Divine Legion

The military arm of the Omnian state. Every good authoritarian religious theocracy needs its own army, to enforce the writ of the priesthood, and to support what could be called muscular evangelical missionary drives into neighbouring countries. In the time of Brutha, the legion was used to support the mission to bring the word of Om to the Ephebians. One of its hitherto unregarded members was a certain Sergeant Simony.

Most members of the Legion wear Fishmail with a black and Yellow cloak, however some have been known to travel in the djeliba of the desert tribes.

Members of the legion include;

• General Iam Fri'it
• Sergeat Simony
• Sergeant Aktar
• Sergeant Fergmen
• Private Dervi Ichlos

By the time of The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day, the Legion has mutated again into the paramilitary, but not ostensibly martial, Sanitary Legion, a worthy uniformed body of men and women dedicated to preaching the word of Om via good works and the rattling of tambourines and collection boxes.

Annotation

Possibly a parody of such Roundworld religious militias as the Knights Templar and the Knights of the Rosy Cross, although there are elements of the Dominican inquisitorial nastiness for which they used slightly more worldly people. The Jesuits, under their founder St Ignatius Loyola, were originally intended to be an all-round martial order who would spearhead the reclamation of territories lost to the church during the Reformation, as well as heading evangelical missions into new lands. (The Jesuits got to the Philippines, Japan and China and founded Catholic missions in all three countries: Catholicism is still dominant today in the Philippines and remains a thriving minority religion in Japan and China). In Europe, Jesuits were prominent in Catholic armies fighting in Holland and Germany, in we know today as the Thirty Years War, and they also acted as the "underground" that kept Catholicism alive in Ireland, despite British attempts to destroy the religion and force conversion to Protestantism. Jesuit priests also acted undercover in England during periods of anti-Catholic persecution.

Another "Divine Legion" on Roundworld was (and still is) the nineteenth century Salvation Army, a uniformed body dedicating itself to being the Church Militant bringing salvation and knowledge of divine love through Good Works. The Salvation Army is also well known for rattling tambourines (well, bells, anyway) near collection boxes during Hogswatch season.