Church of the Three Heroes

The Church of The Three Heroes, also known as the Cult of the Three Heroes, is the secondary antagonistic faction, which served as the main antagonists of the third and fourth volumes of the light novel series The Rising of the Shield Hero, the first saga of its original web novel story, and the current run of its anime series. A monotheistic order based within the Kingdom of Melromarc they served as the countries chief religion and were secret allies of its first Princess Malty Melromarc. Led by their High Priest, they openly preached of love and acceptance to all humans but promoted discriminated against Demi-Humans and the Shield Hero. On top of a large priesthood, the Church also had ties to the military (though whether this was their own militia or soldiers helping them is not known) as well as the Kingdoms Shadows. Many of its followers carry a sacred rosary carved in the shape of a composite of the three holy weapons. [WARNING THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS BOOK SPOILERS!]

History
The Church of the Three Heroes split from its parent religion, the Four Holy Heroes several hundred years before the start of the series. The exact reason for this division is never explained, but the founders of this new faith stole a scared replica weapon from the Church of the Seven Star Heroes in the neighbouring country of Faubrey. This weapon replicated the effects and abilities of the Sword, Spear and Bow heroes but required a tremendous amount of energy to use. As such many followers sacrificed their energy (and in some cases their own lives) so that the faiths High Priest could wield it against the enemies of the faith when necessary.

In time, the Church established itself as the chief religion in the Kingdom of Melromarc. Their central base was a church in the countries capital, the steeples of which bore giant monuments to the sacred weapons they worshipped. In the centre of this church was the Red Hour Glass of the Dragon Era, which meant any heroes summoned to this world had to go through the church to receive updates on the waves arrival as well as class upgrades.

It was the Church of the Three heroes that were responsible for the discrimination against Demi-Humans and the Shield Hero. Preaching to rich and poor alike, they told everyone that Demi-humans were impure devilish creatures to be exterminated or enslaved. They also tampered with historical facts so that whilst the wielders of the Bow, Spear and Sword where sacred heroes chosen by God to save the world, the Shield Hero was an evil, brutal and treacherous person in league with the Devil, who was not to be trusted. To further exemplify this claim they pointed to the fact that the previous Shield Hero had been known to be kind to Demi-Humans.

By the start of the series, the teachings of the Church had been firmly ingrained, within the minds of the aristocrats and commoners alike. It was for these reasons that Naofumi Iwatani suffered from discrimination and prejudice from the get-go.

Summoning the Heroes and framing Naofumi
Following the events of the first wave, representatives from the Church approached the current ruler of Melromarc, King Aultcray, and suggested that the time had come to summon the Four Legendary Heroes in order to protect the world. In reality, Queen Mirelia Q Melromarc was the true power behind the throne, with Aultcray serving as a proxy in his wife's absence. With the Queen away on a diplomatic mission with the rulers of the other countries, however, the Church used this situation to their advantage since the Queen (who served the faith of the Four Holy Heroes) would never have agreed to their scheme of summoning the four heroes together, as it would give Melromarc an unfair advantage over the other countries.

The ploy was successful, and (ignoring the political implications of their actions) the Church, at the King's instruction, successfully managed to summon four heroes; Motoyasu Kitamura (Spear Hero), Ren Amaki (Sword Hero), Itsuki Kawasumi (Bow Hero) and Naofumi Iwatani (Shield Hero). From the get-go, Naofumi recognised that he was being treated differently to the other heroes, with many people either ignoring him or looking upon him with disdain.

Unknown to any of the heroes, The High Priest had already conspired with the sadistic First Princess Malty to frame the Shield Hero in order to gain the other heroes favour. King Aultcray, who had his own reasons to hate the Shield Hero, was aware of this plot and agreed to back them up. Their plan was successful, within forty-eight hours of his summoning Naofumi was falsely accused of rape by Princess Malty, and became an outcast in the Kingdom hated by everyone and appreciated by no one.

The Shield Hero would later learn that prior to receiving his false charges, agents of the Church were already spreading bad rumours and other accusations against him. This explained why the citizens of Melromarc were so hostile, and the lie so easily believed because it seemed to back up the preachings of the church.

The Duel of the Heroes
With their mission apparently successful the Church of the Three Heroes set about doing its part to help Motoyasu, Ren and Itsuki become the heroes of legend. Like the rest of the Kingdom, they gave the three preferential treatment, and prior to the second wave, they gave the Sword, Spear and Bow Heroes sand from the hour-glass helping them learn new skills and providing them with a class up.

Church representatives were kind enough to let Naofumi visit the dragon hour-glass so that he could learn about the time for the waves but that was as far as their assistance for the Shield Hero extended. Any time he visited the Church Naofumi noticed the hostile glances from the nuns in attendance. Queen Mirelia later suggested that the reason the Church of the Three Heroes did not eliminate Naofumi right away was that they believed he would not be able to protect himself with only a shield and that he would either die straight away or could be eliminated later on by the more powerful heroes.

Naofumi did survive the second wave, however, with the assistance of his demi-human slave Raphtalia and a small number of knights. At the celebration that followed, Motoyasu was tricked by Myne into challenging Naofumi for Raphtalia's freedom. The High Priest watched the duel alongside many other attendants, and whilst the duel was initially going in Naofumi's favour, Malty illegally intervened causing Motoyasu to be declared the winner. Like everyone else, the High Priest said nothing in Naofumi's defence and watched on silently as Raphtalia was freed. However, these actions came to nothing as Raphtalia, Ren and Itsuki all angrily called out the unfairness of the duel before the Demi-human girl snubbed the efforts of the Kingdom by openly declaring that she would rather stay with Naofumi.

Although the High-Priest would later praise Naofumi for his actions in the duel, these events seem to have set the Church against the Shield Hero but also installed doubt about the capabilities of the other three heroes.

Assassination attempt and Framing the Shield Hero again
Between the events of the second and third waves, the Church kept tabs on the actions of the four heroes. Whilst Ren, Itsuki and Motoyasu went around acting like heroes, they continued to treat their adventures and general experience as nothing more than a video game, endangering the lives of many citizens and causing great calamities in their own way.

Naofumi and his companions, on the other hand, became travelling merchants aiding citizens whenever possible and testing their skills against real opponents, whilst cleaning up the other heroes mess. This caused the ordinary citizens to start doubting the Church of the Three Heroes teachings and start looking towards Naofumi as the only true genuine hero. The Shield Hero would be forced to encounter the Church two times prior to the third wave.

On the first occasion, he purchased holy water to aid in Raphtalia's recovery. There he met the High Priest who chastised one of his subordinates for trying to swindle Naofumi and allowed him to purchase true holy water. During their second meeting, the Hour-glass attendants refused to allow Raphtalia and Filo to Clas-up without an exorbitant amount of money. Although Naofumi was prepared to pay it, a declaration of the King prevented him from doing so, much to the Nuns amusement.

Despite this, it was Naofumi and his party that defeated the third wave boss, whilst the other heroes wasted time bickering amongst themselves before being easily defeated by Glass. As such the Churches situation looked desperate. Conspiring with Princess Malty who had recently come into conflict with her young sister, the Crown Princess Melty Melromarc, the Church of the Three Heroes and evil Princess, came up with a plan to kill two birds with one stone.

Dispatching agents to pose as Princess Melty's bodyguards these agents used their position to attempt to assassinate the Crown Princess and frame Naofumi for it. The mission failed, as Naofumi was able to prevent Melty's assassination, but a few of the agents escaped claiming Naofumi had abducted Melty and was holding her hostage. In the anime, agents of the Church were shown deliberately modifying footage taken so that Naofumi and his evil party members slaughtered the knights, before distributing the footage across the nation.

As such Naofumi and his party became wanted fugitives. Melromarc soldiers were dispatched all over the Kingdom to find and eliminate him, aided by several nobles (such as Idol Rabier), the Church and the Three Heroes. During an encounter between the Shield Hero and the later, Princess Malty covered up Naofumi's actions by claiming he had unlocked a brainwashing shield, and that he was forcing people to serve him against their will.

Final Battle and Betrayal
Despite the Churches best efforts Naofumi and Princess Melty avoided all attempts to find and capture them. Worse still, during a confrontation between the Four Heroes, Naofumi and Melty presented evidence of the Churches conspiracy. This coupled with the actions of the Knights was enough to convince Ren and Itsuki that something was not right, and the pair began their own investigation.

Recognising that the Bow and Sword Hero were both getting to close to the truth, the High Priest decided to take matters into his own hands. Using the Church's replica weapon, he and a massive band of followers proceeded to 'eliminate' the pair and then told the Spear Hero that Naofumi had been the one who killed them. This led to a confrontation between Motoyasu and Naofumi, where the former called the later a villain, and the accused demanded whether his foolish counterpart had seen the proof of his supposed misdeeds with his own eyes.

Using the situation to their advantage The High Priest and his followers ambushed the Shield and Spear Hero proceeding to fire upon them indiscriminately. Branding Naofumi a Devil and a murderer, and calling Motoyasu, Ren and Itsuki false heroes that already been killed by the Shield Demon, the Pope declared he would eliminate all of them in the name of God. With the Churches lies finally exposed, Naofumi and Motoyasu, reluctantly joined forces to in order to defeat their latest enemy. They were soon joined by Ren and Itsuki who survived their assassination attempt and for the first time since coming to this world, the Four Heroes and their parties stood united.

An epic confrontation followed pushing every single one of the heroes and their comrades to their limits. Due to the sacrifices made by the churches followers over countless generations, The High Priest, however, seemed relatively unaffected. As the battle unfolded, his followers continued to stand and fight despite suffering horrific injuries. As such, it quickly became clear that it was the High Priest that had the brainwashing power, and that desperate measures had to be taken in order to defeat him.

Ultimately, the Four Heroes prevailed thanks to the timely arrival of Queen Mirela Melromarc, who imprisoned the Pope and his followers in an ice field. With their powers temporarily nullified, Naofumi unlocked his latest shield, Blood Sacrifice, dealing justice to the High Priest for all of his misdeeds. As such the Popes body was destroyed by the power of the very hero his religion had vilified, undoing his brainwashing and leaving his name and soul damned for all eternity.

Fall from power
With their leader eliminated, the surviving members of The Churches Army found themselves not only leaderless but surrounded by the heroes and forces loyal to the crown. Their crimes exposed, they were arrested on the spot. Queen Mirela Q Melromarc had no sympathy for the Churches followers as their actions against the Shield Hero and summoning of the heroes in the first place, led to diplomatic tensions with the other countries, which had not soothed over and left the entire world vulnerable.

Upon returning to the capital, Mirela took back the throne and was able to publicly clear the Shield Heroes name, proving beyond any doubt that any accusations made against him by Malty and the Church had been false. As such the Shield Hero quickly became a celebrated hero, whilst the atrocities of the Church Three Heroes were publicly brought to light.

The Queen also took the necessary steps to punish the institution that had plotted to kill her beloved daughter and destabilise her nation. King Aultcray, Princess Malty and several other nobles were stripped of their titles indefinitely for aiding the Church of the Three Heroes. Members of the now shamed institution were either executed or imprisoned. The final blow came when Queen Mirela Q Melromarc publicly banned the Church of the Three Heroes, stripping it from its position of the state religion, and installing the Faith of The Four Holy Heroes in its steed.

Despite this, the damage caused by the Church of the Three Heroes would still felt. Many nobles remained distrustful of Naofumi, and the rumours that circulated about him did not truly disappear. Some people even continued to support the Church of the Three Heroes, who became an underground cult still preaching about the treachery of the Shield Hero. In the long run, their preferential treatment held the Spear, Sword and Bow heroes back, making them uncooperative with each other, which eventually led to them being viewed as failures, whilst Naofumi, the Devil of The Shield continued to save the world alongside his party members, completely contradicting, the Church of The Three Heroes teachings.