Laws of The Land: Clerics and Other Divine Spell Casters

Laws of The Land: Clerics and Other Divine Spell Casters

They say that the Empire is the land of a thousand gods. This may be true. Each province and vassal state has it's own pantheon of gods and through the ages scholars have penned different accounts of deities and their interactions. Many novels and 'accounts' have conflicting views of the gods, often mashing toghether the gods of several different cultures toghether to create an entertaining tale.

The result of this is that there is no unified, codified religion within the Empire. The closest thing to that, would be the State. The Twelve Dragon Seat and the Emperor possess enough power for most mortals to consider them deities among themselves, and neither party has made any particular attempts to dissuade this notion.

So where do divine casters and other clerics come in? The Ministry of Magic and Arcanics categorizes them under internally focused magic- it is believed much of their power is derived from powerful faith. In what it does not matter, the psychic energy or ki is still there. In contrast, the science of arcane magics is considered to be the conscious manipulation of external forces.

Many devotees of the faith embrace abstract concepts such as 'The Light' Or "The Dark." These are not merely good and evil, but the actual magical aspects of the positive and negative. Life and Death are opposites of the same; both can serve any purpose of morality. There are also those who walk the balance, and those that do not walk at all. Those who do not walk tread something only known as The Void.
The Ministry of Magic calls this entire philosphy Yin and Yang, and attributes the whole mess to Taoist magicians. Most respectable Ministers scoff at the very notion.

But the Taoists are not the only game in town. Devotees to gods like Lim Kuei run around pulling tricks in the name of a nebulous mischief deity.
Ambitious historians may call the name of deity Tong Lu, a famous warrior from the Unification Period. He was raised to godhood by Imperial Decree, and from all records, he seems to 'answer prayers' for magical power. The Ministry of Magic attributes this again, to inner ki.

Whatever the name being called, the magic always comes. Even when two sides with the same supposedly gods come into conflict, prayers are answered and men of faith smite each other with equal zeal and effectiveness. This logical contradiction is typically what sways the Ministry of Magic to question the 'divinity' of divine magic.