4.13.8 Adherent

Strength, Valour, Instinct, Inspiration, and Mirth. In the First Immortal Epoch, Varian the Celestine fashioned the Ankyreans to be His ideal mortal race and spawned the five Virtues to guide them to perfection. Before Varian bestowed free will upon mankind at the end of the Second Immortal Epoch, mortalkind followed the Divine Purpose: one's role in life was predetermined at birth, fitting them into society like a well-oiled cog. Above all other races were the Ankyreans expected to adhere to the calling chosen for them and, through following their Divine Purpose, adhere to the five Virtues.

The Adherents were those Ankyreans that, through their calling, had fully realized at least one Virtue. When a candidate felt ready, they would beseech one of the Virtue Gods for a trial to determine their potential in becoming Adherent. Upon success, the Ankyrean would be infused with a permanent boon of power from the God, raising them into the ranks of the Adherents. Without being incredibly strong in mind, body and realization of the Virtue, the power would instead tear asunder the mortal frame. During those ages, only the Ankyreans were uniquely qualified to achieve these standards.

Reaching the first circle of Adherence was only the beginning of an Ankyrean's journey. Each circle of Adherence achieved bestowed another boon of power upon the Ankyrean, amplifying their powers by magnitudes that dwarfed the previous. Though they were expected to achieve Adherence to all five Virtues, almost all Ankyreans would peak at the third circle of Adherence during their lifetime. Only a few handfuls became Fourth Adherents, and only a further two Ankyreans had ever become Fifth Adherents. 

The Adherents system was lost and forgotten after the conclusion of the great war that marked the end of the Second Immortal Epoch. The combination of the decimation of their population, splintering of the Pantheon, the loss of the Divine Purpose, and other extenuating circumstances, led to the eventual collapse of the first Ankyrean Order. Those that came after, the more well-known Ankyreans of the Second Order such as Qeddwyn and Yrtez, were ignorant of the Adherents and their prowess was always a mere shadow of their ancestors. Lobyl, part of the first Ankyrean Order, achieved the rank of Third Adherent in his lifetime before being sealed beneath the tundra.

It was not until the Midnight Age that the Adherents would come to light once more. Mazzion Cardinalis, having honed his acquired Ankyrean form to its limits, sought to break past them. Instructed by Her consort, the Manipulator, with knowledge long gone, the Goddess Iosyne gave Mazzion a trial fitting for Her modern Virtue of Malevolence. Through pain and suffering, he conquered the trial and received Her boon, becoming the First Adherent of the Midnight Age. 

Commander Mjoll Seirath of the Carnifex was the next mortal to achieve Adherent status, passing the trials of Bamathis, the Warlord to ascend as the first Adherent of Strife.

Next came Tina Cardinalis, plumbing hitherto uncharted depths of Chakrasul's Spiral to then descend as the first Adherent of Corruption.

Tetchta followed, traversing through history to assume the mantle of the first Adherent of Memory.

Accompanying their God on a quest through the Abyssal depths beneath the Aureliana, Asaraii and Bulrok together wrested dominion over Hansekkaramnis, seizing their claims as the first Adherents of Tyranny.

After furthering the Nightmare's schemes amidst the Creators' Monomachy, Kalena at last ascended as the first modern Adherent of Instinct.

In the modern day, following centuries of upheaval, catastrophe, and countless other disasters leaving the pantheon fractured and reformed multiple times, the classical Virtues are no more. In their place are their modern incarnations: Corruption (represented by Chakrasul), Strife (represented by Bamathis), Memory (represented by Lexadhra), and Tyranny (represented by Abhorash). It is to these modern Virtues that any aspiring Adherent must look in the future, the deaths of Iosyne and Omei consigning the Virtues of Malevolence and Instinct to the annals of history.