The Temple of Spode (sometimes known as Dei'Ar, Radessic for "Sworn to God") is a religious organisation dedicated to the worship of Spode.
History[]
Origins[]
The Temple has its roots in many Spode-worshipping religions across the universe, primarily the Dei'Ar Theocracy and various Spodist sects in the Girdo Galaxy. The Girdo sects were destroyed in the Girdo Galactic War and few of their beliefs remained, while the Theocracy was destroyed several decades later as a result of several intergalactic wars. After the fall of the Theocracy, the Girdo Empire offered to take in refugees and negotiate a means of their continued survival, with options including joining the Imperial group mind and founding a politically-neutral Temple of Spode. The refugees, led by Tadjeleon, eventually chose the latter option.
The Temple was soon created and was given a temporary headquarters in the Imperial Sector of Girdo, and Iovera was made as the Archpriest of the organisation. As ex-Theocracy Radeon joined the United Republic of Cyrannus and Rambo Nation, the Temple spread to the Cyrannus Galaxy and the Quadrants, thereby allowing it to decentralise under a new system of organisation and resulting in the Girdo temple no longer being an official centre for the religion.
Due to their wide spread and presence in galaxies that were unaffected by the event, the Temple of Spode were practically unharmed by the destruction of the universe. During the evacuation of life from the Girdo Galaxy, a few Temple priests were on board the Girdo Imperial ship Starfighter and so eventually were merged into Apalos.
Shortly afterwards, some members of the Temple (including its leader, Iovera) left the organisation in order to form a new empire. The Temple of Spode remained an ally of this civilisation, the Divinarium, and was led by Ars'al as a successor to Iovera.
Beliefs[]
The Temple's religion is from a blend of many Spodist sects, most of which were merged by the Radeon due to the Dei'Ar Theocracy and its predecessor states due to their alliance and conquest of different Zealot and Shaman species. Under the advice of the Girdo Empire, the Temple adopted a policy of restricted dogmatism, in which only beliefs that could be confirmed would be accepted as official doctine, thereby reducing the chance of future schism based on theological disagreements.
Organisation[]
The Temple is organised with its own hierarchial system. The lowest ranks are Priests, followed by Divinaries who control the actions of the Temple on each planet. Leaders of major state churches form the Divine Ministry, and they choose the Archpriest, who controls the actions of Temple at large. In times of need, the Archpriest can summon all Divinaries and Ministers to decide on future actions together. Sometimes these meetings are physical to represent the spiritual importance of them, although sometimes they are made via hyperluminal communications instead.
Imperial Theological Society[]
The Temple of Spode worked with the Imperial Theological Society, an entity composed of members of the Girdo Empire for the study of deities and Essence. The Temple-Society partnership primarily existed to analyse the teachings of Spode, and also to study the relationship between Spodism and other religions, such as the Rambo religion (which the Radeon traditionally thought of as being heresy, due to its belief that "Spode" is a location rather than a deity) and Asdran'Ari.
However, the Society also expanded their studies in other areas thanks to their partnership with the Temple. For example, they studied various Energies using surviving Energy-based technology and skills from the Dei'Ar Theocracy's military forces. They also conducted research into the nature of Spode himself, but kept the details of this secret from the Temple as some of the possibilities researched (such as the "palaeocontact theory" involving advanced extraterrestrials posing as divine beings) would be considered heretical (although, unbeknownst to either organisation, palaeocontact is actually what happened).
