Six Doctrines
Hope Doctrine
The world is a cage, and the greatest hope is freedom.
The Hope Doctrine is an opposition to slavery, imprisonment and coercion. The ideal world is one where every mantid pulses with the blood of freedom, and should never fear that it stop. The best one can do is to relish in what freedom you have, never restrict or encroach upon the freedom of others, and strive to dissolve chains.
The idol of the Hope Doctrine is Aromethia, the first vesperbane, who stole vesper magic from the ancient bats that enthralled mantiskind. With this act began a centuries-long rebellion, and the era of chaos ended.
The Hope Doctrine is the most common philosophy among vesperbanes.
Dream Doctrine
The world is oppressive, but we can dream of equality.
The Dream Doctrine is a dissatisfaction with the hierarchy and suffering of the world, and the lines dividing the sentient species. The ideal world is one where all the old debts and prejudices are stripped away, and at the deepest, this is something every being surely desires.
The idols of the Dream Doctrine are the nymphs of the dream, wingless martyrs who were prophecy-in-the-flesh. They traveled the land healing the injured and the damned, and they unraveled and undermined the massive accumulated power of vesperbane clans in the event known as clanshatter. They spoke reverently of a coming emergence, but before it ever came to pass, their bodies were sundered by mercenaries from the Gaveldika clan.
Kaos Doctrine
The world is a lie, and the surest path to truth is chaos.
The Kaos Doctrine is a recognition that the laws and customs of the land are futile exercises, a diversion. There are natural courses of development that are as inexorable as the path of water carving rivers down hillsides. The strong devour may the weak, and this is just. Power and will may bend and break the world, and this is always beautiful, be it in service of cruelty or valor. The ancient, natural order may be restored, and it should be.
The Kaos Doctrine submits itself to no higher authority or idealistic sentiment. There is no end goal of the path, but she who would wear a crown of death and perch on a throne of entropy is as fine an example as any.
There are no true idols of the Kaos Doctrine, but in its adherrents there is a particular respect for the God-Empress Oosifea, the mother of the second dominion, the queen of worms. She invented ichor manipulation from nothing in order to claw her way back from a fate worse than death, birthing herself a new body. Afterwards, she ruled for centuries, ushering her empire to ever grander heights of power and prominence as she sat above and pulled puppet strings.
Welkin Doctrine
The world is a test, and those deemed worthy are only those who do not tarnish themselves further.
The Welkin Doctrine asserts that we have already been corrupted, be it by some terrible sin in antiquity, by some grand external source like the umbral moon, or in some metaphysical way, by fact of incarnating in material form. There is truth to all of them. Life is a menagerie of temptation and subversion, and the best one can strive for is to resist, to remain steadfast and cultivate integrity of self. One should never forget their imperfections, and never let them consume oneself.
There is no idol of the welkin doctrine, not one that has ever know mortal form — because no mantis could ever be deserving of that adoration. Regard is paid to the noble vindicators, risking harm and heart to smite such ineluctably corrupt beings as bats, vesperbanes, or weevils. Consideration is to be paid to the hierophants who speak the doctrine outward to new minds or deeper into those who know. And heed to is be paid to the words of those know have knelt long before the blue fires of welkin, and what they have seen.
Mind Doctrine
The world is dead matter, and the only thing worthy of respect is the mind.
The Mind Doctrine holds that there is nothing sacred about the universe or its nature, nothing but parts and particles to be rearranged by beings bestowed with intelligence. No heed should be paid to atavisms such as nations, religions, or prejudice. Conscious minds should regard other conscious minds, and judge one another solely on their instantiation of drives of intelligence: curiosity, self-improvement, and the acquisition of wisdom.
The idol of the Mind Doctrine is Brismati Yukli, arch-sovran of the university of Greci. He is the youngest vesperbane to be awarded the title of arch-sovran, and spearheaded entire fields of research into the physics of black nerve, the phylogeny of red ichor, and the nature of vespers. In between writing these textbooks and academic papers, he pens influential philosophical treatises that have given rise to a free-thinking contingent — a rebellious intellectual movement which scoffs at being called a doctrine.
Peace Doctrine
The world is fine. The only problems are extremists and belligerents who disturb the peace.
The Peace Doctrine holds that cooler heads will prevail, and the best one can do is leave things to settle back into their equillibrium. From the era of chaos came the alliance of hope, and from the horrors of the third dominion came the Pantheca of Mantiskind. In the end, the better angels of our nature assert themselves, and things returned to normal. One should be skeptical of drastic change, and reluctant to throw yourself to this side or that in base ideological matters.
The idol of the Peace Doctrine is First Coordinator, whose administration reigned in the squabbling of vindicator and vesperbane, creating the stewartry system as a compromise. She cemented the decorum and process now considered inherent in the syndic class. Over decades with her influence, compacts were drawn with the tribal therids in the canyons, a few industrious megapoli of the euvespids, and rights were granted to roaches, until the then-new Pantheca could truly be considered a new alliance in the minds of most.