Basic Information

Religion: Zodoism, followers often called Zodoists
 
Religious Identity: The Church of the Holy Body
 
Founding Date: Year 650 of the First Era (as a religion as a whole)
 
Religious Center: The Grand Cathedral of Holiness, Xodia City, Holy Empire of Xodia
 
Religious Authority:
The head of the church is the High Priest, who currently is Kious Clairstory. It is believed by the followers that the High Priest answers to Zodo himself. The church then splits into two branches: the Holy Ministry of Rube Knights and the Clerical Order of Divine Ministry. The Rube Knights is the militant arm consisting of devote highly trained templars. It is headed by the Grand Inquisitor, underneath him are the Rubemiesters and then the Rube Knights. The Clerical Order is the order of priests, and of course is headed by the High Priest. Under him are Cardinals who direct the priests and faith leaders. 
 
Religious Scripture: The Divine Incantations
 
Core Values: They profess that Zodo is the one true god of all things and he gives way for all beings to become god-like themselves. They don't believe in good versus evil, or at least they don't publicly profess to believe  in such. Instead they believe in just positive or negative morals of conduct and that the 'good' or the 'bad' of one's conduct is never simply black or white and depends upon the circumstances behind the conduct. They believe that all spirits are connected and it is the spirit that holds the ultimate power, given to them by Zodo. They believe that after death their spirit wanders the world, blind and forgotten of its past living life. Their spirit then connects with the spirits of all living things until part of it is needed to create life again in newborns. They believe that they can break the cycle of death and achieve not only immortality but also divinity. They use Taal as an example, proclaiming that he had to rise up against his father Zodo because Zodo had become so infected by the bad morals of his lesser followers. Through Taal, they believe that Zodo once again found morality and achieved a greater state of divinity. Their story of Taal fighting Zodo doesn't end in either one dying but in both achieving purity and a higher level of existence.

Religious Holidays:

• 31st of Marpenoth - Day of Holy Proclamation - the day they say that Ormus found the Divine Incantations0
• 21st through 30th of Ches - Week of Holies - the week the church formally baptises in blood new members, following the tradition set by Ormus and the First Church
• 8th of every month - day of spiritual fasting and prayer
• 40th of Fore Yule - Advent of Ablution 
• 10th of Viresse - Day of Moral Repentance - remembering the Great Magic War and the Martyrs of the Church

History

In 630 of the First Era, a discontented priest of the Church of Sol Anon started a different religious movement within the basement of his cathedral. Naming the small congregation, the Church of the Holy Body, he began preaching from the Divine Incantations. The Divine Incantations was a book he found ten years earlier in an archaeological dig in the deserts of Pyre. This man was Ormus Claythorn. He took the ancient writings back to his cathedral in what was then Calhorn in the Republic of Tal'Hedrin, what is now in the southern regions of the Caperian Continent. The city and cathedral remain as ruins, though is still to this date a site of religious importance to the church and a site of pilgrimage.

Ormus was charged by the Church of Sol Anon to translate the writings. They were hopeful that it might be long forgotten scriptures of the Sol Anon's teachings. However, as Ormus worked on translating the writings, he became possessed by its words, or as he would claim, enlightened. After completing the translations ten years later, he began the Church of the Holy Body, but kept the title as a priest of the Church of Sol Anon. During weekly mass, he would steadily seep into his message teachings from the Divine Incantations, slowly increasing the membership in his new Church of the Holy Body. Teaching of achievable divinity and everyone's power to change the heavens was widely popular, as was praying to Zodo, a god that dwelt amongst them.

In 640 of the First Era, Ormus was found out and burnt at the stake as a heathen, becoming the Church of the Holy Body's first martyr. Inquisitors of the Church of Sol Anon began a witch hunt, hunting down all of the members of the Church of the Holy Body, forcing them into hiding. However, in hiding the Church grew faster and stronger. In the year 880 of the First Era, when the Church of Sol Anon left their witch hunt and began focusing on other issues, the Church of the Holy Body rose to the surface and flourished. For many centuries in the First  Era the Church of the Holy Body remained in the background, increasing its membership and spreading its teachings. It has been widely speculated that they were secretly behind the corruptions of the various governments of that area, but the church always refused that notions saying that the enemies of the church will stop at nothing to bring them down.

In the early 19th century of the First Era, the Church of the Holy Body began preaching the coming of Zodo to cleanse the world of all evil. The church began stepping up its preaching, insisting on complete devotion from its members and steadfast worship of Zodo. They introduced The Order of the Religious Benefactors, which became the Holy Ministry of Rube Knights, as a new order of protectors of the faithful and the faith. 

Holy Symbol

 The symbol of the Church of the Holy Body is the Eternal Flame.