Abbagon - A world of Holy Wars, magical bloodlines, and ancient feuds

[EchE8]

Hey, guys.
This is a basic summary of my setting main conflict- I'm looking for feedback on how this conflict could play out, what scenarios could arise within it, and things that I could remove, change, or expand upon.
If you're curious for more, please ask. Like most worldbuilders, I'm literally always happy to loredrop.

The Varcadist Holy War
In the East of the World, a war of faith is raging between the Kingdoms of Halland (no relation to the footballer btw) and Lapaccia. The Hallish and Lapaccians both practice the Silver Faith, worshiping the Silver Lady, but they disagree on who shares her worship, who is the ambassador of the Lady on earth, and that disagreement has claimed thousands of lives.
Years before the start of the war, Navern Varcadis, a Hallish priest, was preaching against the lords of Lapaccia, who were not only lords, but sorcerers, of an ancient bloodline called the Grey Blood. The Greybloods were said to be blessed by the Silver Lady, granting them magical powers, as well as what they named the divine right of rulership. Varcadis rebuked them, claiming their sorcery was unnatural and an affront to the Silver Lady, contradicting the edicts of the Council of Eight, until his coming the supreme authority of the Faith.
Navern Varcadis was a nuisance to the Greyblood lords and priests of Lapaccia- that was, until he shocked the world by performing miracles, the first ever recorded acts of magic by a non-Greyblood.
With the Hallish population rising at his words, and the powerful Hallish warlords uniting behind him, Navern Varcadis posed disaster for Lapaccia. So, at the urging of the priests of the Council of Eight, the Lapaccian King had Navern Varcadis assassinated. But this did not dam the tide of war, but unleashed it.
The Hallish, mourning the loss of their savior, finally had a uniting force that stopped them from warring amongst themselves and aimed them towards Lapaccia. And just as terrifying to the Lapaccian nobility is another man, the Hallish lord Faerand. Faerand, riding the tide of Varcadist fanaticism, did what no Hallishman had done before and united Halland into a kingdom.
Now, King Faerand, proclaiming Varcadis as the savior even in death, is assailing Lapaccia with the full might of Halland, hellbent on eliminating the Greybloods, the Council of Eight, and anyone that refuses Varcadis as their savior.
Thanks for reading! Sorry for the lengthy post lol. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated.

 

[pmmg]

I am curios as to the rise of Varcadis. Was he a savior, and if so, a savior from what? What did he teach? And was he meant to be an actual savior?

Cause, if he was assassinated prior to delivering his promise, why then is he still thought of as a savior?

I also wonder at the doctrines and teachings of these faiths. Have they no common ground at all? Why are so many willing to go and kill or get killed over it?

I find its easy to say, the religious types found a good reason to go and kill each other, but underneath it all, is their faith. What would their faith think of all of this? Would the Silver Lady want them killing each other?

 

[EchE8]

I am curios as to the rise of Varcadis. Was he a savior, and if so, a savior from what? What did he teach? And was he meant to be an actual savior?

Cause, if he was assassinated prior to delivering his promise, why then is he still thought of as a savior?

I also wonder at the doctrines and teachings of these faiths. Have they no common ground at all? Why are so many willing to go and kill or get killed over it?

I find its easy to say, the religious types found a good reason to go and kill each other, but underneath it all, is their faith. What would their faith think of all of this? Would the Silver Lady want them killing each other?

Thank you for the questions. Here are my answers:
It’s mysterious as to where Varcadis came from. About a decade before his death, he was first seen preaching in the South of Halland, near the Lapaccian border.
Varcadis was not at first called savior, but still drew crowds in the hundreds and thousands to hear his preaching.
Navern Varcadis preached against the wealth, power, and excess of nobility on both sides of the border. He argued against the feudal system of Lords and Sworn (commoners raised to nobility, equivalent to knights,) and he railed against the authority of The Council of Eight. He said that Lapaccia had waned in its devotion to the ancient teachings of the Lady. Most distressing of all to nobility of Lapaccia, he spoke of a ‘paradise in the south,’ a paradise ruled by devils that would be cast down by the faithful, and the paradise claimed for their own.
The Greyblood lords of Lapaccia interpreted the paradise in the south to be their own fertile lands south of the Hallish border, and the Devils ruling this paradise to be Varcadis’s name for them. In other words, they heard Varcadis calling for a Hallish invasion of the South. So did the Hallish, and now that Varcadis is dead, ascended to heaven they say, they are invading Lapaccia under the rule of King Faerand, who claims to be the chosen heir of Varcadis.
As for the actual doctrines of the Silver Faith and where they differ between Varcadist and traditional, this is how they differ.
1. The first and most obvious is the supreme authority of their faith, below the Lady herself. In the traditional faith, that is the Eight High Angels, spiritual figures akin to demigods. Below them is the Council of Eight, the supreme Silver Priests. Varcadism is heavily opposed to both angels, believing them to be far to close to pagan deities and straying from the monotheism, and the Council of Eight, calling them in turn corrupt elected beauracrats, not holy men at all. Varcadism, in the death of its namesake and holiest figure, looks to King Faerand as the head of their faith- the chosen successor of Varcadis, and the man who will lead the Hallish into their Southern paradise and destroy the devils ruling it.
2. The second biggest rift is the material differences between them. The Varcadist temples are bare and spartan, lined with weapons and rough-hewn statues of the Lady. Varcadists shun material wealth, their coin going towards the war, while traditionalists believe in the holiness of art and beauty, and most drastically, silver. Traditionalists take a literal stance on the Holy metal, lining their temples, their holy artifacts, and their priest’s robes with it. Varcadists, less so. “Give a Hallishman a silver bar, and he will melt it to make arrowheads,” goes a Lapaccian saying.
3. The council of eight, over time, has adopted more progressive views. Though female clergy is rare, there are some priestesses within the Silver Faith’s ranks. Same-sex relationships, while not strictly approved of, are mostly condoned and treated as a harmless sin. The Hallish Varcadists are tolerant of none of this.
As for your last question, the original doctrine of Faith frowns on violence of all kinds- this hasn’t stopped the faithful on both sides from killing each other in the thousands. The argument, both Varcadist and traditional, is that no action taken in the Lady’s name is a sin. What the lady thinks of this, cannot be known. In a world where gods are silent, priests and kings must speak for them.

Ok, that’s my super-long answer to your questions.
Thanks for reading!

 

[RoccO]

If you are writing a name in a dictionary then that would be alright. I do not see how the Silver Lady has a connection to the assassination. If he is walking about preaching, then surely the lady has no bearing on it, besides residing in her paradise. If he is a man of the people, he ascends to the mortal plane, there is no distinction to be made between sects and the former. I wonder how a gestalt would be, with Grey Bloods reigning from the mortal plane, with the Council of Eight deciding what to do between factions.

Varcadis peaching between the borders of his Hallish and Lapaccia. He would be seen conferring with his holy subjects, with a connection to the Silver Faith, by trying to reason about fighting, not acting as a progenitor. The hand of the Council of Eight would be at arms with the Grey Bloods about his reasoning. He would ascend to heaven at the hand of power. If the Silver Lady reigned over both borders, however his humble beginnings would eschew the faith to turn to higher powers, he would reasonably find the silver lining.

Performing miracles could be a stunt to eschew a wench. I am not sure about the age of the time, but a foreign bride might make a man turn priest. In order to impress and progress, he knows the other land, its language, and how to survive there. It would go to say that there is another side to his faith, mainly a wench he could not commit to. It is also not specified what the story is about, whether this is the story or a background world building. It would mainly cause a sort of religion to the plot, but could make a good wench in the plot because he is mainly about greed for the people, in a holy situation, but it could be a matter of survival and only that.

Is there a drug reliance with the priests of the Silver Faith, or is King Faerand into drugs. He could have a riot on his hands if the religion was the supplier in times of war, silently hiding the trade between nations. There is a war breaking out in your story, one assassinated figurehead, but a whole lot of people that would be doing something else, unless their holiness is removed from them. Given time and cravings of both the fort and the river, hunger would swing one way or another.

Navern Varcadis preached against the wealth, power, and excess of nobility on both sides of the border.