Saint Gorgoth
It was shortly after the Apocalypse war, when the
Eclipsed Kingdom was only recently eclipsed and when the Black Church was
freshly founded when an arch-heretic from a foreign land presumed to rob God of
his sacrifice and endanger, not only the Eclipsed Kingdom, but the whole world.
This heretic defeated all Knights sent against him and
nearly escaped with the young lady before, at the borders of the Kingdom Saint
Gorgoth fell upon him. The two battled for many hours and Gorgoth was pierced
many times with lance and sword. Despite this, his faith in Azathoth never
faltered. When the first Grail Knights found his corpse, his black blood. and
that of heretic was spread over half a mile of mountain. They feared that the
Gift of Azathoth had escaped but, listening, they heard her cry.
With his last act, Gorgoth had taken her into his
cavernous maw but, crucially, not swallowed her. There she remained, trapped
behind his sword-like teeth as if behind prison bars. The Grail Knights were
able to retrieve her and, before she gave birth, they took her to the Cathedral
of the Black Pope and her foetus was removed and the first sacrifice offered to
Azathoth, thus assuaging his divine anger for another year.
All praise to Saint Gorgoth, he whose faith never
faltered and which was able to overcome even his own near-infinite hunger.
Truly the greatness of the Lord is beyond any earthly accounting.
Gorgoth is held by all Knights of the Eclipsed Kingdom as
a symbol of courage, loyalty, self-control and faith in God, all of the most
central and powerful elements of chivalry, and for that reason, is considered
the epitome of Knighthood. (see ‘Orders of Chivalry).
Though there are many more Knights of Saint Gorgoth than
Monks of Saint Gorgoth, there is a small order, occupying only one small
monastery, whose speciality is the Language and Behaviour of Wyrms.
(Most Knights of Saint Gorgoth are surprised to find out
that this order of monks exists, and disappointed to find them extremely dull
and concerned only with the language and history of lizards, Wyrms and Snakes.)
The sign of Saint Gorgoth (for Monks) is a curled black
dragon pierced by many barbs and his monks wear the common black habit of the
clergy.
Saint Eusia
It was the Lady Eusia who learnt the language of the wind
and preached the gospel of Azathoth to the snow itself, thereby converting the
Winter Court, and the Queen of Air and Darkness in her Winter self, to His
worship. She also preached the Apocalypse through Light, predicting that the
end would come through a blinding effulgence.
Because of this, her memory is sacred to the Winter Court
and the habits of her nuns are white, like the snow. The Nuns serve as
ambassadors to the Queen of Air and Darkness during Winter and it is claimed
the greatest of that order has cold skin, walks barefoot on the snow and cannot
feel the cold. The Abbess of the order has a formal position on the Winter
Court.
The sign of Saint Eusia is a Blue Hand on a white
background and she is associated with Wind, Cold, Languages and freezing to
death.
Saint Korbin
It was Saint Korbin who preached and lead the great
crusade against Summer, thereby driving that rebellious and heretical season
and the court thereof beyond the boundaries of the Eclipsed Kingdom. By his
great efforts Summer has never come again.
In the reported words of the Black Pope Herself, the
Monks of Saint Korbin are “Bearded, bald, intolerant, illiterate and strict. An
iron rod in the hands of the church”. They maintain an oath of illiteracy,
passing on the Gospel of Azathoth through speech from monk to monk. Their hymns
are mighty, dark and terrifying to hear. They keep a constant watch for any
evidence of the return of Summer. They were the only order to argue for the
total destruction of the Spring Court instead of its imprisonment and they
regard any evidence of Spring, Birds or Heresy as clear evidence of slipping
moral standards in the Eclipsed Kingdom.
Though they are not an
Order Militaris the Monks of St
Korbin will give their blessing to the few knights who meet their very high,
and very strict standards of faith and behaviour.
The sign of Saint Korbin is a black sword piercing a
yellow sun and he is associated with strength in piety and endless warfare
against the so-called 'natural' forces of the outer world. His monks wear a
rough habit of black rope or wool and go barefoot.
Saint Sceadwian
It was Sceadwian in his position as Holy Judge of the
Black Assizes who broke the back of Spring, imprisoning its Court beneath the
earth until God should descend and ensuring the Eclipsed Kingdom would be all
but free of this criminal, heretical and rebellious Season.
For this reason the Monks of Saint Scaedwian are allowed
to incorporated the colour green (usually a criminal colour) into their habits.
It is common for a Monk of that order to have a habit bisected down the centre,
with one half green, the other black.
The Monks of Saint Sceadwian are famed for their
knowledge of canon law and most Judges of the Eclipsed Kingdom, either secular
or religious either are or were a member of the order, were educated by them or
are advised by one.
The sign of Sceadwian is a tree with one half green with
leaves and the other bare. He is associated with the fair and indifferent judgement
of god and the church and with opposition to the terroristic and criminal Court
of Spring.
Saint Fogamar
It was the sacred Abbess Fogamar who preached the gospel
of Azathoth to the Autumn Court and to the Queen of Air and Darkness in her
Autumn self, converting them to His worship. (The Queen had already been
converted in her Winter self by Saint Eusia.) The Nuns of Fogamar are
ambassadors to the Autumn Court and the Abbess of the Order has a formal place
in that Court which she must exchange yearly with the Abbess of the Order of
Eusia.
Saint Fogamar converted the Autumn Court through poetry,
(her seventeen sacred psalms are recorded in full in The Book of Fogamar), and
for that reason the order is well respected by Knights for that chivalric value
and sometimes sought after for Feathersmithed swords and shields.
The nuns of Fogamar wear a standard black habit and veil
but they are allowed to carry and play instruments, so long as they are only of
wood, are stringed and have no neck. There have been accusations that Bards
have escaped the Calicem Servi by
retreating to the Nuns of Fogamar and joining the order and relations between
the two groups are strained for this reason.
(Though they are not an Order Militaris, there have been, famously, Seventeen Knights of
Saint Fogamar, each of whom bore feathersmithed arms and armour poetised with
lines from one of the seventeen sacred psalms. Each set was unique and the
Knights did various heroic deeds before being lost to time and mischance. The
seventeen sets of arms and armour they bore are still at missing somewhere in
the world and if re-assembled, the Knights of Saint Fogamar could potentially
ride again.)
The faithful of the Nuns of Fogamar cannot truly die of
age, they only dry out, shrink and wizen like Autumn trees, growing knobbly and
black. Old nuns are placed in the Abbeys Autumn Maze where they stay unmoving,
gradually becoming smaller, more shrunken and woodlike, often mistaken for
roots.
Fogamars sign is a Lyre. The habits of her nuns are a
very dark brown, lined with autumnal red. She is sacred to the writers and
divine poets of the Church and is revered by the Autumn Court.
Saint Culix
The Half-Elf Saint who preached to the Magicians, the
gender of Culix is unknown, as are details of exactly what he or she preached.
They were known to be a potent Magic-User and a servant or apprentice of the
Lady Esmerillon, half-sister of, and Sorcerer to, the Sleeping King.
Most versions of the Book of Culix suggested that he, or
she, converted the magicians through a combination of philosophy, trickery,
riddles, force and promises of magical power. The common lay story holds that
Culix attempted every method possible to move the weak faith of the Sorcerers
and expended tremendous force in attempting to compel them, but only ultimately
found success through trickery, as the Sorcerers respected the multifarious
cunning of his, or her, schemes and agreed that only someone with divine
inspiration could have produced them.
The monks, and nuns of Saint Culix, wear standard habits
of black, but are allowed to embroider the insides of their outer cloaks with
sliver signs of their magical capacities. Most members are magic users and
scholars of some kind and their Priory’s and Monasteries are even more
extra-dimensional than most places in the Eclipsed Kingdom.
The sign of Saint Culix is a bolt of lightning twisting
back on its own path. Sometimes Culix him, or herself is shown grinning. They
are either being accidentally struck by their own spell or cunningly warding
off someone else’s spell. The exact status of the lightning and its relation to
the saint is part of the Mystery of Saint Culix.
Culix is sacred to Magicians and Sorcerers of all kinds,
or at least they claim he is to the Monks of Saint Korbin when they come
knocking.
Saint Szyszczak
The child saint who converted the wise to Azathoth with
her sacred screams, which blotted out all rational thought and revealed the
primordial and absolute reality of nothingness.
In the early years of the Black Church, many holy men and
philosophers came to debate the new Priests of Azathoth (in between mutual
crusades and counter-crusades). They thought to use their legalistic and
abstract tools of rhetoric to sow doubt in the minds of the holy and to
overturn the word of god and at the time some of the freshly-enlightened were
not yet wise enough themselves in the ways of the world to refute them, and
some did doubt.
Then Szysczak came among them. She was but a child at the
time but she was rich in Faith. She spoke not to the heretics, nor did she
argue, but revealed the Pure Truth of Azathoth through her divine and continual
scream.
·
On the first day of her scream, many doubted her
and tried to dissuade her. They said amongst themselves “why is this girl
screaming?” and “why is she here?”
·
On the second day of her scream, some fled.
·
On the third day of her scream, the heretics
said amongst themselves “she is soon to die, for no-one, man or beast, can
scream continually for four days and live”.
·
On the fourth day of her screaming, yea, many of
the heretics pleaded and begged with her to stop, and many wept, yet the
faithful were emboldened.
·
On the fifth day of her screaming, all fell
silent and some went mad for they felt the eye of the Lord upon them.
·
But on the sixth day, they Saw and were
converted to the True God, and wept bloody tears of joy for they had seen the
Darkness Beyond All Things.
The Nuns of Saint Szyszczak are famous for their
screaming sermons and, at the alter of Szyszczak, there has been a continual
scream, renewed in shifts, ever since the Saint Herself walked the earth.
The nuns of Saint Szyszczak are permitted habits of dark
and bloody red and she has many lay members, the Flagellants of Szyszczak, who
follow in their path. Her symbol is a screaming mouth.
Saint Fugol
Saint Fugol preached and lead one of the Regrettable
Crusades and is both famous, and infamous for this. His actions lead directly
to the Oath of Saint Vish (see below).
Due to their heresy, their greed and their indifference
to law, Saint Fugol preached against the birds, and all the creatures of the air.
He was able to summon enough support for this cause amongst the Churls and
Chivalry to launch a Crusade against the Air.
The crusade met with initial success but, after several
million birds had been destroyed and driven off, there came a plague of bugs
which consumed more of the kingdoms crops than the birds ever had. St Fugol
intensified his preaching, promising that he would locate the heretical Parliament
of the Birds and bring it to heel. His entire crusade was enchanted and
galloped up into the sky.
No-one is sure what happened in the sky but seven days
later the crusade returned to the Eclipsed Kingdom with enormous velocity and
power, splattering knights all over the countryside, causing enormous damage to
life and limb and annihilating two thirds of the Chivalry (either through
falling or impact damage) of the entire realm. It was judged, (by Saint Vish,
see below) that Saint Fugol had preached a False Crusade, causing Azathoth to
turn His eye from His knights. However, the initial part of the crusade was
never formally abjured and so his presence as a Saint of Azathoth remains.
A small Monastic Order of Saint Fugol perseveres,
believing that he battles even now against the evil Parliament of the Birds,
(his body was never found), and that only through his courage and sacrifice
does the Eclipsed Kingdom endure this menace. They do still maintain some small
support as it is unquestionably true that the unspeakable creatures of the air
are a minor, but uncontrollable source of heresy in the Eclipsed Kingdom.
Saint Fugol’s sign is a Broken Wing and the habits of his
Monks are lined with feathers, but the Chivalry abjure his order due to the
disaster of the Aerial Crusade and the Oath of Saint Vish.
Saint Vish
It was Lady Vish who proposed what come to be known as
‘The Oath of Saint Vish’ in which no man of the Eclipsed Kingdom would allow
themselves to recognise the reality, substance, nature or existence of the
creatures known as ‘Birds’.
In the deep shock and sorrow following the Crusade Against
the Air, almost every remaining male in the Eclipsed Kingdom took the oath and,
since then, no man has directly acknowledged the existence of birds or, as they
are known to the church, the Avis
Invernalis.
This, and the continued existence of Aerial Threats, lead
to the creation of the Nuns of Saint Vish, the Order of the Bird-Murderers, or Avis Infernalis Interfectores. This
order is the closest that the Eclipsed Kingdom comes to an Order Militaris of women. They are an armed group which supports the
battle against, and destruction of, the menace of birds or “wing’d beings” of
any kind in the Eclipsed Kingdom. It is an endless and brutally-fought conflict
which can never be fully recognised by the authorities as each man has sworn
never to acknowledge the existence of the creatures against which the order
fights.
The Nuns of Saint Vish commonly do not wear habits,
finding these impactable in their work. Instead they go lightly armoured on
mules and carry the symbol of the Black Claw reaching Upwards from the Earth.
Saint Widhewo
When, during the ‘Schism of Virgins’ an almost total
breakdown of communication and trust between the Lady Esmerillon and the Silent
Knights began to factionalise the kingdom, leading it to the brink of total
civil war, (As opposed to the near-continual wars of oppression, suppression
and succession which make up part of its common background), it was the wisdom
of Saint Widhewo that unified the two parties and returned peace to the
Eclipsed Kingdom.
It is said that Widhewo travelled himself, alone, either
in reality or dream, into the presence of Azathoth himself and there was given
knowledge to repair the kingdom.
Whatever gospel was bestowed upon Widhewo to preach, it
was too much for a mortal mind to comprehend without breaking and his first
sermon in the Court of the Sleeping King killed nine in ten of those present,
caused the King to turn in his sleep, savagely maimed the Lady Esmerillon,
sending her into shock for fifty years and drove most of those who remained mad.
After his sermon resolved the Schism of Virgins, Saint
Widhewo was taken away by the Grail Knights and kept in the Monastery of Mazes.
He was served directly by the totally mad, who communicated his words to the
partially mad, who gave them to the slightly mad, who repeated them to the
Eccentric Laity. For this reason he is called ‘The Lonely Saint’. Though Saint
Widhewo himself has Returned to Azathoth, his Monks continue the organisation
he gave them, being lead by the most mad and praying still inside his maze.
The Sign of Saint Widhewo is a skull with flowers for
eyes and his Monks are permitted to wear whatever they think necessary at any
time, though the Eccentric Laity to usually wear habits of deep black.
Saint Adiaphor
Adiaphor is a minor saint. As a Knight he was carried
off, fully armoured, including his mount, by one of the Avis Infernalis of gigantic size. All present at the time remarked
on how fully Adiaphor held to the Oath of Saint Vish, he looked neither up nor
down, nor acknowledged the gigantic claws grasping him, neither did his
expression or demeanour change but he continued to spur his horse to gallop,
looking straight ahead, as if nothing had taken place.
When the Nuns of Saint Vish eventually defeated the Avis Infernalis in question and
recovered his body from its mountain eerie, they found it miraculously
unchanged. He was still atop his loyal steed, still staring directly ahead,
still smiling vaguely, and quite dead, though uneaten.
This was hailed as a Sign from Azathoth for only That One
can master such total indifference to either life or death.
Saint Adiaphor is hailed by Knights as the Saint of
Divine Impassivity. He also has a small order of monks who do not care about
anything. Their habits are black originally, but become grey with dust and webs
over time. His symbol is a half-closed eye.
Saint Dröm
The Moon-Blue saint or the Dreaming Saint, Saint Dröm
was a dungeon dreamer from a distant realm who found himself incarnated in the
Eclipsed Kingdom due to the power of the Sleeping King.
Though he occupied the lowest of positions the
seed of True Faith burned in his heart. Saint Dröm attended to the sermons of
the Black Church, and he did more than attend, he questioned the priests
closely, asking them ever more penetrating and revealing questions as to the
nature of God.
Though he was but a churl, and a dreamer to
boot, the priests were impressed with the seriousness of Dröm’s attention and,
over time, the answers to his questions brought him further and further up the
hierarchy of the church until he stood before the Thirteen Cardinals of the
Black Church themselves.
Seven of the Cardinals advised that Saint Dröm
be permanently and repeatedly executed for daring to come before them, but,
before the vote was counted, the Black Pope herself, the Pontifex Nigrum
in Tenebras Exteriores, came amongst them. She spoke directly to Saint Dröm
and the power of her presence was so great that he fell upon the ground and
swore faith in Azathoth forever more.
At that moment he disappeared, and he did not
return.
It was assumed at the time that Saint Dröm
had probably died from a heart attack after witnessing the near-divine presence
of the Black Pope, or that he had simply been woken in the dungeon he slept in
and had been released.
It was only much later that news of Saint Dröm
reached the Eclipsed Kingdom. Dröm was the imprisoned heir to a mighty empire in
a distant land. His parents had been assassinated when he was but a babe and he
had been blinded and cast into the darkness to eat bugs and lick slime from the
walls. After a series of sanguine civil conflicts wiped out most of that
empires nobility, Dröm was released from his dungeon and restored to the throne
as the Blind Emperor.
The people of that empire were astounded at
his learning and composure for he had been kept hidden in the dark for all of
his life yet he spoke like an educated man and seemed well informed on matters
theological and philosophical. The people rejoiced at this for they saw it as a
consequence of his Imperial blood.
In fact, these were the lessons of the
Eclipsed Kingdom and of the Black Church. Saint Dröm never forgot what he had
learned in the kingdom of the Sleeping King, he did not apostatise his faith in
Azathoth, but neither did he reveal it. Instead he waited and ruled wisely,
slowly seeking out those who might be receptive to the True Faith and building
shadow networks inside the state.
Invisibly he embroiled the Empire in various
conflicts, draining its strength and exposing its people to the true nature of
Chaos. Over the years his cult spread and found followers in many of the noble
houses. Dröm founded the Inquisition to seek and destroy his own cult, secretly
the Inquisition itself was an agent of the same power, seizing the most potent
servants of Azathoth and bringing them before the Blind Emperor to be
bound to his service.
When the time was ripe, Dröm revealed his true
self and openly expounded his belief in the Demon Sultan Azathoth.
Regrettably, but predictably, the pale and
shallow souls and intellects of men were unable to sustain such a faith and, in
their weakness they sought to deny Azathoth and turned against their Emperor.
In a cataclysmic war he was brought down and martyred for the Black God.
The story of these events only reached the
Eclipsed Kingdom many years later but when they were confirmed Saint Dröm was
formally beatified and an Order founded in his name.
The habits of the monks of Saint Dröm are a
dark blue and he is sacred to the dreamers, and it is due to his example that
dreaming souls are accepted into the clergy of the Black Church.
The symbol of Saint Dröm is a blank and
sightless eye with a pupil like an eclipsed sun.
I'm really enjoying your "Eclipse Knights" setting, great job! I like how it has an oneiric feel but also a strong internal coherence.
ReplyDeleteI had several entries left to read, since I was getting the updates of your blog through your Twitter account, which seems to be gone now.
Anyway, this is a very interesting concept, it makes me wish I had time to draw a picture about it!
Speaking of which, last month I finished the three dwarves, I don't know if you saw it already, but I hope you like the result:
http://dandibuja.tumblr.com/post/155714119589/
Thanks very much for the complement Dan.
DeleteYes I had to leave twitter, watching the mutual cultural annihilation unfold in real time was getting a bit much for me.
The Dwarves are charming, I do like the colours.
You are welcome!
DeleteI understand, this is the reason why I try to use it as little as possible.
I'm really glad you liked the colours, I was using a different style, something clearer than usual.
Back in September I found time to draw the symbols of all the orders, I hope you like them!
ReplyDeletehttp://dandibuja.tumblr.com/post/165510852104
They are really good Dan, I liked (and reblogged) them a lot.
DeleteThank you! I'm really glad you liked them!
Delete