Eternal Emperor
The Eternal Emperor is the name of a philosophy practised practically like a monotheistic religion. Adherents worship the emperor of Lung Wa in Tian Xia, master of the Oracular Council, reincarnated in each successive ruler of that land. It has been the state religion in both Imperial Lung Wa and the theocratic Successor State of Po Li. The last emperor perished along with Imperial Lung Wa and no leader has emerged since then. Consequently, most of Lung Wa has converted to traditional deity-worshipping religions, but this is not the case with the faith's adherents in Po Li.1
As the Eternal Emperor is not actually a deity, his religion has no clerics. In the territory of Po Li, both before and after Lung Wa's fall, clerics are castigated as heretics and worship of deities is forbidden. Instead, his clergy consists entirely of oracles under the leadership of the Oracular Council, who seized power in the area around Changdo, Imperial Lung Wa's capital, after the empire fell, and has been holding both secular and spiritual power in Po Li since then.1
Po Li's citizens believe that the Eternal Emperor will soon reincarnate to re-establish Lung Wa. The Oracular Council claims that they are only ruling in the stead of the absent emperor and publicly supports this claim but has yet to find an heir; the emperor's Five Dragon Throne sits empty in their meetings. According to sceptics, they are unwilling to relinquish their power over Po Li while the faithful believe that this failure is evidence for the oracles' determination to find the correct heir that could unify Lung Wa. No one dares sit on the Five Dragon Throne, as the last person who did so was reduced to ashes by a lightning bolt; though, some suspect that act was foul play from a rival oracle. In recent decades, many residents of Po Li have come to believe that the emperor will only return once the colossal Eternal Emperor statue in Changdo, which has been under construction for more than three centuries, is completed.12
References
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- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 . “Regions of the Dragon Empires” in Dragon Empires Gazetteer, 34. Paizo Inc., 2011
- ↑ . “Oracular Council” in Disciple's Doctrine, 16. Paizo Inc., 2018