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{{Infobox faith|name=Aenism|aliases=Aenizm|kind=Imperial faith|pantheon=[[Minor Faiths and Orders#The Seven|The Seven]]|aspect=[[The Knight]]|followers=Clerics, war clerics and paladins of the [[Aenarch Empire]]|tier=gm|src=heralds-a#39}}
'''Aenism''' (also spelled '''Aenizm''') is the imperial faith of the [[Aenarch Empire]], whose clergy venerate a group of seven gods known as the Seven. {{Src|heralds-a#39}} Among the figures worshipped within it is [[The Knight]], to whom the faith's war clerics are sworn. {{Src|owner-form-2026-09-17|last-winter#792}}

== Overview ==
Aenism's clergy venerate the Seven, and the golden icons of the Seven were worked into their clerical armour; those icons are still faintly visible on the armour left in the [[Sealed Crypt of the Last Worm God]] generations after the priests who wore it died there. {{Src|heralds-a#39}} The faith fields fighting clergy as well as officiants: war clerics of Aenism take up arms as battle-priests and worship the Knight. {{Src|last-winter#792|last-winter#829}}

The sources never set out the faith's creed in the faith's own words. What they show instead is what Aenism does — it seals, it consecrates, it purges and it judges — together with a single hostile characterisation of its doctrine from an outside voice, which is kept below among the unconfirmed ideas.

{{Unresolved|Aenism's tenets, its holy writings and its account of the world's making. No source states them.|heralds-a#39}}

{{Unresolved|The names of the Seven. Only [[The Knight]] is ever named, and the sources do not say whether he is one of the Seven or a figure standing beside them.|heralds-a#39|last-winter#829}}

=== The Seven ===
The Seven are the seven gods the Aenism faith worships. {{Src|heralds-a#39}} They are recorded only as a group and by their icons; no individual name among them survives in the sources. {{Src|heralds-a#39}} See [[Minor Faiths and Orders#The Seven|The Seven]].

=== The Knight ===
[[The Knight]] is a figure worshipped within Aenism, and the campaign owner has confirmed him as a real figure of the setting with a place of his own in the faith. {{Src|owner-form-2026-09-17|last-winter#792}} A cleric of Aenism who is a war cleric must be one of his worshippers. {{Src|last-winter#792}}

=== El ===
[[Minor Faiths and Orders#El|El]] is described as the greatest god in the universe, of whom [[Samael]] is the counterpart — Samael being the first and highest angel, and the one who rules over everything belonging to the [[Legion]]'s [[Minor Concepts#Faith Pillar|Faith Pillar]]. {{Src|last-winter#856}}

{{Unresolved|Whether El stands above, among or entirely outside the Seven, and whether Aenism worships him at all. The source names El and Samael in the Legion's frame, never in Aenism's.|last-winter#856|heralds-a#39}}

== Clergy, orders and rank ==
Aenism's clergy appear in the sources in three roles. '''Clerics''' serve the faith at large; Aenism clerics marched with the [[Legion]] to destroy the last standing Worm God crypt, and their bodies still lie underground beside the legionnaires'. {{Src|heralds-b#118}} '''War clerics''' are the faith's battle-priests, sworn to the Knight. {{Src|last-winter#792}} '''Paladins''' serve a temple directly: [[Lucerion]] reported to the [[Minor Concepts#Temple of the Saint|temple of the Saint]] as a paladin of the Saint, and was later instructed to stop presenting himself as one. {{Src|heralds-b#446|heralds-b#453}}

A temple is headed by a '''High Priest''', who assigns, reviews and reassigns those who answer to it. {{Src|heralds-b#453}} See [[Minor Characters#The High Priest|The High Priest]].

The faith also keeps '''inquisitors'''. The Church of Aenism is organised enough to send one against [[The Moonlit Mystics]], the group spreading its own teachings against the church's hold on the people. {{Src|last-winter#399}} The inquisitor sent to hunt them in [[Snakecross]] is [[Inquisitor X-12]], a warforged cleric of the Law Domain and a pacifist who searches the town for sinners and will not strike an unarmed man. {{Src|last-winter#320|last-winter#399}}

{{Unresolved|Aenism's full ladder of rank, and whether the "Church of Aenism", the temples and the Legion's Faith Pillar are one institution under one head or separate bodies that share a faith.|heralds-b#118|last-winter#399|last-winter#856}}

== The faith within the Legion ==
The [[Legion]] carries its own structure of faith, the [[Minor Concepts#Faith Pillar|Faith Pillar]], which is the only one of the Empire's [[The Six Pillars|six pillars]] the sources name. {{Src|last-winter#856|owner-form-2026-09-17}} [[Samael]] rules over everything belonging to it. {{Src|last-winter#856}} Each Regency holds exactly one [[Kardinal]], seated in the Legion castle of its regency capital. {{Src|last-winter#856}} Above them stands the [[Titles and Offices#Lord of Blood|Lord of Blood]], the highest-ranking person of the Pillar of Faith in the Legion, resident at [[Minor Places#Basalth Fortress|Basalth Fortress]] in the capital of the Empire. {{Src|last-winter#864}}

{{Unresolved|Whether the Legion's Faith Pillar is Aenism's own hierarchy or a parallel military faith. Every officer the sources place in it sits inside a Legion structure, and no source calls a Kardinal or the Lord of Blood an Aenism priest.|last-winter#856|last-winter#864}}

=== The Order of the Saint (Iceverf) ===
The faith institution of [[Iceverf]] is the [[Minor Faiths and Orders#Order of the Saint|Order of the Saint]], which is focused on order and tranquillity and avoids open chaos. {{Src|heralds-a#3}} Alongside [[Magnus Arcanum]] it is one of the two standing institutions of the city, and [[Blackice]] has manipulated both from the shadows. {{Src|heralds-a#3}}

The order keeps a temple headed by a High Priest, to whom [[Lucerion]] delivered his field report on [[Snakecross]]; the report framed what he had found there as a long-term threat to the Saint's order and to the tranquillity of the region. {{Src|heralds-b#446}} The god or holy order to which Lucerion and that temple are bound is named only as [[Minor Faiths and Orders#Aziz|Aziz]], the Saint. {{Src|heralds-b#446}}

=== Faith, in Graymond ===
In [[Graymond]] the religious institution is recorded simply as [[Faith]], and it acts together with [[Magnus Arcanum]]: the two raided a manhole used by old [[Blackice]] agents and interrogated those taken there. {{Src|heralds-b#438|heralds-b#439}} Faith believes it has properly consecrated the ruins beneath the town. {{Src|heralds-b#434|heralds-b#435}} {{Spoiler|GM:Faith}}

{{Unresolved|Whether the Order of the Saint, the Saint (Aziz), [[Minor Faiths and Orders#The Saint and Healer|the Saint and Healer]] and the institution called [[Faith]] are branches of Aenism, one faith under several names, or separate religions. No source connects any of them to Aenism in words.|heralds-a#3|heralds-b#446|heralds-b#434}}

== War clerics ==
War clerics are Aenism's clergy on campaign, and the faith requires them to worship [[The Knight]]. {{Src|last-winter#792}} The one the sources name is [[Sister Vaelia of the Pale Bloom]], an Aasimar war cleric of the eighth level who serves the Knight and holds the title Battle-Priestess of the Knight on the Eastern Front of [[The Winter War]]. {{Src|last-winter#824|last-winter#829}}

== Other faiths and their standing toward Aenism ==
The faiths and powers the sources set beside Aenism are listed below. The broad index of faiths is [[Faiths of Aenarch]]; the briefer cults, orders and named gods are collected on [[Minor Faiths and Orders]].

* '''[[Minor Organizations#Priests of the Worm Gods|Priests of the Worm Gods]]''' — the priesthood the Legion met during the crypt war, serving the [[Worm God|Worm Gods]] that the Empire's forces went underground to destroy. {{Src|heralds-b#118|heralds-b#136}}
* '''[[Minor Characters#Naginis|Naginis]] and the [[Temple of Naginis]]''' — a serpentkin holy site standing above a crypt whose gate opens onto the [[Para-Elemental Plane of Ooze]]. {{Src|heralds-a#43}} A claimed doctrinal clash between Naginis's teaching and Aenism's is an unconfirmed proposal and is recorded below.
* '''[[Yeenoghu]]''' — the demonic power the gnoll cults of [[Altia]] worshipped. {{Src|heralds-a#95}} Those cults were destroyed in Altia by [[The Blind Knight]], who is the chosen of [[Minor Faiths and Orders#Knightess|Knightess]], not of Aenism. {{Src|heralds-a#95}}
* '''[[Minor Faiths and Orders#Knightess|Knightess]] and [[Minor Faiths and Orders#The Saint and Healer|the Saint and Healer]]''' — a goddess whose domains resemble War and Space, and the god or gods some of the [[Heralds of the Cycle]] worship; Knightess sends her chosen to help and then fairly kill those worshippers rather than let another god's chosen or a mere priest take them. {{Src|heralds-a#95}}
* '''[[Valekra]]''' — an old deity that fights the Unknown, served by [[Priestess Valeria Greytalon]]. {{Src|last-winter#507|last-winter#574}}
* '''[[Minor Faiths and Orders#Lady Misery|Lady Misery]] and the [[Sisterhood of Misery]]''' — the goddess of the poor, the sick and the forsaken, and the order of sisters devoted to her, whose internal hierarchy is described as horrifying. {{Src|last-winter#480|last-winter#514}}
* '''[[Flower Goddess]]''' — the goddess of the vaults that shelter the survivors beneath [[Deadreach]], and whose corrupted form is the [[Reminder]]. {{Src|heralds-a#103|heralds-a#124}}
* '''[[Minor Faiths and Orders#Oxphideus|Oxphideus]]''' — the deified form of Asmodeus, who severed [[Lucerion]]'s bond with his own god. {{Src|heralds-a#146|heralds-a#149}}
* '''[[The Moonlit Mystics]]''' — adventurers spreading teachings against the church among the people, hunted by an inquisitor they do not know about. {{Src|last-winter#399|last-winter#401}}

{{Unresolved|Whether Aenism took any part in the purge of the gnoll cults of Yeenoghu in Altia. The sources credit the Blind Knight and Knightess, and say nothing of the imperial faith.|heralds-a#95}}

=== The final assault on the last Worm God ===
Imperial legionnaires, Aenism priests and serpentkin fought their last battle beneath Snakepass against the last of the Worm Gods, and all three lost it in their different ways: the Worm God could not be killed, and was sealed half-digested by reality instead. {{Src|heralds-a#39|heralds-a#40}} The site is the [[Sealed Crypt of the Last Worm God]], where the clerical armour, the rusted imperial shields and the [[Yuan-Ti]] dead still lie as they fell. {{Src|heralds-a#39|heralds-b#118}}

Aenism clerics went down with the Legion specifically to destroy the last standing Worm God crypt; two others had already been dealt with, one at [[Minor Places#Brazen|Brazen]] and one whose name cannot be understood, recorded as [[Minor Places#Beyond Sorrow, Before Time|Beyond Sorrow, Before Time]]. {{Src|heralds-b#118|heralds-a#40}} The powers the Legion believed it was fighting were held to be the gods of the serpentborn, and on the way it met the priests of the Worm Gods. {{Src|heralds-b#118}} What the faith did to close the seal, and how well it held, is not public knowledge. {{Spoiler|GM:Aenism}}

=== Iceverf and the shadow behind the institutions ===
[[Blackice]] has worked the people, the Arcanum and the faith institutions of [[Iceverf]] from the shadows. {{Src|heralds-a#3}} When [[Lucerion]] reported what the [[Heralds of the Cycle]] had found in and around [[Snakecross]] — a concealed transfer of rule, an attempted intrusion into a mind, the restless dead of an abandoned brotherhood, planar gates, ritual killings and the existence of Blackice — the report was addressed to the temple as a threat to the Saint's order. {{Src|heralds-b#446}}

The High Priest's answer was to withdraw the faith's man rather than escalate. He relieved Lucerion of his duty in the city, told him the temple would handle the city's troubles itself, left Iceverf's affairs to the local Magnus Arcanum and the faith's own priests, and set Lucerion to the other threats named in the report on the condition that he not present himself as a paladin of the Saint. {{Src|heralds-b#453|heralds-a#3}}

=== The loss of a paladin ===
[[Lucerion]] later attempted a pact with [[Belial]]. [[Minor Faiths and Orders#Oxphideus|Oxphideus]] intervened, Lucerion's bond with his own god was severed, and he is no longer a paladin. {{Src|heralds-a#146|heralds-a#149}}

=== The hunt for the Moonlit Mystics ===
The church sent an inquisitor after [[The Moonlit Mystics]] for teaching against it, and the group is still unaware of him. {{Src|last-winter#399|last-winter#401}} He is [[Inquisitor X-12]], who searches [[Snakecross]] for sinners. {{Src|last-winter#320}}

=== The Winter War ===
The faith is present at the front through its war clerics: [[Sister Vaelia of the Pale Bloom]] serves on the Eastern Front of [[The Winter War]]. {{Src|last-winter#824|last-winter#829}}

== Relics ==
* [[Minor Items and Relics#Shield of the Dying Faithful|Shield of the Dying Faithful]] — a relic of Aenism; once per long rest, if its bearer is defending an ally who drops to 0 hit points, it stabilises that ally and restores them to 1 hit point. {{Src|heralds-a#39}}

== Related pages ==
* [[The Knight]] — the figure Aenism's war clerics worship
* [[Minor Faiths and Orders#The Seven|The Seven]] — the seven gods the faith venerates
* [[Minor Faiths and Orders#Church of Aenism|Church of Aenism]] — the faith's church as the sources name it
* [[Minor Faiths and Orders#Aenism Clerics|Aenism Clerics]] — the clergy who died beneath Snakepass
* [[Sister Vaelia of the Pale Bloom]] — war cleric of Aenism, Battle-Priestess of the Knight
* [[Lucerion]] — the paladin who reported to the temple of the Saint
* [[Minor Characters#The High Priest|The High Priest]] — head of that temple
* [[Inquisitor X-12]] — the inquisitor sent against the Moonlit Mystics
* [[Sealed Crypt of the Last Worm God]] — where Aenism priests died fighting the last Worm God
* [[Bestiary Appendix#Worm Priest Revenant|Worm Priest Revenant]] — once one of Aenism's own {{Spoiler|GM:Aenism}}
* [[Minor Faiths and Orders#Order of the Saint|Order of the Saint]] — the faith institution of Iceverf
* [[Faith]] — the religious institution of Graymond
* [[The Six Pillars]] · [[Minor Concepts#Faith Pillar|Faith Pillar]] · [[Titles and Offices#Lord of Blood|Lord of Blood]] · [[Kardinal]] — the Legion's structure of faith
* [[Faiths of Aenarch]] — every faith with a page of its own
* [[Minor Faiths and Orders]] — the cults, orders and named gods recorded only in brief
* [[Yuan-Ti]] — the serpentkin who fought beside Aenism's priests at the crypt
* [[Minor Characters#Naginis|Naginis]] · [[Temple of Naginis]] — the serpent faith whose temple predates the Legion
* [[Aenarch Empire]] — the realm whose imperial faith this is

== Unconfirmed ideas ==
''The source conversations contain proposals for Aenism that the campaign owner never confirmed. They are collected on [[:Idea:Aenism|Idea:Aenism]] so they cannot be mistaken for canon.''

[[Category:Faiths]]
[[Category:Organizations]]

Aenism - Revision history

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