Ascension Isle
Religion
For over a thousand years Jibril was dominated by the Empyrean Church. The Church rules from the huge city of Exalticon, which remains the largest and most advanced in the world, even if many of its most wondrous Thaumatic engines no longer function. Sitting on a peninsula in the Great River, Exalticon boasts impossible architecture of white spires rising a thousand feet or more into the air, and the massive glittering crystal pyramid of the Great Temple. Millions from across Jibril and the Zones journey to Exalticon each year in pilgrimage, and interfering with the passage of a pilgrim is a capital offense.
The highest ranks of the Church are dominated by women, and most priests are daughters of noble families, following Manaya’s original tradition. The exception is the newborn Inquisition, which was created during the Enlightenment, and is dominated by men. The Church teaches that men are intrinsically more sinful than women, since they pass on less of their sin to their children. Given what the Inquisition is often called to do, this is not seen as a detriment. Inquisitors are heavily indoctrinated with faith in the Chosen, and greatly enhanced with lethal Thaumatech cybernetics, which are passed down to new Inquisitors upon death.
The Empyrean Church draws its teachings from the Empyrean Codex, a highly prescriptive holy book given to Manaya by the Archangel Gabriel (this followed the resolution of the Izbellan schism where some priests claimed the Codex was instead written by Manaya with only divine inspiration from Gabriel). The Codex describes the fall of humanity due to pride and presumption. It lays out a hierarchical society of duty and obedience, as humans atone for the sins of their forebears that lead to the Cataclysm. It also focuses a great deal on various offenses and punishments, which can only be redeemed by confessions to the Church. Confessions are often followed by the offender being bound in service to the Church for a time. An entire lifetime, if the offense is grievous enough. Perhaps a life reborn in the Inquisition, if the offender is truly heinous.
Church doctrine teaches that when the faithful die they are taken to the appropriate level of heaven as befits their station in life and judged. If they lived a holy life, the burden of sin on their descendants is lessened, allowing them to raise their social status. Because the Chosen lead busy lives, these judgments are passed down by funerary invigilators, priests able to hear the words of the Chosen. The Chosen are presented as infallible, although they often test the faith of humans. Many supposed Chosen indiscretions are explained in truth to have been elaborate tests for the faithful.
For all this infallibility, the Codex has several obvious amendments, most added in during the Enlightenment. These are explained not as changes in the Chosen’s teaching, but rather in humanity’s understanding of it as they progress in redemption. Some secret societies whisper that even more than these amendments, the teachings of the Codex were substantially different in the distant past, and it once was a very different book. This so called Apocryphal Codex remains an elusive myth.