The Church of Fendal

The Church of Fendal was a religious institution which was instrumental in the formation and rule of the Kingdom of Ennoheld during the Third Age. It is centered around the worship of the Archaeid Fendal, who is seen by the religion as a righteous but benevolent God and a patron to those experiencing hardship and adversity. Followers are expected to believe in a sacred text called the Scrolls of Fendal, which detail the legend of the founding of the church, as well as a series of laws to which Fendal expects his worshipers to adhere.

Beginnings of the Church
The Scrolls of Fendal tell a story about the founding of the church. Though some details are unproven, it is believed that the main events happened in some form or another during the fifteenth century LE.

According to the Scrolls, Fendal founded this religion himself in 1410 LE, by spending a summer performing deeds of goodwill across the region of Ennoheld. He then came to a young boy named Dalian and his seven sisters in the village of Hayfah in the eastern Naghreb Desert. He gave them cartloads of gold and told them to build a monument to him. Dalian took his seven sisters north into the Ovatian Mountains, gold in tow, and found a place in the canyons to build a great church.

They had no tools, however, to create what Dalian had in mind. Fendal came to them and told them that he would take the soul of their youngest sister, Ulaya, and they would use her bones to build it. She was lit on fire and her flesh burned away. Among the ashes, her siblings found the bones had been made into metal tools for them to use to build the church themselves.

They then spent months without food and water carving the curch out of the rocks in the valley. When they had finished, Dalian told them that they needed to cover the entire church in the gold they had brought with them. However, they had no fire to melt the gold, and no tools with which to shape it. Again, Fendal came to them with a solution. He would take the sould of the next youngest sister, Aqmola, and use her bones as tools to shape the gold. He burned away Aqmola's flesh just as he had Ulaya's, and the siblings took up her bones, which were now metallurgy tools.

Fendal then took the soul of the next youngest sister, Basira, and lit her body up in the same fire. This fire, however, burned for days, and with its heat and the new tools, the remaining siblings shaped the gold and covered the church entirely with ornate gold decorations.

Then, Dalian spoke again, telling his sisters that they were to follow all of the laws of their god Fendal. Their god then came to them and told them that he would take the souls of the next two youngest sisters, Rana and Nadya. Rana's body would be burned away into parchment, and Nadya's flesh would be burned away so that the siblings could use her bones as charcoal with which to transcribe Fendal's laws.

The remaining three siblings then took their scrolls and traveled to Ulen, the great city in the center of the Naghreb Desert. Once there, they came to Ukkun, the King of Ulen, and gave him the scrolls. Dalian told him to travel to their Golden Church to worship their god. When Ukkun refused and attempted to have the three arrested, Fendal once again came to their aid. He burned up the bodies of the two last sisters, Shadya and Kisma, and took their souls. Then, Dalian took up their bones, which were now a sword and a shield, and killed Ukkun's guards. When the King saw this, he believed Dalian, and traveled to the Church himself.

Upon his return, King Ukkun ordered all of his subjects to convert to the worship of Fendal. With the power of this new god on his side, Ukkun was able to unite the other, smaller kingdoms within the region under his rule, and most of the people of Ennoheld became followers of the Church of Fendal.