Terran Patriarchal Church

{| align="right" border="3" cellpadding="7" width="300" style="margin-left:0.5em;" !style="background:#c9c9c9" | Terran Catholic Church

Overview
The Terran Catholic Church, often referred to as the Deltarian Catholic Church, is the official and only legal religion in the Deltarian Empire. Founded in Deltaria in 2134 as an attempt at revitalising the abandoned concept of an infallable patriarch, it gained instant and overwhelming support from the lower classes, who were weary of the synods of arguing clergy and desired gospel handed to them as irrefutable fact. The Church spread to several foreign nations where it became quite popular, including Cobura and Alduria ; before reaching its zenith when the Pope Innocent I was named the Deltarian Head of State.

Support for Terran Catholicism dwindled as more and more Deltarian atrocities were linked directly to the Pope, alienating liberal supporters, and plunged when the female Pope Joan I, was coronated, alienating conservative supports. The final straw was the scandalous and apparantly truthful rumour that Pope Innocent I had impregnated Pope Joan I, his own sister, which alienated everyone but the Deltarian aristocracy. Pope Adrian I made inroads in creating a newer, more progressive church, but by this stage many other branches of Catholicism were available and the damage done to the Terran Church's credibility was irreversable.

Becoming nationally insular and xenophobic, the Church began pandering to the Deltarian people, integrating folk myths and traditions into the church, encouraging the worship of pre-Christian deities and pagan rituals, and international membership faded to a new low.

Pope Peter I
The first Deltarian Pope was initially a Tokundian serf from Doron Akigo, named Radoslav Volic, who declared himself the Supreme Pontiff of the Terran Catholic Church as a form of protest against both the Deltarian New Traditions Campaign and Absolver Personality Cults, as well as the strong climate of Anti-Tokundian sentiment in his native land. Declaring all previous Popes tenures to have been nullified by the institution of the High Synod, he declared himself Papez Petr I, and instantly became a local celebrity amongst the heavily Catholic population of the Povicskovo fief. His immense popularity brought him to the attention of his ruling Markiz within a month, and was summarily executed for treason.

Pope Pius I
Pope Pius was the first Pope to be elected with the approval of the Deltarian Government. The Absolvers realised that very few people genuinely revered them as the Gods they claimed to be, and Vojvoda Mojmir Bátory set about lobbying for the reinstatement the Catholic belief system in a nation largely comprised of lapsed Catholics. Approval was given by Absolver Black, and the rest of Aristocracy, and the New Traditions campaign was unofficially suspended. Mojmir Bátory accepted the offer of the Deltarian Papacy, and changed his name to Pius I. He was the shortest reigning Pope in the history of the Terran Catholic Church, being pronounced dead twenty-eight minutes after his coronation, during the drafting of his first set of Papal edicts.

Pope Pius II
Pius I's only son, L'ubomir Bátory was also the only witness to his fathers death. From his account, the late Pope was overcome with a fit of depression, and committed suicide by stabbing himself in the heart, face and throat, several dozen times. As he took his final breaths, his dying wish was that L'ubomir would inheret the Papacy, and continue the Bátory bloodline. L'ubomire reluctantly accepted, and after a 30-day period of national mourning, he was proclaimed Pope Pius II, in honour of his father. Pius II brought about many administrative changes in his edicts, declaring Castle Kachetovo in, Darali, to be the new Vatikan and Holy See. He excommunicated the High Synod, several of whom he recommunicated after displaying what he considered to be 'heartfelt penitance'. He served for eighteen years, before voluntarily abdicating the Papacy in favour of his archrival, Igor Nádašdy. In his retirement he married Barona Ivanka Nádašyova, his childhood sweetheart, and later died of natural causes. Eight months after his death he was made the first victim of the infamous Cadaver Synods.

Pope Innocent I
Jana's half-brother and father, Igor Nádašdy

Pope Jana I
Innocent's half-sister and daughter, Annamária Nádašdy

Early Years
Although there are few records that describe the earliest incarnations of the Catholic Church, historians generally believe that the Catholic Church of Terra was first founded in what is now modern-day Quanzar, fifteen to twenty years after the death of their prophet, Jesus Christ. The Church was thought to have been founded by the apostle, Peter, who was retrospectively given the title of Pope by the medieval Dorvikian Pope Clement XII, and later stripped of that title by the Deltarian Pope Peter I.

The Great Schism
schism between the Terran Catholic Church and the Catholic Church of Terra, presumably over the Catholic Church of Terra's progressiveness - perhaps a Martin Luther style affair, an argument over whether or not the Bible should be translated into langauges people could actually read

Abolition of the Papacy
During what are considered 'The Years of Enlightenment', the decision was made by high-ranking Church officials to abolish the Papacy, transferring the ultimate authority over all church rulings to an elected synod of archbishops and cardinals, from Catholic nations all over Terra. This was an extremely unpopular move amongst many of the devout Catholics ; who preferred a deified figurehead of divine authority to an elected boardroom of bishops squabbling over the word of God, which they found to be blasphemous and disenheartening. Despite this, the bishops held fast to uphold a democratic synod over the Church, even in the face of dwindling church attendance and membership rates.

Deltarian Revival
Deltarian revival of the unpopular Terran Catholic Church

Order of Sacrifice and Pain
The Order of Sacrifice and Pain was established to take part in Crusade against Beiteynu. The mission of Order transformed and today it is to promote Terran Catholic Church across the Terra.