Messalian Holy Order – The Euchite Riders
The Euchites or Messalians were a Christian sect from Mesopotamia they spread to Asia Minor and Thrace. The name ‘Messalian’ comes from the Syriac word "msallyana", meaning ‘one who prays’. The Greek translation is "euchites", meaning the same.
The sect’s teaching asserted that:
The essence (ousia) of the Trinity could be perceived by the carnal senses.
The Threefold God transformed himself into a single hypostasis (substance) in order to unite with the souls of the perfect.
God has taken different forms in order to reveal himself to the senses.
Only such sensible revelations of God confer perfection upon the Christian.
The state of perfection, freedom from the world and passion, is therefore attained solely by prayer, not through the church, baptism and or any of the sacraments, which have no effect on the passions or the influence of evil on the soul (hence their name, which means "Those who pray").
Messalians taught that once a person experienced the essence of God they were freed from moral obligations or ecclesiastical discipline. They had male and female teachers whom they honored more than the clergy, the "perfecti".The condemnation of the sect by St John Damascene and Timothy, priest of Constantinople, expressed the view that the sect espoused a sort of mystical materialism. Their critics also accused them of incest, cannibalism and "debauchery" (in Armenia their name came to mean "filthy") but scholars reject these claims.
=> A messalian holy order would seek to spread – depending on your playstyle of the messalian heresy as a vile disgusting satanic cult or a modern equal society – either their incestuous society and debauchery or equal treatment of women and ascetic lifestyle.
=> Thert name being derived from the greek word for the messalians -"euchites"- (with a long E sound in the end) would mean so much as the "praying riders" or the "riders who pray", and their devotion is to the faith alone and not to the clergy or any king or emperor.
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CONTENT:
-> The fictional holy order "Euchite Riders" for the messalian faith.
-> The Euchite Riders are an order of Assyrian culture.
-> They appear with persian map graphics.
-> Home of the order is the province of Rahbah in Mesopotamia (which is of Nestorian faith in most starting dates) so make sure to take back their rightful home from the Sunni!
-> The order is immediately available in all starting dates and doesn’t disappear, allowing you to holy war as your favourite Nestorian heresy whenever you wish.
-> The order is composed of cavalry (knights and horse archers) and does not sport any infantry. (I mean they are Euchite RIDERS after all…)
-> The order comes with a custom coat of arms (as seen in the preview images above)
OTHER:
-> The troop size of holy orders is tied to the moral authority of the faith. While I made the messalian order with a fairly strong troop composition to counteract the fact that it is the only order and that e.g. the christians have a much wider range of orders, you will only get <2.000 men in most starting dates, unless you make a custom ruler with a high rank (like an emperor) who raises the moral authority by himself being messalian.
FAQ-Answers:
-> Yes, the mod is savegame compatible.
-> Yes, it should be compatible with most mods since it only adds stuff and doesn’t change existing files. (An issue could be mods who change the holy order system, change the map because of the home province, replace cultures or replace religions)
-> I recommend using the Sons of Abraham DLC since they reworked some holy order stuff there as far as I know.
-> NO, THE MOD IS NOT IRONMAN COMPATIBLE – no achievements for crushing Europe with messalian fury… 🙁
Required DLC:
These DLC should be installed in order to use this item.
Crusader Kings II: Sons of Abraham
