Way of the Warrior Saints/Saint Hubbins

Saint Hubbins is the Patron of Marching, Leather, sturdy boots, pilgrimages, and campaigns far from home. He is sometimes known as The Traveler, or The Marching Saint.

Priests of Saint Hubbins are part of the Hubine Order, and typically spend their days on the road. Acolytes of the Hubine Order are left to maintain temples, and as part of their duties, craft boots and leather armor for Knights of their Realm. "Hubine boots" are known to be of exceptional quality.

Legend

Hubbins was a noble lord in the Elder Days, who always made sure his men were fitted with the sturdiest boots for marching. He felt that "that which treads on the Holy Earth should be nothing less than the strongest and most noble". His admiration for strong leathers also inspired the beautiful tooled targes that his men carried as bucklers. He was known as courageous and just, and his people looked to him for guidance and protection in all ways.

Legend speaks of a time when monsters threatened his lands, led by an Eagle-headed ogre known as the Gryph. Hubbins took the fight to the monsters, and fought them in treacherous mountains rather than allow them to set foot across his borders. Hubbins eventually led his men to victory, and slew the Gryph with his short spear. As his foe's hot blood ran over him, he experienced a holy transformation. The Power and the Glory of the Father of Earth and Stone washed over him in his triumph, and he was granted wisdom and power and the Salvation of the Warrior Saints.

Thereafter, Saint Hubbins was said to appear as twelve feet tall. His targe was radiant and golden, and he wore a crown of stone that could not be broken.

Saint Hubbins' holy wisdom was recorded in two major texts, "The Prognostocese of Saint Hubbins", and "The Book of Leathers". His minor texts include "Valiance and Diligence" and "The Conversations of Cavalry Abroad".

Rites

Ate age ten, boys are given the Hubine Ritual, where the foreskin is removed by the head of the household wth an axe. In the marriage ceremony, the husband and wife's hands are bound with a leather thong. After age thirty, it is expected that a follower of Saint Hubbins will take at least a seven day voyage, in honor of the Wandering Saint.

Saint Hubbins' Prayer

"Saint Hubbins, he whose bravery is like unto a beacon in the night, show us the path to victory in the coming travails!

Let our boots be strong as we trod upon foreign soil, to claim it as our own.

Let our targes be firm, as arrows fall upon us like summer rain.

Let us know not mercy or fear, only the warmth of hot blood as we rend our enemies.

Let us hoist those who oppose on the tips of spears, and sink deep our steel into their black hearts.

Let us leave the battleground a Holy Place- no longer a field where men once fought, but a shrine to our victory, ankle deep with entrails, and the dead.

Let us preserve Order above all things, by crushing the wicked, and putting them down like mad dogs in a storm of sword and axe.

Show us where the Sleeping Father put Courage and Strength in our bones, so by using that power, we may honor him.

And let the righteous slain be buried deep in the holy soil, to rest in peace, one with the Earth and Stones."

Notable Scripture

"When a King is insulted, a resounding slap echoes through his court. And when a priest is challenged, the Sleeping Father turns. Yet when a priest is silent, the Sleeping Father wakes. But when the irreverent speak, and give offense in the hallowed halls, the rage of the holy is justly kindled." (The Book of Leathers, ch 3, v.v. vii-ix)

"The Duke in his Castle speaks laws of man and of heaven- respect the chain, and it will bind you with honor always, even as you sink into your brother earth." (The Prognosticese of St. Hubbins, verse 376)

"He who slanders the Court mocks all that is righteous in the Order of Command, and the order of Salvation. Let his tongue be torn from his jaw, and his heart fed to the beasts, for his mockery is a taint upon the land." (The Prognosticese of St. Hubbins, verse 206)

"Behold, in the hour of the end there shall be Oath-Breakers and Lie-Speakers, and the Order of Command, the Order of Salvation, shall be made a mockery, even as oaths propagate in profligate proclamations of nonsensical loyalties of wretch to cur to weakling. Yet even so, the bond of word and well-homaged oath is a lasting seal to the saintly folk." (The Prognosticese of St. Hubbins, verse 228)

"The Tower of Glory is mortared with the blood of our enemies. The path to it's foundation follows the point of a spear." (The Book of Leathers, ch 7, verse ii)

"A Saint points to the Father." (The Book of Leathers, ch 12, v. x)

"Lo! The wind is abroad, a word is upon it! Is a man to work with diligence upon the state, to fight with valor in his battles, to act with prudence in his life; and yet forget himself? No, for a word is given to man, that he may hear himself. So a man must in diligence subject himself and his will, with valor forget his own life, and with prudence curb his own desires. For the Saints are made in ice, and by ice have frozen fire. Remember this: it is not the steel in your hand that wins the battle, but the steel in one's bones. One strong man with bare fists can win the day against a thousand cowards with sword and axe." (The Book of Leathers, ch 23, v.v. xxvi-xxvii )

"And by this shall the holy be known: their steadiness in their duty. And in later days, it shall be recalled of the Saints that they remembered their duty to the Holy Earth, and to the Sleeping Father. And they that forget these things shall be called Oath-Breakers." (The Book of Leathers, ch 23, v.v. lxi)