Way of the Warrior Saints
The Way of The Warrior Saints was founded in ages past by great folk who found glory on the battlefield, and became as gods.
Their wisdom was recorded in a series of Prognostocese, and passed down into obscurity.
In recent years, the dusty tomes containing the wisdom of the Saints have come back into favour with the nobility.
Beliefs
- In The Beginning
The Way of the Warrior Saints teaches that The Father of Earth and Stone made the world and all in it. He created a wealth of animals, trying to build one that would rule the others, and maintain order. As he made the animals of the world, he gave life to the creatures, and sent them into the wild. At long last, he settled on a form that could dominate all the lesser forms he had made before, and then removed himself unto the bowels of a great mountain on the far side of the world. This last animal was Man. He gave Men courage and strength, and put in place a Holy Order of Kings, and then He was done with Man, and heard no prayers.
For many lifetimes The Father sat sleeping in the deep stone, resting after giving life to the world. His favorite children, the Earth and the Stones, whispered to him as he slept, and were as his eyes and ears as he rested. With the rise of Man and the world of Kings, the Earth and the Stones grew wary. They saw as man learned of treachery, and corruption. Man trod upon the earth, and the earth felt his steps grow mad. Despite the Holy Order of Kings, men overthrew one another, and mocked the righteous ways, and forsook chivalry and honor. The Earth and Stones warned the Father of coming treachery. They knew that the folly of men would breed horrors and pain.
Angry with being awoken, the Father caused a Great Quake in the lands (The Holy Cataclysm), and sent forth Glory and Power to those who would take it. The Father of Earth and Stones left it to Man to once again bring order to his world, and left His Majesty and Wisdom gathered on battlefields, to wait for mighty warriors to claim it. He then returned to sleep in His Holy Mountain, and there he remains.
Those who would claim the Divine Wisdom of the Holy Cataclysm were the Warrior Saints, and they would be well-known in song and story as Gods among men. Paragons of Earth and Stone, they found divinity and Righteouness through Valor, and then left the hard-earned blessings of the Father in their steps, for those that would follow them.
- The End of Days
It is said that when madness, treachery, and wickedness rule the world, the Earth and the Stones will once again whisper to the Sleeping Father, and awaken Him from His slumber. His rage will be be unprecedented, and He will stride across the earth unmaking all that he has made. There will be no pity or mercy, and the wicked shall be eaten by the Rocks, and the Anarchists will be purged in despair at the sight of the Father they have forsaken. "The Second Awakening" shall be a time of great calamity and suffering, and those who served the Way of the Warrior Saints with honor will rise from the soil where they rest, wreathed in armor of Holy Stone, and once again fight the wicked. The Warrior Saints will march behind the Father, leading the Risen Faithful, and fighting in their final battle for the preservation of Order. At the End of All Days, the wicked shall be rended from the world, and given no rest. The righteous and the faithful will sleep forever, one with the dirt and the earth, slumbering in harmony alongside the Saints and the Father, at long last in peace.
Tenets
Most Prognosteces tend to agree on the following basic tenets:
- The Father of Earth and Stone has planted Valor and Glory in the bones of all men. The wicked must have this gift rended from them by the faithful, lest they use their Holy Power for the subjugation of the righteous.
- Diligence, Valor, and Prudence are holy traits, and should be revered above all.
- Order is preserved when Ignorance, Cowardice, and Anarchy are eradicated by the Righteous. Those are the ways of the wicked, and if they ruled the earth, madness would prevail, waking the Sleeping Father, and bringing his purging wrath.
- Loyalty is the chain that binds us to salvation. The Saints sit only one step beyond Kings, and the proximity of Kings to the Most Holy is providence. Respect them and bow to them always.
- Death is a return to the Earth and the Stones. It is solemn, but ultimately the fate of all who walk. Fear it not.
- In death, the wicked will rot and be eaten by carrion birds and forgotten.
- In death, the faithful will return to the earth and stones, loved by the rich soil and welcomed back into the Mountan, to be tilled anew. They will be at peace, and at one with their brothers.
- In death, those who surpass their brothers in Valor, and Honor, and Courage; they will roam the earth as Warrior Saints, giving order and guidance to the people who survive them. This is a great honor, and reserved only for the most Holy, and Wise, and Righteous.
- Have few enemies, but if your brother would harm you or your Lord, make him regret your wrath. Put your enemies to the sword and return them to the soil from whence they came.
- The weak have forgotten the strength of Stone and the Glory in their bones. They ignore the greatest gifts of the Sleeping Father. Regard them not.
- The steel in your hand is like unto your brother, your other self, a soul it's own. Respect it, and it will find salvation for you in the blood of the slain.
- Man exists solely to exert order and vigilance over the earth, and preserve the sleep of the Great Father. Anarchy, madness, and all that would upset a realm are to be fought, lest the Father Awaken again, and end all things forever.
The Saints
The Saints are Men and Women of yore who transcended the flesh through diligence, valor, and wisdom. They brought forth the wishes of the Father, and saw His Holy Mountain at World's End. Their words have been recorded and should be studied by the faithful. There are many Saints, and each Noble House has a Patron, whose works they follow above all others. Priests and clergy study all saints, in an effort to praise the Father of Earth and Stones.
The Saints' spirits still roam the Earth, granting blessings and protecting the faithful. They preserve the Earth and Stones so that the Father may sleep inside his Holy Mountain. In the spiritual heirarchy, The father is the Creator above all, and the Saints are his pantheon of lesser Gods. All men (and women) have the capacity to transcend the flesh to divine Sainthood, through diligent study, courage in battle, and walking along the Righteous Way of the previous Saints.
Out of the hundreds of Saints, only a few are still remembered, although through the diligent studies of the clergy, many are being uncovered anew.
The Saints, their Patronages, and their Writings:
- Valmyre (The Kingdom of Eston, storms, knights) Song of Kingly Honors, The Quill and The Axe
- Conraed (The Kingdom of Abington, Justice, Valor) Idylls of the Southern Seas, Psalms of Glory and Duty
- Beornic (The Lakelands, fishermen, weather) Verses of the Storms, Carp and Trout
- Hubbins (worked leather, sturdy boots, travel) The Prognostocese of St. Hubbins, The Book of Leathers
- Jaynke (death, doomsaying, the Great Abyss) Visions of Madness from Beyond, The Cold Embrace
- Kostansa (oceans, the South, sailing) Prognostocese of the Coast
- Segarre (Feasts, wine and ale, knaves) The Thousand Sleepless Nights Abroad, Prognostocese from the Vine
- Ephrahm (quests, duels, horses) Holy Visions of Saint Ephrahm, The Bloody Path of Holy Pilgrims
- Bael (hunting, archery, night) The Darkness Without Dawn, Purity from the Slain
- Bear (animals, mindless rage, berserkers) Saint Bear has no Prognostocese.
- Uhrht (gardening, farming, hospitalers) The Father Comforts None, Humble Prognosteces of St. Uhrht
- Gemihna ("the Lady of Swords") Martial Exercises of Faith, The Book of Noble Talents
- Procyon (stoicism, tenacity, furs) The Importance of Deep Burrows, On the Subject of Insulating Animals, The Stone and the Stoat
- Cissa (nature, woodfolk) The Green Prognostocese, Whispers in the Forest
- Wodin (Norland, Makar, knowledge, wanderers) Hugin and Munin, Runes of Yggsdrsdill
- Artyr (jousting, dueling, feats of honor) Prognostocese from a Table Round, Songs of the Sporting Lance
- Issik (The Jug, poverty, martyrdom) My Days on The Rack, Meditations On the Jug
- Reegyn (Warfare, Holy Quests) Victory and Struggle, The Reegynomicon
- Saephyna (Warrior Women, The Realm of Tara, childbirth) The Amplest Bosom, Peace by Righteous Violence
- Isa (Winter, storytelling, lost travellers) Isa
