The Church

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	The Church
Original Name	教会
Affiliation	God of Precepts
Occupation/Role	Religious authority, civil power, military force, and administrator of faith across its territories
Status	Defeated by the Fictional Church; surviving nobles and other former powers continued to exploit its replacement's shortage of personnel 841
First Appearance	Chapter 2

Organization

Position / Body	Function
Pope	The Church's leader and intermediary between its Golden Breed hierarchy and Saints. A Pope can wield quasi-divine power and represent the god on the Material Plane. 802
Nexus Bishops	Thirteen bishops who, together with the Pope, form the Church's highest echelon. The Pope may only be selected from their ranks. 479
Saints	Divine representatives who answer directly to the gods rather than the Pope. They hold no formal office but possess authority comparable to, or exceeding, Curial Bishops. 480
Grand Commander	Holds most of the Church's military power and is effectively the practical leader of a region despite the Archbishop's administrative authority. 75
Golden Breeds	The highest local echelon on a Sky Whale; a Golden Breed divine official normally functions as its local ruler. 72
Paladins	The Church's principal combat class. They are responsible for conventional peak combat strength, while priests primarily provide spellcasting and production. 35 75
Priests	Clergy who cultivate through Meditation Techniques, nurture Holy Light, administer divine arts, and maintain contact with the Grid. 8 37
Black Masks	Secret troops acting on long-standing verbal commands rather than tangible orders or approvals. Rhine supervised their operations in Tail-Wagging Town. 168

Faith and Divine Systems

Power of Faith

The Church gathers faith through household shrines, which transmit it to church statues. Most of the accumulated Power of Faith is sent to the God of Precepts, while a residual amount remains within the statue. 9

• Churches can empower priests by allowing Holy Light and spells to draw on stored Power of Faith. 9 35
• Priestly spells cast near a church can become divine arts with far greater offensive and special effects. 35
• Steel Breed priests can sense the Grid directly, while Black Stone Breed priests generally require proximity to a church. 37
• Priests may use the Grid to seek God's gaze; sufficiently favored clergy can summon a Prayer-Ascendant Angel. 37
• Holy Chants can purify demonic remains and suppress demonic corruption. 7

Clergy Cultivation

Priests cultivate through Meditation Techniques, meditating on divine glory to nurture Holy Light in their spirits. Repeated use of Holy Light taxes mental will; elderly priests can develop physical lightification as their bodies fail to endure it. 8

• Black Stone Breed — Priests begin strengthening their senses through spiritual cultivation. 56
• Steel Breed — Priests gain rudimentary extraordinary perception and can directly sense the Grid in most locations. 37 56
• Golden Breed — Priests undergo progressive lightification; their bodies can eventually become quasi-elemental lifeforms. 350
• Light-Form Body — A completed Golden Breed lightification trait that removes physical weaknesses, leaving soul- and mind-targeting attacks as the meaningful means of killing the priest. 369

Baptisms

Rite	Advancement	Notes
Pilgrimage	Peak Black Stone Breed → Steel Breed	A minor Holy Power baptism. 142
Grand Rite	Peak Steel Breed → Golden Breed	A greater baptism historically used to regulate and incentivize clergy. The Church later withheld grand rites for a century while preparing for war against the Abyss. 142 520

The failure or suspension of baptismal benefits weakened the Church's control over its clergy, encouraging competition for wealth and cultivation resources. 142

Departments and Institutions

Department / Institution	Known Role
Evangelism Department	Handles evangelism and may temporarily mobilize guard-post personnel against demon auras and criminal threats. It can apply for deployment of Paladin squads in serious cases. 172
Redemption Department	Ostensibly handles treatment and redemption; it accumulated substantial donations and honors despite having few genuine patients. 128 135
Confession Department	Its members depend on persuading major criminals to repent, surrender, and donate wealth to the Church. 172
Judgment Squad	A Church enforcement body associated with the Governance Faction on the Azure Sky Whale. 171
Inquisition	A Church institution used for judgment and interrogation. 57
Archives	Stores clergy personal files, including positions, reports made through the Grid, and records of divine arts. 318
Church Prison	Holds prisoners restrained by devices such as Sin Nails; noble privilege enabled abuses of its release procedures. 23 220

Factions

The Church was divided by competing interests well before its open crises. Its internal disputes obstructed recruitment, investigations, and regional governance. 72 171

• Enclosure Faction — Favored local noble autonomy, bloodline privilege, and control of regional Church branches. It treated Whale Backs as enclosed territories and sought to limit contact with headquarters. 72
• Governance Faction — Sought greater centralization and attempted to use the Judgment Squad to establish influence on the Azure Sky Whale. Isabella believed its stated ideal of governing the world masked a desire to centralize power. 171
• Other named factions — The Return to Earth Faction and Expansionist Faction were among the numerous groups within the Church. 72

Doctrine and Social Order

The Church of Precepts emphasized order, an interpretation under which a person's social identity was treated as fixed from birth: priests produced priests, nobles produced nobles, and no one was meant to overstep their assigned station. 235

This doctrine reinforced the alliance between the Church and the nobility. The Church stood above society as both a mechanism for collecting faith and resources, while noble houses systematically oppressed ordinary people in exchange for status and strength. 797

Corruption and Secret Projects

The Church's authority was repeatedly compromised by noble privilege, financial extraction, covert operations, and forbidden research.

• The Old Priest continued the Bloodline Experiment with Church approval, pursuing Holy Blood and Saint-adjacent subjects. 45 55
• The Son of God Project used Saint bloodlines to create exceptionally talented subjects, though many died young or suffered mental flaws. 154
• Church personnel had historically cooperated with Demons, concealed crimes through illusions, and used false achievements to obtain important positions. 188 198
• The Redemption Department's wealth was partly transferred away by Bishop Rhine under the pretext of maintaining Church operations. 135
• Noble families could use seals and intermediaries to remove prisoners illegally from Church custody. 220
• Naimus cultivated a network of Church members who secretly pledged themselves to him and later assisted his operations from within. 225

Church Sites and Resources

• Church statues — Serve as reservoirs for locally accumulated Power of Faith. 9
• Holy relics — Churches may contain buried holy relics capable of releasing immense power in an emergency. 9
• Whale-fat stained-glass windows — Made from whale blubber panels, these retain sunlight and emit multicolored radiance at night. Whale-derived materials were monopolized and tightly controlled by the Church. 320
• Hall of Light — A sacred site lined with whale-fat panels steeped in holy power. Demons entering it could be purified without resistance, while grievous sinners could be moved toward repentance. 480
• Teleportation arrays — Closely guarded Church infrastructure; security around them was strengthened after Clement exploited an array in his schemes. 428

Major Events

Decline on the Azure Sky Whale

The God of Precepts' condition disrupted pilgrimages and grand rites, reducing the tangible benefits available to clergy. As cultivation resources became scarcer, the Church's authority and credibility declined, while internal competition intensified. 142

Naimus exploited this instability by directing smuggling profits back into the Church, funding Paladin training, guard posts, and local order. His actions earned him substantial support among clergy despite their illegality. 142 161

Exposure of Institutional Rot

Isabella's investigations uncovered problems across several departments, from the Redemption Department's financial misconduct to the Church prison's preferential treatment of nobles. She formally sought authorization to investigate corruption throughout the Church, beginning an open conflict with Naimus. 135 220 222

Abyss War

The Church of Precepts had prepared for war against the Abyss for more than a century and dispatched top experts into the Abyss four years before the later crisis. 390

After Naimus activated the Precept Divinity and became a false god, the awakened God of Precepts ordered the entire Church of Precepts to eradicate him. 802 The Church then launched a major assault, concentrating the Power of Faith from multiple Sky Whales into quasi-divine power for a godly war. 805

Defeat and Replacement

The Fictional Church defeated the Church of Precepts and assumed control of the Sky Whales. Its early rule was hindered by a shortage of personnel, which nobles, landowners, and merchant guilds exploited to seize wealth and resources. 841

Relationships

• God of Precepts — The Church's divine authority and source of its faith system, Grid, Saints, and Holy Power. The god's slumber severely weakened Church operations. 9 480
• Nobility — A mutually dependent social partner; noble bloodlines, privileges, and local control were deeply embedded in Church governance. 72 797
• Saints — Divine representatives who operate outside the normal administrative hierarchy and answer directly to the gods. 480
• Naimus — Former genius Paladin and later enemy of the Church. His infiltration, rise within its ranks, and eventual divine war against the God of Precepts exposed its institutional weaknesses. 288 802
• Fictional Protocol / Fictional Church — Rival organization founded around Naimus's influence; it defeated the Church of Precepts and took control of the Sky Whales. 524 841