Early Targhandism, defined as the religion as it existed between the completion of his holy text, Glorious Word and the death of Targhand, was so different from the mature religion that emerged afterwards that the two may well be considered different religions. Much of the reason behind this difference was the fact that, after completing his text, Targhand refused to answer any questions or provide any direction whatsoever to his followers, always directing them to the book itself. In his last few decades, until he was in fact on his death-bed, Targhand did not even speak or communicate at all, other than by facial expression, leading adherents hungry for further revelation to study, record, and duplicate those expressions before crowds of worshippers. (These religious passion plays served to prime audiences to receive and understand more secular versions such as the performances of Arghrondi-Who-Smiles.)

After the death of Targhand, the acolytes of the temple found in his possession a singular book, written by Academician Gelbec during the latter part of the High Uzdamalian era, although vigorously suppressed by the Academy since it was authored. The book was titled "Odious Truths". One of the key lines of the portion of Glorious Word in which Targhand related his own life spoke of his having "Read Odious Truths at the Academy, Learning Much on the True Nature of Minutia", and during the period of his life, his followers believed that was a generalization about scientific knowledge in general, while assuming, equally erroneously, that 'Minutia' referred to the trivial day-to-day details of existence. Modern philosophers believe that Targhand declined to correct these mistakes in his lifetime, while arranging for the book to be discovered after his death, to provide a final moral lesson, a tiny foretaste of the greater Dolorous Joke.

Owing to this extended mistake, Early Targhandism bore a much greater resemblance to the Irrationalist movement than to any of the ideas now considered to be Philosophical precursors to Targhandism. The Early Targhandists rejected reason and logic, preferring intuition and revelation in theory, and the charismatic personalities of the church's leadership, most notably Ghizni, constructing a belief system that denied reality and rejected the very idea of rational persuasion. It is thus not surprising that the modern Targhandists found at considerably resistance from the converts of the early waves, including the Ghizni-ites than they did from the remnants of the Uzdamalian Empire.

Another practice of the Early Targhandists that the modern religion views as erroneous led, in the long term, to their being supplanted by the modern faith: owing to the fallen nature of the world, they considered it a grave crime to bring another life into it, and so practiced celebacy, non-generative sexual acts that the Great Uzdumalian Church of State considered sinful and perverse, and/or meticulous birth control, including surgical alterations. The modern Targhandists, while having no actual arguments as contra the case against children, cited Targhand's last words ("It is enough. My only regret is that I never had a daughter.") and changed the practice, allowing them to outbreed their rivals and supplant them in a generation without entering a state of vicious holy war. Still, throwback, retro-Targhandic sects are almost always at the root of violent religious conflict within the modern church.

See also:

Arghrondi-Who-Smiles

Dolorous Joke

Great Uzdumalian Church of State

Heretical Sects of Uzda

Odious Truths

Philosophical precursors to Targhandism