The Brethren Sanctified

== Founding ==
When the first arcane mages fled Alenthyl to found Granthelia on the shores of that island continent, with them came a small contingent of devout light worshipers. These men were not interested in combating the influences of the arcane of spreading their word unlike their evangelical fellows of the Alenthylian homeland. Instead, they sought to preserve and archive texts and litanies of the Light in a land devoted wholly to secular study and the arcane. 
The Brethren Sanctified was founded around non-violence and dedication to a higher form of living. The Brethren Sanctified bases itself out of Fortress-Reliquaries, stone built abbeys and fortified monasteries. The first Fortress-Reliquary was built in Granthel, deep within the winding roads of the Bulwarks, a veritable bastion amid the tangle of wooden tenements. From here, the brethren grew into an order of well trained and insular adepts. However, the Arch-Rector of the Brethren Sanctified deemed it necessary, that the hand of the true light should extend to all heathen lands in which their religion must be preserved. 
As such, members of the brethren have been occasionally sent out from the Fortress-Reliquary in Granthelia to found their own across Aevonhold, autonomous pacifist agents of the Brethren Sanctified.
== Organization and Background ==
Each member of the brethren progresses as he learns more of the light and intellectually ascends in his life. Each member comes to join the brethren after being selected by one of the adepts within the existing ranks. These initiates have been chosen from the populace are put through a series of tests referred to as “Fortifications”, mind games and mental puzzles meant to reinforce one’s mental constitution. Once an initiate has reached an acceptable point, he becomes a novice of the brethren. 
Here he is tasked with menial tasks and archive work which are the basis of the Brethren Sanctified’s mission. However their work for the brethren does not cease there, for they are always watched the Abbot who oversees novices for potential. Those who show initiative and ingenuity beyond the labor they are demanded to perform, this Abbot may refer them to the Abbot of the Adepts for advancement to that order. Once one ascends to Novice however, they are prepared for the vows of the brethren. The vows of the brethren are a collection of vows dictating how one should act and behave in accordance to the brethren’s dictates. 
A novice chooses one of these vows, and recites it before his fellows, the Abbot of Novices, and the Arch-Rector. Once he has taken this vow, he must obey it throughout his life. This vow shapes the novice even after he has ascended from his current rank, but it is of the highest prerogative and beholden to no priority. Should one rise to the order of adepts, they retain their vow and fulfill it alongside their daily duties. Should one become an adept, their duties will then involve not only the recruitment of new initiates, but to see to the protection of their vaults and sacred archives. 
Some adepts may pursue roles specific to their vows, the various idiosyncrasies of each vow creating a wide spectrum of jobs within the Fortress-Reliquary. As the centuries progress, roles and status are altered within each Fortress-Reliquary. Titles beyond the nature of one’s order are fickle and prone to change. It was musingly noted by the late Arch-Rector Arnaud whilst perusing ancient brethren rosters, that in the year 894 their Granthelian Fortress-Reliquary boasted no less than 102 Scrivener Adepts among it’s ranks. 
Alongside the orders of novices, adepts, and their ruling Abbots, the only other object of complete permanence is the brethren’s vows. Never once in the centuries of the brethren's existence has any vow been reworded, edited, changed, removed, or in any manner altered. Due to the sacred nature of these vows, never once has anything beyond their name been shared with anyone beyond the order’s ranks.
=== Vows of the Brethren ===
The Vows are a great deal important to each member of the brethren, as each is destined to take one in their first few years among the novice order. As each vow shapes one’s life, their interpretations are more or less the same throughout the brethren’s history. 
There are five vows, each represent a different aspect of the brethren’s interpretation of the light.
==== Vow of Vigilance ====
To Serve my existence, the light;
By Proxy his servants;
By Relation his children;
By this I ward all;
My silence is virtuous respect;
My obedience is virtuous in its constancy;
I vow vigilance to the light.
The Vow of Vigilance leads one to a life of silent contemplation and servitude to the light. Many an adept or novice who has taken this vow act as the secretaries or servants to an Abbot, perhaps even an Arch-Rector. 
These men have sworn themselves to the most solemn lifestyles, shunning material luxuries to insure a keen mind when serving the light.
==== Vow of Restoration ====
To seek knowledge is man’s quest;
By this I assist man’s quest;
I do not seek nor search;
I keep clean and sacred the holy;
I purge forth the blasphemous;
The light’s eternity will not falter by my account;
The light will remain wholesome by my labors;
I vow restoration to the light.
The Vow of Restoration captures the aspect of knowledge and protection of holy scripts. These men often lead a life of constant study as they translate, review, and meticulously copy literature pertaining to the brethren’s interest. Often sequestered for much of their life, these men remain in solitude to insure the purity of their work, and their sanctity of purpose. 
To maintain and renew ancient scriptures is of the highest order to men who’ve taken the Vow of Restoration.
==== Vow of the Ethereal ====
To understand the light is all;
For the light is all that is;
For without the light there would be dark;
For dark is anathema to all;
For this I will understand;
For understanding the light is to understand all;
Should I understand all then the world is well;
My knowledge is an arsenal to keep;
My arsenal will keep at bay all comers;
Knowledge is thus my greatest armament;
I vow to know the ethereal.
The Vow of the Ethereal stands apart from other vows, as it stands to encapsulate the purest nature of one’s spirituality. To contemplate, ponder, and philosophize often consumes the time of men who have taken this vow. This vow is taken by few, as it’s expectations are often too great or unfathomable for novices daunted by its prospects. 
A life of holy consideration and realization has few corporeal rewards for those who take the Vow of the Ethereal.
==== Vow of Decency ====
To be a bastion of virtue is fair;
Fairness serves man as a guide;
Should man be guided right;
Then right shall he be in his fairness;
Then decency and virtue stand above;
Then to be above the filth of darkness;
To be above darkness shows to truth;
To know truth is true virtue in man;
I vow decency to the light.
The Vow of Decency leads those who take it on the path of the exemplar. These men are beholden to no demerit or impurity. To take this vow is to pledge one’s self to be a virtuous adherent under the auspices of the light. These august brethren are the truest of those within their respective Fortress-Reliquaries. Not only is it the role of such men to perfect the values of the light, but also to ascertain the virtue of their fellows. 
Many an adept of this vow has sought out the cleanest of souls and minds for recruitment for the brethren. As such, such vow takers stand apart from the rest as the highest moral compass for those about them.
==== Vow of the Guardian ====
To be a redoubt of flesh and mind;
The mind thus harbors to darkness;
The mind is thus clean of doubt;
The mind clean of doubt is pure;
The pure mind stands stronger than any bastion;
The bastion of purity knows no taint;
The mind pure of taint is implacable;
I vow guardianship of the light.
The Vow of the Guardian is the most unlike other vows. It does not regard the spirit or virtue of the light in such a manner as other vows of the brethren. No, instead those who take this vow are the visceral strength against forces who might seek to harm their brethren and pillage the sacred vaults. Unlike the Vow of Vigilance, this vow demands a lifestyle focused upon the world about them in its material nature. Many a vow taker of this manner commits themselves to martial disciplines in order to better ward over their fellows of the light.
=== The Verbals of Light ===
A large part of the brethren’s spirituality is their congregation within sequestered chapels, here they recite litanies and writings of the Light. Through the various tomes and pieces of literature that the brethren watch over, they are believed to achieve a closeness to the light. Some of the more prominent recitations are held to memory by the brethren.
==== Litany of Reverence ====
The light blesses as it does blight;
We are never above the grand omnipotence of its holiness;
So the light retains no mortal form as it is holy;
True holiness is of the ethereal for men to venerate and understand;
One does not question benevolence on such an infinite scale;
We will not question, only pray and ponder, for the light is beyond the scope of mere men;
The light requires only faith;
Man is the vessel of faith;
Faith needs no reason or understanding, it is our bliss of recognition;
Recognition of subservience to greatness is embodied in the light;
Our service to its unending beneficence is our greatest strength;
Strength in faith and purity;
So we owe ourselves to the light;
As the light blesses as it does blight;
So sayeth the great works and men of our kind.
=== Parable of Saraphus ===
It is said that among men strode a great hero. He walked beside his men as a pinnacle of strength and vision. His name was Saraphus, a warlord without equal, and a scholar without peer. Such a prodigy set about conquering and where he conquered, so did culture flourish. The great campaigns of war and knowledge knew not end in the realms of Saraphus. So great a man was he, that some venerated him as a living god. Yet the wise Saraphus was careful to curb the sacrilegious praise of his proposed immortality. Eventually, his sycophants and followers grew tired of such humility. 
They turned to the praise of more tainted and heretical sources of veneration. So darkness’ influence flourished in the lesser courts of Saraphus’ trusted lieutenants. The darkness corrupted these feeble minded men, believing themselves iconoclasts of renown, destined to dash their fellows with the hollow words of false religions. When at first the tales of internecine warfare and strife reached Saraphus, he did not want to believe it. For how could his faithful seconds descend so low so swiftly? 
Yet he eventually came to accept the news with a heavy heart, understanding that his once true men were now vehicles of tainted slaughters. At a loss as to what to do, Saraphus sequestered himself for days on end, studying texts and philosophies of his great intellectual repositories in order to understand what his course should be. It is unknown as to what went on in those seven days, but upon the evening of the septimal epoch, Saraphus strode out, a devout advocate of the light. Swiftly converting those still loyal and stirring his people to a righteous fervor, Saraphus launched a great crusade on his four lieutenants who had so wretchedly betrayed him. 
The now bloated and hedonistic tyrants were unprepared for such a force, and their heretical armies crumbled beneath the pious might of Saraphus’ pious forces. Upon reaching the gates of the fourth city of his final prodigal son, Saraphus announced his ultimatum. The city would surrender its dark clerics and sacrilegious tyrant, or the populace would be torched to every last man, woman, and child. The response was vehement, even mirthful, the city’s corrupted defenders saw no need to fear the vast army behind their lofty walls. 
Yet this attitude of mockery and cajolery turned to fear and panic as their nigh impenetrable walls fell beneath the might of Saraphus’ cunning siege engines. So the final city was razed, its people slaughtered, and light reigned from Saraphus’ capital. Upon Saraphus’ death, his grand empire marched on into the brilliant future of the light’s embrace, such is the glorious fate of the devout.
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