Like many other religions, the Glenrid Tree-Worshipping faith was divided into an open religion and a secret mystery cult with details kept hidden from the public, details that only recent scholarship have been able to fully elucidate. In the context of those practices, the well-known story of Emperor Devon-Lars' two trips to Ambarak takes on a meaning more significant than a mere skilled exercise of power and politics.

On his first trip, it is important to note that Devon-Lars used the officially prescribed method for replacing a Sacred Tree that has become diseased or dying: the high priest gives the tree a single wound, after which his assistants fell the tree. So symbolically, Devon-Lars was then assuming the roles of all of the high priests of all of the trees of the grove, which naturally enraged the elders but also made them impotent to act against him.

His second visit held even less risk than the purely political reading of the even would hold, as he was in town also for the purpose of marrying Jolina-With-Blossoms, the second and most important of the Boy Emperor's four wives, and the future mother of his heir. In the Glenrid faith, nobody other than the bride is permitted to shed any blood on the day of a wedding under pain of eternal torment in the Hell of Burnt Splinters, so none of the citizens of Ambarak would have even considering accepting the offer of the emperor's neck, no matter what their opinions of the man or his rule.

Due to Devon-Lars' machinations, the private portion of his wedding ceremony, in which Jolina used the Glenrid Ritual Knife to first open her maidenhead and then perform a ritual circumcision on her new husband (ritual meaning only a tiny nick rather than a full removal of the foreskin) doubled as the Glenrid Mystery Cult's ceremony to imbue the new holy tree with divine nature, and so the Emperor's generative organ (or, symbolically, the imperial bloodline that flowed from that organ) became the new Holy Tree of the Cult.

While the outer religion began to fade soon after, the inner one transformed into the Mystery Cult of the Divine Emperor, which Devon-Lars and his successors used as agents, assassins, and spies throughout their reign, up to the death of Inighar V, which ended the holy line. After that, the cult transformed once again, into an apocalyptic religion that believed that the end of the world was coming, and would be heralded be the return of a ruler of Devon-Lars' ancient line. In 663, Ighidar of Uzda assumed the name Devon Lars IV at least partially in attempt to enlist the remaining believes in this cult against the Jacini, with limited success. . Several attempts to syncretize the cult into Targhandistic frameworks have been made over the years, all of which ultimately failed and were denounced as heresies. The cult continues, diminished, to this day, worshipped only in secret and dark places.

Both Drevis I and Jacinu attempted to establish their own Mystery Cults of the Divine Emperor, rooted in Church of State frameworks rather than the Glenrid tradition, for use as assassins, agents, and spies, but none were as effective or fearsome as the original.

See Also:

Ambarak

Devon-Lars I

Jacinu

Jolina-With-Blossoms

Mystery Cults of the Divine Emperor

Hell