Western Holy Church ｢西方聖教会, seihō sei kyōkai｣ refers to the authority of the most widespread religion in the Western Nations, i.e. Luminous Faith ｢ルミナス教, ruminasu kyō｣. The Holy Empire of Lubelius is recognized as their Holy Land ｢聖地, seichi｣ and theocratic headquarters.
The Church is influential because it sends out troops that exterminate rampaging monsters in such regions where the local rulers either do not possess any stakes or any interests in them, or simply got no standing army left to deal with it.
Principles[]
The Church recognizes One God Luminous as their sole and absolute deity, not recognizing the existence of any other gods.
Their central dogma is that monsters are evil and should be exterminated, hence the existence of Temple Knights and Crusaders tasked with monster slaying. However, practitioners of other religions were not protected.
In truth, the central dogma only exists to unite their followers against a common threat, with Roy Valentin playing the strawman role as a Demon Lord.
History[]
The Western Holy Church was an organization formed to promote the Luminous Faith. 1,000 years ago, it was merely a lowly sub-group under the Holy Emperor's Ministry without a standing army of its own.
Faith alone could not ensure the safety of missionaries, hence the Holy Emperor’s Ministry made demands to the nations under their protection and formed the Temple Knights. The nations welcomed the idea of a Ministry-funded knight order, and so they agreed to assist. However, disputes began to emerge between Lubelius and other nations, thus the Holy Emperor's Imperial Guards were given the authority to command the Temple Knights.
During the present time, the Church has become much more powerful due to the addition of the Crusaders. Moreover, the role of archon in the Ministry, a position formerly held by the Clerics of the Seven Luminaries, is now given to a selected cardinal from the Church.
Trivia[]
- The Western Holy Church and Holy Empire of Lubelius is analogous to the Catholic Church and Vatican City in our world.