Luminarian Shift to Religion (Lorica)

The Luminarian Shift to Religion
With the gradual winding down of technological progress, the mage-priests shifted toward emphasizing religion. The "light" of Luminarism they co-opted, and changed its meaning to being at one with the beliefs the mage-priests promulgated, instead of the knowledge and understanding that it used to represent. In their jealousy, the mage-priests were unwilling to share their secrets with the masses, and so luminars gradually changed from emphasizing scientific discovery to emphasizing the scripture and lore of Luminarism. and reinforcing the notion that the mage-priests were the gods' lieutenants in this world and that they must be obeyed. Much of the lore of early Luminarism, focused on curiosity and invention, was unsuitable for the mage-priests' purposes, so they conspired to create a new holy text, filled with calculated lies, one emphasizing the divinely ordained role of the mage-priests, and the need for utter obediance to the will of the gods, as uttered by the mage-priests. Having already established magical power, great influence over the militaries of the luminances, and priestly title, the priesthood had little to stand in their way. Copies of their false text spread throughout the world and thereafter generation after generation grew up brainwashed by the false religion.

The old mage-priests eventually died out, to be replaced by mage-priests who had little inkling of the glorious days of early Luminarism. Though the mage-priests founded a hermetical Ordera Verita, or Order of Truths, in 913 AL to preserve the truth of what Luminarism once stood for, they were increasingly marginalized by the newcomers who, having grown up learning falsehood, did not recognize the truth when they saw it. The adherents of the Ordera Verita were all but wiped out in 940 AL, by their fellow mage-priests, leaving behind only traces, whispers of the past.