"A monotheistic religion devoted to the worship of the one God, the Almighty. The religion of majority across the united kingdoms. Its sanctors preach that uttering the prayer "closurei" with one's whole heart will reach God, bringing salvation. It is the state religion, and the Sanctist hierarchy is deeply intertwined with the kingdom's politics. Currently, the Crown Theocracy is at the heart of the kingdom's political affairs."
Sanctism (惺教, Seikyou)? is a fictious religion in Metaphor: ReFantazio. It is occasionally also known as the Crown Theocracy.
Overview[]
Sanctism is a monotheistic religion devoted to the worship of a single and "only" God, the Almighty and has existed since the kingdom's founding. It has taken majority in the United Kingdom of Euchronia and is the state religion, to the point that the Sanctist hierarchy is deeply intertwined with the country's politics; during the story, the Crown Theocracy is at the center of the country's political affairs. However, it was heavily implied that it only became the state religion recently because Sanctifex Forden tricked the king into declaring it. The teachings for Sanctism are nebulous and never properly explained in-game, save for uttering the prayer "closurei" will bring salvation and reach god. Its holy land is Altabury Heights of the Principality of Montario where Sanctism has a strong influence on, although the area used to be a mustari settlement before the church annexed it around a decade prior to the game.
Every 11th of September, there is a Sanctist festival known as Montario Saint's Day. According to their scriptures, the Almighty used His hands to bless the earth fourth times, the final blessing occurred in Autumn, hence it taking place during September. Highly devout followers tend to make long and perilous pilgrimages towards Altabury at least once in their lives.
The leader of the religion is the sanctifex, who also represents the Crown Theocracy in the Euchronian senate and were originally equal with its other senators. However, when Forden got to office, he ensured that the other senators were his own men as well, giving the Crown Theocracy power over the senate. The sanctifex governs over all of the members under them and can order the execution of other members for grave misconduct. The sanctifex has a monk knight army under them, identified by their long helmets with a dull bronze coloration, a white mantle and a black bodysuit. The lesser leaders of the church are known as sanctors, who are permitted to run Sanctist rites, ceremonies and blessings. Being a sanctor is treated as a broad certificate for religious qualification and most sanctors are not required to work for the church. However, higher-ranking sanctors such as sancturions take on duties related to the parish and church as clergy.
They have an extreme dislike for anything related to the World Before and will go out of their way to prevent people from knowing anything about its existence. For example, they banned the king's fantasy novel, which depicts an idealized version of life in the World Before. Any tribe that has connections with the old world are also looked down the most by Sanctists, with the mustari tribe being classified as uncivilized barbarians for their knowledge of the World Before and supposed human sacrifices (that the mustari themselves were tricked to do), and deemed the rare elda tribe as "tainted" and having been inherited "heretical" magic, with one showing up out in the open being considered a harbinger of calamity and disasters because of their resemblance to old world human beings. These superstitions spread all the way to those who do not believe in Sanctism, as most people tend to distance away from the mustari and the same goes for vice versa; while an elda walking out in the open might be prohibited from entering various places and will be stared at uneasily. However, as unlike the paripus and eugief who have a reputation of being lower-class citizens and vagrants in the public, the mustari and elda barely show themselves out in the open, so violent incidents with them are rare and the church has for the most part, taken a passive stance towards them.
The state of Sanctism prior to Forden is mostly unknown, although it was heavily indicated that it left native mustari and elda alone to their own devices and didn't go out of their way to persecute them in spite of grave ideological differences, and it lacked the sheer political power it had in the game. However, under Forden's rule, the higher echelons of Sanctism have been infested by corrupt, power hungry individuals who will use whatever underhanded tactics to undermine those who obstruct their vision while keeping them a complete secret to most people. The sanctifex began consolidating power for himself ever since he took office, but it began in earnest when Hythlodaeus V had an illegitimate relationship with the chieftess of the eldan sanctum of Oceana and sired her a son; first by starting a pogrom against the sanctum that killed over half of its population in hopes of killing the prince, then when the king ordered his son to be brought to the royal capital, blackmailed a young Saintess Rella to assassinate him. While she failed to outright kill the prince, Rella still cast a fatal curse that will not dispel until she dies and the prince was believed to be as good as dead.
By that point, Forden already devastated the royal family and drove the king into depression, effectively allowing him to evolve Sanctism into a powerful, oppressive organization that he could freely use to systematically take over the country as long as a pretext is available. On top of tricking the king into declaring Sanctism as the state religion and shutting down the Mage Academy, it was implied that he ordered the Regalith Grand Cathedral to be built some time after sanctism was declared as a state religion to symbolize the church's power over the royal family and the entire country, and cleared the mustari settlements of Altabury for a holy land for Sanctism. Near the end of Hythlodaeus V's regime, the church already gained a firm stronghold on the country and most people fall for their lies and deceit, so it became extremely difficult to stop the church from stealing the throne for themselves.
Some time ago, the church shut down the Nord Mines because a fire dragon resided inside it and killed numerous people. Since then, the church had the Igniter Consortium build magla accumulators for them as an alternate way to harvest magla to create igniters. However, they were secretly also devices intended to imitate the Royal Sceptre's power, effectively granting them their own version of the royal magic over time. If this plan were to come to fruition, the church would be able to surpass the king's authority and shatter it.
Despite their general corruption, most people are legitimately kept in the dark about the conspiracies orchestrated by the Sanctist elites and believe that they cannot do anything wrong. This is best shown when Sanctoress Joanna confesses to feeding children to her human pet, some people do not believe it at first. Furthermore, the potential threat of Louis establishing a tyranny by winning the Tournament for the Throne forces most people to hide behind Forden for protection, as he is considered the greatest adversary against Louis' potential regime. When the party confronts Forden in the Altabury Heights opera house for his involvement with assassinating the prince, the audience stood on his side. Only with Forden's death in the hands of Louis and Saintess Rella's final confession do the general populace know the sheer extent of the corruption of its higher-ups.
During the later stages of the Tournament for the Throne, with their leadership dead and and the rest exposed for their corruption, the Sanctist Church lost a huge portion of its political power. Near the end of the royal tournament, even Forden's remaining cronies inside the Euchronian senate decided to focus on their own survival for the time being instead of further meddling with political affairs, to the point where the lords of Oceana and Montario were able to be convinced to briefly assist the protagonist to avoid certain death or forced evolution in Louis' hands. By the end of the game, the protagonist strips Forden's remaining senators from all of their titles and positions and replaces them with his traveling partners and Brigitta Lycaon, and other members began cooperating with him to redeem themselves, starting from excommunicating corrupt members in their ranks. A year later, the church is mostly reverted back to its former state.
Sanctism, however, is not innately a bad thing, as the original goal of the religion is to prevent civilization from wiping itself out for a second time. Furthermore, members are mostly left to their own devices rather than following a certain religious discipline, meaning that any corruption or racism within the religion stems from its individual members rather than being ingrained inside the system.
It's unclear if "the Almighty" Sanctism worships exists.
List of members[]
- Sanctist Church Senate - The (former) governing body of the church. It was rendered politically inept by Louis and Rella's actions, then disbanded by the protagonist who replaced it with the Six Partisans.
- Aestivum Forden — Former sanctifex, assassinated by Louis Guiabern
- Forden's co-conspirators - includes the princes of the Principalities of Montario and Oceana, the state army general, and Igniter Consortium head.
- Ovis Gideaux — Forden's bodyguard and the captain of the church's monk knights, who got the position after his predecessor died to a dragon while suppressing the Mage Academy. He voluntarily steps out of the tournament and stops participating in politics to work in St. Fenris Church after Rella exposes Forden's crimes.
- Albus Batlin — Town crier for the Sanctist Church and announcer for the Tournament of the Throne.
- Sanctoress Joanna Calendula — The sanctoress of Martira, kept a large human as a pet and fed children to it
- Rella Melancoryphus Cygnus — Former saintess, committed suicide out of guilt for cursing the prince under Forden's blackmailing and to free the prince from his curse.
- Hyperic - A sanctor appearing in Eupha's follower bond events who takes care of melancholized patients. He eventually melancholized himself and was put down by the protagonist and Eupha.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- When the king announced Sanctism as the state religion and the Regalith Grand Cathedral was built, the church minted a silver reeve coin double the value of the usual silver coin known as the "Regalith silver coin." This silver coin is more commonly known as "churchsilver."