Cyclists

The Cyclist faith originated with the Davite priest Ellam Trajan shortly after the Consolidation. Ellam, as a member of the Order, met both with the nobility and with the common folk, and began to wonder why (if Dav was merciful) some had so much while others had so little. It is said that in a fit of rage, Ellam delivered a homily that horrified the Cardinal at the time, for it claimed that instead of one life on Urth, people live multiple lives. It also states that one's accepting one's position in life raises one to a higher position in the next life, which conflicts with the Davite Doctrine of Burning.

Ellam disputed the Doctrine of Burning, saying that only if a mage willingly went to be burned would the mage be raised from the lowest position of humanity to that of a poor man. However, even within the Cyclist movement, the issue of the fate of mages was hotly debated. Within Ellam's short lifetime, the Cyclist movement would split between the Dynamic Cyclists and the Static Cyclists. The Dynamics held to the principle that mages could transcend their state of magery and eventually attain that of a poor man. However, the Statics maintained that a mage would ever be outside the cycle of rebirth that those in the other places enjoy. Ellam would die, burned as a heretic for preaching against the Doctrine of Burning.

In modern times, some Cyclists are still burned at the stake. They are, according to the Church, generally slothful and apathetic because of their fatalistic view of the world.

Tenets

The Principle of Four Lives - One must travel through life as a poor man, then a poor woman, then a rich man, and as a rich woman. Once these four lives have been lived properly, one may pass to heaven.

The Principle of Forbearance - If one failed to accept one's place in life, one must relive that experience. Such it is that rich lives are oft succeeded on one try, while poor lives take many tries to accept. This is why there are so many more peasants than nobles. Split Doctrines of Dynamics And Statics:

Split Tenets

Dynamic Doctrine - "Any mage that should however wish his or herself to be burned in order to purify his or her soul should be taken up and burned, and his or her soul will then find its way into the incarnation of a poor man and begin the true cycle."

Static Doctrine - "A mage remains a mage whether burned or not, and whether the mage submit to be burned or be dragged to it, that mage shall only be a mage for all eternity and shall never be allowed death."