Esoteric Order of Cxebru
The Esoteric Order of Cxebru is a religion. Records date its foundation to a cult of rouge spirits in an unknown time period. The faith disbanded or went underground until recently, when it was presumed to be revived by the South Sea Saltmines LTD (3S LTD) CEO Thumb Yolk. Research into the order is ongoing, however its followers seem to be fanatic worshipers of the ancient grand spirit "Cxebru" (pronunciation unknown). Many differences can be noted in the new and old versions of the order.
The movement has been largely considered harmless, however nations have expressed concerns about the new incarnation of the order.
Beliefs
The order's followers believe that the creation of the universe was a pact with 4 ancient spirits, who would project aspects of themselves into that reality to create humans. Followers of the order believe each spirit granted their aspects elementary bending abilities and would use these aspects to wage war between one another. The order's followers believe a fifth spirit, Cxebru, refused to sacrifice his power to cast aspects into the plane until the other 4 spirits forced him to cast aspects into the world, gifted with the ability to bend spirit.
Within the order followers are split into two groups, those who can bends spirits and are considered aspects of Cxebru and those who are not, believed to be pillars of the mortal world. The order's core goal is to free themselves of what they believe to be a false vision being portrayed by the 4 spirits who maintain the faith of their aspects by projecting themselves as false Gods. This goal was more abstract in the earlier version of the order, however the new order has shown to act upon these beliefs in a more extreme way, likening the mortal form to be a "cancer on the body of Cxebru".
The old order believe Cxebru communicates through a chosen one via dreams, whereas the new incarnation of the order seek to locate various books through which Cxebru is said to communicate directly to a chosen one (The high priest of the order, a title which is inherited by bloodline).
Practices
No actual practices of the old order are recorded, in fact it is believed few spirits actually followed the faith literally. The new order of Cxebru have however been shown to more literally follow what is known as "meditative annihilation of physicality". New members into the order who are deemed aspects of Cxebru partake in the rite of eyes in which they sew their eyes and mouth closed.
Scriptures
Copies of the scripture of the original order are somewhat difficult to find, the order likely only produced one hand written copy of their two holy books, these being Hands of the Divine and The bible of the Esoteric Order of Cxebru. The bible is written in a dense and abstract style, making little to no sense and being largely up to interpretation, Hands of the Divine serves as a supplementary text, providing the most common interpretation of the bible. It also acts as a manifesto of the original order.
Due to the new variation of the order believing themselves to have access to the words of Cxebru directly, there are far more texts written on them. Cxebru communicates in a similarly dense and cryptic style as the style of the original order's bible and as the new order value expansion much more heavily over the original one there are far more penned interpretations. The new order believes these books to be the books of delusions, eyes, heretics and hands.
Very little of the supposed direct words of Cxebru are published, however it is believed these untranslated words are written down in a book within the main shrine of the movement. Several commentaries have been published and are reportedly in heavy circulation in regions of the world open to 3S LTD trade. These books are unrecorded on import documents. Commentaries on the book of delusions appears to serve as the main book of the new movement, directly quoting the actual book of delusions frequently, and The rite of eyes lays out the doctrine of "meditative annihilation of physicality". The remaining books On the book of mouths, on the book of heretics, on the book of hands all seem speculative, as if to imply the order have not yet located the respective holy books.
In some circles it is believed that the books act as an anchor through which the high priest of the order is able to communicate to the owner through their dreams. This phenomenon has only been observed in spirits and may simply be an adapted form of astral projection.
History
It is unknown when exactly the original order formed, however it is largely agreed that they disbanded around the time of formation of the church of fire. There is no evidence to suggest the two events are linked.
The second version of the order seems to have resurfaced during the exile, where is it supposed the new high priest Thumb Yolke managed to convert several Kaerii tribe members to the order, likely taking advantage of their desperation. The order then built a ship and sailed south, landing on an island and constructing their shrine. This shrine is believed to be both the main mine site of South Sea Saltmines LTD and the site of the book of delusions.
Following the assassination of the Water Tribe's Chieftain Urist by pillagers it was noted that several of their advisers had copies of the order's work, some believe these advisers acted to aid in the continuation of the Frisian-Water Tribe conflict as well as somewhat strengthen the possession of the chieftain, this is however speculative. The order are believed to have had no role in the assassination of Urist as the order used the war to gain members in discontented regions of both nations. The order seem hostile towards the church of Hebenism, as with any other faith.
Potential ties to South Sea Saltmines LTD
A report headed by salt news NOW writer Fabien Chungo has unearthed a lot of what we know about the new version of the order. Fabien notes that the reformation of the order aligns with the rapid growth and expansion of South Sea Saltmines LTD. It is supposed that 3S LTD is a front through which the order are smuggling texts into nations the company trades with.
The report is largely speculative at the moment, only being able to tie both parties to Thumb Yolke, however there is no evidence to suggest they are not independent entities run by Thumb. The air and fire nations are the only nations currently not in trade with 3S LTD, the former cutting off trade when a worker was supposedly spotted having completed the rite of eyes. 3S LTD and the order have always seemed hostile towards the fire nation, commenting on the church of fire as the "Grandest and most false of the stale faiths" in the book On the book of heretics. No reports of any of the order's work or influence has been reported in the fire nation.