Sacrament

Chapter VIII: The Celestial Sages' History

She once met up with the Pope of that time, and made a speech in front of him and his entire religious organization:

"I am Queen Kalai'an. Not a spawn of Satan, not an evil creature made to bring disaster to this world. I am simply a hybrid of Gaara, human, and dragon. And I am here to tell you. We Gaara are not evil. We are innocent of all wrongdoings, and all that we ever wished for was to enlighten humanity and see them prosper. And you respond to our blessings with evil. Slaughtering us and wishing death upon our entire civilization, hiding this under the guise of doing a god's work. Whatever god approved your actions, that god is the one truly deserving death. Didn't your god tell you to respond to kindness with kindness, and even respond to evil with kindness? So why are you responding to our kindness with evil? We demand an explanation for slaughtering those who are apparently witches, heathens, or heretics, without any actual evidence of their wrongdoing. Especially heretics. All that they did was interpret the sacred scriptures differently from you! Who told you that your interpretation of these scriptures was the only right one!? Nobody! There are endless texts with varying interpretations, and without a clearly correct one. We do not want war. But, I must set this ultimatum for you. Either you stop slaughtering my people and repent for your sins, or we will have vengeance! Just like you burned my people at the stake, all the power-hungry, arrogant, greedy, morally dead rulers of this civilization will burn in the fire lit by their own sins. Again, you have two options: stop and repent, or willingly start a war with us. Which one do you choose?"

The Pope could not tolerate what she had said. She had exposed him and his entire organization, however, he was unwilling to accept the truth he knew. So, he responded to her speech:

"I choose war! You despicable monster! All that you want is to make our faith, the true faith, seem evil, and make our holy nation drown in darkness and heresy. Just know that even though you seem greater than God, you are absolutely nothing compared to Him. You and your entire godless civilization will be destroyed once and for all by our Lord and Savior, as well as the forces of our holy knights fighting for the sacred cause. Crusaders! Seize her!"

Countless crusaders ran towards her and restrained her. The Gaara queen hoped for peace, even in such a hopeless situation. She wanted to say that she repented for her sins and beg for forgiveness, however, the fighting spirit burning in the depths of every Gaara's heart didn't let her do so. She was not going to lose to an entirely corrupt and morally dead organization that wished for nothing besides keeping power in their own hands at all times and conquering the world. She let out a blood-chilling roar and broke free from the restraints. She said one final thing to the Pope: "Our civilization was a blooming flower that wished for nothing but to provide blessings, but, you trampled and burned it. Now, the fire that you yourself lit shall consume you, and the flower that is our civilization shall be reborn from the ashes!" and teleported away.

After that, a war between the Inquisition and the Gaara began, the Gaara winning in the war. The Gaara faced massive losses in the war and were at the brink of defeat, but, they won. Their victory shattered the Inquisition into pieces, freeing Europe from its clutches. Humans and Gaara began to coexist peacefully once again, although the Gaara civilization had faced a severe decline and Gaara almost went extinct. Nowadays, most humans don't know that Gaara are real.

Now, about the Celestial Sages. The Celestial Sages are the ruling party of the Gaara civilization. By tradition, there are eleven Celestial Sages. The Celestial Sage ranked first is a de facto leader among them. Every time that a Celestial Sage dies or steps down from their position, they are replaced with a different person.

About Gaara traditions and societal rules. First, remain politically neutral. Gaara view human politics as petty and below them. The only political party a Gaara can support are the Celestial Sages. Second, remain nationally neutral. Do not consider yourself a citizen of any human nation and do not own any human documents of personal or national identification. Third, remain religiously neutral. Do not consider yourself part of any religion or religious ideology, besides egotheism (believing yourself to be a deity), technotheism (viewing technology and knowledge itself as godlike), atheism (not believing in the existence of or worshipping deities or the supernatural), or agnosticism (not worshipping deities or the supernatural and not considering oneself part of any religion, but believing that deities or the supernatural might exist). Many other rules exist, but, most of them are not important.

Now, onto the frequently asked questions section. Gaara mustn't consider themselves part of any human nation, because these are nations of humans, and we aren't humans. It is like a lion considering itself a wolf and living among wolves. We also mustn't support any political party besides our own, as it is like a lion hunting prey together with a wolf pack. We mustn't follow any religion, as we believe that the true godly power is the power of technology and knowledge. Other frequently asked questions...hmmm...Gaara beauty standards? Unimportant. Gaara dress code? To sum up our dress code, female Gaara normally wear flowing, ethereal clothing. Sometimes, feathered skirts and dresses. Many of us include a diamond shape in our dressing style. The Gaara men are usually in armor, but when not in armor, they wear loincloths and small capes on the upper part of their bodies, as well as sandals. That's it. We Gaara don't have many everyday garments that cover everything. Most of our all-covering garments are battlesuits and ceremonial garments. I hope that explains everything. By the way, is it alright if I call you Syrtos? Syrtos is the Gaara version of your name. Also, here's your Gaara outfit, in case you need it.

After Nova finished her lecture, I said that I was fine with her calling me Syrtos. I also thanked her for telling me about Gaara history, and giving me a Gaara outfit. I went to change and looked at myself. The outfit was a small cape covering my shoulders and part of my chest, a loincloth, and gladiator sandals. It was of a light blue color. I went to Nova to show her the outfit. She blushed, looked away, and said: "Oh...It looks great on you! Also, don't look at me like that! There's absolutely nothing wrong!" Judging by Nova's reaction, I understood that something was certainly going on. However, I decided to ignore it. Nova said: "By the way, Syrtos, I have prepared over 40 different explanations on why you are wearing that in case someone asks. About my reaction upon seeing you...it's because...this is my first time seeing a human in Gaara clothing. Yes, that. Totally. Very convincing explanation." I laughed it off and also asked Nova if she wanted to go somewhere. She said: "Ummm...Not really. I'm unusually tired today. I'll probably go get more sleep." Nova walked away. There were no more notable events that day.