Sorcery in Paxism

History

Ancient History

Around 4,000 years ago, the area of the Ufrata River basin in modern-day Ashura was populated by an ancient civilization that depended on planting and harvesting crops and herding animals. The people were semi-nomadic, returning to places regularly based on the change in the weather and the fluctuations in the water in the river. With much of their lives dependent on these natural forces for their survival, they developed a rich tapestry of myths, legends and accompanying practices aimed at alleviating some of the suffering of life or gaining an advantage over competitors. Some of the earliest practices that emerged include using bones and turtle shells etched with symbols to divine future events and diagnose ailments. Others include belief in the presence of supernatural beings that caused illnesses or brought good fortune that through incantations could be willed into intervening for the living.

Early Paxism

The most prominent and trusted or even feared practitioners of theae various arts that emerged in central Yasteria developed a variety of names and titles based on the dialects that were spoken, however, it was the term muHaxaan that was found in a stelle dated to circa 2000 BCE when the writings and teachings that would evolve into Paxism emerged. Around that time, especially in the Kingdom of Akil, there was another class of teacher called muYimam which advocated for a different class of rituals and practices. Historians and archeologists believe that the practices of the influence of the meYimam on the formation of the Paxist religion, and their enmity with the Kingdoms that had practices advocated by the meHaxaan, resulted in the term muHaxaan being used disparagingly.

Interestingly, as the teaching and writings that emerged from that era broadly attributed to the semi-legendary Prophet Besmali by scholars who emerged at least one to two hundred years later spread to other nations especially those with meHaxaan and whose populations believed in them, there was a movement to be more positive in outlook and writings that can be reliably dated to around the time that Besmalism reached them show a more positive or neutral tone. With much of the political influence over Besmalism and its followers propagating to the from the Kingdom of Akil to the Kingdom of Yadrayeen in the east, there was an attempt by the polities there to embed themselves within the narrative of the religion. As such, there was a rebranding of the meHaxaan, but many references made to meNaweeb (prophets) and meImam (priests, who evolved from meYimam) seemed to have many attributes linked to meHaxaan.

Middle Paxism

With the second major collection of authoritative works approved by the Council of Adrien around 1000 BCE for inclusion into the sacred and core texts of Paxism at the time, there some of the practices of meHaxaan made their way into the literature although Paxists theology denies this influence. The religion spread to other nations where there were other types of people with similar or different roles. These include ngweQachakhiya, from the Kingdom of Mudyahan (which evolved into Medayin in Iganar) a term which evolved to mean a healer or doctor meHayahiya which is still used in modern Packilvanian. They were people who believed that ritual meditation could expel evil spirits.

There were the ly*Ujhtyar from the Kingdom of Jojgur (which eventually became Tashkar in Mekedesh) who were the practitioners who believed that burying the dead (an innovation at the time) instead of cremation would enable the souls of the dead to be present in the land and give them powers to intervene in the lives of people and they were rumoured to be able to fly. All these different practitioners were largely recognised as valid based on cultural exposure and sometimes even political utility. In the Kingdom of Pyanghal (which evolved to the name Bingol that we use today) around the 7th century CE, there was a class of officials, the ghJyakhjha who believed that there were those on Urth who bore not only power from Noi but were the mortal spawn of them. They taught that these people who often occupied the highest echelons of their ranks, had not merely powers but authority that extended to the governing not only of Pyanghal and its immediate surrounds but also far flung kingdoms that stretched many miles away.

With Pyanghal rising in prominence and the city being given increasing weight and importance by lands as far north as Khiya (now Tsuhe) and Imhan Hajha (modern day Belaquis), the Kingdom of Bakil which ruled over lands extending from Adrien (heretofore called Yadrayeen) and Akas Akil (heretofore known simply as Akil) was losing credibility and influence with manifest consequences in areas of trade, grazing and farming rights that led to physical conflicts. With lands to the north and east of Bakil facing similar geopolitical pressures from the supporters and tributes of Bingol, there was increased propensity to disparage their practices and beliefs and to embed themselves into the canon of Paxism.

The proverbial nail on the coffin was when King Obed of Bingol summoned a Council in Bingol of like-minded scholars akin to the Council of Adrien summoned by Suleiman of Yehudah. They approved a collection known as the Haagemar which spoke of the Haagen, the descendants of Noi and Pax from whom the ly*Ujhtyar claimed descent and powers. This compelled the confederation and coalition at the head of which was King Iktan of Bakil that ruled over Bakil to attack the southern kingdoms. Further encouraged by the material benefits of increased land and population in the fertile and verdant south, the Iktanite dynasty that he founded established and unified Packilvania. With that, the ly*Ujhtyar became known as meJahad (or bringers of conflict and the word evolved to just mead war in the modern luJaheed). This association with disaster led to the villification of their beliefs which became relegated to the dark magics and occultic practices that were banned by this new government.

Melkezedekism

Nevertheless, where the Packilvanians could not reach such as the south eastern Kingdoms coextensive with modern day Fidakar and Jumhurikesh, the term muHaxaan was reclaimed by leaders and spiritualists there to show resistance and a distinct understanding of Paxism. They seemed to have been tolerated for the most part with their rulers called Dominators and their lands called Dominions (as distinct but substantially indistinguishable from Kings and Kingdoms in the centre and east) seemed to maintain largely cordial relations. But with the rise of the Dominion of Halaler and its advocacy of practices and institutions outside of the control of the United Kingdom of Packilvania, and conflict over control of resources and strategic outposts such as the Jumhur River (that passed through Iganar, one of the core realms of Packilvania) and the Meked River which passed through Mekedesh (a core realm of Packilvania), there increasing enmity and a propensity to villify their beliefs including their attempted reclamation of the term muHaxaan.

With the damage and destruction of parts of the Temple of the Restoration and the slow response of the Bingol government and suspicion of its aims to displace the Adrien-Akas Akil axis as the primary locus of the Paxists religion, meImam and meNaweeb across the Kingdom revolted causing such intense political pressure on Melkezedek the Great, that a Council was summoned in Bingol to close the canon of scripture and establishe the Magisterium of Paxism to govern the religion everywhere and not just Packilvania. They crushed the revolt and subsumed them into their newly established clerical government. Backed by the King and with a desire to maintain internal order, the meNaweeb and meImam were preserved, serving the place of the Prophets and Priests (words with which they were formally translated to in Staynish).

But the meHaxaan continued to resist. To supplement the military conquest of those nations ruled by them, the Magisterium issued many bulls and edicts which criminalized them to such an extent that the word muHaxaan could be translated to Sorcerer in Staynish or Hexe in Ethalrian and was used with the same intensity and disdain within Packilvanian circles. Many of their beliefs and practices were banned and discarded. From thence, the Sorcerer were definitively placed in the category of social and spiritual miscreants to the extent that practices that they advocated for and that had existed to varying extents in other parts of Central Yasteria including Packilvania such as homosexuality, gender non-conformism, and matriarchy were vilified to the extent that they became embedded in the moral law of the canon law of Paxism, a legacy that had persisted to this day.

Modern Paxism

With sorcery evolving to not only mean the practices of the meHaxaan but also whatever the Magisterium deemed cursed or debased, practices which the Magisterium disdained were pushed to the periphery and seen as apart from and an affront to Paxism itself. As such, a body of laws have emerged to specifically target sorcery. This intensity has persisted to such an extent that Packilvania retained laws against sorcery even after the Packilvanian Communist Party took over and deposed the Paxist Demirite dynasty. Nikobar Luden, the founder of Yasterian Communism, called sorcery and even religion the "opiate of the masses", a harmful body of beliefs and practices that kept the proletariat and the peasants subservient to and dominated by the capitalist class that entrenched itself and found expression in the nobility of Packilvania, the bourgeoisie and the petit bourgeoisie system of petty farmers and landlords.

Despite experiencing similar oppression under the Communist rule, Paxism's hatred from sorcery became so deep as it in part attributed its woes to sorcery and thus doubled down on teaching and propagating the core values and precepts espoused by the Magisterium. This fervent and zealous desire to preserve the core teachings of Paxism and the confidence that the Paxists acquired as they conquered more territory under the Carriers of Mercy during the Second Packilvanian Civil War further entrenched disdain for sorcery to the extent that when a new government was proclaimed sorcery was banned and punished in the law of Packilvania. Today, sorcery is a crime that carries prison and in some rare cases death.

Comparisons with Paxist practice

Divination and Prophecy

Divination is the process and practice of predicting the future and diagnosis ailments. Prophecy attempts to achieve similar goals. Divination is used to refer to forms of prediction that fall outside of formal Paxist recognition. This includes using bones and shells of animals, tarot cards, inducing a trance-like state through meditation or the consumption of intoxicants, palm and tea bag readings to receive information about people. The source of this knowledge is believed to be communicated either by the soul or spirit of the subject of the reading or by spiritual beings. These beings are believed to be Esma in some cases or even spiritual beings that inhabit physical objects or exist in nature but are invisible to mortal perception.

Regardless of the form of divination or the belief in its source, the Magisterium states that only people whom it recognises are indeed prophets. They believe that prophecy comes only from Noi and no other source, that it applies to entire nations and phenomena as opposed to individuals, that it must conform to and be consistent with the teachings of the Magisterium and that it can only come through spontaneous visions rather than deliberate attempts to glean information. Most of all, the Magisterium believes that the predictions must come true or the person bringing the prediction must be accompanied by a verifiable, spontaneous miracle independent of their personal effort and station and solely from Noi. These supposed miracles must pass the scrutiny of the Magisterium to be deemed as valid and subsequently demonstrate that a person is a prophet.