Kapuhenasa

The Kapuhenasa is the governing body of the Loa faith and serves as the overarching judge and arbiter of all religious matters and disputes. However, unlike Occidental Christianity, the Loa faith does not exist as a concept independent of the Kapuhenasa, with most Loa regarding the church and the faith as one and the same, likely due to the fact that any and all schisms in the faith have been reconciliated. As such, the term Kapuhenasa has come to refer to both the church and the liturgy and tenets behind the Loa faith, though Henasa is used to refer to the church while Kapu is used to refer to the tenets.

The Loa faith is panentheistic, revering a central, feminine manifestation of the energy of the universe named Nagala. She is the summation of the Polynesian concept of mana, the divine energy that permits change, action and existence. Nagala is called the Perfected Mana, as it is believed she is the absolute expression of all mana. She is often likened to the center of the universe, and is said to draw all creation back to her radiant center.

The Loa also believe that Nagala 'flows' or 'blossoms' into certain individuals, who then possess her divine perfection and are called Incarnates, referring to how they are viewed as the incarnation of the Goddess on earth. The Incarnates are viewed as infallible, with every action, belief and will of their's possessing the grace of Nagala, and as such are worshipped as the agents of her will on earth. The accounts of their lives and the books of poetry describing Nagala that every Incarnate is expected to write serve as the liturgy of the Kapuhenasa and are called the Anahuenna and Books of Ecdysis specifically.

Despite this, the Loa do revere a vast pantheon of other gods unrelated to Nagala, who are viewed of as spirits existing separate from this earth but still subject to Nagala's will. The spirit that are seen as aligned with the divine will are permitted to be revered, though their reverence cannot supersede that of Nagala. These gods and goddesses vary tremendously from region to region and are derived from the polytheistic pre-Henasa religions of the Loa people, having been absorbed into the theology.

The Henasa serves as an extremely influential aspect of Loa society, with the Loa Republic being described as a pseudo-theocracy due to the significant role the church plays in the bureaucracy, a role almost equal to that of the state. Indeed, prior to the formation of the modern day quasi-confederacy of Loa Republic, there was a significant effort to unite the lands of the Loa under a theocratic state managed by the Henasa. Despite the severely diminished influence of this movement, the church still exerts tremendous influence in not only Loa Republic but also other nations with significant Lao populations.

Etymology

Kapuhenasa comes from the Polynesian concept of kapu or taboo. It refers prohibitions of concepts, behaviors and actions that are impure or unclean in the sense that they degrade mana, the universal divine energy. Breaking a kapu is a grave offense, and the Kapuhenasa evolved out of a religious structure designed to enforce the kapu. The term henasa translates roughly to "gardener", and hence Kapuhenasa means "Gardener/Cultivator of Sacred Law" which corresponds to the function of the Loa religious organization as the arbiters of divine will.

Structure

High Fane

The central, high authority of the Loa faith. Based in the Temple city of Masa'a, the High Fane (or Nuolo Tapai in Insuo Loa) is the ultimate and final word on all matters regarding scripture, universal worship practices and theology. In addition, the High Fane regulates socio-political matters between each branch of the faith. Every single Ilaseuasa defers to the High Fane on matters of scripture and inter-scion politics, while determining the practices and aspects of worship themselves according to the local customs, and electing their High Priests.

The Alihantapa, or the matriarch of the High Fane is viewed as the direct successor of the First Incarnate. The succession is laid out in the Anahuenna of the First Incarnate, which details how a nun who has spent at least 20 years as a nun and completed a five year pilgrimage to various temples can be considered one of the preeminent nuns of Masa'a, and thus can ascend as Alihantapa provided a council of peers sharing her pilgrimage experience deem her virtuous enough. This council of nuns is often very large, encompassing thousands of women young and old, and since the time of the Fourth Incarnate, many are religious and legal scholars, forcing the nuns to take into account their peers' academic and legal credibility.

There have been numerous debates regarding the place and influence of the High Fane in society, with the Henasa viewing it as a moral imperative to intervene in all aspects of life, while the state government points to many instances in the Anahuenna where queens and chieftains submit to the Incarnates and retain their status. Regardless, the High Fane holds considerable sway over all aspects of life with the Loa Republic being likened to a pseudo-theocracy due to the integral role that the temples and scions play in the bureaucracy of the government. This debate is currently one of the most significant in modern Loa society, with the Union of the Loa Republic supporting a less influential Henasa and the quasi-confederacy system it currently employs, while the Sacred Order of the Golden Flame constantly campaigns to ensure the dominance of the High Fane over all secular governments.

Scion Churches

Further information: List of Ilaseuasa

The Scion Churches (called Ilaseuasa, meaning 'scion', as in a plant graft, in Insuo Loa) are semi-autocephalous churches of the Henasa that preside over all temples and shrines in a particular geo-cultural region. They serve to divide and ease the burden of spiritual and legal guidance over an astonishingly diverse region, and possess a measure of autonomy. They provide services to the community such as legal judgement, education, medical care, infrastructure maintenance and agricultural relief through the temples that they govern.

The autocephaly of these churches is distinct from the autocephaly of the Christian faiths in that the churches do elect their own high priest and regulate their own internal politics, similar to the Istriyan churches, but ultimately they report to a higher authority, that of the High Fane. The scions are notable in that they are free to decide their own doctrine, deities, festivals and worship practices so long as they adhere to the central Loa theology. Due to the flexible nature of the central theology, it is fairly easy to rework various deities and conceptions into the doctrine, with several scions adding new holy texts (such as the Ahoso Ilaseuasa adopting several parables of Jesus and various Gospels into its Anahuenna).

The scions are structured similarly to the High Fane in that there is a high priest elected by a council of priests. The high priest serves to direct the efforts of the scion and serves as the final judge and arbiter of the law. In addition, they are responsible for taking in requests for assistance, whether it be infrastructure, medical, educational or otherwise, and then devising an economic plan based on these needs. This economic plan passes through to the priestly council, who are elected by a circuit of temples in an itisi that the scion is located in. This council then either approves it or disapproves it, in which case it is then reworked. The temple circuits in turn regulate affairs that are too minor to bother the entire scion about.

The scions also serve as the absolute authority on political community matters. They maintain a collection of ansaha, or jury consensus, which serve as one of the three judgments in the Loa legal syste, and reserve the right to hold trials and pass judgement on all criminals in their borders. This of course has lead to tremendous jurisdictional conflict, as each scion has its own specific set of ansaha and interpretation of the Anahuenna. Since temples are mandated to be affiliated with an Ilaseuasa, it is generally accepted that attending a temple for at least a year puts one under the jurisprudence of that particular scion. However, there is of course still the matter of where exactly a scion ends and another begins, making jurisprudence one of the most contentious internal matters in the Henasa.

The Ilaseuasa arose during the Loa Golden Age, when the Loa Imperial Domain was at its height. The Henasa found that various teachings were quite diverse across cultural regions, and that all attempts to regulate and enforce a certain doctrine according to that of the Imperial clan's personal beliefs was exhausting and often futile. As such, the Alihantapa during approximately 1306 CE, Roasa'ahuani, decided to split her control, yielding her power over local judgement and practices to prominent temples on the condition that they make annual displays of loyalty to the High Fane, and mandated that all temples follow one of the (at the time) four scion churches. This number has been updated overtime as certain movements have brought the significance of their cultural and religious disparity to the attention of the High Fane

Shrine Complexes

The shrine complexes are networks of temple shrines devoted to a particular deity. They are governed by a council of Shrine Heads, who often appoint a complex head priest, though not always. The complexes are largely responsible for organizing festivals and ceremonies related to their deity, as well as maintaining any roadside shrines, regulating diviners and maintaining any graveyards or necropoli in the vicinity. They are given a degree of autonomy by the churches, but are unable to regulate the community services the church offers, such as hospitals, schools and census offices. In addition, shrine complexes play a significant role in the bureaucracy, being able to approve or veto proposed laws if they believe the divine disapproves of it in some way, or in other words, what is functionally any charge they can think of.