The Dawn of Magic: Another Way to Look at Magic's Effect on Society

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Found it! The fall of angels story that works well to explain sorcerors. Those with the blood of Azael, in particular, would have the potential to be mighty sorcerors with great charisma.

Azael was also credited with teaching mankind witchcraft, so it fits right in .

That's the one. Though the version I read referred to the Fallen Angels as "nephilim" ("giants" I think). Which I just noticed yours makes mention of as well.

Well, it could be God's concealing hand, or that could simply be the explanation God cooked up for the priests when the magic returned and he was suddenly able to do stuff again. Depends on whether you want to run a Christians Are Right campaign or not.

I misinterpreted you, then. Personally, monotheism in games bores me. I much prefer polytheistic or quasi-Buddhist-flavored games (i.e. there are gods, but they, like mortals are ultimately just part of something greater. And everything has a divine spark within them). It could also be done with a world more like this one, where God doesn't really talk to people or send them magicks, and your explanation above would be the one the truly faithful priests concocted for themselves to explain their sudden powers. They would truly believe that their power was coming from God, when it actually came from their own faith in something greater. Because of the nature of this belief, despite the fact that both their powers come from within, Clerical power would be different in kind from that of Psions, who are cognizant that the power is coming from within them.

Speaking of Psions...

That sounds good! Some of those meditations were also found within the Church itself, and it is likely that the purgation of the Church's sin left many monastic Orders untouched. It could make for an interesting flavor bit to have psions with a vow of silence and burgeoning powers of clairsentience somewhere in an English monastery.

That's good stuff. Someone would be bound to notice the difference in the nature of their powers, eventually, and would wonder which power was actually from God, and where the other power was coming from. That's the kind of thing that leads to either a) an Inquisition within the Church itself, or b) a new Gnosticism.

That sounds like an interesting game, right there.

I seem to have promised some Psion flavor text earlier. How's this sound?

Just as the Flowering touched the hearts of the children of the Nephilim, so did it touch the hearts of all men. Far away from the influence of the Church, in the Empires of the East, lived men who, through ascetic practices and meditation, were in Harmony with the Divine. These men felt the stirring of their hearts as other men did not, and sought deeper, to where the Light of the Flowering rebounded from the Light in their own souls. The most disciplined among them were able to reach into that Light, and draw it out of themselves into the world. And with it, they could perform wonders.

And to the West, even as the Faithful tore down the idols of a Church corrupted, there were those who contemplated the Divine. Some who were Brothers to the Faithful were not men made to rail against the corruption of the Church, nor to guide a flock of God's people. These men lived a simple life, and bent their minds to the touch of the Divine on their souls. Subtler perhaps did the Flowering touch these men than their Brothers among the Faithful. Subtler, but no less profound. For as time passed, the resonance of their souls to the Flowering was made manifest. And much as their spiritual counterparts in the East, they drew the Divine out of themselves to perform miracles.

Diviners and Mystics. Healers and Warriors. Saints and Devils. These are the men who have opened their Mind's Eye to the World.

A little too cheesy?

 

[mythusmage]

A Stirring in the Mist

She was old and frail, tottering about on legs barely able to support her. But still she made the rounds of the hospital, with a friendly smile and a cheery word for all she met.

She would appear beside a patient's bed, silent as a mouse. There to give a small touch, a kind word. It didn't matter if they heard her or not, if they knew she was there or not. It was enough that she could be there with them, to give them a word of encouragement, a comforting touch.

Until the day.

That day she noticed nothing, but those who came to the patients she had seen saw it. Their pain was lessened, their breathing eased. Wounds appeared as if they had been healing for as much as a week, though they were but hours old. A man who's lungs were riddled with cancer was, somehow, cancer free.

It took a couple of days for people to tie the two together. Another day to confirm it. They had to find a safe, secret place to keep her so the press couldn't find her.The only thing that kept them, and her, from being ovewhelmed was the fact she was not the only one.

(Let's see what you do with that.)

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

The Flowering and the Church

Being a much practiced apologist for the Church, and the medieval church in particular, I must say this thread has taken a very interesting turn. I like it.

Something to consider, druids, as they appear in DnD, are very possible in a medieval Christian framework. Hermits, a specific calling for Monks according to Benedict, often held the same role druids fulfill in modern fantasy.

The Italian hermits, early middle ages, always lived in the wilderness and were known for doing things like developing friendships with animals, moving through woods mysteriously, punishing people who harvested natural resources greedily, and encountering the divine in visions of the woods or sky.

Bernard of Clairvaux, who was French but cool, said that all wisdom could be found in a forest.

Romwald of Lombardy, according to his cult, became so holy in the wilderness that he turned green and plantlike.

In terms of the hierarchy, there was a fair amount of disillusion by the high middle ages, but earlier in the Middle Ages Bishops were heroes. The office was so popular that people often said that the office could perform miracles even when the bishop was corrupt.

A famous later example of this was the Corpus Christi miracle that converted a bad priest when he realized the significance of his office in the eyes of God.

Not to mention the impact faith in the power of saints or the powers of old gods would have. Medieval Occultists often tried to mix power from pagan, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian traditions.

Also, there is a tradition of people having blood from Christ's family. It's mostly later, but King's claimed to be descended from relatives of Christ and thus to have sorcerous powers. Perhaps a means of countering the Nephilim or legitmizing your tainted abilities.

Anyways, all this may only impact the flowering indirectly, but it's cool to think about how a medieval religious reaction to such an event would not be simple at all.

 

[seasong]

Canis wrote:
I misinterpreted you, then.

Naw, I just tossed out some ideas and you ran with one of them! The only misinterpretation is the belief that I had somehow thought deeply about the issue and come up with a particular approach to using the material I was tossing .

To continue expanding on ways to view the GM's Hidden Notes aspect:

1) God withdrew/concealed His Light for 1,000 years in mourning for the death of Jesus Christ. Now the Light returns, and with it, miracles! Some things you could mix in with this are "minor gods" for other pantheons, twelve immortal disciples (who were promised the Second Coming would occur within their lifetime), and Nephilim awakening to stir things up with mortals again.

2) The magic fell and rose on its own, for some other reason. Now all gods are returning... it just happens that Europe is dominated by worship of the Christian God, and so in that region He is functionally all-powerful. Either God or His priests have concocted an explanation that trivializes all other Gods (tying in nicely with the Jealous God stereotype). This could easily become a War of Faiths between the Church and Everybody Else .

3) There are no Gods - priestly magic is a function of the faith aspect of the mind, or one's own higher self and enlightenment (hence the WIS prereq). The soft priests received no powers because they sought temporal power rather than inner enlightenment. Of course, an explanation is concocted for why "God's" activity level has risen. As with (2), this could become a War of Faiths... except that the reasons for the war would be human ones, meaning internal conflicts for the Church as well, and many enlightened folks who see no problem with other people's faith.

4) God is as inactive as ever. All of the priest's powers are coming from devils, with a very subtle plan to derail humanity from true enlightenment by giving it to them easy... You could also take a Cthulu approach to this: the Old Ones awaken every thousand years and the powers of madness arise with them. Fanatics of "God" tap the Old Powers, while those with the Blood stirring in their veins summon eldritch energies from dark dimensions. One thousand years ago, the Christ sacrificed himself in a great ritual (with the aid of the Roman Emperor) to put them at bay, but now they return.

I seem to have promised some Psion flavor text earlier. How's this sound?

(... snip ...)

A little too cheesy?

For me? Just perfect! Remember, "cheese" is just "cheese badly executed". When cheese is well executed, it's called "classic", "touching" or "a brilliant example of the genre".

I like that the Flowering has become capitalized. If I'd been thinking, I'd have made it a proper noun from the start .

I also like how you've tied psions directly into the Light of God.

 

[seasong]

Re: The Flowering and the Church

Dr. Strangemonkey wrote:
Being a much practiced apologist for the Church, and the medieval church in particular, I must say this thread has taken a very interesting turn. I like it.

Well, hopefully I don't get the thread killed . I think we're approaching this from a very good, open, roleplaying-focused standpoint, but it can be very difficult to discuss the Christian God and roleplaying without offending someone.

Something to consider, druids, as they appear in DnD, are very possible in a medieval Christian framework.

(... snip details ...)

That looks good, although it would still be pretty darned rare... but what are PCs, if not rare gems?

In terms of the hierarchy, there was a fair amount of disillusion by the high middle ages, but earlier in the Middle Ages Bishops were heroes. The office was so popular that people often said that the office could perform miracles even when the bishop was corrupt.

Yes . That's at least one reason I had the priests of the field replace the corrupt priests, rather than tear down the edifice entire. Even at its worst, the peasants believed that the Church was there for them...

Also, there is a tradition of people having blood from Christ's family. It's mostly later, but King's claimed to be descended from relatives of Christ and thus to have sorcerous powers. Perhaps a means of countering the Nephilim or legitmizing your tainted abilities.

I like this - it makes for an easy out for aristocratic sorcerors (those close to the King's blood), while still acting as a witch hunt for the lower class.

Anyways, all this may only impact the flowering indirectly, but it's cool to think about how a medieval religious reaction to such an event would not be simple at all.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

1) God withdrew/concealed His Light for 1,000 years in mourning for the death of Jesus Christ. Now the Light returns, and with it, miracles! Some things you could mix in with this are "minor gods" for other pantheons, twelve immortal disciples (who were promised the Second Coming would occur within their lifetime), and Nephilim awakening to stir things up with mortals again.

Alternatively, you could treat the Hebrew God as not being much different from the other gods, other than that he has more worshippers. In this case it wouldn't be his mourning that blocked magic, but simply a side-effect of the death of Christ. As they say, Christ died and descended into Hell. I've heard a variety of explanations for precisely why that occurred, but my personal favorite is that it was something of a one-man assault on the Gates of Hell. In breaking himself free of Hell, he broke the bonds that kept men there (ever since the expulsion from Paradise, if I remember correctly) and allowed them to ascend to Heaven. So, we could set it up in such a way that somehow, the fiends of this cosmology's Lower Plane (Planes?) had managed to cut off access from Heaven (the Upper Planes?) to Earth, thus all souls were being funneled to Hell after death. Not only was this a serious threat to Heaven, but it kinda sucked for Earth, too. So, Christ managed to work around the blockade by arranging to have himself born as a human. And then his sacrifice and the faith of his followers empowered him such that he was able to destroy the blockade (and even free the souls of the faithful who had been taken to Hell since the blockade went up centuries or eons ago. This necessitated the wielding of AWESOME divine energies, and the backwash of the destroyed blockade cut off ALL access to Earth from ANY other plane until the energy dissipated at the time of the Flowering.

This could be modified in a couple different ways. For example, perhaps only the Hebrew God was cut off from Earth. In this case, the other good deities wouldn't have been invested in the issue, and would be pretty ticked off about being cut off from their followers for a millennium or so because of one uppity god and his arguments with the neighbors downstairs. Of course, while they were blocked off, his followers increased in number dramatically. At the time of the Flowering, he's definitely Big God on the block, and there's really not much they can do about it.

Alternatively, all the gods were cut off, and Christ's sacrifice, while having some troublesome side effects, was ultimately a good thing for everybody, and they've all developed a great respect for him. Of course, this doesn't leave much room for conflict between good deities, and is therefore, IMO, less fun.

Or you could mix the two. using a variant of the Great Wheel, maybe it was only the Lawful Good gods of Mount Celestia who were cut off, and now Christ is something of a champion for them, but the gods of Ysgard, for example, are rather unhappy with him (not just for the blockage, but also because in their absence, most of their followers went and became his followers). In this cosmology, I have a recurring vision of my head of Christ sitting on a mountaintop in the Upper Planes, rapping with one or the other of the various Buddhas, while the Father's busy getting back to his smiting roots by empowering clerics and paladins in their war against the corrupt Church elders. The Holy Spirit would probably be wandering about, inspiring various teachers among the Faithful and giving various monks a nudge down the path to Psionics or Druidism.

For me? Just perfect! Remember, "cheese" is just "cheese badly executed". When cheese is well executed, it's called "classic", "touching" or "a brilliant example of the genre".

I'll take that as a compliment.

As for Dr. Strangemonkey's Monastic Druids in the Church, that wouldn't be all that rare, now that I think about it. Gregor Mendel definitely had some ranks in Knowledge: Nature. And many monastic orders were heavily involved in cultivation and even herb lore. There were those who took the idea that the way to understand the mind of God was to study his Creation, Nature. And even though they were mostly conversions of local myth, many Saints demonstrated power over nature that is most easily explained if they were druids. Perhaps a monk who tried to emulate the virtues of one of these saints would find the druidic path.

This is getting even more confusing for the poor Christians. Suddenly they've got Clerics and Paladins. Then along come these psionic monks. And then a bunch of nature-boy monks go all druidic on them. Can you say "impending Reformation"?

I like that the Flowering has become capitalized. If I'd been thinking, I'd have made it a proper noun from the start.

That's just how I think Holy Text should sound. Lots of stuff with the emphasis that proper nouns get. When you're reading it out loud, "the Faithful" just has a different meaning than "the faithful." "the faithful" are just the regular old believers that kept to the line. "The Faithful" are the ones who went above and beyond the call of their faith and "have been empowered by God to right the wrongs committed in His name." And "the Flowering" just has more the feel of an EVENT when it's capitalized.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Re: A Stirring in the Mist

....Neat story....

(Let's see what you do with that.)

That was interesting, Mythusmage. It got my wheels turning in regards to the modern day. I've even got this story idea floating around back there about a guy who more or less stumbles on a new rising of Demonic magic through a wannabe Goth chick he's been tutoring. It's kind of a generic Buffy-meets-Cthulu idea at the moment, but it's still percolating. Maybe something will come of it after it goes a few rounds with my subconscious.

But I'm definitely a bit more caught up in the Middle Ages thing right now. For one thing, thinking about what would happen to Christianity today if some people were gifted with divine powers is a) Too complicated and b) would probably send me off on a tangent that would get Moderators pouncing on this thread like Bill Clinton on an intern (see, there I go already). For another, Seasong started up a great exchange of ideas. There's a mighty fine game lurking in there somewhere.

Of course, your story also got me thinking about how people would react to magic in their midst. Would they be as pragmatic and kind as the doctors and hospital officials in your story? Some would, but probably not the majority. A lot of people would run screaming for the hills.

What would the effect be inside a cloistered order or amongst the clergy? I wonder if the clerics who were slower to awaken their powers wouldn't look at the other, more developed clerics and wonder why those men were doing better. Why are they more powerful? Is their faith that strong? Or is mine not strong enough? Or what if their underlying assumptions about God excluded this sort of manifestation? You could have an unshakeable faith in God but not believe in miracles. Sort of the "God does not need to put on a show for us to bully us into doing what is right" stance.

Would a king who was gifted with great sorcerous powers "by virtue of being the Eighth Degree from Our Lord, Jesus Christ" put up with an advisor who practiced wizardly magic by ritual and incantation? Even if he wanted to keep the man around, would the Church and the faithful people allow him to? Or would they be screaming for the blood of "the devil-worshipping warlock"?

Thinking about some of these questions, and to counter your tale, I threw together a quick story. Be warned before you read that random inspiration and the praise of Seasong might have inflated my ego regarding my own prose...

Brother Thomas was afraid. An emotion he had long since thought expunged, but had made itself apparent ever more of late.

How long ago had the... oddities begun around the Monastery? Was it as much as four years ago that the bells began? At odd times and on unusual occasions, the monastery would be filled with the tolling and chiming of all manner of bells, yet, when the belfry was examined, not a one was stirring. The villagers reported strange lights sometimes, late at night, and grew ever more reluctant to approach the monastery gate. And then the vineyard... Seemingly at random, vines would become overgrown, massive, and laden with enormous grapes. Grapes which proved sweeter and more delectable than anything grown by the Brothers in living memory. The young acolytes babbled about blessings and curses. And even Hammish, the gnarled old stump of a wagoner who alone was willing to take the wine of the "cursed" monastery to the merchants' dock, always made the sign to ward off the Evil Eye before he drank of his cup.

As for what his Brothers thought, Thomas could only guess. Most simply shook their heads gravely, and went on with their work. As they so clearly accepted the mysteries of life under God, Thomas knew he should not be so discomfited. But that was little consolation this morning, when he had come upon Gabriel kneeling in the chapel...

Thomas shuddered at the image.

You are a man of God! he scolded himself silently, is it so hard to believe in Miracles?

Yes, yes it is, he answered himself. The Age when God walked among His people is long since gone, and will not come again until the End is upon us. The hand of God touches not upon this world, but upon the hearts of men.

Not in many years had he been so agitated, and he felt the need of calm and contemplation.

Lowering himself to his pallet, he thought If only I could look upon the face of God in my heart, all my questions would be answered...

Indeed they would, my Brother.

Startled that a voice inside his head could be not his own, Thomas looked up and wondered. In his doorway stood Gabriel, the nimbus of golden light Thomas had first seen in the chapel still radiant about his head.

For I have looked upon the Face of the Divine in my heart, and for the first time, all is clear. Stepping closer, Gabriel held out his hand. I have found the Path to my answers, Brother. Let me guide you onto the Path, so that you may seek answers to the questions in your heart.

Ah, those words were sweet. But what if it were a trick? The devil's servants ever tempted men with sweet words that hid the sourness of lies beneath the surface. But Brother Gabriel? A more devoted man of God Thomas had never met. Could such a man have fallen so far?

Closing his eyes, Thomas searched his heart. Gabriel's words rang true.

Putting his Faith in God and the heart of a Man, Thomas took Gabriel's hand as the bells rang once more...

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Meep and Monks

St. Leibowitz and the Mad Horsewoman, the sequel to Canticle of Leibowitz, contains some interesting descriptions of how monastarics deal with unusual people.

The basic reaction in the book was, "Your vision sounds like something you will have to contemplate, now do your duty and continue to illuminate the manuscripts!"

Which seems fair from my own knowledge of monks dealing with mystics in the Middle Ages. They were seen as special and often miraculous, but they were still members of the community and had to do their jobs. If the community saw the unusualness as potentially helpful to the life of contemplation they were rewarded with time alone to work on it or positions of authority in the community.

If the community saw the specialness as potentially disruptive, mostly a result of the specific weirdness rather than doing this to everyone weird, than they were invited to consider a hermits lifestyle or to attach themselves to some other community, like the local parish.

Be careful of thinking of Saints as simply people who got the local pagan traditions transferred to them. Ala, St. George. While that is something that regularly happens, there are a lot of saints and there is a lot of variety.

Sometimes the local people would hear about someone holy, conclude that that person was a saint, and begin praying to them. That's why the Buddha is an 8th century Southern Italian saint.

Sometimes the local people would hear a really neat story, not understand it was fictional, and begin treating one of the characters as a Saint. This was why later research made the church very wary about the wildly popular St. Christopher.

Sometimes people would misinterpret historical tales or ancient images. Thus the woman martyr everyone thought was a patron of bakers because she was holding bread was later discovered to be holding her own severed breasts.

And mistakes go the other way, too. St. Bridget and St. Scholastica may be purely mythical, male saints often have less documented female counterparts, but they generally don't have the pagan connatations later scholars see them as possessing.

But the most common, and cool, method is for someone special to come along and just start motivating or inspiring people. Very often these guys are far wierder and more interesting than myth normally deals with.

Any of these 'methods' to Sainthood illustrate a very interesting route for magic from the Flowering to become inculcated in the local culture.

Sainthood was mostly a local thing until late in the middle ages and the primary methods of proof were that people believed, that miracles had been performed, and the Devil's Advocate couldn't come up with proof that the person had been bad or a non-believer.

On the other hand, the locality means that someone who is holy in one place is a heretic in another, and all of this while everyone belongs to the same church.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Re: Meep and Monks

Be careful of thinking of Saints as simply people who got the local pagan traditions transferred to them. Ala, St. George. While that is something that regularly happens, there are a lot of saints and there is a lot of variety.

Allow me to clarify. I wasn't saying "saints, who were mostly conversions of local myth." I was saying "saints-who-demonstrated-power-over-nature, who were mostly conversions of local myth." And it was often quite a bit more complicated than that, with myth combining with tales of actual churchmens' exploits (ala St. Patrick), etc.

Before I emptied out my brain and repacked it in college, I knew quite a bit about various saints (7 years in Catholic school will do that to you).

You make good points about monastic viewpoints. Perhpas I need to do a rewrite....

 

[seasong]

Just some revising and thinking .

Some Reference Links
Costumes
Useful links

1332 AD

A century before, the Children's Crusade, the Magna Carta and the Inquisition. A generation before, the Cathedral at Chartres was completed in France.

Two years ago, King Edward came to power, after imprisoning his mother (it should be noted: his mother's lover was his father's murderer). His mother gave him some small claim to the French throne, which was to be his primary excuse for the Hundred Years' War.

Currently, English and France are largely dominant, and gearing up for the Hundred Years' War with each other (although it has not officially started yet). The first rumblings of the Renaissance can be heard in a burgeoning merchant class and urban economy. The first few canons are in use, although they will continue to be rare well into 1350. And the Black Plague is a mere generation away, locked in away in a flea somewhere.

In our Earth, this was a period when evil dominated. The climate shifted to be dramatically colder (this was the Little Ice Age), and everything that could go wrong, from plagues to famine to fires, did.

In this Earth, however, this is the year of the Flowering.

The Basic Idea
It has been twice 666 years since the death of Christ. It is the dawn of the third day by the reckoning of angels.

For twice 666 years since the death of Christ, God hath hidden His Light from the world in mourning, and the world wept in vile darkness as corrupt priests made mockery of His Word and worshipped base metals and soft luxuries. And each such period was a day as measured by angels, and so for two days God mourned and concealed His Light.

But at the dawn of the third such day, in remembrance of the Resurrection and in forgiveness of the sins of Man, God took back His concealing Hand, and let His Light shine through to the world again, and Man, in vile darkness for centuries, was bathed in His glory.

Priests, Clerics, Paladins
The priests of flock and field, who stood among the people and thus suffered for their virtue beneath corrupt superiors, hath risen up as one and knew the Word of God, and from their mouths the Word doth spill gloriously as spoken sacramanet and miracles doth abound and the people rise up with the priests and bear God's wrath upon the very doors of the Church against corrupt and evil priests, and replace all therein.

In the service of God one can find the militant orders (clerics), men of the cloth (priests; maybe sorcerors with spheres instead of schools) and holy knights (paladins, of course). All of these do fight in God's Name to reform the Church and replace its dark corruptors.

Sorcerors
From Canis: "Diluted over the centuries and unfed by God's Light, the blood of the Nephilim lingered still in the hearts of some few men. Basking in the return of the Light, their blood awakened, bringing with it the power of their forebears, though greatly reduced in scope. The distant children of the Fallen, be they king or peasant, merchant or soldier, Christian or heathen, felt the stirring in their blood at the Flowering. Over some years, they learned to focus their will, and bring ever greater manifestations of the power of Azael back into the world of men."

In addition to the children of the Nephilim, the blood of the House of David ran through the royal line, and the King (and many of those with his blood) also manifested sorcerous powers. And lo, the King's children were many, and scattered, and the children of the Nephilim began to attempt to conceal themselves among the children of David.

Psions

From Canis: "Just as the Flowering touched the hearts of the children of the Nephilim, so did it touch the hearts of all men. Far away from the influence of the Church, in the Empires of the East, lived men who, through ascetic practices and meditation, were in Harmony with the Divine. These men felt the stirring of their hearts as other men did not, and sought deeper, to where the Light of the Flowering rebounded from the Light in their own souls. The most disciplined among them were able to reach into that Light, and draw it out of themselves into the world. And with it, they could perform wonders."

"And to the West, even as the Faithful tore down the idols of a Church corrupted, there were those who contemplated the Divine. Some who were Brothers to the Faithful were not men made to rail against the corruption of the Church, nor to guide a flock of God's people. These men lived a simple life, and bent their minds to the touch of the Divine on their souls. Subtler perhaps did the Flowering touch these men than their Brothers among the Faithful. Subtler, but no less profound. For as time passed, the resonance of their souls to the Flowering was made manifest. And much as their spiritual counterparts in the East, they drew the Divine out of themselves to perform miracles."

Druids

Post will be editted with this tomorrow morning .

Major Possible Events

This is just a collection of adventure seed ideas, as well as some possible "flava" events in the background.

A Cabal of wizards forms quietly in the background. PCs could discover them, be asked to investigate strange lights in the academic quarter of a large town, or be members trying to learn the new methodologies with witch-hunters breathing down their backs.

The most high of the priestly orders, the Popes and Bishops, are wielding strange powers of their own... but signs indicate that these may be powers from the Devil!

(And/Or... John XXII is discovered in hiding far in Italy, where he is attempting to roust & rebuild the survivors of the Knights Templar (destroyed by his predecessor, Clement V). And the Pope leading the Church with his dark powers...? Uh, that's not the Pope.)

The King of England has sided with the "priests of flock and field", and is aiding them in their war against their own Church. His divinely granted gifts, shared by his sons and daughters, will prove fair menace to the corrupt ministers of the Church.

Or... The King of France has sided with the papacy, and declared the priesthood's civil war to be a blight in God's eyes... and he's got the power to prove it! Dozens of "flock & field" warriors have been decimated by massive gouts of fire from Heaven. Is the Church in the right after all? In France, the heart of the papacy, at least, it would seem so!

The Nephilim are at large! (Literally ) Indeed, they have taken advantage of the general chaos to forge their own political faction, with the intent of guiding humanity, once and for all, down the path they feel is righteous... which primarily means Nephilim at top, humanity at bottom.