(This page is under construction.)
The Solar Temple is the principle monotheistic religion of the known world. This article concerns the Solar Temple in general; specific denominations may have some degree of variation. Only some of these variations are discussed here.
History
Divinity
All denominations of the Solar Temple confess faith in a unique benevolent deity, usually called God, though also called by the poetic name Aelia (for example, in the name of the Aelian States.) This God is identified more specifically as the God of the Prophet Ardamar, who is the mortal founder of the Solar Temple. The Solar temple believes God to be well-disposed to humans and always definitionally doing what is morally good, having vast creative and destructive powers, and with far greater knowledge than any human being or lesser spiritual being. However, the Solar Temple does not consider God to be omnipotent or omniscient as philosophical absolutes. The physical sun (the heavenly body) is believed to be an immanent form of God by most denominations; higher critics believe that the Temple's concept of God originated from a pre-Ardamarian solar deity (and his consort, Aelia, who was subsumed into him.)
The Temple believes God to be eternal, without a beginning or ending. He is the only true God, but there are other powerful, immortal spiritual beings he created to be subordinates to himself. These are the archons, ten pairs of beings who form his heavenly court and who judge human souls after death, and the numerous angels who staff a sort of celestial "bureaucracy" and are responsible for the administration of the divine will.
Prophethood and Illumination
The Temple believes in prophets, humans with whom God has communicated (typically through dreams or visions), and in rare cases by the process of Illumination, or Solar Descent, in which the Divine being commingles with a mortal being who can then speak for God directly, with that composite being becoming an immanent form of the Divinity like the sun. All denominations believe there have been many prophets, and most that there will continue to be further inspired prophets, but the circumstances under which Illumination has occurred, and expectations about its future occurrence, are the theological key point of difference between denominations.
Morality and Sin
Morality for the Temple's faithful consists of carefully following the law set forth in the Book of Lights, and, in cases where the law is unclear or conflicting, using the higher principles distilled from it by the Great Commentators, or referring to the rulings and interpretations of the hierarchy of one's denomination if available, to resolve the moral quandary.
Although significant differences in interpretation exist, the morality of the Temple focuses on respect for the rights of others (to life, to fair treatment, to dignity, and to property); the maintenance of social order through honest and fair dealing, and respect for temporal and spiritual authorities; and the preservation of spiritual purity through keeping various prescriptions and proscriptions of diet and personal grooming. The specifics of the latter rules vary somewhat between denominations, and individuals keep them to varying degrees of rigor, with adherence serving as a conspicuous mark of piety (or lack thereof.) The virtues promoted by the Temple are embodied by the subordinate divine beings known as Archons.
The Solar Temple is not particularly preoccupied with sexuality, but does require marital fidelity and encourage marriage and reproduction. Homosexuality is not explicitly forbidden (not being the subject of any decree in the Book of Lights one way or the other), but homosexual relationships are not seen as equivalent to heterosexual relationships in this cultural context.
There is nothing corresponding to the "Fall of Man" in Solar Templar theology; humans are sometimes sinful as a consequence of their limited perspective (which they ought to compensate for by obedience to God's commands) and choice to misuse the free will with which they are endowed. Accordingly, humans can in principle choose to lead a sinless life, with divine aid.
Cosmogony
The Temple believes that the universe was drawn from the cosmogonical chaos by God. Humans were created as a lower order of sentient beings, to tame and work the land. The Book of Lights devotes relatively little space to its creation myth, spending only a few hundred words on the topic in the main narrative.
Afterlife
The Temple has a concept of heaven and hell, conceptualized as two realms inhabited by the souls of the dead.
Immediately after death, the soul of the deceased ascends toward heaven, its way barred by ten pairs of archons. Each pair judges the soul according to their particular virtue, allowing the soul to pass if it has upheld that virtue in life.
Virtuous humans, who have either been sinless or atoned for their sins as best they were able, receive immortal life in a paradisaical Celestial Realm. The especially virtuous, such as prophets, may be entrusted with responsibility in the celestial bureaucracy similar to angels (though they remain a distinct category of being) or with the administration of the Celestial Realm itself. On rare occasion, beings in the Celestial Realm have sinned and been banished to the Infernal Realm, though this is not believed to be a common occurrence. In general, inhabitants of the Celestial Realm are believed to enjoy whatever kind of work or entertainment they desire, within the bounds of morality.
Beings whose moral conduct falls short of that required by God, are sent to the Infernal Realm for punishment. The punishments make amends for the earthly sins of the souls; eventually, if their attitude and conduct are reformed, they will be allowed to attempt to ascend to the Celestial Realm, succeeding in doing so if the archons are satisfied by their conduct in hell. Notably, the souls in the Infernal Realm are not constantly occupied with their punishments, and have opportunities to exercise virtue (or continue to sin) there.
Particularly evil souls, whom the Archons judge to be irredeemable, are destroyed instead of being sent to the Infernal Realm for punishment. This is not thought to be very common; the Book of Lights proclaims this to have been the fate of only six people in its entire text.
Eschatology
Some denominations of the Solar Temple believe that once the Celestial Realm is nearly full, God will end the world and judge the remaining humans, who will be taken to the afterlife at that time. This belief has not been particularly prominent in Templar theology historically, being a topic that the Book of Lights only briefly touches on (though it was a fruitful area of discussion by the Great Commentators.) However, the Presently Guided Temple believes the world to be in its last days
Denominations
The major denominations of the Solar Temple are the Old Temple, Presently Guided Temple, Imperial Temple and Unsullied Temple. In the Murinal Empire, there is a substantial Solar Templar minority, called Ardamarites (Murinali Ardamaraki) who are divided between the Imperial Temple, in communion with the Temple that reveres the Emperor Atsef as an Illuminatus, and a larger group which does not. The larger group, which often self-describes as Ardamaraki, is an Old Temple group which does not recognize any illuminations except for the Prophet Ardamar. This Ardamarite Old Temple is broken into multiple autocephalous provinces within the Southern Continent, but is centered around the Murinal Empire. It is in broad theological agreement with the Old Temple in the North, e.g. in Heghom, the Maritimes, and the Noromane Republic, but it differs substantially in the details of its practice and rite.
Clergy and Hierarchy
Places of Worship
Holy Writings
Although the precise canon varies from denomination to denomination, the main holy writings of the Solar Templars are the Book of Lights (often just called "the Lights" in casual speech), and the Great Commentaries. Various alleged writings of saints and prophets other than those in the Book of Lights are also esteemed by many templars.