In the one year after the Great Mana Tide, all believers lost the ability to listen to the revelations of the gods. Not only the low-ranking priests and priests, but even the bishops, pontiffs, and Holy See of the various denominations lost this ability at the same time.
Of course, even under normal circumstances, humans could not directly hear the voice of the gods. The so-called "listening to the revelations of the gods" actually referred to the process of devout believers praying sincerely, performing sacraments, and fulfilling the covenant. Because their spiritual state was close to the "spirituality of the gods", they could hear some almost illusory murmurs. These murmurs would directly reverberate in the minds of believers and form a lasting and indelible "spiritual imprint", and this spiritual imprint would in turn change the spirit of believers and bring them closer to the "spirituality of the gods". This was the main way for the clergy of this world to become stronger.
Because the murmurs did indeed have the power to change the spirit of humans and make them stronger and purer, they were sublimated from ordinary hallucinations and were regarded as a sacred phenomenon by the clergy.
However, in the year of the Great Mana Tide, all believers could not hear the "murmurs from the gods". They were horrified to find that no matter how they prayed and how strict their rituals were, their gods did not respond. It was as if the gods had collectively disappeared.
Because of the loss of God's grace, all the clergymen could not be promoted in that year. Moreover, there was not a single new person who could master divine arts among the shallow believers and ordinary people. Even the babies born that year were later proven to not have the slightest talent for divine arts.
If the situation continued to deteriorate, it was hard to say what the future of the believers of the gods on the continent would be like. But like the last glimmer of hope in the midst of despair, the people found that the divine spells they had mastered were still working. Although the power was slightly weaker than before, at least the clerics who had become official clerics before the Great Mana Tide could still use divine spells. And these clerics who could still use divine spells barely managed to maintain the various churches that were on the verge of collapse. But even so, many small churches could not hold on and disappeared in the wasteland as the people fled from the Empire of Gondor.
Gawain remembered that at that time, the leaders of the major churches had more than one secret meeting and experiment. Everyone had given up on their prejudices and enmity. Just like the ordinary people who walked side by side in the Great Mana Tide, the clergy no longer cared about their beliefs and historical grudges. Instead, they gathered together and tried to find a solution to the problem. Later, the major denominations represented by the God of Holy Light, the God of War, and the Three Gods of Fertility finally made some progress. After several emergency meetings, the leaders of the various denominations made an attempt to communicate with the gods on the top of the Ancestral Peak, which was now the eastern border of Augulei's tribal country. That attempt was a closed-door meeting, and even Gwen Cecil did not know the details. He only knew that after the leaders of the various denominations came down from the peak, they announced to the public that the gods had given a new oracle to inspire the mortals to give up their differences and unite to survive. And the Great Mana Tide was a disaster caused by the various foolish actions of humans.
The various denominations signed an agreement on the Ancestral Peak, which was later called the "Sacred Covenant" by later generations, declaring that they would give up all disputes of beliefs. The denominations would no longer oppose each other and would do their best to continue the human civilization. And it seemed that this action really pleased the gods. In the second month after the Sacred Covenant was signed, on the anniversary of the Great Mana Tide, the gods once again favored the humans.
The believers could once again hear the voice of the gods.
This was the historical event that Gwen knew that led to the establishment of various denominations on this continent but maintained a relatively peaceful situation.
This historical event had changed a lot of things:
It ended the disputes between the various faiths on the continent, and also united the clergy of various denominations to help the human civilization resist the Great Mana Tide and rebuild their homeland. However, there were also some overly stubborn denominations who could not accept this fact. They chose to fall and became enemies with all the denominations that had signed the "Sacred Covenant". They became all kinds of twisted heretical beliefs and gradually evolved into several of the most frightening dark organizations in the world today. The divine spells they used were also called "Dark Divine Spells" …
To this day, those depraved and twisted fanatics were still one of the most chilling shadows in the world.
As a logical and sane person, Gwen of course had a high opinion of the "Sacred Covenant". Although he was not a believer, he appreciated the efforts of those with faith to put down their differences, unite, and continue the civilization in a time of crisis — whether or not that effort was under the command of the gods.
But he also knew that for a race like humans with a short lifespan (compared to the elves), even the Sacred Covenant was not permanent.
Now, seven hundred years had passed. Although the covenant was still engraved on the cornerstone of various denominations, but just like the "Brotherhood Agreement" between Typhon and Ansu that had long disappeared, the later generations had gradually forgotten the meaning of the covenant at the foot of the ancestral peak.
Although many denominations on the continent today still maintained a peaceful situation, in fact, in private, there had always been tit-for-tat, exclusion, and oppression. Some denominations with huge doctrines had even reached the situation where they almost declared war.
After all, no one could really clearly hear what the Gods were saying to them. Even the Pope of the Holy Light Religion could only hear some vague whispers from the Gods. And the vagueness of the Divine Revelation gave people the space to express their thoughts — — -
"What if the gods let us fight with the heretics? Anyway, that's what I think. This definitely has nothing to do with me eating too much Dreamland Grass before praying … "— Many people thought so.
But in any case, the Sacred Covenant still had a little more authority than the alliance agreement between several human kingdoms (after all, it was in the name of the gods). Even if the conflicts between the denominations were getting more and more intense in private, at least on the surface, everyone still maintained a good situation. It was very common for several churches to gather in a big town, and it was also very common for the priests of various denominations to see each other. Of course, after greeting each other, it was also very common for the priests to turn around and spit back at home.
It was just that no one would talk about this situation on the surface, especially the high-ranking priests of various denominations. It was even more impossible for them to say something like "Although there are many gods, my boss is more awesome than you" in public.
But Veronica said so.
Gawain didn't know if the Saintess was deliberately hinting at him, or if her pure and intelligent appearance hid a thoughtless heart. Either way, he was very concerned about this matter, and the high-ranking Priestess who appeared with Veronica made him even more suspicious. Under such circumstances, he didn't dare to rashly accept anything that the other party threw at him.
As for whether to build a church in the territory in the future or not, he did not have much resistance in this regard. After all, gods did exist in this world, and the divine arts were indeed a part of people's daily production and life. As a pragmatic person, even if he did not believe in God, he would not stop others from believing. In such a fantasy world, it would be too idealistic if he still clung to atheism.
But when the time came, he would definitely strengthen the supervision of the church to ensure that everything was under his control. It was true that the divine arts were real, and it was also true that the theocracy would affect the regime. He did not want to fall into a trap in this regard.
Just like every qualified transmigrator, in Gwen's mind, the divine arts were used as a means of production.
Of course, planning these things was a little too far in the future. Under the situation where the territory could not even build a small church, it was more practical to think about how to control the faith in the land than to think about how to build infrastructure. So, Gwen decided to take advantage of the temporary peace to lay the foundation of the territory.
The news about the eastern border that Veronica and the others brought to him reminded him that in this chaotic world, the dangers were not as simple as the Demonic Wave in the wastelands of Gondor. The continent had enjoyed seven hundred years of peace, and there were too many things that were ready to move under the surface of peace. If he wanted to live comfortably in such a situation, he had to be nervous.
Gwen returned to his tent. Now that more and more tents were becoming sturdier and warmer, wooden houses and even brick houses, it was time to upgrade his tent. He woke up Betty, who was curled up on the mattress and drooling, and asked the maiden to move all the drawings he had accumulated over the past few days.
He unfolded the drawings one by one and then removed the impractical things in them (but he was not going to destroy them, in case they were useful in the future?). Finally, he found what he was looking for: it was some kind of simplified machinery, with metal wheels, connecting rods, and cylinders cleverly combined. Several of the drawings had the disassembly and detailed description of these mechanical structures, but below the main drawings was a line of eye-catching red words: The initial power could not be solved, temporarily shelved.
"Go and get Rebecca and Heti." Gwen looked at the little maid, who was standing by the table in a daze. "Tell them I have something … Forget it, just remember to call them."
Betty trotted out, leaving Gwen looking at the half-finished drawings and deep in thought. Suddenly, Amber's voice came from behind him. "What are you drawing? I don't understand it. "
"Some kind of power mechanism," Gawain said without raising his head. At the same time, he slapped the half-elf thief's claws away from his silver seal with ease. "In theory, this is a kind of thing that only needs to consume energy and can move continuously on its own. It can drive other mechanical structures, but the design hasn't been completed yet."
Amber's whole body was out of the shadow form. She looked down at the drawings on the table curiously. "Oh? You mean those magic puppets that are powered by elemental cores? "
Gwen shook his head. "No, it's not the same thing. This is a more general and more basic device, but its value is much higher than those magic puppets … Unfortunately, it still lacks the most important part."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
