“Nine hundred years ago, the world was destroyed in the third cataclysm—the cataclysm of Earth. It brought the thousand-year rule of peace. With the coming of the true Pope out of the East in the 1,000th year of the cataclysm (the 2,000th year of our Lord anno domini), the final cataclysm of Air will bring forth the reign of God. The third cataclysm was a punishment by God for the creation of Kingdoms. In the time before Christ, the prophet Samuel warned us against Kings, but we didn’t listen. Christ tried to return us to communities of Peace outside of Kingships, and the Roman empire crumbled, but we built our own Kingdoms to take its place.”
For nine hundred odd years this doctrine has been taken very seriously in Highland and in South Bend. Schismatic Orders have tried to forge kingdoms from the new lands West of the High Divide, but such attempts have been met with resistance not only from the established Church but from the common people who have no desire to see another cataclysm when they can still see the effects of the previous one.
It has, however, been nearly a thousand years since the third cataclysm. It is the 991st year of the cataclysm of Earth. Scholars are beginning to theorize that the remnants of lost civilizations might be from Druids, not previous Christian kingdoms. Others are questioning the difference between a kingdom run by a king, and a set of duchies coordinated by merchant councils in the South, or a valley dominated by a single city in East Highland. Some are questioning the coming of the fourth and final cataclysm. Perhaps they never cared, but it was always far enough away that it didn’t matter. Or perhaps out of pride they believe that the works of their lives cannot and will not be lost. The 1,000 year end of the fourth age is no longer a far away event. If it happens, it will happen within the lifetime of those currently alive.
Some say it will not come; others say we can never know the true time of the Pope’s coming, according to the Bible. The early years of the cataclysm were not easy ones in which to keep records. We may not know the true year; the 1000th year of the cataclysm may come early, or it may come late. Indeed, the biblical reconstructions say this. Others question even the bible: no true Bible has been known to survive, so any interpretations of existing bibles are interpretations of flawed sources.
Some secular leaders are beginning to question the primacy of canon law.
Black Stag is large enough to consider bringing the rest of West Highland under a Black Stag-dominated merchant council similar to the councils of the South—for protection against the creatures of the Forest. The Dukes and Duchesses and minor princes of South Bend are beginning to wonder if the time has come for a stronger rule, and that perhaps the doctrine of the Church is outdated and superstitious. There are even those in the Church itself who feel it might be time to declare a Pope to self-fulfill the thousand-year end and turn the de facto Church rule into an official one. That God’s promise to return the Pope from the East was a symbolic promise and that the Pope shall arise from the current Church in East Highland (according to Crosspoint adherents) or with the rising sun (according to others).
