The Book of the Wise Prophets

The Book of the Wise Prophets - also known as the Biblos abd Cythnos Profetes - is the central religious text of the Reformist Church. This item is a WIP, and verse locations may change or be reassigned.
==The Book of Knowledge==
1:1:
Deus, who is God, we praise. He who is all and has created us to serve Him. There is no God but God.
1:2:
You alone will we worship; you alone, and not your demiurges, Deus.
1:3:
For you are merciful and loving, especially loving, and we tread on your road of cythnos.
1:4:
We tread on the path of those who do your will and on who you give favour, not on the path of those who have turned away to other worships.
1:5:
We will not listen to the honeyed words of those who would lead us from you, Deus. Glory unto Deus, who is merciful and wise.
2:1
Being a meditation on the way of faith, the path of enlightenment that is cythnos.
2:2
It is the way of the wise to follow Deus who is God, and the way of the fool to ignore him; it is the righteous path of cythnos to know Deus and unrighteous ignorance to not.
2:3
On those who have seen Deus but who have turned away, a heaviness has been placed on their hearts and a blindfold over their eyes, for they turn from the path of the cythnos into darkness, into sceade.
2:4
And in sceade lurk things hostile to the soul which are better not known; these things having turned from cythnos to sceade long before.
2:5
It is the will of Deus who is God that man shall tread the road of cythnos; that is our purpose, and to tread into sceade transgresses on the will of God, and thus he places on the eyes the blindfold and on the heart the heaviness.
2:6
For those who tread the path of cythnos instead he places strength and wisdom; these are the things that underlie all challenges placed before us by Deus, who is God.
2:7:
On these challenges those who follow not the path of cythnos stumble and fall, for they cannot see the way ahead.
2:8:
But lo, Deus who is God, is merciful, for to those who tread in sceade he offers still hope and endless love. If they will turn back towards cythnos, he will unblind their eyes and unburden their hearts and restore to them strength and wisdom.
2:9:
But he who turns again to sceade shall wander until he dies, for Deus who is God is loving but is not a fool; he tolerates not those who spurn him
2:10:
To those who take their first step into sceade, it is not too late, for they need but express sorrow and place a hand on their heart, and pray to Deus for forgiveness; he is love, he will forgive.
2:11:
But to him who makes no effort to correct this fault, but instead relies only on forgiveness, he will not forgive; Deus who is God is love, but is not a fool. He tolerates not those who spurn him.
3:1
We who tread this path of cythnos tread it by the words of your profetes, who is but a man; we trust in your guidance through him and in our hearts to show us what is righteous and what is false.
3:2:
For it lies in the hearts of all men to know righteous from unrighteous, it lies in the soul. We know that the eye within us that is you, Deus, will show us the truth, the cythnos.
3:3:
Those who would turn us from the cythnos, we rebuke. Those who would blindfold the eye within us that is you, Deus, we will spurn and cast aside; for they are unrighteous devils, servants of the fallen demiurges.
3:4:
What is best in life for man is to walk the path of cythnos; it is best of all things, and those things that do not advance this we will cast aside as distractions from you, Deus, who is God.
3:5:
And those hardships that are given to us on the path of cythnos we see for what they are: your means of making us strong, that we will better serve our purpose.
3:6:
Though we may stumble on the path, we shall not turn away from it because it is difficult or because it is painful or because it is frightening; it is our purpose to walk upon it and thereby nurture our sparks.
3:7:
May the fool who takes his own life, and condemns his spark, and willingly plummets headlong from the path of cythnos, be eternally pitied and reviled both; he was unworthy and shall be remembered only as a wasted man, an empty man, a shell that once held promise but was weak.
==The Book of Wisdom, Imparted by Profetes Everen==
===The Biblos Skapha, that is, The Book of Creation:===
4:1:
It was revealed unto me by the Lord Deus, as I straddled the worlds, the nature of our world and of our past. My words are his words.
4:2:
In the beginning, there was void and there was Deus. And Deus looked on the void and was not content, for the void was empty and meaningless.
4:3:
And so Deus moved over the void, and created all that is; the earths and the skies, the things we touch and the things we cannot see. And this pleased Deus, for the void was now in balance, giving meaning to what was not void and being given meaning by what was not void.
4:4:
And so Deus spent long looking on his creations, and was not content. Deus desired knowledge, and had knowledge, but only from the omniscience. And so he divided himself into his creations, and made first the greatest of them, the Demiurges.
4:5:
They were legion and they were good, and they joined Deus in the glory of creation, and took the broad strokes of his work. They saw things smaller, their knowledge limited, and so they made things smaller. Those we call Titans made mountain and sea; others, nameless, made other things.
4:6:
And in turn, possessed as they were of the divine spark of Deus, the demiurges wished to do as Deus, and made their own creatures. From the one we call Elune (whose true name is Tunele) came Elves; from the nameless many came other things, and from those we call the Titans came Giant and Earthen.
4:7:
And of these, some were themselves creators, called by many names; by Ancient and Loa, by Spirit and other things. And these, possessing only a fraction of a spark, created many lesser things still, and these things are the animals and plants, the trees and birds.
4:8:
And we, human and elf and dwarf, sit in this place. We possess but a fraction, but are possessed by the urge to create, and so we in turn have taken the broad strokes of our own creators and sought to refine them. But our creations may never compare to those of Deus who is God.
4:9:
Of the demiurges, some changed in the great expanse and became no longer the things they once were. They stepped into sceade and forgot their cythnos, and fell. And they placed themselves above Deus, and fought with Deus.
4:10:
And those who did not fought those who did, and Deus warred with himself in his many forms. The nameless Unfallen took up flaming swords and drove back the Fallen, who hid in the deep places and in the void.
4:11:
And of these Fallen were born new creations from their own natures, things lacking the spark that is common to all other things, even to the ant and to the stone and to the breeze. And these things we name demon, devil, old god, and so on.
4:12:
And these things lacking the spark that is the soul are anathema to Deus and to all things with the spark. And they war on those who hold the spark as their creators warred on the Unfallen.
4:13:
They are many and they take many forms, shapeless and shapely. The things that live in the deep pits beneath the earth, which writhe in ichor. The demon hordes that stink of sulfur and lurk in the places between worlds.
4:14:
But worst of their forms are those that are benevolent, for among the Fallen are cunning and do not fight where they can be seen. Their weapon is not the fel blade of the demon, nor the gaping maw of Hakkar; their weapon is honeyed words by which they seduce men to their doom.
4:15:
Those who deny Deus serve these Fallen, and must be fought and turned back to cythnos, for many know not what they do. It is because we possess the spark that we are blind to the evil done by those who mask their deeds with love; as Deus loves, so do we love.
4:16:
Those who tread the path of cythnos must ever be vigilant against those who would tempt them into sceade, into darkness; but also must never forget that Deus does not destroy these things out of hand for he wishes them to return to cythnos themselves.
4:17:
And so we find in our great duty the commandment to go forth and try to bring those in darkness back into light; only those who possess not the spark shall you kill without attempt to save.
4:18:
And of every evil that has befallen this world, we may see the hand of the Fallen.
4:19:
In the great War against Deus, where the Fallen clashed with the Unfallen, our world trembled and shook and the thing that dwells in the endless pit bled from his wounds, and his children sprang from his blood and lie beneath the soils.
4:20:
There they have whispered to the people since, and you shall them know them by their deeds and their words; they are corrupt and foul things. They lure men into sceade.
4:21:
And arising around them are heathen cults, those who call themselves Twilight and others, and they call these things gods, for their ego knows no bounds. But these things are but the children of a Fallen demiurge, as we are children of the Unfallen, and so they are not greater than we.
4:22:
And you shall know them by their deeds and by their true names, which are Kathu, Yiff-sir, Zotha, Nibir and Kawat. And you shall cast them out, for they anathema to Deus.
4:23:
And in the War, where the Fallen clashed with the Unfallen, the spaces inbetween were filled with fire and blood. From the dweller in between were birthed those who dwell between places, latterly called demon. And they have plagued us ever after.
4:24:
And those who dwell between have ever since waited to snare the unwary. Heed well the cautionary tales, heed well the terrible cost brought unto this world by them, for they have caused the world to break and crack, and hordes to pour from other places.
4:25:
But they do this not alone; they do this with the aid of those in sceade, for in sceade there are the things that seduce men into evil. And here begins the warning of the People of Argus, called the Eredar.
4:26:
And so it was long ago with those called Eredar, who stepped away from Cythnos and placed the Light above Deus; they worshipped the tool, and not the maker. And so they were lead into sceade ever deeper.
4:27:
And a time came when the sparks of the Eredar began to die; and soon few among them had the spark. And that is when Varthir came to their world, and seduced them wholly into joining them. They now dwell in the places in between.
4:28:
Those few who had the spark fled, and began their exodus, and now walk among us. But they do not yet see the path of cythnos, and you must guide them back to it, and keep from us what happened to them.
4:29:
For in their flight, those who ran were saved not by Deus, for they had not removed the blindfolds from their eyes and the heaviness from their hearts. Instead, those who are most dangerous took them up, and we call these things Naaru.
4:30:
And the Eredar loved the Naaru, who were gentle and kind; and who loved them in turn. But the Naaru do not have the spark; they are anathema to the Lord Deus. And they have held the Eredar, and kept them from cythnos, and lead them to the slaughter.
4:31:
And here begins the warning of the Orcish peoples, of the world once known as Draenor.
4:32:
The Naaru settled on Draenor with the Eredar, and there spied the Orcish peoples; who then still knew cythnos, and lived in peace and knew the way of Deus in their own way.
4:33:
And they called then for Varthir, who is both destroyer and Subtle One. And he came, and looked, and corrupted the Orcish peoples, and of them they began to lose the spark.
4:34:
And soon there were few among the Orcish peoples in who the spark was but a dull ember, and the Fallen sent them against those among the Eredar in who the spark still burned.
4:35:
And the Eredar died, for they did not walk in cythnos and had not the favour of Deus. Had they removed the blindfold from their eyes and the heaviness from their hearts and turned to walk the path, they would have fought each of them with the strength of a hundred, and survived.
4:36:
But they brought on themselves, with their faith in the abhorrent Naaru, their own deaths, and the deaths of those Orcs who held sparks still, however dimmed, and the world of Draenor began to die.
4:37:
For all things are linked, on a world, and when the sparks of the Orcs began to die, so too did the sparks of the land, the wind, and the sea. And soon it was a desolate place of dust and fire; the Orcs bringing on themselves the Desolation of the Soul.
4:38:
And those few Eredar who yet survive walk among us, as do the many Orcs. And they can yet be saved, for most among them yet possess the dull ember of the spark, and it can be revived; Deus will blow upon it and enflame it if they shall turn and walk the path of cythnos.
4:39:
Through them can be learned the consequences of turning away from cythnos and into sceade; it will bring on you death, despair, and the Desolation. It will bring on those you love death, and the worst fate of all; that is, it shall bring on them the death of their spark, and make of them anathema, never to be saved.
4:40:
But for those who walk the cythnos there will be great rewards, and great strength.
And after the fall of the Eredar and the Alfr into sceade, there was a time of heathenry, where the way of cythnos was forgotten on the face of the earth, and all things did fall to heathenry, and venerated not the Lord Deus but the demiurges and lesser things.
And this endured for long, for years upon years, and in this time the spark in the heart of the living things was diminished. Those things that worshipped Unfallen did not fade so quickly; this is why the Alfr of the Westerlands are strong still, for Tenule is Unfallen. But in those that worshipped lesser things, there was an epoch of great tribulations and of desolation.
And in this epoch man did rise. And on his eyes he placed the blindfold, and on his heart he placed a heaviness, and he stumbled in the sceade, among the foul things; among trolls and beasts and Alfr.
And the troll and the alfr saw man, and took him, and made of him a slave. And this was his reward for treading the sceade and blinding himself to cythnos. And in this age, the Alfr were great sorcerors and placed themselves, in their arrogance, on the level of the demiurges.
And in this age, the trolls were great and mighty, for they had the favour of Trolmatha, who was Fallen. And they lacked the spark, and so they were not blind in the sceade, and ruled in it. And they committed on man many barbarous acts that are anathema to the Lord Deus.
They did offer man up to their Fallen demiurges, who they took for Gods. They did feast on the flesh of man, which is anathema. They did desecrate the holy places.
But this Age of Tribulation came to an end. The Alfr, in their arrogance, did bring forth Varthir, and the world ran red with blood; and many of the Alfr had lost their sparks. But those who did not, who followed the Unfallen Tenule and others, took up swords and drove back the servants of Varthir and those who dwell between places; though they did not tread upon the path of cythnos, their sparks drove back the sparkless.
And the sparks gave to them the strength of a dozen men, and made them fearless, and guided their hands. And the Alfr split; there were the goralfr, who were fallen, and the gutalfr, who were not. And the gutalfr released their humans, who fought in the hidden places of the world, in the lands now known as the Great Desolation.
And when the goralfr and those who dwell between spaces were driven back, Varthir unleashed his rage on the world, and shattered it. But he could not destroy it, for it still held its sparks, and he was driven away.
And what followed was the Sundering, the Year of Reckoning, in which the unrighteous were swept away by the sea; and did drown in the deeps except those who made pacts with the Fallen. And in the Year, man did throw off the chains of the trolls as well, and fought back, and was free. And when the waters did recede, the world was forever changed; Flothir and Molkir of the Unfallen had reshaped it.
The gutalfr split themselves to live on the two halves of the reshaped world, and sailed across the Great Sea, and found man. And they moved then, fearing the anger of those they had enslaved, and settled in the Northerlands of Quel'thalas.
And the trolls were much diminished, and blamed their gods for their defeats; and then Trolfrelsir came forth and named himself such, for he was once of the Nameless Unfallen who had defended the Heavens. And he gave of himself to the trolls, and gave them his spark, and thus they walk on this world with some who may yet be saved.
But in this, man did not remove his blindfold or the stone from his heart. He prayed still to spirits, and not to Deus, and so began the Second Tribulation of man. For an age, he hid among the trees and hills of the East, hunted by the trolls and the beasts, blind to the truth.
And in this time, he spread across the land; from the borders of the Northerlands to the tip of the Southerlands, he went. But nowhere did he find peace; at every turn were trolls and beasts, the things that live in the deep woods that feast on flesh, the things of the desert that drag men beneath the soils, the things of the sea that shatter boats.
Biblos Pretharisa'Dead-rising', in a RL conjunction of a supposedly Sanskrit word for dead body and slightly modified Old Norse for 'to rise'. In need of later expansion, for now mostly a listing of laws relating to disease.
When any man, faithful or unfaithful, shall bring from his mouth or nose pus or impurity, he shall be unclean for so long as he brings it forth, and a month from when it ceases to come forth from mouth or nose.
And anything he touches shall be impure; the faithful and the unfaithful shall both not touch it. And any man who touches it shall be impure for a month, and is to perform laugaplenum.
This is the law of the plagues; this law you shall follow when disease comes upon you.
For the corruption of the Fallen has brought forth great plagues that wrack the faithful, and these plagues you shall shun, and avoid, and survive.
But you will not, those who have made oaths to serve, shun those who suffer; you shall willingly risk your life for them, that they might be saved. If any man who has made an oath to serve Me refuses this, you shall cast them out from the flock.
And those who have sworn their lives shall know the signs of the plagues, and their treatments; and they will seperate those who are tainted from those who are not.
The bodies of those who are tainted, and who die, you shall burn. Whether in sceade or on the road of cythnos, you shall burn their bodies, that their taint may be consumed by the flames.
And if you may not do this, you will place their bodies far away from you, and you shall remove their heads and place them seperately, that they may not rise against you.
For this is one of the many weapons of the Fallen; they mock life with un-life, and you shall abhor unlife and destroy it whenever it shall rise against you.
And when the plague that brings un-life is brought upon you, you shall enforce my laws, and by this you shall have my favour, and it shall spare you.
But whenever a man is sick, you will take caution to heart; you shall treat him as brother still, but you shall not lie with him; nor shall you sit where he has sat, nor eat from what he has eaten, nor drink where he drinks, nor enter into a room with him.
You shall aid him despite this, in all manners needed; if he is befouled those who have sworn their lives shall bathe him. If he is weak, they shall feed him.
The Biblos Laga:
Being a meditation on the laws of Deus; those which govern what is sceade.
You shall follow the path of cythnos.
You shall spurn those who would lead you astray from the path, and into the darkness that is sceade.
You shall not willfully step into sceade.
Those things lacking in the divine spark shall be anathema to you, you will not consort with them; be they demon, devil, or other things.
You will not abide the existence of such things; they are anathema to Deus and must be destroyed.
You will know there is a God, and that God is Deus.
You shall hold no others before him; those who do are mistaken, and to be brought to the light.
As Deus loves you, you shall love Deus.
As Deus loves you, you shall love those who follow Deus.
Also, you shall love those who tread on the path of cythnos, from their first step to the last. They are your brother.
You shall not hate any who treads on the path of cythnos, nor deceive him.
If a priest shall deceive one on the path of cythnos about the path, he shall be put to death; for his way is anathema to Deus who is God and to all the righteous.
You shall build no churches, idols, or shrines. Deus is to be worshipped, not the craftsman.
If a priest shall build a church, and hold services within it, and do so at any time save when there is reason, he shall be corrected. If he shall refuse to see, he shall be cast out.
If a priest shall see a church built by the faithful, and does not stop them, he shall be cast out.
If a priest swears on an idol, he shall be cast out.
If a priest shall consecrate his children before an idol, he shall be cast out.
If a priest shall declare that there is no God, that he is above God, that a demiurge is greater than Deus, or otherwise blaspheme so, he shall be cast out.
So too shall a priest who conducts worship wrongly and knows what he does.
So too shall the priest who refuses to tend to the dead.
The dead are impure, for the spark within them has gone. Those who walk near a corpse, within arm's reachFather Corelas's commentaries: It is better to err on the side of caution, and perform ablution after coming within five feet or an arm's length, whichever is longer. It is also cythis(wise) to perform the laugaplenum'when possible., shall perform demilauga'Half-bathe', in the Old Common..
Those who are under the same roof as a corpse shall perform the demilauga, .
But for those who are priests and who enter under the same roof as a corpse shall instead be proscribed the laugaplenum'Full-bath', for no trace of impurity may be on the priest who gives the services.
Those who lie with a corpse shall be outcast; this is anathema to Deus who is God. They shall be spurned lest they make amends and perform the laugaplenum daily for a cycle of the moons, for such is the magnitude of this impurity.
For the bodies of those things fine to eat, only those who lay hands upon them shall perform the demilauga.
For the bodies of those things not to eat, all who are near shall perform the demilauga.
And of the bodies of those things that have never had sparks, of demons and the things that wait between the worlds, any who has drawn near shall pray and perform the laugaplenum.
And though a body is an impure thing, when a follower of the path of cythnos dies, it shall be on his sworn priests to tend him, and bathe him, and dress him for the pyre.
And where there is not such a priest, it shall be on his father. And where his father shall not be willing or able, it shall be on any man in his community older than him.
And any who shall shy from this task shall be cast out until they are forgiven by Deus, for Deus loves all and forgives callousness, but first they must pray aside.
But for those corpses that walk, there shall be a new rule. Of those that walk that possess not the spark, you shall spurn and destroy; they are impure and anathema.
But for those of the dead that walkFather Corelas's Commentaries: By which is meant, it is said, the Acherian, the Forsaken, and others, but never those raised by demons. and possess the spark, who you shall accept as brother if they wish to step on the path of cythnos; they shall perform laugaplenum before prayer, before a service, and while in this state will be pure to others.
But in all other times, they shall be impure as a corpse; and those who lay with them will be cast out.
All shall be pure before a service; those who are not shall be corrected, and those who do not listen shall be cast out, for this is anathema to Deus who is God.
No ablution shall be performed in water that has held a corpse; nor water that has been used for laugaplenum prior (less it has been refreshed by rain).
The water shall instead be pure and untainted. It shall not be dirty.
And for laugaplenum, the water shall be natural; it shall not be a body made by man. It shall be from rain, or stream, or sea; it shall not be from well, or pump, or ice melted by flame.
You shall build a lik-husCorpse-house. In it you will place the dead, that they will not pollute your homes. In the lik-hus shall be but one door and no windows, no hole in the roof nor in the floor; it shall be made of brick or stone, not wood or earth.
This hus shall be eight feet high and eight feet by each measure; in this space shall lie a single man. And it shall be built to face towards the Sun with its door, and its door shall not be solid but be slitted, that the sun may shine on the dead until he is burned.
But those who die in sceade shall not be burned; they shall be buried beside the lik-hus, in a stone box. You shall not bury them in wood, nor in bare earth. You shall bury them in stone, for they are impure, and will taint the worms that live in the dark.
For those who die on the path of cythnos, you will bathe them, dress them, and put them on the pyre, which shall be so as to burn them utterly to ash and leave nothing behind. Only when there is not fuel enough are you to put these men into a tomb, and if there should be fuel enough found while they yet have flesh then you will burn them.
Those who swear their lives to the service of Deus shall maintain the lik-hus; if they do not, they shall be outcast. To them is given the duty of caring for the dead.
Those who swear their lives to the service of Deus shall set themselves apart from the flock; they shall dress humbly, and avoid extravagance in their lives. If they do not, cast them out from you. They shall do this to make known their choice, and free their lives of frivolities, to better know Me.
Nor shall those who swear their lives to me live at the expense of others; they shall give unto the poor half of all their earnings yearly, and yearly shall forgive all debts of coin or goods owed. If they do not, cast them out from you.
To those who do not swear their lives to the service of Deus, you shall give up one fifth of your wealth every seven years and deliver it to the poor. You shall give it to them yourself, or leave it for those too proud to take it from your hands; you shall not give it to another to distribute among the poor.
And those of you who farm; you shall leave standing in your fields and orchards enough to feed ten people, for the beggars and the vagrants. Only when there is not enough for you to eat shall you not leave this; if they will go hungry, you must also go hungry.
And those of you who raise livestock; you shall save one animal from your herd, and yearly you shall slaughter it, and give its part unto the poor, save if it is one of two animals you own.
And in the herd, if a cow is born twisted, you shall put it aside. You shall not give it to the poor, nor sacrifice it, nor honour the dead with it. You may do as you will with it, but it shall not be given to these causes, nor bred with the healthy herd.
To perform the demilauga, you shall wash your hands to your elbows, and your face, and your feet, and rinse the mouth. And you shall do this and pray while it is done.
To perform the laugaplenum, you shall cover your body in natural water, water that is pure. And you shall ensure the water soaks to the roots of your hair and of your beard, and touches all parts of the body; you shall wear no clothes nor anything else upon your body in the laugaplenum. And you shall do this and pray while it is done, and then after declare to those on the path of cythnos that the waters have been used; they may not be used for laugaplenum until it has rained on the waters, and only used for demilauga when water is scarce.
And when water is too scarce for the laugaplenum, you will rub your body all over with clean and pure sand; and when there is no sand, you will rub your body all over with a clean and pure white stone; and when there is no stone, you will pray and beg forgiveness to Deus if you must perform service or become impure, for Deus is forgiving of such things if they are done with respect.
No man who has taken his own life shall you burn; you shall set them aside, for they have spat in the face of Deus. To them shall be given nothing; they shall be left to the birds of the air and the beasts of the land for their feeding.
The Book of the Holy Wars
1:1:
And in the Fourth Year of the New Revelation, Deus spoke to him and told him;
1:2:
You will be driven home your homeland. Do not despair, for I will be with you; with Me at your side, you will not suffer long.
1:3:
And you will send a summons to your people, to test who is loyal to you, and who has tasted cythnos. Of those who come but do not belief, I give them to you to minister to, and show the path.
1:4:
And if you do this, your homeland will be returned to you. I am Deus, your God, and this I promise you.
1:5:
And so he did as Deus bade him, and called together the peoples of his blood and his homelands.
1:6:
And from the hills came the faithful, who numbered three hundred;
1:7:
And from the forests came the faithful, who numbered two hundred;
1:8:
And from the other places came the faithful, who numbered four and twenty.
1:9:
And of those who did not believe, but who were loyal, came the people of the Hills, who numbered together ten thousand; both their young and their old, their men and their women.
1:10:
Of those, those who could fight were one thousand and many, but they did not believe; their sparks were weak and guttering, for they worshipped the False Light, as did the enemy.
1:11:
And so Everen wept in despair, and wailed and gnashed his teeth and tore his clothes; his homeland was lost to him.
1:12:
But he then heard the command of Deus in his ear. I give them to you to minister to, and show the path.
1:13:
And he wept no longer; he knew what was to be done. He called together the people, the faithful and unfaithful both, and he sent for the farmers to bring to him the finest horse.
1:14:
He sent for the drummers, and the carpenters, to build for him a platform on which to make the offering. The platform was to be the length of a man in height and in breadth, and on it to be piled high sweet-smelling woods pleasing to Deus.
1:15:
And on it was piled cedar and sandlewood and pine, and juniper and poppy flowers, and the flower of the cannabis plant; for these are plants pleasing to Deus.
1:16:
And that night he gathered the people, the faithful and the unfaithful both; the old and the young, the man and the woman, the soldier and the civilian; and addressed them all.
1:17:
My people, he said, we are beset by enemies. The False Light brings to us only death and the desolation of the soul; turn from it, and see the truth, and be saved by Deus and be given the strength to pluck our home from our enemies!
1:18:
And the people who were not of the faith were moved, and joined the faith, for this was not all that the Profetes brought to them. For he prayed then to Deus, and from the heavens came a host; the Unfallen in their glory.
1:19:
For is it not true that it was on that night that the people of the North did join the faithful? That the people of the Northern Hills and the Central Plains, the Eastern Seas and Southern Bogs, came to answer the call of Deus?
1:20:
And is it not true that those fools who saw and did not join; who left then, to wander the desolation with blindness in their eyes and heaviness on their hearts, that they will say also that they saw?
1:21:
The enemies of the faithful will say it was a trick, but in the heart of the faithful it is known that is was truth. The Unfallen came to show the way south with flaming swords; they pointed to righteousness, and spoke then unto the gathered peoples.
1:22:
You who are called to fight, do not be afraid! Know if you turn away, you will be doomed and Deus will damn you. If you do not he will lift you up, and reward you, for you do holy work.
1:23:
For the unrighteous men in the City pray not to Deus, who is God, nor to the False Light; they traffick with the things that dwell between spaces! They are anathema to Deus, who is God. You shall cast them out of this land, this holy land, and you shall drive them to the sea.
1:24:
And there you shall butcher them, until the oceans run red with their blood. And you shall do this in His name.
1:25:
All you have failed to achieve, He will grant you, for Deus rewards the servants of Righteousness. Your enemies will be blind before you; their arms will be withered.
1:26:
Those who would stand against the Righteous will falter in battle, and when they run, no man shall shelter them; they will wander beneath a brazen sky. They will know no harvests or births; they will go hungry.
1:27:
They will know no rest; they will ever be fatigued. They will know no peace; ever will they be pursued by the beasts of the world. They will beg for death; and it will be denied to them, for they have served those who dwell between spaces.
1:28:
Those of you who do not fight, for infirmity or age, there will be yet rewards for belief. Your fields will never empty so long as you cleave to the path of cythnos; your mixing bowl will never be dry; your wives never barren.
1:29:
And the people cried out, and did rejoice, and joined the faithful. And the offering was made; the pyre set light.
1:30:
One horse - the finest in the lands of the People - was given to the flames; this horse was without blemish or flaw, an ungelded stallion with a white coat. And of it was kept no part, for this offering most pleases Deus.
1:31:
And the sweet scent reached the Unfallen and reached Deus, and the People were blessed.
1:32:
And that night the Unfallen did impart to the profetes the way of the holy struggle, the blessed war; they gave unto him a covenant.
1:33:
In this covenant made between Deus and the people, it is said thus: You shall not rape, neither friend nor enemy, while on crusade. Nor shall you abuse your prisoners, neither as women nor as men; their bodies shall be left whole, you will not blind nor mutilate them.
1:34:
Forbidden to you, so long as you crusade, shall be the fruits of the orchards for eating, the flocks of their fields save if you starve in that field, the fruits of their toils you shall not steal.
1:35:
From those who are not fighters, you will take nothing without fair exchange or free gift; they are to be treated well, that they may know cythnos and be inclined to turn to Deus who protected them in time of need.
1:36:
You shall not destroy any temple; idolatrous though they are, these places are not to be touched, for this will harden the heart of the conquered and make him blind to cythnos. Nor shall you destroy any place of learning, nor take from it any item, for even the learning of the heathen may in its own way point to cythnos; you shall safeguard these places, and any man who does these deeds shall be put to death.
1:37:
You shall touch no holy man nor woman, they are sacrosanct save for those who serve the Fallen knowingly. These you shall put to death; those who do not, you shall not touch, and whosoever touches them shall himself be killed.
1:38:
Of those who do not fight, you shall not touch them; whosoever touches them shall be cut off from the flock until he makes his penance to them, it shall be upon them to forgive him.
1:39:
Of those slaves taken in the fighting, you shall release them; slavery is a sure path to sceade for man may have but one master, who is Deus. His owner you shall put to death by hanging.
1:40:
You shall kill no children; whosoever kills a child shall himself be killed by the same means.
1:41:
You shall fight with honour; you will not attack without warning, nor kill the defenceless enemy. This is the command of Deus, your God, who despises dishonesty and cruelty in all things.
1:42:
You shall offer up to Deus a sacrifice every day you are on crusade; of a goat for an army, a horse for a nation. You shall burn it in its entirety, of it you will keep no part, for these offerings most please Deus. And this sacrifice shall be without blemish.
1:42:
And so long as you keep to this Covenant, victory is given to you; for those who fight with the favour of Deus fight with the strength of a hundred men.
2:1:
Having thus been blessed, and being bound by the Covenant, the people were encouraged. And from the women came forth volunteers of courage and virtue.
2:2:
And these volunteers numbered one hundred and thirty nine, and were lead by Leah, who was young but brave and who did willingly serve Deus.
2:3:
And with these women, these aeshmavif'Wives of Wrath', Vif deriving from the Old Common and Aeshma from the Divine Tongue imparted unto the profetes, the faithful did number two thousand and many.
2:4:
In the ancient city of Stromgarde, at this time, did dwell wicked men, who served the Fallen ones faithfully; they did not pray to the False Light, nor to Deus, nor to Demiurges. They took the people of that city as slaves, and preyed on them.
2:5:
And the army of the faithful marched to meet the army of the wicked men, the followers of Vargrinn the Bastard, who sent his most loved brothers to stand before the faithful.
2:6:
And on the Plain of Danforth the armies of the faithful met the Vargrinites in battle, and then on that day Deus did favour the faithful with a further blessing; for the enemy who stood before them were blinded by their radiance and their righteousness.
2:7:
And the faithful overtook the unrighteous men assembled before them, and drove them from the field at the point of the sword, and slew many of them.
2:8:
Their leader, Jonas, was brought before the profetes in bondage, and his life was spared; and so too were those of the unrighteous who surrendered. And on that day were slain one thousand and many of the Vargrinites, and taken prisoner twice that number; and slain that day also were five hundred of the faithful.
2:9:
And amongst these faithful Leah was numbered; who had died in the battle. And the profetes wept to see his niece slain, but yet did spare the prisoners, for this was his covenant with Deus.
2:10:
The captive Vargrinites were sorted; those who were but farmers forced to service, the profetes returned to their homes. And those who were true Vargrinites, they were kept for justice, but they were not harmed; the covenant with Deus was observed in this thing, though the people wept and demanded justice for their dead.
2:11:
And justice was to be given, but not on the field; it would be given by blood debts for the slain and the hearing of the crimes, not by more blood. And the people accepted this, for this was their covenant with Deus.
2:12:
And so many there were dead that the pyres burned through that night and the next night, and the dead of the faithful were all burned. For while the dead were many, they were to be treated with all due dignity.
2:13:
But of those Vargrinites who had been killed, none were burned. They were taken to the caves in the north, and placed in them; for there were not stone tombs enough for their number, but in this way the laws and obligations were observed.
2:14:
And from the dead was taken the prize of the battle, and the faithful were enriched. But they too were made impure by this, and the people did not have the water to purify themselves.
2:15:
But Deus spoke, and gave his blessing, and the people were purified by this. They scrubbed their bodies with stones and clean sand, and did so three days while speaking prayers in the doing, and in this way they were purified of the death-taint.
2:16:
And in the city, the unrighteous men wailed and gnashed their teeth in despair when word reached them. Their army lay shattered and the faithful marched; and Vargrin made vile pacts with the Unfallen in this hour, beseeching them to destroy the army of the faithful.
2:17:
And that night, when those who dwell between spaces moved unseen among the people, it was by the intervention of the Unfallen that they were defeated; for the Unfallen shone the light of truth on the faithful; and this the dwellers inbetween cannot abide; and they were utterly defeated.
==Notes==
Category:Reformist Faith
Category:Books