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Chapter 104: A Gamble for the Empire, Deciding the Holy War

Religion is the art of shaping human beliefs and emotions. Aside from true "divine incarnation," the main methods to make people believe in a religion come from "divine authority" and "doctrine." "Divine authority" determines whether a god gains belief, while "doctrine" determines the religion's influence among mortals.

"Divine authority" requires that the worshiped god controls things that the believers need or fear. For example, orcs believe in the War God, elves believe in the Nature Goddess, and in a previous era, Buddhism spoke of "karma" and "reincarnation," while Taoism spoke of "immortality," all of which are closely related to the needs of the believers. Emperors claimed to be reincarnated dragons, valuing the dragon's ability to control the weather. However, the human belief in the Light God is quite different. It is no longer possible to determine why the "Eternal Prophet" chose the Light God as the deity to liberate humanity. Nowadays, humans have elevated this god, who rules over light, to an all-encompassing deity. Things that belong to the Earth Goddess's order, the Nature Goddess's life, the Justice of the Fate God, and the victories of the War God have all been attributed to the Light God. This has created a critical flaw—what happens when the Light God fails to provide these blessings to his followers? For nearly a thousand years, the Radiant Temple has used various methods to compensate for this deficiency. It is said that they even excavated ancient gnome ruins and utilized certain "artificial deity" technologies to enhance the healing powers of Light God miracles. However, when the Radiant Temple's forces were completely routed by the orc armies, the underlying issue could no longer be hidden. "Why didn't the Light God protect us?" "Why did the beloved humans fail?" These questions were particularly devastating to devout human believers, especially when I revealed the "Dragon Knight" and "Crystal Dragon," both of which had been touted as divine miracles granted by the Light God to humanity.

In other words, the "divine authority" of the Light God has begun to waver. The appearance of fanatical believers who cause chaos and fearlessly sacrifice themselves can be seen as a form of madness to escape the truth.

As for "doctrine," it is the foundation for a religion's support among the populace. In reality, it has no direct connection to the divine. What truly matters is whether it aligns with the local populace's needs. For example, in a previous era, an esoteric sect had a rule requiring followers to abstain from alcohol and eat vegetarian food. If followers adhered to this, their daily expenses would decrease significantly, leading to a more prosperous life after a few years. The followers, unaware of the true reason, would attribute their prosperity to the blessings of a demon and thus become even more devout. However, it is said that in the distant western regions, the main sect of this mystic cult did not have such restrictions on alcohol and meat because in cold climates, abstaining from these could lead to illness or even death. Therefore, doctrines are entirely crafted to align with the needs of the people. The usual commandments such as not killing, not lying, and not engaging in lewd behavior are all designed with this in mind. The same applies in this world. The War God's doctrine is closely integrated with orc societal morals, and the Nature Goddess's commandments are only willingly followed by elves. The so-called Five Laws and Eighteen Precepts of the Light God are also designed for humans, containing implicit content that upholds noble rule and societal laws. However, the overt doctrine is as fair, bright, kind, and selfless as possible.

As human armies retreated south, the influence of the Radiant Temple also withdrew, leaving a significant power vacuum. Seizing this religious authority wouldn't be difficult, but such things can't be rushed, or it might provoke human resistance. Therefore, I didn't immediately reveal the new church. Instead, I distributed land to humans and quietly spread rumors to manipulate public sentiment.

In the myth fabricated by the "Eternal Prophet," humans were said to be the most beloved creations of the gods but were punished for 100,000 years for committing a great crime. Then, the Light God gave the "Eternal Prophet" a divine revelation to lead humanity to reclaim the dominion of the land. Unfortunately, the "Eternal Prophet" did not know that the decisive power leading to humanity's golden age was the cursed "forbidden spell" by the gods. The Earth Goddess directly intervened with "divine punishment," executing the "Twelve Sages," who were the greatest contributors to humanity's unification of the Mainland. This event has always been an issue the Radiant Temple could not explain and has consistently avoided.

Shortly after the orc invasion of the human world, a rumor began to spread among humans: "Because humans relied on the power of the forbidden spell, cursed by both gods and demons, to seize dominion of the land, they have once again lost the favor of the gods. However, since humans had already fought for 400 years to reclaim the Mainland's hegemony before the Twelve Sages first cast the forbidden spell, the gods still allowed humans to dominate the Mainland for those 400 years as compensation. Afterward, humans will become vassals and slaves to other races, forever enduring the torment of fate."

This rumor, of course, was fabricated by me. For now, it cannot influence too many humans, but once the decisive battle on the Golden Great Plains concludes and the orcs achieve victory, the destructive power of this rumor will greatly increase. Of course, mere despair cannot drive humans to submit, but at that time, Jin Luosha will appear as an emissary of the Light God, preaching the doctrines I adapted from a previous life's Buddhism. She will tell humans that to atone for the sins of their forefathers, they must endure hardships, abstain from killing, continuously perform good deeds, and only then will their souls be forgiven by the gods and ascend to heaven after death.

The Radiant Temple has divine artifacts, and Jin Luosha possesses the "Scarab," which, although different in power, may not be less incendiary.

My forces' rapid defeat of the sacred Os's national army far exceeded the expectations of both sides in the war. Previously, both sides expected a long stalemate between me and the humans. What surprised both sides even more was the appearance of three "Crystal Dragons" in my forces. Regardless of the advanced alchemy of Fontainebleau represented by these ultimate artificial beasts, or the significance of the 200 "Dragon Golems" falling into my hands, the sheer power of these three ultimate artificial beasts was enough to change the balance of power in the decisive battle. The Orc Alliance had originally planned to use seven War Beamon to counter human "Crystal Dragons," but now they could be deployed elsewhere to inflict significant damage on the humans.