Eden's Gate

The Project Church of Eden's Gate, aka Eden's Gate, is doomsday cult and the state religion of the Kingdom of Agamor. At it's highest point, during Rise of Agamor, it had thirteen billion members.

Leaders
Eden's Gate is led by King Aaron of Agamor, aka "The Father" and "The Prophet". It was co-founded by Vicar Amelia, Terris and Oliver. Queen Kia and Princess Hope serve as "Mother" and "Daughter", which are mostly just relegated to attending rallies and giving speeches.

Aaron is seen as God's Last Prophet and the metaphorical "Father" of his Flock, who he dubs his "Children". Aaron is worshiped as a God by his followers, despite Aaron technically being second to God. Aaron also drafted up many of their rules and wrote their holy text "The Prophet's Word."

Stories in Agamor about Aaron range from exaggerated to downright impossible. Some stories claim Aaron is an Angel or even a demigod, whilst others simply say he was a man blessed by God. Stories have placed him as one of Jesus’s disciples, a follower of Moses and Joshua, and being a slave in Egypt. Stories say he rolled away the stone on Jesus’s tomb, that he parted the Red Sea, cured blind people alongside Jesus, and marched with the Jews around Jericho. All of these are of course, untrue, but it goes to show how enthralled the followers of Aaron are with him.

While not the original intention of the Church, members of the faith have grown to worship Aaron, as he speaks for God, and as such, is seen as holy. Aaron’s role is a mix between a Catholic Pope and a cult leader, as people worship him and pray to him and his family as a transient to God, as members believe God only speaks to Aaron and his clergy.

Rules & Attire
Eden's Gate follower members wear a tan, hay colored shirt with a red Agamorian cross, black pants and carry rifles. Specialized or higher ranking members wear different coloring or carry different weapons.

Men are allowed to have beards or be clean shaven, but they are forbidden from being bald. Women can have long or short hair, but cannot be bald. All members must have religious tattoos and carry at least one weapon.

Both men and women serve in the military. However, in civilian life, members are given roles to serve. Men are the hard workers, doing physical labor. Women care for the young and do less difficult work, like tending to the gardens, guard patrol, or cleaning. Men and women are encouraged to be married and bring at least two children into the cult.

The cult is strict on marriage, strictly banning polygamy and gay marriage. Any member caught in these participates is given the mark of paganism, the worst of their Twelve Deadly Sins and is often tortured to death.

Beliefs
Members of Eden's Gate belief that society has rotten and that God have decided to destroy the world because of this. From Aaron's teachings, they belief that God warned them that he is planning to destroy the world in an "Eternal Collapse" and that if they convert, they will get to survive. Their belief system says that after building a bunker with enough supplies to wait out seven years of the Collapse, God will send Eden's Angels to lead them to a resurrected "New Eden", where they will live in eternal paradise.

Members don’t believe in heaven, or more accurately, believe it to be spoiled, as the PW claims that Adam and Eden were mistakenly let into Heaven despite failing repeatedly and cursing humanity due to God’s quote “unnecessarily and overly rampant forgiveness.” They claim God let in too many sinners and thus, Heaven was spoiled long ago. However, Eden hasn’t allowed any humans in since Adam and Eve, and as such, members believe Eden to be pure and clean.

Their Holy Trinity is also different than others:

God

The Holy Spirit/Angel of Death

The Father aka Aaron

Members of the Church believe that it is better to be subservient to the Father, than be a free person who worships God. Lyrics of their worship songs refer to being free of sin and instead wearing the shackles of worship.

Amazing Grace”, one of the most beloved Agamorian worship songs, refers to Aaron instead of God when used in their faith.

All members of the faith are required to serve and fight in their Holy Wars, unless they have a specific exclusion, like being a minister or a member of the clergy, are disabled in a crippling way but are still useful in some way, or have a personal pardon from Aaron.

Those who are crippled and not useful to the cult in some way are seen weak, and are unwelcome in the cult.

The Prophet's Word
The Prophet’s Word is exactly two hundred pages long, with over a thousand verses. Aaron wrote it himself in the span of two weeks, relaying it like a journal over the times he claimed he was spoken to by God and written like a set of guidelines.

The Prophet’s Word says that after Adam and Eve were thrown out of Eden, it collapsed in on itself and has disappeared. Lore and the Prophet’s Word says that after the bombs, which are said to come from heaven, detonate, they will wipe out all life on the planet. Agmaorians, who have a gene in their skin that protects them from nuclear radiation, for the most part, will be spared immediate death from exposure, but must hide from the extreme amounts in the air till it dissipates, which it will in seven years or so. After that, the PW claims that Eden will regrow and Eden’s Angels will let the Agmaorians in the bunkers know it’s safe to come out. Then, Agmaorians will be free to enter Eden or stay and rule the wasteland in the Eternal Darkness as they please.

Sin, Heresy and Punishment
They believe in Twelve Deadly Sins and Twelve Circles of Hell for each one. Each one is worse than last.

They are:

Doubt

Gluttony

Sloth

Lust

Wrath

Pride

Lying

Betrayal

Greed

Envy

Weakness

and worst of all

Paganism

Sin in the Church takes many forms, being much larger than many others. They include, but are not limited to:

1: Marrying a member of the same gender.

2: Marrying more than once.

3: Divorcing

4: Having kids outside of marriage.

5: Murder

6: Theft

7: Destroying a Prophet’s Word

8: Lying

9: Disrespecting the Father

10: Not serving in the military (unless they have a specific reason not to.)

11: Being disabled

12: Breaking the law

13: Swearing

14: Worshiping an idol

15: Cross-dressing

16: Refusing to bow when told to

17: Hoarding

18: Abusing a member of the faith (excludes those deemed to be deserters or traitors)

19: Disobeying

20: Praying to God directly (they claim it won’t work anyways)

21: Being Weak

22: Being Lazy

23: Drinking

24: Desecrating a holy artifact (like a picture of Aaron or an Agamorian cross)

25: Anything deemed to be an “earthly pleasure.”

Coercion and Recruitment
Eden's Gate recruits in one of two ways: Forcefully or Voluntarily. They will often hold speeches by Aaron or recruiting drives by the Priestesses to recruit members. These recruiting drives are known to go around the known world, recruiting many different races into Eden's Gate.

Eden's Gate will often prey on weak or suffering people, those who are poor, or those who have suffered abuse. They will convince them the only way out of their suffering is joining the cult, often asking them to bring their families in as well.

On the other hand, enemies of Eden's Gate are known to be kidnapped and subjected to baptisms. However, due to rules regarding recruitment, a kidnapped person has to consent to Confession and Atonement.

Atonement and Confession
After receiving a baptism, new recruits are sent to John, Aaron's brother, for confession and atonement. During confession, a recruit is strapped to a chair and is asked to confess every sin they have ever committed. Afterwards, during Atonement, their worst sin out of the Twelve Deadly Sins is burned into their chest and violently ripped off.

Many survivors of Atonement recall it being extremely painful but worth it, as afterwards, they are cleansed of their previous sin.

Known Members List:

Aaron aka the Father/Prophet (Alive)

Kia aka the Mother/Herald (Alive)

Hope aka Daughter/Apostle (Alive)

John aka Baptist/Inquisitor (Killed by Emma)

General Jacob (Killed by Evie)

Ewoyn (Killed by Gar)

Hask (Killed by Aaron)

Oliver (Killed by Sebastian)

Alita (Killed by Sebastian)

Mary May (Alive)

Beth (Unknown)

Lilith (Killed by Alita)

Holly (Alive)

Mark (Alive)

Gerald (Alive)

Faith (Alive)

The Faith Spirit (Killed by Lisa)

Derek (Killed by Evie)

Elizabeth (Killed by Lisa)

Drew (Killed by Lisa)

Nathan (KIA)

Wolf (Unknown)

Peter (Alive)

Feeny (Killed by Lisa)

Amelia (Alive)

Parker (Alive)

Ronny (Alive)

Marshall (Killed by Evie)

Unnamed Chosen Drill Instructor (Killed by Evie)

Serkis (Alive)

Corvus Slate (Alive)

Peace (Alive)

Nyla (Killed by Lisa)

Mira (Killed by Lisa)

Anders (Alive)

Defalco (KIA)

Admiral Eleven Three (KIA)

Thomas (Alive)

Karen (Alive)

Gina (Alive)

Lucas (Unknown)

Valerian (KIA)

Ryan (Killed by Kravencko)

David (KIA)

Terris (Killed by arrow)

Ossid Elmer (Composer of Eden's Gate Hymns. Alive)

Rachael (Killed by Lisa.)