The Book of the Sacred Light

*1:2 The world emerges from Darkness like a pearl out of the black waves.*

*1:3 Where there is darkness, Light cannot touch; now there is Aevonhold, and Light touches it.*

*1:4 This is creation.*

2:1 The Light shone forth upon the newfound world and the Dark understood not.

*2:2 And the Dark tried to consume Aevonhold but the Dark could not.*

*2:3 For the Light had created a guardian for Aevonhold who warded away the Darkness.*

*2:4 The Light had created Man, and Man was a wellspring of Light.*

3:1 Humankind is a wellspring of Light.

*3:2 The Light bubbles forth through him as great virtue, love and grace.*

*3:3 As quickly as the Light had created Man to guard the world, the Darkness found means to corrupt him.*

4:1 Behold: Those rich wellsprings which now spew oil.

*4:2 Their waters have been tainted by the inky poisons of vice, their hearts have been touched by temptation and pain.*

*4:4 Forth from these wellsprings comes Darkness, which pollutes the World.*

5:1 What hope is there from the ever encircling Darkness?

*5:2 From it comes calamity, which begets suffering and vice.*

*5:3 Suffering begets suffering; blood begets blood.*

### **The Words of Thibault, Book of Vice**

*1:1 Verily, the Light damns evils among its creation, Man.*

*1:2 They are as deadly and sudden as arrows, they are as quiet and deceitful as parasites in fruit.*

*1:3 They are VICE; they consume him from the inside, and through them, Darkness fills the world with corpses and rot.*

2:1 Two kinds of vice come, forthnow the first of the two kinds:

*2:2 Vice against the World, Light's creation, in the favor of the Dark.*

*2:3 Beware!:*

*2:4 Envy spits; wrath burns.*

*2:5 Greed steals; pride sneers.*

*2:6 Lust defiles; apathy rots.*

*2:7 Gluttony starves.*

3:1 Worse yet are vices of the spirit, for he who commits them betrays not the World, the Light's creation, but betrays the Light itself.

*3:2 Beware:*

*3:3 Blasphemy: holiness betrayed.*

*3:4 Apostasy: faith betrayed.*

*3:5 Despair: hope betrayed.*

*3:6 Hatred: love betrayed.*

*3:7 And indifference: heart betrayed.*

*3:8 The worst of these is indifference; for he who cares not betrays all things.*

5:1 He who engages in vice must come forth with it.

*5:2 To purge Darkness, it must be taken to the Light.*

*5:3 To hide evil is to protect it;*

*5:4 To conceal small shadows is to cast greater ones.*

*5:5 Conceal not; come forth and be clean.*

### **The Words of Caia, Book of Virtue**

*1:1 Thou are born from suffering.*

*1:2 For the Darkness is suffering, and the Light took the yawning maw of the Darkness and from it produced the World.*

*1:3 Aevonhold was very good, and it was drawn out by the Light; the Light created it.*

*1:4 Now through rot and destruction, the Darkness tries to revert the World.*

*1:5 Thou, through tremendous love the Light transforms and creates.*

*1:6 Through temptation and vice the Darkness spoils it.*

*1:7 The Light is the Power, and the Dark is the absence of Light.*

2:1 The Will of the Light is inborn in us.

*2:2 Thou, follow; be cleansed.*

*2:3 Resist temptation; abstain from vice; walk with grace in the presence of pain.*

*2:5 Engage in VIRTUE, which combats vice.*

3:1 So all ye who truly believe and truly follow the Light, combat the Darkness:

*3:2 Exchange thy envy for selflessness;*

*3:3 Exchange thy wrath for patience;*

*3:4 Exchange thy greed for charity;*

*3:5 Exchange thy pride for humility;*

*3:6 Exchange thy lust for chastity;*

*3:7 Exchange thy apathy for service;*

*3:8 Exchange thy gluttony for temperence.*

4:1 For all that thou do which is good and virtuous, the waters of thine heart grow ever clearer, and the Light in thine eyes and warmth in thine words grow ever brighter and ever warmer;

*4:2 And the Light blesses thee;*

*4:3 And the heavens glow;*

*4:4 And the waters of thy wellspring flow into the world once more.*

*4:5 They come like crystal, unclouded and sparkling;*

*4:6 They come, abundant and pure.*

### **The Words of Socora, Book of Righteousness**

*1:1 When I look upon thee and I see that thine Light is bright and thine intentions are pure,*

*1:2 Thine soul is tempered and Thine will is devout,*

*1:3 I tell thee: this is not enough for the World.*

*1:4 What good is thine heart of Light when the World around is stained with Darkness, so that thou are like an innocent bride with a gown dipped in blood?*

*1:5 Verily, the world around all of ye bleeds;*

*1:6 Its salve is the same salve which nurses the hearts of thine neighbors, who cannot tend themselves.*

*1:7 The Light is the truth which mends all wounds and treats all plagues.*

2:1 So ye who are truly of Light, find the poisoned waters and bathe.

*2:2 Bathe!*

*2:3 For to dillute the waters we must not seperate them.*

*2:4 It takes many glasses of fresh water to make seawater potable;*

*2:5 Go forth into the evil of the world without fear, for the Light is more plentiful than the ocean.*

3:1 With thine lips, kiss the wicked.

*3:2 For blessed are the suffering, and the despairing;*

*3:3 Blessed are those with empty stomachs and bloody hands.*

*3:4 Now bring to them the Light, knowing they reek of Darkness.*

*3:5 For none serves the Darkness more than the despairing or angry heart.*

*3:6 The carelessness of suffering is the most contagious of plagues.*

*3:7 Suffering begets suffering; blood begets blood.*

*3:8 Heal them, and let them walk forward cleanly into the World.*

4:1 To pick rotten fruit from an infected tree is futile; it still produces bad fruit.

*4:2 To kill a tree which produces rotten fruit is excessive; the problem lay not with the tree.*

*4:3 Chop the infected root; purify the water beneath; give it sun;*

*4:4 It will bear new fruit.*

5:1 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?

*5:2 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.*

6:1 So come, faithful;

*6:2 Rise like the eastern star;*

*6:3 Glow brilliantly;*

*6:4 Dazzle those who are cloaked in the night;*

*6:5 Make them look up.*

### **The Words of Cassian, Book of All After**

*1:1 Silver and gold will be of no value on the day of the final dawn, but virtue and righteousness will deliver thee into the Light's embrace.*

*1:2 For if thou submit thine will to the Will, thou are a child of the Light, and thou will become like a brilliant crystal, forever and ever, upon ages of ages.*

*1:3 But if thou submit to the weak color of the World, thine soul will be material of the Darkness.*

*1:4 It will simmer like coal; it will burn like oil; it will fuel the wickedness in Aeddom's churning inferno.*

*1:5 And there are those yet who do not submit to the Will but are not wicked;*

*1:6 They do not recognize the Light when it comes for them, for spiritually they have slept, and like a dream, their lives fade away.*

*1:7 But for those whose hearts are like a lighthouse, who cast greatness and goodness into the World,*

*1:8 These men are true Kings, and the Light bestows to them life again, so that they may serve the World once more.*