An Angel Called Eternity

Lore Chapter: The Church of the Saint

Oh, hello! I don't believe we've been introduced to each other properly.
Yep, I'm the priest on our little outing. Well, presbyter actually, but most care little for the difference.
Ah, so you wish for me to tell you of the church?
The New Church specifically, or the Old as well?
Both?
That's fine by me, of course!
Well, where would you like me to start? Truly? As if you had never been...
Ah, there is no shame in that! I understand that even for noble sons, the prospect of sitting through hours of lectures about faith in stuffy rooms is a boring one, let alone the one-sided nature of the lessons!
Mayhaps a lighter conversation in the fresh mountain air will be better for your learning?
Yes? Excellent! Well, no time like the present, right?

Okay. The faith as a whole is known as the Agiathos in High-Klironomean, which serves as the official language of the church. It is the single largest religion in the known world, with followers ranging as far as the tundras and forests north of the Aenir and as far south as the Aleman Hinterlands. The origin of the church, which I'll start our impromptu lesson with, is one of the only things every single one of the myriad branches of the church agree upon:
The story goes that once, long ago, our world was sundered in an era of what seemed to be unending darkness. Great monsters preyed on the world of men, creatures the likes of which even the dragons and umbra paled in comparison to. The unrelenting tide of darkness threatened to topple the order of man, and return our kind to the dust.

Fittingly, it is known as the Age of Silence, for there is little to nothing left from that time to inform us of what truly transpired then.

But what we do know is that from this age of unremitting strife arose a figure of hope and salvation. He was no god, no false idol; he was a man, as pure and true as any who have lived. It was he who united the disparate pagan tribes and nations under the banner of mankind, sundering the darkness and bringing back the light.
And for his most holy and pious actions, the pagans he had saved hanged him by the neck, for he is said to have rejected their gods and idols. When his mother spoke out in grief they crucified her, and even with her dying breath she begged her departed son to forgive them, so pure was her heart.
The faithful did not forget. They revered their hero, and his blessed mother, and called him the First Saint. He ascended to the heavens upon his death, and whilst no god watched over mankind one was never needed, for there was now the greatest of all men to watch over the world.

Of course, that is the New Church's, or Alithini Agiathos', view of events. Well, the New Church and the minor sects derived from it, I suppose.

Oh, of course! I've been well educated in the beliefs of every sect of the faith, be it New or Old, major or minor.
Why, certainly! I'd be most happy to tell you about all of them!
You will tell me if you get bored of me talking, won't you?

The Old Church, or Ybridica Agiathos, shares much the same story as the New, but with a few key differences. The Old Church follows the belief that seven Angels granted the First Saint their blessings, and bore him to the heavens to rule as their sovereign for eternity.
Now, for historical context, this retelling of events was first brought about in a mainstream fashion when Saint Arwald hybridised the faith of the old Klironomeans with the pagan religions of the Skraelings, though there are some records stating that loosely associated groups held a rough approximation of these beliefs for quite some time before it became an official branch of the faith.

Of course, there are organisational differences between the two, as well as the practices they engage in, but for the most part the Old and New churches have become one and the same in Klironomea over the last thousand years.
Yes, I must admit that such a retelling, with Angels and blessings and the like, captures the imagination of the listener far better than the New Church's version does, though I also believe that the story of human cooperation, forgiveness, and overcoming the odds hold far greater moral value when pinned on the innate good within our fellow man, and not otherworldly creatures assisting us.
Even so, I will not attempt to refute the Angel's positions in the church, even if my kind do not believe in them. They have become so intertwined with Klironomean culture that even many here who purport to be followers of the New Church still pray to them and believe in their existence.
So yes, in short the main difference between the Old and New churches are the inclusion of the Seven Angels in the Pantheon of Saints.
It may seem a trifling thing, but within priestly-circles it is a huge difference.
After all, if the First Saint needed to be helped by divine beings, then he was merely a normal man, as flawed as anyone else.
If he did not require aid, then he must have been a truly infallible and mighty hero indeed.
See where the disputes might come from now?