[center][h2]ANIMAM BONAM[/h2]

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The Order of Animam Bonam is an international humanitarian and religious group affiliated to the Mistralese Church. Its reach can be found amongst communities all across the world of Remnant, with its members (known colloquially as Animists) seeking to pattern themselves after the order’s founder, Saint Umbria of Mistral, and preach the partisanship and charity espoused by him prior to their founding. Its tenets of providing aid to the needy, community values and engaging in social work have endured throughout its four centuries of existence, and has contributed much to Remnant through the actions of its members.

At first known as the Friends of Poverty, the Order has grown from its original roots as a community of secular clergy working across Mistral to direct their flocks in the teachings of the Lord through the manner in which Umbria did to a large, widespread group that is open to all members of the Church, whether they be laity or clergy, as long as they have not vowed themselves to any other religious order.

The current King-Elect of Mistral, Tzimiskes III, is a member of the Order of Animam Bonam.

[b]History:[/b]

Originally established four hundred years ago as a monastic order of the Mistralese Church, the original and continuing tenets of Animam Bonam have been to provide humanitarian aid across the world of Remnant, as well as engage in charity and social justice work. Its founder was the preacher, Giovanni Faroald (later Saint Umbria), who sought to assist the struggling populace of his kingdom following the devastation wrought by the Mistral Civil War. At first, he lacked the approval of the Church Patriarch, whose attentions were focused on mediating peace between the factions of the War, to found an order, and so was limited to activities within his home village, where he preached and established a community network between the people, espousing a common fraternity and convincing them to assist one another in any way possible. He was said to have frequently visited the homes of the villagers and helped them in their day-to-day activities, as well being incredibly dedicated to his duties, engaging in prayer and providing what he could to all of those he met.

It was from these humble beginnings that the Animam Bonam took shape, with the Mistralese Church noticing his activities after a metropolitan travelled through his town and reported his activities to the Patriarch. The focus on community spirit and assistance intrigued the church head, and Giovanni was called up to the Capital, where he was granted audience with the Patriarch to discuss his activities. For seven days and seven nights, the two clerics spoke clearly and honestly together upon all that could be done for the peoples of Mistral and possibly the world, and upon the end of that week the fledgling order was granted the approval of the Patriarch, allowing to serve as in an official capacity as a deliverer of aid for all of the Mistralese Church’s flock. It sought no funding, no fame, and as members from across the city-state joined its banner, the newly-created Friends of Poverty began to grow.

By the time of Saint Umbria’s death, the Friends of Poverty had grown to be a moderately influential group amongst the villages that resided in the Kingdom of Mistral’s orbit, the devastation of the Civil War having brought many new recruits seeking to restore the stability and prominence of the city-state through performing charity work and assisting those trapped on the lowest rungs of society. Its indiscriminate approach and the zeal in which its followers sought to perform its duties endeared it significantly to the populace, and certain groups of the Friends even managed to breach into foreign realms, spreading the word of Umbria to the other three kingdoms despite the liturgical and ideological schisms between their Churches and that of Mistral’s.

During the era of rapid industrialisation, the Friends of Poverty would be conflated as a Faunus order subservient to the Church of Mistral due to the widening of the wage gap between the industry barons and the common people, and the Faunus, being the oppressed underclasses of society, suffered the most, further placing themselves in the jurisdiction of the FoP and swelling the community’s numbers with non-humans. The indiscriminate approach to assisting all those in need brought many Faunus into the fold of the Mistralese Church, a development clearly seen through the increasing proportion of them working amongst the Friends of Poverty.

Indeed, by the turn of the last century, the involvement of the Friends of Poverty in Faunus affairs had grown remarkably, and it would also be around this time that the order renamed itself Animam Bonam, citing the courageous spirit present in its flock as the reasoning behind the change of designation. They had also taken up a greater proselytising role amongst the Faunus population, with many of the non-human clergy in the organisation and the greater Mistralese Church seeking to save the souls of their brothers and sisters from the traditional paganism common to the Faunus groups dotted across Remnant. For a time, the order and by extension the Church was seen as relatively benevolent towards the Faunus peoples, with missionaries and clergymen present amongst their communities to provide aid, assistance and teaching.

This state of affairs continued for a period of time until Animam Bonam realised that Faunus culture was slowly being eroded as they were brought closer to the human mainstream, and immediately sought to reverse this by attempting to “preserve” the distinctive identity of the populace through numerous methods that proved increasingly inept and unwilling discriminative, before it all came to a head when Father Enkidu Humbaba, a leonic Faunus and influential member of Animam Bonam, called for segregation between human and Faunus cultures, having been deeply affected by his experiences during the Great War, where Faunus minorities had suffered tremendously even compared to previous conflicts. While the idea had originally been to divide the races into equal societies free of cultural contamination, it slowly grew from this egalitarian ideal into one strongly promoted by human supremacists who sought the eradication or suppression of all Faunus.

The original idea had been controversial amongst all members of the Mistralese Church, but it was the construction of “Menagerie” by the four kingdoms as a separate, isolated nation-state for the Faunus that inflamed the entire conflict. Many conflicting accounts abound, and the issues behind it were myriad, but the Faunus War and resulting Rights Revolution strongly involved the Order of Animam Bonam, as members of it had also supported the apartheid in possibly well-meaning attempts at further promoting the cause of justice and charity. However, the group as a whole became an unwitting instigator of the conflict’s base issues, and the scandal has been one that continues to this day.

Faunus participation in the Order of Animam Bonam and the Mistralese Church has reduced tremendously since the Revolution, with the former’s reputation having tanked immediately during the aftermath. However, the devotion by the remaining members and new recruits to atoning for the issues they wrought through zealously pursuing social justice and charity across the world, especially in high-profile incidents such as the Western Vytal Earthquake, has slowly begun to mediate the perception many hold towards it.

As of recent, the Church of Vale has also established a brother order to the Animam Bonam, one that shares the same tenets but lacking in the traditions and history that the “friends of poverty” possess.

[B]Governance:[/B]

During its earliest years, the Order of Animam Bonam was decentralised, with all its members, whether they be laity or clergy, equal under the authority of the Church Patriarch. Its founder, Giovanni Faroald, was merely first amongst equals, his words held as up as the ideal that all members strove for. They were simply organised under two rules: “to commit to charity no matter the cost” and to “love all that exists as brothers and sisters”, emphasising the Church teachings that they had derived their existence from. It would be in this form that the order first spread across the lands, a loosely organised mass of well-meaning people who communicated to one another through the Church itself. There was little real oversight, with successive Patriarchs having undertaken hands-off approaches to the Animists, and the order continued to grow and increase in number.

This manner of governance would vary over time however, with certain periods signalling stronger centralisation or simply a loosely affiliated group of members working for the same cause. Once, the Church Patriarch himself had served as both a source of legitimacy and the head for Animam Bonam, having been previously a supporter himself. With the dawn of the contemporary era and the advancements in communications technology, however, there has been a change to the management of the group, with the myriad Animist communities scattered across Remnant finally capable of bridging gaps between one another without need to cross hostile lands.

Animam Bonam today is split into four sees, with each of Remnant’s four kingdoms and surrounding areas serving as the jurisdiction of the groups that reside in the flexibly-defined borders. The leadership and coordination of activities within these sees are typically left to the entire community as a whole, though the words of the more experienced clergy members will be considered in a more important light in comparison to those of the laity of newcomers to the Church and Order. Each see, however, does possess the position of a Listener-Minister, who are elected by popular vote to a five-year term as the representative of the kingdoms’ population of Animists in official settings and liaisons with the main body of the Mistralese Church.

In essence, the Patriarch of the Church also serves as the Minister-General of the Order of Animam Bonam as a whole, though a stand-in will be appointed if he has already sworn oaths to another holy order. It is through him that any order-wide actions can be undertaken, and only if four Listener-Ministers have agreed and brought the issue to his attention for approval. It is only at this level that such bureaucracy common amongst other Church groups exists, for otherwise, it is one that is far more decentralised and independent. Even the Patriarch himself, though the head of the order, cannot dismantle or affect it too heavily, for its processes are dependent on the grassroots activities carried out by its members rather than any unifying council at the top.

[B]Society:[/B]

As with all other members of the Church of Mistral, those affiliated with the Order of Animam Bonam participate in prayer every Friday, the day of mourning and acknowledgement of the deeds performed by the Heroic Twelve Martyrs centuries ago to bring them salvation and freedom from injustice. It is the focus upon fighting the unjust that serves as the lynchpin of the community spirit espoused by Giovanni Faroald in the past, and so the weekly sermons of churches affiliated with the Order place great emphasis on bringing about social justice developments, with the majority of teachings usually falling upon the issue of poverty. To go out of one’s way to help those who are helpless, to engage in fraternity and kindness; these are the organising principles that drive Animists, and so they are commonly known to be generous and patient people whose diligence to their beliefs can be considered without par.

The majority of Animists are found in the farming communities that lie within the orbit of Mistral proper, as it was there that the order first took root. Many of the traditions and practices of Animam Bonam have been derived from the habits of the lay people of centuries past, such as the hosting of harvest festivals that provide food to all equally, as well as the strong emphasis on donating to charities (from the tithes that would be paid to Saint Umbria so that he could disperse it amongst the population of his village). Indeed, even though the order has now achieved an international reach, it is very much still a down-to-earth, country community, synergising the teachings of the Church with the traditions existent in villages where Mistralese clergy have found themselves.

This has ensured that while sharing the same basic tenets, different areas of Animam Bonam may have different rituals, having developed them prior to the increased globalisation of Remnant’s four kingdoms. As such, the traditions of the majority that are the Mistral-based Animists will not share certain activities and beliefs with those who reside in the Religion Quarter of Vacuo. However, the effects of globalisation have begun to show, with the communications technology of the era now allowing the disparate groups of Animists to further influence one another.

Animists can be found all across the world, with the largest populations being in the Mistral countryside and within the city-state. Their presence can be found in every other kingdom as well, with 90% of the Mistralese clergy in Vacuo’s Religion Quarter having inherited their teachings and beliefs from the order of Animam Bonam. Other major concentrations include villages near Menagerie, remnants from the conflicts of the Faunus Rights Revolution. 

[B]Assets:[/B]

Due to its decentralised governance, the Order of Animam Bonam possessions that are unique to itself rather than to the entire Church at large, the promotion of acting humbly and in poverty by their teachings not being particularly conductive to the acquisition of any goods or materials, nor has their order collected its share of relics like its fellows in the Church. However, it is not without its share of funds, being highly effective at fundraising enough to provide for its humanitarian activities. In the past, these funds were greater, but following the disasters of their involvement in the Rights Revolution and a temporary dissolution by one of the crazed Borgia Patriarchs, the current economic state of Animam Bonam can be considered quite weak.