A Church in KUF II
This page is about God in The Kingdom Under Fire series but it also contains information about The Ecclesian religion.
Humans in Bersia worship God. Ecclesians are very devout worshipers of God and try to abide by the rules of their religion. Their culture is built around their religion and it plays a very important role in their lives. Their religious leader not only serves as the head of The Church but he also serves as The Patriarch. The Hironeidens however are less devout in religion and are more open minded. For example, while the Ecclesians hate dwarves and elves for their religious differences, the Hironeidens are accepting of dwarves and elves and their beliefs. Hironeidens however still follow the Ecclesian religion but some have openly question God's existence or a need for a Patriarch. General Hugh once proclaims before a battle "If there truly is a God, then today, he is on our side!" This suggests that he is a theist but later, he lectures Gerald by saying, "We are all pawns of God in this battle and you'll do well to remember that!"
Ecclesians fight for their Faith and put God above all. Many of the Hironeidens dislike the Ecclesians for this reason because they sometimes get too obsessed with fulfilling the commands and duties of their religion that they forget about their allies. This nearly lead to the fall of Hironeiden when the Ecclesians were trying to reclaim the Holy Land and didn't care about Hironiden being under siege by The Dark Legion. This led Hironiden to seek help from the dwarves and elves. Naturally, the Ecclesians were shocked to learn that elves and dwarves were now allies with Hironiden. Nevertheless, the Ecclesians accepted the alliance that Hironiden had made with the elves and dwarves and fought besides them when reclaiming The Holy Land.
Elves and Dwarves are hated by the Ecclesians because of different religious beliefs. It's not implied what the differences are however. Information on the KUF2 site suggests that the Ecclesian's hatred for other races is due to their belief that the human race must maintain its purity. The site states that the Ecclesian's adopted this belief after their first war with Dark Elves. By this information, we can see that The Ecclesian religion probably didn't talk about excluding other races. Some soldiers in the tavern of Jungsburg during Walter's campaign (in Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes) are unsure whether the Church is doing what is right. These soldiers imply that all races (including Dark Elves, Orcs and Ogres) should be able to become part of the Ecclesian religion if they accept it. They later attack The Church - in their dialogue - for deciding who can be converted and who can't.
It's very likely that God is Nibel. They share similarities with one another. For example, The Book of Ecclesia states that God destroyed Killiani when he tried to raise the altar of destruction. When Kendal joins forces with Regnier to stop Encablossa, Regnier states that Nibel destroyed Killiani (though he wasn't attacking the Ecclesian religion) which seems to suggest that Nibel is simply the name of God. It's also likely that Amos is God and Nibel too. For - just like God - Amos' story also shares many similarities with Nibel. According to the history, Amos was awakened - along with Tobied (possibly Encablossa) - from the demise of the previous gods (who likely represented light and darkness too and maybe they were the original nible and encablossa) and then made an oath with Tobied that none would invade the others territory . This seems similar to the pact made by Nibel and Encablossa. This quote from Kingdom Under Fire's history (from the Crusader's official site) seems to imply that Amos is God:
The Knights were Hironeiden’s last hope, and everyone prayed for God’s blessing upon them. As if Amos had heard the prayer, Keither led the Knights to annihilate Black Omen Clan, the vanguard of Hexter forces.
Based on the evidence, it seems that Nibel, Amos and God are the same deity.
The Ecclesian religion has many parallels with Christianity. For example, both have the crucifix as the symbol of their religion. Also, Ecclesia (in Greek) means "Church."
It's strongly implied that God lends his followers aid. For example, devout knights (paladins) are able to cast Holy Magic which heals friendly troops and damages the undead. It seems that there are atheists in the KUF universe (Sir Duane being the example here) but there is never an implication as to what their view about Holy Magic is. It's possible that they just view it as healing magic. It's also possible that no atheists exist in the KUF universe but that there are those who deny the Ecclesian religion (Once again, Sir Duane being the example here. Duane once attacked the Ecclesian religion by calling it naive beliefs.) However once again, it's not known what the stance for anti-ecclesians or atheists is for evil spirits and devils. According to the official KUF2 site, after Encablossa's defeat (end of the Great Diastrophism), demons and evil spirits started appearing all over Bersia and Ecclesia has sent inquisitors to deal with them.
Notable Devout Ecclesian followers include: