Church of the Creator
The Church of the Creator was established over a thousand years ago following a short period of political and religious strife known as the Reclamation. Various religions and sub-groups therein vied for power, and one by one were absorbed or destroyed by the monotheistic faith of the Nostors. The Reclamation would become a defining point in history, as the calendar still followed today counts its years in the time since with the annotation AR. With representatives in every village, town, and city, the Church of the Creator provides comfort and a sense of security to citizens all over the Empire. From its holy fortress of Nostors Keep, the Nostfather Sixtus IV oversees the operations of the massive organisation.
The Church has three sub-factions operating within it, the Nostors, the Hand, and the Tenders. The Nostors are the highest ranking officials within the Church, ranging from those who may run a single church up to the Nostfather himself. The Hand is the name given to the militant wing of the faith, holy Paladins and Clerics who patrol the roads of the Empire, keeping its citizens safe from Fadebeasts and bandits alike. The Hand also includes the Witchhunters, a group of inquisitors and investigators tasked with hunting and securing practitioners of magic, including children born with supernatural gifts. Tenders, the lowest ranking members of the church, are those working in administrative capacities or youth in training to join the ranks of either the Nostors or the Hand.
The Church's influence over the citizens of the Empire cannot be understated. In 1150AR, Sixtus IV rescinded the Amnesty Agreement of 1019, declaring magic and its use to be heresy, and established the Witchhunters within the Hand. While there was initial resistance to the idea of arresting children; the citizens of the Empire eventually fell into step, and now it's not uncommon for parents to report their own children for inspection following suspicious events. A steady decline in Fadebeast attacks has been credited to the aggressive anti-magic policy, however, critics of the Church will point to the massively increased number of Hand patrols over the years as the correlative cause for the decrease rather than the children they've been sent to arrest.
Apostasy vs Heresy
Despite having an official religion, the Empire of Aarden maintains a secular leadership and rule of law. The one area of life in the Empire in which the Church of the Creator is given complete control is that governing magic, its use, and combatting the Fade.
Apostasy, Atheism or Agnosticism are fairly common throughout the Empire, particularly in the larger capitals. There are those who believe there are scientific explanations for magic that we do not yet understand - and that its use by Religious practitioners is no different than that by the magi prior to the Breach. To the apostates, the act of "calling on a deity" before casting a spell lies somewhere between delusion and theatre. It's generally accepted that magic and those with the ability to wield it draw power from a dimension beyond our own, Apostates merely take it a step further and attribute that same source of power to those who would credit it to their faith in a God. They would argue that the lack of an explanation or definition does not mean that a specific omnipotent god-like being exists to grant the prayers of the faithful. If the Creator exists and is the benevolent being the Church claims it to be, then why did the Breach happen, what are Fade Beasts, and beyond that - disease, evil, suffering around the world - what benevolent Creator would allow these things to happen?
Heresy, however, is the illegal belief in a religion, god, or gods outside the Church of the Creator. Heresy is very rare, but there have been instances of smaller cults gaining traction in one place or another, claiming connections to new gods or spirits, or even worshipping the Fade or Breach itself.
In addition, magic practitioners have been branded Heretics, as well as children unfortunate enough to display magical abilities even beyond their control. This connection to magic has several dogmatic explanations, and if it cannot be severed (something easier to do when the person is younger), the Heretic is put to death.
The Tenets of Nostor
The Tenets of Nostor is the name of the Church of the Creator's central holy text. Many other books and studies have been written over the centuries, however, the millennium-old Tenets of Nostor remain the central focus of the religion. Written in simple point-form sentences, the Tenets of Nostor is one of the earliest examples of the written word in history.