Continental Chronicles: Prophecy and Beliefs

On the continent of Novuseas, both northerners and southerners desired to be free from cyclic suffering and to be reborn, which gave rise to two different beliefs. Today the Continental Chronicles will take you on a journey through the history of both beliefs, using the prophecy in the Hohweall Notes as a guide.

The Prophecy About Cyclic Wolrd

The earliest record of prophecy, the Hohweall Notes, written by Gardo Desenbyd, a survivor of the Old World, was regarded as a sacred canon by all the people in Norvusaes. In his book, he recounted his own experience of the catastrophe of the Old World, describing in detail the catastrophe that occured because of divine intervention. He assumed that the world was manipulated by God's will, cycling between destruction and rebirth, and drew the conclusion that the destruction that was experienced in the past would be repeated in the next world cycle. His realistic descriptions of personal experiences combined with the unforgettable tragedy of  history gave credence to the prophecy recorded in the Hohweall Notes.

Loth of the North

After the Old World was swallowed up by the sea, the survivors exiled in two directions to the New World, one of which was up north, landing in the harsh north-west, strewn with wilderness and high mountains. The scarcity of supplies and the harsh climate tested these northern settlers who realised that although they survived the disaster, they would have to endure hardships in a harsh environment. Referring to Hohweall Notes, the northerners already had a fear of the disaster engraved in their souls, and gradually believed that the destruction of the Old World was a punishment from the god, and those who escaped the disaster were still not immune to suffering. Only by maintaining a reverent and devout faith in the god were their souls freed from it. Otherwise, like the sufferers of the Old World, they were thrown into a cycle of eternal suffering. In this way, Loth, with its doctrine of salvation through faith in the Almighty One, quickly emerged as a northern faith, relying on northerners’ pursuing of self-redemption and supplication.

Essoth of the South

In contrast to the northern settlers, the survivors who landed along the other side of the continent in the Great Migration made their way to the rich southern plains. The adventurous among them interpreted the Hohweall Notes differently from the North. Having experienced the disaster, they believed that the present world was a continually cyclical one, where the god could give life and wisdom to the people, and could easily destroy it. But the difference was that the southern settlers believed that the doomsday (the destruction of the continent) did not all mean despair, and that there would be a new world after the old one ended. They could find a way to avoid suffering and break out of the cycle by simply pursuing and studying the wisdom of god. This view eventually gave rise to Essoth, a system of belief that was quite different from that of the northern religion. As the regime in the south became more established, Essoth became more widely accepted, and eventually became the state religion of the entire southern empire.

Now the mysteries of northern and southern beliefs have been unveiled. They were born out of the history of the destruction of the old continent, and they also took root and grew rapidly in the nurture of people's prayers and faith.