
     The following is a brief history of the Church.  It includes both
official  and  unofficial  facts, although this does not mean that the
religious doctrines described are actually true.  It is  the  sort  of
timeline  that  a  high-level  Church  official  or Dogmist Monk would
create.


c.0 AD (After Descent)
            Dawn of civilization.  Uhman descends  from  the  heavens,
            establishes  order  among  chaos and creates the Universe,
            and, not incidentally, the Church.


1-572 AD    Period of growth in the Church and the  world.   Tentative
            exploration beyond the borders of the initial papal nation
            eventually expands known civilization beyond  the  ability
            of  the Church and empire to effectively govern.  Cultures
            begin to fragment according to geography, and  the  empire
            turns towards anarchy.


573 AD      Pope Nero II declares the lands to  the  Northwest,  East,
            and  South  unholy lands of darkness and chaos and forbids
            further exploration.  He divides the empire into the  Four
            Cathedrals,  each  governed  in  spiritual  matters  by  a
            Patriarch, who owes alliegience to the Pope himself.  Cul-
            tural  differences continue to increase, but central order
            is reestablished.


690 AD      Pope  Tyrius  III  divides  each  Cathedral  into  smaller
            economic  divisions,  which become independant states, and
            the first Uhmanite nations are born.  Church power  begins
            to wane as each Patriarch begins to act more autonomously.


711 AD      Pope Max assasinated; the Church loses all central leader-
            ship and fragments.


711-831 AD  The Blood Wars: the era of the Mad Patriarchs,  who  sanc-
            tioned  the  civil  wars  (under the auspices of religious
            purges) in attempts to further  one  state  over  another.
            The  entire  continent  is  plunged  into anarchy and war.
            Records and artifacts that  are  inconvenient  politically
            are  destroyed,  and  very little is known about this era.
            Nevertheless, mention of events connected to  this  period
            are  forbidden  under  Church  law,  and  only  the  upper
            echelons of the hierarchy and the Dogmist monks know  any-
            thing about this.  But there are rumours, and occasionally
            hidden evidence surfaces...

832 AD      Pope Milo the Great comes to power, reuniting  the  empire
            and  ending  the  Blood  Wars.   He  establishes permenant
            Church-sanctioned political boundaries for the first time,
            and  begins  the  withdrawal  of the Church as a political
            power.  The independant nations develop their own  systems
            of  government,  especially  in the outer areas, but still
            give at least nominal allegience to  the  central  Church.
            Milo is known today for restablishing order in the empire,
            but knowledge of his social and economic  reforms  can  be
            inconvenient politically, and is generally suppressed.

845 AD      The Terran monks are established as a missionary order  to
            carry  the Word of Uhman to distant lands.  Exploration is
            allowed for the first time in nearly four  centuries,  but
            only  with  the express consent of the Pope, and generally
            with a Terran as expedition leader.   Nonetheless,  oppor-
            tunistic merchants generally seemed to befriend such monks
            and trade began (slowly) to grow.

845-860 AD  Many different monastic orders are established, eventually
            becoming the Celestial and Devoutist monks.

875 AD      Pope Milo  assasinated.   Pope  Creedo  I  succeeds.   The
            Uhmanite  Church  attempts to reassert political power and
            is met with understandable resistence by the more powerful
            nations, leading to...

876-880 AD  The War of the Cross, in which certain of the more  devout
            nations  clash  with  their  independent  counterparts  to
            determine the fate of the Church.  Eventually,  an  uneasy
            truce is worked out in which the states accept an economic
            role to the Church's spiritual  control.   Dependant  upon
            its  client nations for money, the Church becomes a covert
            political power to protect its existence.   The  continent
            remains largely Uhmanite, however.

912 AD      The Dogmist monks are established as means of  controlling
            education and indoctrination in Church beliefs.  The order
            soon discovers that knowledge is  power,  and  establishes
            universities  throughout  the  continent  to  do research.
            Before the Church hierarchy realized  how  dangerous  this
            might  be, the order became too powerful to remove without
            some very important secrets becoming known.

950 AD      Pope Creedo III instigates the Inquisition to stem corrup-
            tion  in the empire (and essentially increase the Church's
            political postition), to the chagrin of many in the Church
            itself  (such  as  the  Celestial  monks)  and most of the
            states of the  empire.   However,  the  opponants  of  the
            Inquisition  were almost certain to be the first subjected
            to it, and faced with this  reality  all  the  states  did
            eventually accept it.


999 AD      Today.


