Association of the Servants of Akua
The Association of the Servants of Akua | |
Foreningen'Aku-tjenere | |
| Nickname | Shrine Board |
|---|---|
| Motto | "We friends come together." |
| Formation | 10/14/1935 |
| Founder | Kristoffersen Bjørn, Håkan Ny'thudr'zhan, |
| Type | Religious Organization |
| Legal status | Non-Government Organization |
| Purpose | Akuan shrines maintenance and historical recording |
| Headquarters | Vakkerhavfruebukt, Vakrestrender |
Official language | Nys'tat'en |
| Website | www.ASA.org |
The Association of the Servants of Akua is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to providing financial, material, legal assistance and act as a arbiter for retrieval for Akuan artifacts. The Association works with various local NGOs, regional bodies, governments and in cases of Akuan Democracy or Akuan states, local Akuan shrine authorities. The ASA, acts not only as a global registry and maintenance for Akuan shrines, but acts a registry for families and individuals. The use of local shrine archives, census data and so forth, the ASA provides a service of assisting Akuanists separated during the Great War or during any other number of historical events with finding their ancestors and origin point. The Association partners with Akuan Districts across the Urth, to provide scholarships and provide intern opportunities to further research into Akuan history, theology and so forth. The ASA holds and maintenances the second and third largest libraries relating to Akuanism on Urth, only behind the Grand Shrine of Lilith which the ASA is a part owner of. The Association maintains a strict apolitical policy towards issues, both theological and politic. Taking no stance in various on-going debates within the Akuan faith, both regional and global. Taking a firm stance in neutrality in the various reform debates, cultural/secular vs religious and so forth. Despite it's stance, it has been criticized for it's perceived alignment towards the Akuan royal houses of Bjørn and Ny'thudr'zhan towards select debates, though the Association rigorously disputes these claims.
Funding for the ASA, primary comes from donations from Akuan Districts, governmental bodies, and the Bjørn Trust. The Bjørn Trust being the largest contributor to the Association, responsible for 41% of the Association budget, as well provides lion share for the funding of scholarships and research funding provided by the ASA.
Purpose
The original purpose of the ASA as stated in 1935, was to act as a global registry of Akuan shrines and provide financial assistance towards shrine upkeep. However throughout the decades the ASA greatly expanded their scope in duties and purpose. The first major upgrade in duties performed by the ASA happened in 1945. The upgrade being the collection and copying of Akuan stories, myths and related religious text or performance; taking on the traditional duties of the Grand Shrine of Lilith by doing so. Later on in 1952, the ASA began to copy over record books kept by the Brewmasters in shrines and various census data held by governments to establish a genealogy record for Akuanists separated through the Akuan Atrocities and other related historical events. During which time the ASA, with assistance from the Bjørn Trust to begin to fund research into Akuan history and customs as well start the first scholarship program targeted towards Akuan Districts. The 1970s begin the first attempt of the ASA to establish several historical archives, as previously the collected data went towards Vakrestrender and Aikthudr'zhur capitals respectfully. The first and largest archive to be built was in Highdrilian, with the Valkyr archive built shortly after. In 2002, the ASA begin to purchase Akuan artifacts stolen or otherwise acquired from private persons and museums. Due to the ASA strictness of apolitical policy, the ASA doesn't provide funding for lobbying groups in respective governments for the return of artifacts, and only acts as either the buyer or the arbiter of artifact returns.
Scholarship & Grant Funding
The ASA is the single most largest scholarship and grant funder for studies into Akuan related subjects. Scholarships usually target those in Akuan Districts or Akuan majority countries. The scholarships and grant funding vary in requirements in a number of factors, however all scholarships and grant funding always require the recipient to be of Akuan background or religiously, and the subject being relates to Akuanism. Subjects including but not limited to, history of Akuanism (in a specific region or country), political science via Akuan Democracy, business degrees through a Akuan Finance lenses, tradecraft and so forth. The scholarship program provided through the ASA has came into various debate, for it's requirement of the subject being in Akuan in origin despite the plethora of related subjects. Debates mostly centering around the lack of STEM degrees scholarships offered. Despite the criticism, many agencies praise the focus on trade skills the scholarship program provides. The plethora of scholarships for trade skills is a result of Akuanism, having dozens of universally recognized spirits connected to trade skills such as plumping or carpentry to give a example. In addition to trade skills, degrees and certifications for mariner or other seafaring jobs have historically been a big focus of scholarship funding. The combination of the trade skills and mariner focus had a measurable impact on the world economy, though it mainly result of number of Akuanists working in the maritime industry.
Grant Funding has been a topic of serious debate and controversy since it's first started. While it is still the largest provider of research grants for Akuanist topics. The structure of the grant, is broken up on continent rather than how scholarships are provided from a general pool and by state. The result is larger continents, such as Aurora and Gondwana having to fight over pool that's the same size as Novaris. Additionally grants are evenly handed out to each continent pool, rather based on population. Another issue is grants in Borea, are heavily focused around Grand Shrine of Lilith with almost 92% of grants given out in Borea are centered around the grand shrine.
Registry and Maintenance of Shrines
The ASA primary purpose is to act as a registry and assist in maintaining shrines. It is heavily expressed and stated that the ASA does not enforce doctrine or assist in enforcing doctrine for Akuan Shrine authorities for Akuan countries. Maintenance originally only was to provide finance aid towards the shrines, however after 1960 the ASA started to also provide material and skilled labor for shrines. The need for materials and skilled labor, is a result that shrines require specialized craft and materials prepared in traditional Akuan methods. The registry of shrines was formally held in the archives in Aikthudr'zhur, holding the location, name and the inhabitant of the shrine. Original method of registering was to request local Akuan community leaders, such as brewmasters to fill out a form and mail it to the ASA offices. This method was of course, highly ineffective as forms was lost in transition and frequently issue arose that it was filled out in a different form of Nys'tat'en all together resulting in the shrine being unreadable for scholars at the archives. Another issue was storage, not just in controlling the environment to prevent the paper from rotting but it quickly became unorganized due to the sheer volume sent to the archives monthly and this issue only multiplied with disorganization. As such in 1940, to combat the issues rising the ASA organized volunteer achieves on a regional level to organize the local shrines in the registry and then sent a more completed list in Aikkian Nys'tat'en. Then the regional archives would send the translated registry list of shrines to the main achieves in Aikthudr'zhur. The new method greatly helped with organization, and only was recently changed in 2007 when the shrine archives was digitalized and streamlined. The new method relied on regional archives to digitized the records, and then the records could be translated in Valkyr Nys'tat'en instead of just Aikkian Nys'tat'en. Valkyr Nys'tat'en being more widely understood through Valkyr media than Aikkian Nys'tat'en which was more regional form in Nys'tat'en of Novaris.
Genealogy Project and Family Registry
Starting in 1950, the ASA begin the process to collect records of families and their movements in a effort to help track people separated during the Akuan Atrocities and related tragedies. Originally the focus was on the Norgsveltian Crown Realm, due to the Atrocities however the role expanded out to incorporate more of the world. While original survivors of the atrocities for the most part perished from KGID or old age, that being noted Akuan elves and non-Kemonomimi species still had survivors. The process of collecting various records from shrine, census data from Norgsveltian government and so forth it help reunited children of the survivors with their extended family. Later in 1972, the project expanded outwards to collect family records and census data from across the world to build global registry of Akuanists in a effort to track historical movements of Akuanists and their families across the world. Big focus of the project was attempting to link the descendants of the slave trade to back their original homeland, which was often generations if not centuries back. The registry of Akuanists and their record is considered to be a closed matter as in, not openly shared. It for family members descended of the survivors of the Akuan Atrocities it required them to notify the ASA office and for those researching into their family history a small fee is required. Majority of the work of the Genealogy project is done through volunteers.
The registry and genealogy project has been digitalized along side the registry of the shrines. However, access to the digital archives are only given out to trusted research institutions, universities and ASA volunteers.
Conferences
The ASA hosts number of conferences and debates on number of subjects in relation to Akuanism primary relating to Akuan history. However to maintain rules of strict apolitical, debates between Akuan forms and theology are heavily regulated or outright strictly banned. Conferences are, by requirement only held in Akuan majority countries, usually Akuan Democracy such as Vakrestrender, Aikthudr'zhur or Ma Moku. Which resulted in a heated debate in itself, as a millions of Akuanists live in Akuan Districts all across the world and thus, unable to attend such conferences. To help counteract the disparity, the ASA and in more often than not the Bjørn Trust will fund professors and scholars to attend conferences. Raising concerns of Bjørn Family's influence in the ASA despite Bjørn's family claims of neutrally in providing funds for the ASA.
In a surprising turnabout the ASA announced in 2023 that they will host a conference in Aikthudr'zhur which will include debate panels about theology, political form of Akuanism and different forms of Akuanism. [Cowlass' Note: RP will come first, article second.]