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I am thinking of writing a dark heresy scenario involving a conlfict between rival ecclesiarchy members.

I am using real world philosophies as an inspiration for some stuff, so don't be offended if I oversimplify, or choose just one interpretation of a real world philosophy. I understand that there are deaper issues and nuances involved, so for the sake of brevity I will not get too detailed.

Taoism, from what I have read in and about the Dao De Jing, is about focusing on being efficient (the wording of the translators) and being in the moment in order to enjoy life and not get caught up in a cycle of suffering and desire. Given that the ecclesiarchy supports many local cultures, cults, and faiths, I was wondering why this philosophy couldn't be applied to resisting Chaos, which is just a metaphor for a self destructive emotional complexes anyways.

So I need a hook, an explanation of why there would be any conlfict over this issue at all. The imperial creed is pretty vague, so I don't see why something like this couldn't fit in nicely, and honestly it seems like if members of the ecclesiarchy bothered to teach anything like this to their citzenry their would be a lot less chaos cultists.

Here are two hooks I have come up with, but I would appreciate and help, maybe something a little more substantial than these.

1. Recreate the argument between real-world monotheists and eastern philosophers. Salvation through faith vs Enlightenment. Both parties accuse each other of being selfish and things get bad from there.
2. Given the relationship between the eldar path system and taoism, I could make my new mini-faith xeno influenced.

Any other ideas?

The Imperial cult is closer to Christianity - there's a strong emphasis on the Emperor having suffered for humanity's sins, and in suffering in service to the Imperium the faithful can repay a bit of their eternal debt, in addition to coming a tiny bit closer to their divine master, who will eventually call the immortal souls of his most devout servants to his side.

Regarding a shism - there are numerous ways to pull this off. The Ecclesiarchy as a whole is pretty fractured already, as it is essentially a network of various sub-cults who only share a few overlapping dogmas (which is why the Imperial Creed is pretty general and vague in its details). It is not uncommon to have one of these groups starting to pursue an avenue of faith that is deemed heretical by the Ecclesiarchal conclave, which usually results in a Sororitas kill-team being sent in to deal with the apostate leader, whereas mop-up operations and purges will be conducted by the Frateris Militia under leadership of loyal clergy. The Inquisition's Ordo Hereticus may or may not involve themselves in this, all depending on how much power and influence this movement is able to accumulate, i.e. what kind of threat it poses to stability.

For what it's worth, the object of the conflict could be as simple as some Cardinal on an industrial world with lots of pollution stating that the souls of mutants actually have a chance at being welcomed by the God-Emperor if they're just working and praying hard enough.

Or it could be the clergy of two cities quarreling about in whose church a recently discovered relic is allowed to be kept, with the conflict growing so violent that when an Ecclesiarchal arbiter finally arrives from off-world that neither side truly recognizes his authority as they want those dusty bones in their own chapel 24/7 instead of some compromise.

Or it could be a pogrom by some Confessor that went out of control as the frenzied population starts to turn against those preachers who argued that it's enough now.

Conflicts of faith really don't have to be all that rational (and I'm religious!)

It is often enough that they believe differently than you. It is MORE than enough they threaten to pull paritioners from your flock (hence threatening your prestive/power/income). Both of your scenarios can exist simultaneously, and many more.

There are lots of things in Taoism for various religions to take issue with.

Enjoying life? Selfish. Pain and suffering is our lot, in penance and appreciation of the Emperor.

It isn't so much that Taoism is against the Imperial creed (it isn't), or that the ecclesiarchy as a whole would have issue. It is going to be more political than that. It would threaten certain factions power base, or clash with their ideology. At that point conflict is inevitable and they are going to come up with any critisizms, real or imagined, that they think will discredit the opposition.

So yeah, xeno inspired, selfish, impure. Anything that will discredit it is fair game.

riplikash wrote:Conflicts of faith really don't have to be all that rational

Coincidentally, I recall having seen this in yesterday's news:

Ecclesiarchy is based off Eastern Orthodoxy, the Byzantine/Russian tradition. The Russian Orthodox church for instance is led by a Patriarch and has a body known as the Holy Synod. 2 things more or less in the Ecclesiarchy.

There's already a religious schism in the Ecclesiarchy, mostly between Thorians and hard-core conservatives. It again reflects Russian history, and the schism that arose between the "Old Believers" and the followers of Patriarch Nikon when he reformed the church.

Harriticus wrote:Ecclesiarchy is based off Eastern Orthodoxy, the Byzantine/Russian tradition. The Russian Orthodox church for instance is led by a Patriarch and has a body known as the Holy Synod. 2 things more or less in the Ecclesiarchy.

There's already a religious schism in the Ecclesiarchy, mostly between Thorians and hard-core conservatives. It again reflects Russian history, and the schism that arose between the "Old Believers" and the followers of Patriarch Nikon when he reformed the church.

There's slightly more to it than that; depictions of the Ecclesiarchy owes a good deal to the medieval/early-modern Western Church, and the events of the Age of Apostasy borrow both from the historical Avignon Papacy and the Reformation.