![[dark_dio_sigil.jpg|400]] ## Overview --- The Church of Darkness is a diocese in [[Transelmany]]. It is the most secluded diocese in Transelmany. Located in the far north, it is the highest and most sparsely populated region of the country, bordered to the east by the [[Church of Space]] and to the west by the [[Church of Time|Time Diocese]] and [[Church of Gravity|Gravity Diocese]]. The newest diocese in Transelmany, it was created from former Church of Space territory. The reasons for its creation were numerous. There was a first and foremost a desire for an even number of Saints on the [[Transelman Council of Saints|Transelman Council]], to offset the powerful vote the [[The Green|Green]] had. There was also a practical desire to carve out the mountainous regions of the Church of Space into their own administrative division, as the wants and needs of those people had began to diverge from those of the lowlanders around Muntbatten as more time passed. In addition, by the time [[Isaac]] had become an Archbishop in Alastair's [[Church of Space|Church]], he was at the forefront of a movement within it known as *Scientific Hagioism*: a process by which previously unexplainable natural phenomena could be understood using a combination of material [[Hagioism|Hagioist]] analysis and experimentation. In 677 AL, the Council of Saints created the Church of Darkness and, new Dark Saint Alastair appointed Isaac as his Dark Archbishop, with the understanding that the Church would be his to craft as he saw fit in preparation for his eventual canonization. Three years later in 680 AL, Alastair officially handed over leadership of the Darkness Diocese to Isaac when he was canonized as the second Dark Saint and twelfth Saint on the Council. Several factors explain the Church of Darkness’ obscurity. High altitude, a low population, and a lack of major urban centers combine to depress tourism. A general ignorance regarding the specifics of [[Flux|Isolation]] result in negative perceptions. As a former part of the Church of Space, the Church of Darkness shares its predisposition to the academics, with its harsh terrain making economically productive activity difficult. But unlike in the Space, the culture of academia in the Darkness is much more research-intensive. Huge emphasis is placed on research, both on the nature of the flux and of the natural world. These efforts notably took off under the stewardship of Saint Isaac. Most of the church’s activities are clandestine; not only due to the avant-garde nature of their research, findings and resulting censorship by Transelmany, but also because of a lack of interest from outsiders in their work. Despite these difficulties, Isaac is a notably popular Saint within the Darkness, and their obscurity slowly but surely falls with each year.