The Document

In modern Terran religion, the Document is a collection of writings that was allegedly written by prophets from the Terran Mingle. Most Terran cultures claim some type of ownership or authorship of the original Document, whose whereabouts are unknown.

History
The earliest writings in Terran history involve figures from the Proto-Terran mythology which feature heavily in the Document. Although the first Document would not be properly written until around -500 PT, some writings from up to 200 years before this are nearly identical to the earliest Documents and it is likely the first Document was stitched together from disparate bits of mythology recorded previously.

The Portian Calendar begins at 0 PT, which is the date upon which ancient Portians claimed to have broken away from the whole of the Mingle, taking the first Document with them. This event definitely occurred in some form, as it is attested to in multiple histories and mythologies across the supercontinent, but may not have happened exactly as outlined in Portian popular culture and history. It is incredibly unlikely that the "first" Document stolen by Portia was actually the first Document. More likely, the Knighted Queen stole an important local copy of the Document from the central Mingle canopy-group she and most Portian salticids were part of at the time.

Portian supremacist beliefs uphold the idea that the Document, and much of Terran culture, was engineered by Portians only to be stolen later by other members of the Mingle. Thus, they claimed, this "theft" was a return of the Document to its rightful owners, and the theft of the Document was considered a moment of justice. Despite the "first" Document being so integral to Portian national mythology, the Royal Canopy lost track of its whereabouts before 500 PT, one of the causes of the tension that eventually led to Portian colonialism.

Old Kingdom Hyllus, until its destruction, held that the true "first" Document of Portian lore was hidden somewhere in their forests. If this was true, it was likely destroyed in the burning.

In 109 PT, the ruling Portian Queen, Hinenda, commissioned the First Portian Edition of the Document for mass printing and distribution, gathering her most trusted storytellers and propagandists to solidify a Documentist canon and edit the existing text of the Document to strengthen certain Portian beliefs while downplaying elements that had become less fashionable. Four more Portian editions of the Document were commissioned by various rulers over the next century, with the Last Portian Edition of the Document written in 381 PT. Although Queen Skischif would commission another edition in 507 PT, in an attempt to boost Portian morale during the Portia-Hyllus War, a later feud between her bloodline and that of her successor led to the dismissal of this edition, and the Last Edition has been upheld as the definitive edition ever since.