Akronism: Difference between revisions
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==Texts and Edicts==
Akronism does not have a single, canonical text or "holy book" containing all of the teachings and commandments of the Akronist faith. The Goddess Akrona is said to have personally spoken to the seven women she blessed only on one occasion. Her words at that moment were recorded as "I give to you and to all the people of your nation all the blessings of life in creation, and charge you with the protection and continuation of life everywhere."
These seven women, the only mortal beings to whom Akrona personally appeared, would become the first Elders of the Church, the first ruling body of the faith. These First Elders, over the course of their leadership of the religion during the formation of the Church and the Acronian Empire, issued one hundred and three official statements called Edicts. These 103 Edicts are considered to be the "truest Edicts" because they were issued by the people with the most direct knowledge of Akrona, inspired by the words and visions of the Mandate. These first 103 Edicts have been collected into a book called The First Edicts. The First Edicts contain some of the most fundamental beliefs of the faith, including the ban on killing land animals for sustenance or sport, the rule that services are to be held on the full moon each month, and the mandate to cremate the bodies of the dead, among many others, are part of the First Edicts. A number of the First Edicts, usually counted as between 5 and 8 depending on differing definitions, are called "Poetic Edicts" because instead of direct rules, they are descriptions of some of the visions the First Elders saw. Edict 4 is a Poetic Edict that describes seeing the entire Akronist conception of the cycle of life - from birth to death and then reincarnation until the spirit lives a life in accordance with Akrona's wishes and enters into direct communion with the essence of Akrona herself.
The Elders, a body that continues to this day, continue to issue Edicts, and the First Edicts have the same exact level of authority as Edicts issued in contemporary times (although they are cataloged separately). Edicts are generally issued in the form of rules or advice that are binding on a particular set of people or a particular institution. Edicts can be binding upon, for example, the entire body of the faithful, or on a single person, such as the King or the Prime Minister of the day. Some Edicts have been issued to cover only a particular geographical location, and one Edict - "An Edict to Encourage Universal Amity and Respect" - was issued to the audience of "all the people of every nation on Urth."
There have been several texts that have been written by scholars of the Church, referred to in general as "the Conversations." These are generally commentaries on particular Edicts or enshrined beliefs or actions of the Church. Examples include "Letters to the People of Dravai," written by three priestesses in the city of Tovar to various people living in the city of Dravai in the late 16th century. At the time, Dravai was believed to be a hotbed for anti-religious activity in the country. The Letters contained various pleas to the people to come back into the fold of the faith, and in several places, offered concessions to people who raised issues with religious rules of the time. Famously, the Letters contain a phrase that is today held as a central operating tenet of the Church: "It is wrong to deny fundamental mercy and compassion to those who have chosen, with the same will granted to them by the Universe as has been granted to us, to follow a different conviction than that of thankfulness to the Benefactor." Since the Letters to the People of Dravai were enshrined by the Elders as canonical in the year 1604, this statement has been held to forbid the Church from denying respect or compassion to people who follow other faiths, or none at all.
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