually take root, and the concept of a unified nation would accelerate in coalescence.
Of course, the integration of culture, over many years, was not achieved in a day. To rule the world effectively, the fastest way was still monotheism.
Xiulote cald his emotions and opened the last docunt of the Chief Divine Church.
In the past five years, drawing on the ideas proposed by Xiulote and traditional beliefs, the doctrines of the Chief Divine had roughly taken shape under the efforts of hundreds of High Priests, logically coherent on a preliminary basis. Of course, the current Chief Divine Church had yet to face a formidable challenge, nor was there a need to delve further into religious philosophy.
Ultimately, the Chief Divine faith, erging from the Nava polytheism, still retained many remnants of subordinate gods and could be referred to as Nava monotheism or Nava Chief Divine Church. The most important five parts of the religious doctrine were that the Divine was singular and unique, the Divine created the world, the Divine chose its citizens, the cycle of the Divine Kingdom, and the apocalyptic destruction.
The first aspect to emphasize was the exclusivity of the Divine or the conceptualization of eternity, which was the core of monotheism. In the xica mythology, the original Chief Divine was born from the Mother Goddess, erging as an adult, battling the pursuing Moon God and nurous star divines... This part of the mythology needed to be entirely erased, borrowing from the pattern of The Cross Religion’s doctrines, to be redefined and recreated.
In other words, the Chief Divine "exists eternally, singular and unique, omniscient and omnipotent, incorruptible, invisible..."
Next was the creation of the world. The creation myths of Central Arica generally consisted of four parts. First, the Primordial God gave birth to the War God, Feathered Serpent, Primordial Sun, and God of Death. Then, these four divines killed the primordial sea monster Xipactli, creating land. Subsequently, each of the four divines beca the sun, creating four eras that ended in destruction. Lastly, the four divines joined forces to create the fifth era, which is the present age.
Xiulote was aware of these mythologies and knew that in the original myths, the ancient War God and the xica Chief Divine were not the sa deity.
In the new monotheistic doctrine, however, the Chief Divine beca the sole creator god. He killed the primordial sea monster, created land. Then, he attempted to create the world four tis, destroying each due to dissatisfaction. Finally, during the last attempt, he walked into the blazing fire himself, using his divine body to sustain the entire world, thus creating the era of humankind.
Upon reading this, Xiulote slightly furrowed his brows. This part of the creation myth was a highly integrated version of the old myths, yet failed to fully demonstrate the omnipotence of the Chief Divine. After pondering for a while, he added another ambiguous, profound doctrine.
"The Chief Divine is omnipotent and can create everything. However, human life is ultimately fragile and cannot withstand too much power. The Chief Divine is rciful, and for the continuation of the human world, He restrained his own power and bestowed divinity to the world, implanting it deep within human souls!"
"The rciful Chief Divine...the restrained power...the divinity of humans..."
The High Priest tilted his head slightly upon seeing this doctrine and pondered for a while, noncommittally.
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