Catheric was an ancient religion that was practiced on Terra, prior to the Age of Strife[1b] and well into the Great Crusade.[1a]
History
Its worshipers believed in a god and the Crux served as the symbol of the Catheric faith, which was worn around the neck. The religion's beliefs and traditions were known as Catherisism[1b] and smoke filled censers were carried in a procession in some forms of its worship.[2b] Some of the holidays the religion observed were the periodic feasts of Cathermas, Radmastide and the Divine Architect, along with the observances of the builderlodges.[1c] The Catheric faith was also known for its morality and was formed from several religions' proto-creeds, that prophesied that Terra would be struck by an apocalypse in the future, but that a savior would appear to save the righteous. These creeds also had millenarianism aspects to them, in that the savior's appearance would also drastically alter Terra's societies afterwards as well. However when the Age of Strife struck the Galaxy, no savior arrived to save Mankind on Terra. Catheric's worshipers had no explanation for this, but some philosophers theorized that the sins of Humans had been so great, that no salvation would be granted by the savior, until they had atoned and earned their redemption. Once the Age of Strife ended and the Unification Wars began, though, many people began to view the Emperor as the savior that the Catheric faith had prophesied would appear.[1b]
As the Emperor rose to prominence during the Unification Wars, however, He began to be viewed as a god instead of a savior, despite His efforts to deny this. The worship of the Emperor became so widespread in fact, that the practice of other religions began to decrease dramatically, as their gods had not proven their existence to the faithful, as the Emperor had to his worshipers. Catheric would escape this fate and many of its worshipers began to build a city for the Catheric faithful. It was to be called Ur, and the city was meant not only as a symbol of the religion, but also a way to make sense of Mankind's status in the wake of the Age of Strife. Ur would never be completed, though, after raiders destroyed the Catheric work camps and communes that were building the city, over one hundred[1a] and forty years[1b] into the Great Crusade.[1a] The religion was still being practiced twenty years later, though it is not known how open Catheric worshipers could be with their faith at that time. Kasper Hawser and Navid Murza were known to be among them, but they each approached their worship differently. Hawser was from one of the communities that had been building Ur and did not hide the fact that he was raised in the Catheric faith. While he no longer believed in the religion, Hawser still had respect for the morality it preached. Murza meanwhile, hid his Catheric worship and secretly wore a Crux, but he was publicly scornful and mocking of anyone who was religious.[1b] The Perpetual Ollanius Persson was also a Catheric worshiper but, he left Terra and later settled on the Ultima Segmentum world, Calth. His faith and the crux he openly wore, were the reasons Persson did so, as he felt it was easier for him to be Catheric worshiper in the Ultima region, than it was on his Homeworld.[2a]
