The Church of Gov’s beliefs are based on their holy texts: The Audits and The Accounts. The Accounts are supposedly first-hand stories that tell the tale of how the world came to be as it is, while The Audits are critical examinations and interviews with people who lived through the Emergency and its aftermath, carried out and recorded by the first founders of the Church. The first three Columns of the Accounts lay out the basic beliefs of the Church of Gov:
THE ACCOUNTS, BOOK 1, COLUMN 1
Once, there were a hundred gods, and the world was good and pure.
Then came the Emergency, and the death of the gods, and the end of the world.
Veliko, god of food, drink, and revelry, was the first to see the Emergency. He tried to warn the others, but the pantheon did not heed him. Who would take seriously the god of excess and indulgence when he ranted about the end of all things?
When the gods began to die, Veliko proposed a plan so outlandish that he was nearly banished. His plan was to merge all of the living gods together into a single deity, powerful enough to save the world and the beloved creatures who lived upon it.
The first to agree to Veliko’s mad scheme was Gashram, the god of toil, commerce, and order. It was an unlikely pairing, as she and Veliko were never on good terms, but Gashram was swift to understand that this merger was the only way to preserve what order still survived.
Dozens of gods died before Ongzuo, god of building, crafts, and birth, joined Veliko and Gashram. They could not bear the thought of seeing all that people had created fall to ruin, and so they willingly gave themselves to the merge.
Even with the strength of all three combined, the Emergency could not be stopped. Very few gods remained alive, but still they clung to their independence.
All seemed lost, until the strangest ally of all came forward: Yterar, god of destruction, death, and change. They came full of fire and fury, enraged at the invasion of their domain. The Emergency threatened Yterar’s purview, and that could not stand.
The four joined into one, known as GOV, and their strength was enough to hold the Emergency.
Each god became a facet of Gov’s being, though not all facets were equal: the strain of violence and battle proved too much for gentle Veliko, and his influence all but vanished from the new god. Yterar’s fury nearly burned them out in the conflict, and death’s power weakened. The world survived, though changed forever, and Gov erased the memory of a better life from the minds of all people in the hopes of giving them the strength to face the difficult road to rebirth.
THE ACCOUNTS, BOOK 1, COLUMN 2
The world was dark in the wake of the Emergency, and so Gov removed their heart and put it in the sky, to give life to the people and plants below.
The world was dry in the wake of the Emergency, and so Gov removed their bladder and buried it beneath the ground, to bring water and fertility to the land.
The world was fragile in the wake of the Emergency, and so Gov removed their ribs to reinforce the earth, and their right hand to hold up the sky.
The world was still in the wake of the Emergency, and so Gov removed their left lung to power the winds and lift the clouds.
The world was dangerous in the wake of the Emergency, and so Gov removed their eyes and placed them in the night sky, to watch over their people and light their way.
All Gov asked in return was devotion: toil, to prove that people deserved this sacrifice; crafts, to build new wonders and shrines to Gov; commerce, to fuel innovation and progress; and worship, in the ways that Gov requires.
THE ACCOUNTS, BOOK 1, COLUMN 3
All surviving life owes a tremendous debt to Gov.
That debt if piety cannot be repaid by any one person, or in any one lifetime– and the interest mounts with each passing year.
And so, the soul of each person who survived the Emergency must spend their entire existence devoted to Gov. Your soul is embodied, lives in service to Gov, dies, and awaits their next embodiment to begin the cycle anew.
Live piously and productively, children of Gov: the more you do, the more interest and principal you pay to our saviour, and the better your soul’s next embodiment shall be. But of course, know that the opposite is also true: living outside the covenant or defying the Church shall increase your debt, and a truly vile life may even increase your soul’s interest rate.
Whenever possible, serve the Church directly: if you earn a position in the Church, the Bureau, or the Evangelical Order, you shall multiply the positive balance you accrue during your life, and a truly pious life may even lower your soul’s interest rate.
Though not all souls may so serve the Church in every cycle, all lives lived according to the covenant help pay down the interest, and may even touch the principal– if that life is particularly principled.
Some day, the debt will be repaid, and Gov will return to their full power.
The world will be stronger and more fertile once again. When Gov is completely restored, the souls shall be released, and finally able to move on to the next plane. New souls may be created at last.
Until that day, we must keep the population strictly in check, with souls to spare. If all souls were embodied at once, and a new person born, the barrier would break and the Emergency would be released once more.