Ponythread Learns to Draw! Together!

[Thanqol]

Oooh! Very nice! But I'm curious: what's that around his neck?

(Also, saved!)

It's the symbol of the Ministry of Paternoster, the faction within the Seers of the Throne who serve the Father. They're basically the awful side of religion, the idea that everything is OK if God says so, that humanity is fundamentally wretched and awful and the best it can manage is a gibbering prayer to an allmighty Father, and that Holy War must be waged to destroy all blasphemers. The Paternoster believes in the Father, but not the Son or the Holy Spirit - those are lies told to Sleepers. Compassion and mercy are lies. You serve God because he is God, even if God is evil, even if "God" is merely an ascended human. And moreover, only the Chosen are allowed to worship God. If you taught the Sleepers how to pray to the Father, they'd get it wrong.

If you want to get an idea for how these guys think, I cannot say it better than Trent Reznor in his song, God Given.

"Faith is an unbreakable chain"

The entire album, Year Zero, is basically the soundtrack to the Seers of the Throne.