The First Council of Pan-Religionism

Regimus Place Holder Text
so, in the early days of the Atheshi Church, the Abhyasi of the time recognized the potential danger of a restored Legionism. as such, in an attempt to quell the hatred against adzanists in the new church and decrease their fervor, the abhyasi called for a council where supporters of the atheshi cause and adzanists could peacefully debate their conflicting views and come to an understanding. the idea was not very popular at the time, but surprisingly the atheshi agreed. the council was held in the town of Sharevia, and was to be 2 weeks long. for the first week and a half resulted in nothing, as both sides heatedly reiterated their points and conceded no ground to the other. spirits were low, and violence was starting to break out in the town. additionally, the failure of diplomacy gave credibility to Atheshi warhawks, which was why they had agreed to begin with.

[4:23 PM]

however, this all changed when a young man named Moto Shigichi arrived on the island. Moto was a scribe in training who hoped to take notes on the proceedings for the purposes of writing a book. however, when he arrived, he was stunned by, what were in his eyes, crude and poorly constructed arguments on both sides. with only 3 days left in the conference, Moto spent the entire night writing arguments, theses, speeches, and talking points. the next day, moto joined into the debate under a false identity, a name that is even now known through most of Pallacia: Sestelier, the Atheshi word for "orator." when Sestelier was first given 5 minutes to speak, his opening thesis blasted open various contradictions in Legionism, then effectively dismantled the primary Atheshi arguments before yielding his time... to the Atheshi. With no preparation, the Atheshi stammered out a confused denial, but their defense was clearly fractured. the next day, again using only his 5 allotted minutes, Sestelier told a harrowing story of a Girkish child who grew up under the Theocracy, then twisted the moral of the story into a proof of a scheme by various high-ranking Atheshi to "accidentally" make a fool of the Church of Wickneth. the evidence was irrefutable enough that one of the culprits in question confessed on the spot. from then on, the Adzanist debaters simply yielded their time to Sestelier. afterwards the Atheshi declared that due to domestic issues, they would need to withdraw from the conference a day early, and never agreed to another one again. Around 40% of the Legionists who witnessed Sestelier's performance would after convert to adzanism, and the Atheshi Church lost several substantial trade deals as a result of the conference. Sestelier was later offered a position as the Abhyasi's chief advisor, which he turned down in favor of launching an expedition to the Far East, where he would die due to an infected wound.