Celestial+Chorus

=[|Celestial Chorus]=



[|Tradition Book Celestial Chorus]

The **Celestial Chorus** is a Tradition of [|mages] united by their efforts to touch the Divine as well as their belief in the One and Prime from which all things originate. Closely tied to the God of [|Abrahamic faiths], the One represents the source of all Creation and all Creation is believed to be a part of the One. Humans in particular carry shards of the divine within them, though it is known by many names: the divine flame, the soul, the [|avatar]. It is this connection which the Celestial Chorus believes enables them to clearly hear the One's song and to shape Creation. While their faith is essentially monotheistic, it is accepted that the Divine has many facets and can be expressed through any number of names, religions, and creeds. Members of many faiths and denominations (including a variety of [|soft polytheists]) come together in worship and service of the One, accepting that each person has their own path to the One. Of course, this ideal remains a work in progress and the Singers' history has been one of divisions and compromises, holy wars and martyrs, sacrifice and rejuvenation.

The First Age
Traditional Chorus teachings divide the history of Creation into four or five ages. The First Age, a period of time called the Shattering when the One's pure unity was broken, extends from the dawn of time to two centuries before the Christian Era. The Choristers believe their original members and greatest heroes lived and fought during this time; heroes of immeasurable faith and power called the First Singers who bear names such as Bhishma, Enoch, Gilgamesh, Zoroaster, Gunder, and Mithras (though it should be mentioned that there are multiple characters in the [|Classic World of Darkness] with those names). Almost nothing is known of them, but the Choristers believes they were among the first to confront the Dark Singers, the [|Nephandi], who from the beginning sought to destroy everything that had been made. Though perhaps beings of god-like power, the First Singers were mortal men and women with their own flaws and who eventually perished or were tempted into darkness. Still, Choristers remember them as the first to hear the call of the One and perform great works for humanity during a difficult beginning.

The Second Age
The first true gathering of Singers is attributed to a priest named Mentu-hetep, who promoted the worship of a single sun god in Egypt despite the scorn and wrath of his peers. It is said that after 40 days of wandering and fasting the One appeared to him, commanding him to gather the One's children that they might sing together in unity, a Celestial Chorus to guide the [|Sleepers]. Though blinded by the visitation, Mentu-hetep called to other Singers and with the aid of his pharaoh built a city for them called [|Akhenaten]. Though they called the One by different names, people from disparate lands and creeds gathered to take part in the Sacred Congregation. Of those that left, many went on to construct places of worship for the Choristers throughout the world. Responsibility for the destruction of Akhenaten is placed on other priests jealous of Mentu-hetep and Nephandi that aided them. Faith continued to spread around the world, however, through kings such as Solomon and nations like Rome. For many years the Chorus tied its power to that of the Roman Empire, though rivalries between cults such as the [|Messianic Voices] and the [|Sons of Mithras] divided Choristers until Constantine the Great himself embraced Christianity.

The Third Age
Over the centuries Christianity was codified and its power cemented, both through academic debate and at the tip of a sword. The Messianic Voices became a strong majority within the Chorus, resulting in many other faiths becoming marginalized. From this road the [|Cabal of Pure Thought] was born, which stressed a need for a unified doctrine over any tolerance of religious diversity. As the power of the Church rose in the Middle Ages so too did the Celestial Chorus, but the predominance of Christians within the Congregation created deeper schisms with other faiths. Many of the Chorus' greatest accomplishments were made during this time, but so too were many discarded in arrogance and ignorance. The Cabal of Pure Thought was removed from the Congregation shortly after the [|Albigensian Crusade], but that would mean little in the aftermath of the [|Inquisition] and the formation of the [|Order of Reason].

The Fourth Age
The [|Convention of the Ivory Tower] marked the beginning of the Celestial Chorus' slow descent. Warring with [|Hermetics] and [|Verbena], divided both over Christian theology and the place of other faiths, and losing many of their own to the flames of the Inquisition, the Congregation faltered. It was not until a man named Valoran, inspired by visions from the Archangel Gabriel, would the Singers have a leader capable of rejuvenating them. By [|1461] a unified face could be presented to the [|Council of Nine] under the name of the Chœur Céleste, having reconciled many of the differences that had divided factions and faiths for so long. Confrontations with the Order of Reason and Nephandi strengthened the Singers' resolve, though further divisions within the Church and awareness of the evil wrought by the Inquisition created new troubles. Ironically, during this time the Celestial Chorus' growing doctrine of acceptance and united faith made it somewhat heretical to the many religious orders of the time, but the true danger was in the steady removal of religion from the lives of people at the hands of the Order of Reason. Over the next several centuries the Choristers found their influence steadily weaker.