Creeds

The Nicene Creed summarizes the essential beliefs of Christianity, and the creed is shared by the Catholic Church and most modern liturgical churches. Originally written in Greek by a full council of Bishops at Nicea, it is as follows:

'We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. AMEN.'

The underlined words are accepted only in Western churches, and represent a source of significant theological contention. If one were to dismantle the Nicene Creed, one could reconstruct a church very similar in intent to the Catholic Church, despite the similarity or dissimilarity of rituals, and the church would be instantly recognized by any Christian who entered it as Christian. Other important creeds to the christian faith are the Apostole's Creed and the Athanasian Creed, though the Athanasian has largely fallen into disuse.

Now, by writing such a creed, a belief-statement, we can effectively write an entire religion, and the behaviour of our priests will then depend on how we view the creed through the interpretive light of a single person.

A declaration of faith for the Cult of the Dreamer, then, might be as follows:

'I believe in the True God Sogna,
not of this world,
but of the next.
I believe in the Truth of the Dreaming,
the mortal Glimpse of the next world.
I believe in the Voice of Dreams,
the words the Lord of the Dreaming
I believe in the passage of man,
From the dreams of parents,
to the dreams of self,
to the Dreams of the Lord.
I belive in the illumination of dreams,
in the end of the dreams of the false ones,
in the bringing of the True Dreams.
I believe in the dreams of the Disciples,
through which all dreams may be Illuminated,
and through which this world may be brought into accordance with the next.
AMEN.'

Subject to deconstruction, our 'Dreamer's creed' establishes the following as tenets of the faith:
First, that there is only one god, Sogna, and that he is not to be seen as a part of the mortal world. Second, that Dreams are a view of the world of Sogna. Third, that Sogna may speak to mortal man by dreams. Fourth, that Dreams are the source, substance, and end of all life. Fifth, (and this makes the religion 'dangerous') that others must be shown the truths above. Sixth, that those Sogna speaks to are the ones whom have been chosen to perform the will of Sogna. In one chanted prayer, then, the tenets of faith are taught, and the church of this god is established.

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Yeah, so, uh, I love religion in games. It adds an entirely new level of life to a culture, a society, where their beliefs, hopes, dreams, and fears are encapsulated.