The Azurite Church of Our Lady of the White Flame

> *"A shining beacon, a pure ideal for a corrupted race, a leader, a teacher and a guide."*
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> **Saint Galien's exultation of the Church, in his confrontation with Malcolin the Red**
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> *"Old, stuffy, hamstrung by politics, bloated and buried in bureaucracy - it has fallen far from its intended form and purpose."*
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> **One of Emperor Harlach Valiant's less profane denouncements of the Church in private conversation**
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> *"Technophobic, xenophobic, metathesiophobic... no body with humanity's best interests at heart would reject our progress for the backwards savagery of the Valiants."*
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> **Millicent Le Belle, letter to the Seers of Asterzo shortly prior to the official excommunication of the Order**
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> *"A force of compounded, ritually organised expansionist evil, that has driven its followers mad with pride and conquest."*
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> **Paragon Nochtica, founder of the Free States, discussing the Church with her Sylvalan toroch counterparts**
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> *"Terrifying."*
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> **Short internal report from an unnamed Hendu Tara operative, MIA**
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No organisation in living memory has ever kept so much power over so many for such a long period of time as the Azurite Church. Founded in the year 26 Av Lyba, following the interpreted will of the late Prophet Azur, the Church was given enormous control over significant areas of the day-to-day functioning of Mortanite society: taxes were collected and rural communities organised by Clerics of the Dauntless Spirit Temple, everyday policing and sentencing carried out by Inquisitors of the Merciful Spirit Inquisition, administration managed and officials advised by the Scholars of the Fervent Mind Scholarship... and the Knights of the Valiant Heart mostly stuck to tournaments, parades, and standing menacingly outside palaces.

Whilst the Mortanite Monarchs were not the head of the Church, and the Church reciprocally could not impose upon royal authority, in the early years of Tor Morta'an this relationship was less the contradiction it would be seen as in 1200 AL and more a harmonious understanding between the Quadrum and the Kamortas, each working in their own capacities towards Saint Azur's envisioned Holy Society (in no small part due to the Church having full control of the education of the royal household). Only when the Church began to act entirely of its own accord would its true, dreadful power, as well as the purpose of the Valiant Hearts, be revealed - when it more or less unilaterally declared the First Azurite Crusade.

Suddenly, the Clerics who had for so long preached peace began to whip up the fear and fury of their flocks, driving them in droves to enlist as crusaders; the Inquisitors, who once rooted out criminals and heretics, turned their attention to pacifists and conscientious objectors; the Scholars, previously employed in managing development and economics, were re-assigned to studying logistics and managing supply to the burgeoning Mortanite armies; and the Knights... well, they provided the backbone, the leadership, and the glorious, shining front ranks of the crusading forces.

The Church, initially based in the city of Cenobek, began to shift its entire operative capacity to the Isle of Folyan, just off the coast of the crusader's target, the subcontinent of Fimbria, as it drew upon the royal treasury to construct a vast fleet of transport craft; and then, with all preparations in place, in 388 AL the most efficient war machine the world had ever seen roared into life, the reigning monarch of the time, Queen Ida II Kamorta, left merely to play observer to the proceedings.

With a swift triumph in the crusades, the Church dedicated itself to missionary work amongst the defeated torochs and left the Mortanite rulers to pick up the pieces. Ultimately, the administrative burden this placed on the already overstretched kingdom lead Tor Morta'an to disintegrate into successor states after the reigning Kamorta died without naming an heir - however, this was only after one final act of interference by Mortanite King Leofrik "the Temperate", one that would prove an eventual, unwitting revenge upon the over-mighty organisation: the creation of the Order of Seers in 424 AL.

The collapse of Tor Morta'an was barely remarked upon by the Church - though some in the White Council reacted with consternation, others viewed it as an unparalleled opportunity for the Quadrum to assert its ultimate authority over petty monarchs who succeeded the grand state. For, so the thinking went, the kingdom of Tor Morta'an and its worldly ruler were merely a temporary measure in the Goddess' grand plan for humanity, as revealed by Azur - the Church, in closer spiritual contact with the Patron Mother of Man than any terrestrial monarch, could now exert Her will free from interference.

And indeed, through the Concordats it signed with the sturdier states on and around Fimbria (those few that refused to sign seldom lasted long) the Church managed to retain much of its previous authority over human society in the East, as well as most of the conquered torochs; though the Second Crusade was all-around a messier affair than the first, it was also on a larger scale, and the Church, operating from its modern home of Acanto, took a similar commanding role. As it propagated various forms of the Sylvalan faith amongst Fimbrian torochs, Zami'ite clans and even the Daian lenks, it begun to seem as if the Azurite Church would soon grow to control all of Revenoth in one manner or another.

Such grand, hegemonic plans were dashed by a number of events. The Malcolite heresy, and the subsequent excommunication of the whole Valiant Heart order, was a first blow, but more serious was the Zamexite invasion, itself partly prompted by the failed Third Crusade - although they had Sylvalans amongst their ranks, and generally practised religious tolerance over their diverse empire, nevertheless the leadership of Zor Zamexi, naturally including Zaliti Kôgan and her close cohort, followed variants of the traditional Zami'ite pantheon, and were actively hostile towards Azurite influence in Nivena.

As the 12th century progressed, disasters like these only continued to mount up - first, the unconquered lands of North Lumina formerly established themselves as a secular republic, actively rooting out local Church influence; then, the Crimson Coup toppled the surviving kingdom of Mercia with Zamexite assistance, appointing descendants of the exiled Valiant Hearts to the throne; Daian lenk missionary efforts in Northshore dramatically collapsed, prompting the rise of a local ruler of the infidel Marazan lenks who expressed designs upon the Isle of Acanto; and finally, the Zamexite empire in the east fell, not to pious Azurites but a new budding power, the heretical Valiant Empire of Nivena, ruled by a family with little respect for historic Church authority. The Fenne Proclamation, and the subsequent excommunication of the Seers, seem to demonstrate that even the internal unity of the Church is breaking down.

With Nivena, and the gateway into Zamiel it provided, all but lost to the Church, while Fimbria declines into famine, civil wars, and an existential battle between the rebellious toroch Free States (incidentally themselves not too respectful of Church writ, though most of their citizens are followers of Azurite doctrine) and the weakened successor kingdoms, it looks as if this mighty organisation, once poised for continental domination, may have lost control of the lands beyond its borders on Acanto and the Kingdom of Galea.

Nevertheless, for every new enemy the Church has acquired in recent years, it has an old ally, amongst the pious torochs, the steadfast Galeans, the lords and princes of South Lumina, the surviving monarchs of Fimbria and the patricians of the Zo'an League, to call upon in its time of crisis; it continues to be the wealthiest organisation in human history, possesses holdings scattered across the whole of eastern Revenoth, and fields the largest land army to ever be commanded by a non-state-actor. What's more, the Azurite ideal, of a harmonious, united Holy Society continues to hold sway in the hearts of many millions all over Revenoth.

Though the Quadrum is not about to condemn the heresy of the Valiants, or side with or against the torochi insurrectionists, recent developments at an organisational level, particularly in St. Galien's Temple on Acanto, suggest that at long last the great bureaucracy is mobilising to counter the existential threat it surely faces. In Galea, the old foundries of the Silver Shields fire once again, tasked this time with supplying a whole army, while vast sums of gold depart from the Church vaults in the dead of night, finding themselves mysteriously in the hands of mercenary captains days later. Whispers abound of a return to the age of Crusades - a fourth, internal Crusade to purify the heart of man. Morale in the White Council has steadily declined as the Azurite Church was pushed back on every side over the last 100 years, but in the marble halls of the Quadrum itself resolve is as fixed as ever it was; Azur's dream, the will of the Goddess, *will* be pursued to its glorious end, no matter the obstacle, no matter the cost.