OkranReport
English：Okran · World & History
The god of light worshipped by the Holy Nation, held to be the embodiment of day, warmth and renewal; his name spelled backwards is his dark opposite, Narko.
Okran is the one true god of the Holy Nation, known as the "Lord of Light". As his believers understand him, he is flame, he is light, he is the only radiance in a world full of evil and heresy. Every man, woman and child of the Holy Nation gives their life to him, and the successive Holy Lords Phoenix are regarded as his emissaries.
Two Conflicting Origins
There are two mutually contradictory accounts in the game of how Okran came into being, and the Holy Nation acknowledges only one of them.
The Official Version: Light Defeated Darkness
The Scripture of Radiance, written by the first Phoenix, records that Narko was born in the deepest recesses of the world and meant to erase all that is good; Okran appeared and warred with her in the sky for thousands of years, until the light overcame the dark, subduing her and absorbing her into himself. But Narko's defeat was not the end — during their war her servants were already rampaging across the surface among humanity. Later the two split again, and Okran cast the dark half down beneath the earth while he remained above to watch over the land.
In this version Okran is the primordial good that precedes everything, and Narko the destroyer who rose later and had to be put down.
The Heretical Version: A God Torn in Two
The Book Of Sacrifice gives an entirely different account, which is why the Holy Nation lists it as forbidden (ironically, the book is kept inside Holy Nation temples, presumably for the priests to "study").
The book says that in ancient times a benevolent god named Chitrin was abandoned by his people, and the loss of faith drained his power, whereupon natural disasters followed. Only when "the earth began to devour itself" did people turn back and beg. Chitrin chose to forgive, and sacrificed himself to cleanse the sickness of the planet — but the price was too high, and his being was torn in two:
Okran, god of day, warmth and renewal; Narko, god of night, cold and destruction.
In this version Okran and Narko are not opposed as good and evil but two poles balancing each other, neither dispensable. The whole of Holy Nation theology is built on denying this.
How Doctrine Grows an Institution Out of Myth
Okran is explicitly set as a male figure, while Narko — torn from the dark depths within him and banished beneath the earth — is female. That single mythological premise becomes the direct legal source of the Holy Nation's gender order:
Man was created in the human image of Okran, Lord Of Light; Woman was created in the image of Narko, Demoness of Darkness. — Scripture of Radiance Vol. III, Holy Lord Phoenix I
The same passage also defines the status of non-humans: an impure race is an unholy one, and must be rebirthed to serve the cause of Okran, lest it join the cause of darkness. This is precisely the theological basis for the existence of the labour camp Rebirth — only by labouring and being instructed until death does a soul get its chance to be reborn as a child of Okran.
The Holy Nation's ultimate hope is written down in A Holy Purpose: one day this land will no longer be the home we know, but the Enlightened lands, the lands of all; the children of Okran will live eternal happy lives, the cycle of souls will be forever broken, and people will no longer be held in the grip of Narko and of bestial desire.
That institution, however, is not the same thing as the religion. It is worth noting that the early teachings of the Okranite faith centred on peace, personal responsibility and treating others well; it was only after extremists took power that "the servants of Narko are to blame for the First Extinction" was escalated into a national programme of persecution[V1 0:04:32]. In other words, today's Holy Nation is not the religion in its original form but the result of one of its political turns — a point that matters a great deal for understanding the believers outside its borders who do not dance to the Holy Nation's tune.
Believers Outside the Institution
Okran has worshippers outside the Holy Nation, and their form of faith is often a long way from the state religion. One direct example is the former Holy Nation soldier Griffin: he believes Okran granted him a vision that a wealthy adventurer would lead him to the truth of the First Extinction; he asks the player for 9,000 Cats purely to make them prove they are rich enough[V2 0:00:53]. He is devout, but not blindly obedient to dogma, and walks his own road[V2 0:00:53].
The existence of characters like this separates "Okran" from "the Holy Nation" clearly in the text: the same god can hold up a state apparatus of ethnic cleansing, and can equally hold up an individual who walks away from that apparatus to go and investigate the truth of the extinction.
Another Reading, from the Scholars
The world outside the Holy Nation is not buying it. Researchers on the Tech Hunter side left behind the Okranite Theories In Relation To Findings series, which openly suspects the entire mythology of being misremembered history:
Was Narko in fact the leader of the skeletons and Okran an ancient human who managed to save the few remaining survivors from destruction in a battle between the two sides? — Okranite Theories In Relation To Findings I
Another scholar, Finch, goes further: if the origin of the Okranite faith really does coincide with the First Extinction, then the Skeletons — the only ones immune to a biological extinction and the ones who came through best — were always the easiest scapegoats. Religious fervour plus thousands of years of garbled oral transmission is quite enough to rewrite a plague or a natural disaster into a war between god and demon.
Video citations
- Kenshi: Major Powers | United Cities and Holy NationCivilizationEx
- Kenshi: Unique Companions | GreenlandersCivilizationEx