a cosmic buddy-comedy where light and dark are eternal roommates who never learn to share.
means a religion founded on the belief that the universe is a literal battlefield between good and evil, and your soul is a trapped shard of light doing time in a prison made of flesh.
from founded by the prophet mani in 3rd-century persia, who claimed to be the final messenger after zoroaster, buddha, and jesus, and stitched their teachings into one grand dualist system that spread from rome to china before everyone decided it was heresy.
augustine of hippo — devout manichaean for nearly a decade before converting to christianity
uyghur turpan kingdom — made manichaeism its state religion around 762 ce
cathars of southern france — accused of revived manichaean dualism, crushed by crusade in 1209
mani's book of pictures — an illustrated scripture, unusually visual for its era