A book is published and spread around, written by Aleksei Ivanov, Second Inquisitor of the Inquisition of Saint Jacqueline. The book is titled 'Codex of Ash' and consists of a few chapters relating to matters the author considers pertinent to Ignis worship. Some information around its publishing is available, such as it originally having been intended to be a book written exclusively for members of Ignis's clergy, before a version of it intended to wider audienced being released. A second book intended for inquisitors and those who serve the faith seems to be in production.
In the beginning, there was nothing. All that would be had yet to be made, until the Immortals made the world and made the sentient races in their likeness. All things were one, and were divided. Law and chaos are not separate forces, but a single spectrum of all things. So it is that there is no true divide between material and immaterial; between honesty and deceit; between man and beast. All things were made as one, as all the spheres and their orbits were made, as the greater and lesser suns were kindled, and man was taught by the Immortals how to tend to oneself and their essential nature.
Creation is ever intertwined with Corruption, its dark counterpart. It took untold time for it to reveal itself, but one of the Immortals took on this dread aspect and began to undo and remake creation. She of Dread would harness the latent force of creation, and wring it of all potential, of all purpose, of all meaning, and use it to fuel a war of all things.
In the time before this everlasting war, there were countless peoples across countless spheres, in the aspects of all Immortals. Each died in turn over the course of countless eons, until the sacrifice of the last of the Immortals to finally unmake the aspect of corruption.
Since those days, we have lived in a waning world. Without corruption, there can be no creation in the manner that the Immortals exacted. Men and gods alike are without their forebears who made the mantles of responsibility that we are now entrusted with. We are in a waning age, an age where the possibility of truly new creations is gone.
The Age of Ash is upon us, in this time of the Long Peace.
The Nine Tenets
Guidance from the Divine herself, which guide an Ignite and inform all later scripture.
I. Hear all true words of the Light, and obey all its directions.
II. Never lie, nor omit the truth. Never break a vow once sworn.
III. Respect those who have wealth and power, for the Lodestar has led them to it.
IV. Pray with gratitude upon each sunrise, for the Lodestar has banished the dark.
V. Worship only the Light.
VI. Respect lawful and orderly inheritance.
VII. Bring persecution upon heresy, to preserve the order of the world.
VIII. Those who have murdered without cause forfet their lives and earthly possessions to the family of their victim.
IX. Burn the dead, so they do not rise as demons or worse.
Prescriptives and Prospcriptives
The Three Estates
There are three castes of man, divided into how they honor the divine. A man should hold true to his estate, once he knows what it is. A man cannot truly know his place until he has acted in the name of the divine for many years, and found himself and his true calling.
Those Who Pray. Clergy are responsible for the souls of the people, and interpreting God’s will.
The Third Estate; Clergy; The Church
Those Who Fight. Nobility are responsible for the defence of the people.
The First Estate; Nobility; The State
Those Who Labor. The commons are those who labor, so that all may perpetuate in wealth and plenty.
The Second Estate; Peasantry; The Commons
The Eight Lies
The ways in which one may lie and deceive others. A true ignite should aspire to none of these, and be wary of their insidious nature.
The Necessity of Inquisition
Without an inquisition, the faith is vulnerable. It is the place of a good and honest man to assume the good faith of those around them. That essential assumption is the undoing of much order in the world when abused. An inquisitor is never to assume, from anyone, the good faith of others. The inquisition receives special teachings that are separate from those that would lead to happy and simple living, for the ideal inquisitor is not expected to live happily and simply. The inquisition protects.
Rites and Prayers
On Death
A great pyre of birch should be erected in the nearest safe locale, the greater the person the greater the pyre. If birch is unavailable, lesser wood will do. The dead should be laid in the pyre and prayers to the Lodestar to guide the dead should be uttered by any clergy present. If no clergy are present, their friends will do; and, if no friends are present, whoever held authority over them in life should be made to say the prayers. After praying, allow the pyre to burn. Ensure that the body is reduced to ash before leaving it, if it is safe to do so.
“From ash they were, to ash they shall return; his soul taken from the beyond, now it returns home. May the Lady embrace this lost child, and may the memory of the Lodestar’s warmth give them comfort.”
Blessing of Marriage Rings
The rings of the wife and husband to be shall be placed into a brazier lit with birch wood. There, it shall be prayed over as it burns until the birch is reduced to ash. Whereupon the rings shall be allowed to cool in it, cleaned, and then returned to the prospective couple. For the marriage ceremony, a priest of Sallana should be found instead with a member of the Lodestar’s clergy in attendance.
“May the Bringer of Plenty acknowledge this pairing, and guide their house to fruitful prosperity.”
Annulment
The rings of the former husband and wife should be taken, and ground into powder. Once powderized, it should be mixed with ashes and spread around their home church while a prayer is spoken.
“We were mistaken; we are unworthy; we accept the blame of this wrongful pairing, please withhold the wrath of Fire; hold the tongue of Truth; and, turn away the eyes of Nobility. The marriage that we proclaimed had never been, should never have been, and is no more.”
Baptism
The child should be anointed with warm oil, and a prayer uttered in the presence of the child's future parish
“May this child thus be welcomed into the faith, and be protected by the fire of the Dawnbringer.”
Observed & Honorable Duels
There are two forms of duels that are acknowledged. A duel for Glory, and a duel for Order. A duel for Glory has no stakes, and is simply for the pleasure of the participants and those witnessing it. A duel for Order is a duel that has stakes, and is conducted in place of a war or other dispute, when words will not resolve the matter. A priest should be present for the latter, and as many witnesses as convenient. A member of the clergy should overlook and referee the duel, to ensure there is no outside interference and that both participants are abiding by any agreed upon conventions.
Histories
The beginnings of the faith has ever been intertwined with the histories of man as a race. In its earliest forms it was tied to attempts at creating a State of Man as a counterpart to states primarily of elves, earthspawn, and so on. The Golden Crusade sought to wipe out all evil, forever. It failed.
After its failure, those who were still emboldened by the want to do good and spread order banded together. Three prominent knights became the leaders of it: Magnus, Sinclair, and Marcus. The three men were united in common cause, and adopted the common name of ‘Arcturus.’ Thus became the name of their state, the Empire of Arcturus.
Magnus is the most prominent and long-reigning of the three. Long after the other two fell into obscurity, the old and strong ruler remained. His wisdom and age granted him authority, and he knew when to enforce his will through action, and when to do so through diplomacy.
While Marcus of Arcturus has little surviving history, much of Sinclair’s work survives in records. While Magnus sought glory, Sinclair the Silent did much of the ruling in his counterpart’s place. He established much of the government, laws, and systems that made Arcturus such a lasting and impactful institution.
The church and the state became as one in the time of the War of the Silver Crown. They sided with the Federation of Noble Houses, but lost to the side led by House Lonmar. They were treated magnanimously, but were humbled as vassals and focused on their internal matters. While the Church of Harateth flourished in this age, already the seeds of its later destabilization were planted.
Eventually, when Magnus passed in old age his son took the throne. Arthorious ruled briefly as an Arcturian, but during his reign the state made its transition into the House and State of Lavoyard. During this time, many prominent figures rise from the mists of time. The Traitor-Saint Elias du Beaumont; Peter, the Mercenary-King; and, Barthelemy the Mad.
For many long years, they rubbed shoulders with states outside their borders, and the many exploits of House Lavoyard and its predecessor state could fill volumes. The most ecclesiastically impactful events of the Age of Lavoyard are threefold: the Rise of Visage, Birth of the Phoenix, and Rebellion of Anhald.
The Traitor-Saint Elias du Beaumont began to build his own private sect within the church, revealing the vulnerabilities of a church build on common faith and assumptions of good behavior. When Visage formed, he quickly abandoned the faith of the flames and began preaching false sermons.
Harateth became corrupted in the beginnings of the Age of Ash, a prelude to the death of the Immortals. The deity died at the hand of Gelyk the Godslayer, one of his servants in ages past, and a centuries old veteran of the Wars of Corruption. From the god’s ashes, the Phoenix was reborn.
Arthorious died, but was risen by the hand of God as her immortal servant. This caused great controversy in realm, and led to its eventual downfall. A little-known mercenary by the name of Peter Hallon, an immigrant in the land of Arthorious, eventually led the rebellion. Years later, he and other remnants of Arcturus-Lavoyard would pillage the remains of that state and form the Kingdom of Anhald - inviting the son of Charlotte do Lavoyard, Charlemagne, to rule it as a successor state to the old empire.
The aging and ever-weakening empire fell not long after the ascension of Barthelemy the Mad. Ruled by his advisors, mother, and sycophants, he accomplished little beside for living in debauchery and madness. Eventually he fell ill or was poisoned, and his wife Charlotte ascended to the state next. Some still claim to be descendants of that state, while in its ashes rose many others. Those are not ancient histories, however, and many good books exist to tell such tales better than this.
Fables
The Plight of the Frogs
The Frogs were tired of governing themselves. They had so much freedom that it left them listless, and they did nothing but sit around croaking unproductively, as they could not organize themselves in a manner to eat the flies, and they felt hunger in their bellies as they acted without direction. They wished for a government that could entertain them with the pomp and display of royalty, and rule them in a way to make them know they were being ruled. No milk and water government for them, they declared. So they sent a petition to God asking for a king.
God saw what simple and foolish creatures they were, but God cares for all creatures and so She threw down a huge log, which fell into the water with a great splash. The Frogs hid themselves among the reeds and grasses, thinking the new king to be some fearful giant. But they soon discovered how tame and peaceable King Log was. They took for granted that King Log had hollows to nestle them in safely, and that those frogs who became King Log’s ministers aided them in the finding of flies, and they felt no more hunger. In a short time the younger Frogs were using him for a diving platform and ignored the magister frogs, while the older Frogs conspired and overthrew King Log’s wise administrators. After only a short time, the Frogs once more lived in squalor and were kingless, and they asked again for God to send them a king.
To teach the foolish Frogs a lesson, God now sent a crane to be king of Frogland. The crane proved to be a very different sort of king from old King Log. He gobbled up the poor Frogs right and left and they soon saw what fools they had been. In mournful croaks they begged God to take away the cruel tyrant before they should all be destroyed.
"How now!" cried Order. "Are you not yet content? You have what you asked for and so you have only yourselves to blame for your misfortunes. A bad king is a punishment from God to bad serfs, and should be suffered under dutifully until God is satisfied!”
The Lord and the Serf
A servant was being driven along a road leading down the mountain side, when he suddenly took it into his silly head to choose his own path. He could see his stall at the foot of the mountain, and to him the quickest way down seemed to be over the edge of the nearest cliff. Just as he was about to leap over, his master caught him by the shirt and tried to pull him back, but the stubborn serf would not yield and pulled with all his might.
"Very well," said his lord, "go your way, you willful beast, and see where it leads you."
With that he let go, and the foolish serf tumbled head over heels down the mountain side.
The Hawn and the Swan
A hawk, whose feathers were of ruddy and brown complexion, was envious of the Swan, because her feathers were as white as the purest snow. The foolish bird got the idea that if he lived like the Swan, swimming and diving all day long and eating the weeds and plants that grow in the water, his feathers would turn white like the Swan's.
The Hawk pleaded with God to make him so, but God’s angel answered that the Hawk already knew his place. For his colors camouflaged him in the trees, and he was master of the sky over the pond, while the Swan ruled the water’s surface.
The Hawk did not listen though, and so he left his home in the woods and fields and flew down to live on the lakes and in the marshes. But though he washed and washed all day long, almost drowning himself at it, his feathers turned no whiter. And as the water weeds he ate did not agree with him, he got thinner and thinner, and at last he died.
When he died, he pleaded with the angels again that he only wished to become as beautiful as the swan. The angels took no joy in meeting out the fate of its immortal soul, but the hawk at defied God in life and so its fate was already sealed. The noble hawk was made one with the base of the ziggurat of heaven, where those who defy God’s wishes go, and there its soul burned in death to warm the rest of the ziggurat.
The Greedy Noble
There was once a noble who was a good and honest servant of God, who ruled his fief as a good steward and was honest and fair, but who nevertheless began to fall into poverty. To relieve him of his inevitable fate, Nobility blessed his estate.
Now, one goose on the noble’s estate laid a single golden egg every day. The noble’s fate was saved, for the gold was pure and true, and he could sell the gold to the other nobles of the realm. The serfs took great care of the goose, and honored it as they might a saint.
However, the noble eventually grew impatient. The goose would only lay one egg a day, no matter how much the noble pleaded with it and God to make him more money, faster. Eventually, he took the goose in spite of the objections of his serfs, and he slew the goose.
The serfs of his estate then rebelled and slew their overlord for having killed what made their fief rich. When the noble died, the Angel of Nobility chastised him for having overstepped his authority as a noble and did not chastise the serfs of his fief in the same way. He was placed in a low section of the ziggurat, where he was treated as a lowly noble but allowed to exist in golden heaven all the same.
When the serfs were captured and executed by the king of that realm for killing their liege lord, they too were chastised by the Angel of Nobility. They had slain their overlord! Though he had wronged them, it was not their place, and they should have pleaded to a higher noble instead of take rebellion into their own hands. For their rebellion, they were placed in the furnace of the ziggurat, for their souls to burn to warm heaven.
THE CODEX OF ASH
In the beginning, there was nothing. All that would be had yet to be made, until the Immortals made the world and made the sentient races in their likeness. All things were one, and were divided. Law and chaos are not separate forces, but a single spectrum of all things. So it is that there is no true divide between material and immaterial; between honesty and deceit; between man and beast. All things were made as one, as all the spheres and their orbits were made, as the greater and lesser suns were kindled, and man was taught by the Immortals how to tend to oneself and their essential nature.
Creation is ever intertwined with Corruption, its dark counterpart. It took untold time for it to reveal itself, but one of the Immortals took on this dread aspect and began to undo and remake creation. She of Dread would harness the latent force of creation, and wring it of all potential, of all purpose, of all meaning, and use it to fuel a war of all things.
In the time before this everlasting war, there were countless peoples across countless spheres, in the aspects of all Immortals. Each died in turn over the course of countless eons, until the sacrifice of the last of the Immortals to finally unmake the aspect of corruption.
Since those days, we have lived in a waning world. Without corruption, there can be no creation in the manner that the Immortals exacted. Men and gods alike are without their forebears who made the mantles of responsibility that we are now entrusted with. We are in a waning age, an age where the possibility of truly new creations is gone.
The Age of Ash is upon us, in this time of the Long Peace.
The Nine Tenets
Guidance from the Divine herself, which guide an Ignite and inform all later scripture.
I. Hear all true words of the Light, and obey all its directions.
II. Never lie, nor omit the truth. Never break a vow once sworn.
III. Respect those who have wealth and power, for the Lodestar has led them to it.
IV. Pray with gratitude upon each sunrise, for the Lodestar has banished the dark.
V. Worship only the Light.
VI. Respect lawful and orderly inheritance.
VII. Bring persecution upon heresy, to preserve the order of the world.
VIII. Those who have murdered without cause forfet their lives and earthly possessions to the family of their victim.
IX. Burn the dead, so they do not rise as demons or worse.
Prescriptives and Prospcriptives
The Three Estates
There are three castes of man, divided into how they honor the divine. A man should hold true to his estate, once he knows what it is. A man cannot truly know his place until he has acted in the name of the divine for many years, and found himself and his true calling.
Those Who Pray. Clergy are responsible for the souls of the people, and interpreting God’s will.
The Third Estate; Clergy; The Church
Those Who Fight. Nobility are responsible for the defence of the people.
The First Estate; Nobility; The State
Those Who Labor. The commons are those who labor, so that all may perpetuate in wealth and plenty.
The Second Estate; Peasantry; The Commons
The Eight Lies
The ways in which one may lie and deceive others. A true ignite should aspire to none of these, and be wary of their insidious nature.
- Lies of Contradiction. To speak in direct contradiction of the plain truth.
- Lies of Omission. To conceal any part of the truth in its telling.
- Lies of Authority. Concealing the truth by insisting they have the authority to conceal it.
- Lies of Expertise. Concealing the truth by insisting only they would understand it.
- Lies of Delusion. Being so mad as to be unable to articulate the truth clearly.
- Lies of Arrogance. Being so convinced of a mistaken truth that one utters it believing it to be true.
- Lies of Distortion. Speaking the truth in a manner that is deceitful.
- Lies of Misdirection. Speaking the truth in a manner that conceals deceit or falsehood.
The Necessity of Inquisition
Without an inquisition, the faith is vulnerable. It is the place of a good and honest man to assume the good faith of those around them. That essential assumption is the undoing of much order in the world when abused. An inquisitor is never to assume, from anyone, the good faith of others. The inquisition receives special teachings that are separate from those that would lead to happy and simple living, for the ideal inquisitor is not expected to live happily and simply. The inquisition protects.
Rites and Prayers
On Death
A great pyre of birch should be erected in the nearest safe locale, the greater the person the greater the pyre. If birch is unavailable, lesser wood will do. The dead should be laid in the pyre and prayers to the Lodestar to guide the dead should be uttered by any clergy present. If no clergy are present, their friends will do; and, if no friends are present, whoever held authority over them in life should be made to say the prayers. After praying, allow the pyre to burn. Ensure that the body is reduced to ash before leaving it, if it is safe to do so.
“From ash they were, to ash they shall return; his soul taken from the beyond, now it returns home. May the Lady embrace this lost child, and may the memory of the Lodestar’s warmth give them comfort.”
Blessing of Marriage Rings
The rings of the wife and husband to be shall be placed into a brazier lit with birch wood. There, it shall be prayed over as it burns until the birch is reduced to ash. Whereupon the rings shall be allowed to cool in it, cleaned, and then returned to the prospective couple. For the marriage ceremony, a priest of Sallana should be found instead with a member of the Lodestar’s clergy in attendance.
“May the Bringer of Plenty acknowledge this pairing, and guide their house to fruitful prosperity.”
Annulment
The rings of the former husband and wife should be taken, and ground into powder. Once powderized, it should be mixed with ashes and spread around their home church while a prayer is spoken.
“We were mistaken; we are unworthy; we accept the blame of this wrongful pairing, please withhold the wrath of Fire; hold the tongue of Truth; and, turn away the eyes of Nobility. The marriage that we proclaimed had never been, should never have been, and is no more.”
Baptism
The child should be anointed with warm oil, and a prayer uttered in the presence of the child's future parish
“May this child thus be welcomed into the faith, and be protected by the fire of the Dawnbringer.”
Observed & Honorable Duels
There are two forms of duels that are acknowledged. A duel for Glory, and a duel for Order. A duel for Glory has no stakes, and is simply for the pleasure of the participants and those witnessing it. A duel for Order is a duel that has stakes, and is conducted in place of a war or other dispute, when words will not resolve the matter. A priest should be present for the latter, and as many witnesses as convenient. A member of the clergy should overlook and referee the duel, to ensure there is no outside interference and that both participants are abiding by any agreed upon conventions.
Histories
The beginnings of the faith has ever been intertwined with the histories of man as a race. In its earliest forms it was tied to attempts at creating a State of Man as a counterpart to states primarily of elves, earthspawn, and so on. The Golden Crusade sought to wipe out all evil, forever. It failed.
After its failure, those who were still emboldened by the want to do good and spread order banded together. Three prominent knights became the leaders of it: Magnus, Sinclair, and Marcus. The three men were united in common cause, and adopted the common name of ‘Arcturus.’ Thus became the name of their state, the Empire of Arcturus.
Magnus is the most prominent and long-reigning of the three. Long after the other two fell into obscurity, the old and strong ruler remained. His wisdom and age granted him authority, and he knew when to enforce his will through action, and when to do so through diplomacy.
While Marcus of Arcturus has little surviving history, much of Sinclair’s work survives in records. While Magnus sought glory, Sinclair the Silent did much of the ruling in his counterpart’s place. He established much of the government, laws, and systems that made Arcturus such a lasting and impactful institution.
The church and the state became as one in the time of the War of the Silver Crown. They sided with the Federation of Noble Houses, but lost to the side led by House Lonmar. They were treated magnanimously, but were humbled as vassals and focused on their internal matters. While the Church of Harateth flourished in this age, already the seeds of its later destabilization were planted.
Eventually, when Magnus passed in old age his son took the throne. Arthorious ruled briefly as an Arcturian, but during his reign the state made its transition into the House and State of Lavoyard. During this time, many prominent figures rise from the mists of time. The Traitor-Saint Elias du Beaumont; Peter, the Mercenary-King; and, Barthelemy the Mad.
For many long years, they rubbed shoulders with states outside their borders, and the many exploits of House Lavoyard and its predecessor state could fill volumes. The most ecclesiastically impactful events of the Age of Lavoyard are threefold: the Rise of Visage, Birth of the Phoenix, and Rebellion of Anhald.
The Traitor-Saint Elias du Beaumont began to build his own private sect within the church, revealing the vulnerabilities of a church build on common faith and assumptions of good behavior. When Visage formed, he quickly abandoned the faith of the flames and began preaching false sermons.
Harateth became corrupted in the beginnings of the Age of Ash, a prelude to the death of the Immortals. The deity died at the hand of Gelyk the Godslayer, one of his servants in ages past, and a centuries old veteran of the Wars of Corruption. From the god’s ashes, the Phoenix was reborn.
Arthorious died, but was risen by the hand of God as her immortal servant. This caused great controversy in realm, and led to its eventual downfall. A little-known mercenary by the name of Peter Hallon, an immigrant in the land of Arthorious, eventually led the rebellion. Years later, he and other remnants of Arcturus-Lavoyard would pillage the remains of that state and form the Kingdom of Anhald - inviting the son of Charlotte do Lavoyard, Charlemagne, to rule it as a successor state to the old empire.
The aging and ever-weakening empire fell not long after the ascension of Barthelemy the Mad. Ruled by his advisors, mother, and sycophants, he accomplished little beside for living in debauchery and madness. Eventually he fell ill or was poisoned, and his wife Charlotte ascended to the state next. Some still claim to be descendants of that state, while in its ashes rose many others. Those are not ancient histories, however, and many good books exist to tell such tales better than this.
Fables
The Plight of the Frogs
The Frogs were tired of governing themselves. They had so much freedom that it left them listless, and they did nothing but sit around croaking unproductively, as they could not organize themselves in a manner to eat the flies, and they felt hunger in their bellies as they acted without direction. They wished for a government that could entertain them with the pomp and display of royalty, and rule them in a way to make them know they were being ruled. No milk and water government for them, they declared. So they sent a petition to God asking for a king.
God saw what simple and foolish creatures they were, but God cares for all creatures and so She threw down a huge log, which fell into the water with a great splash. The Frogs hid themselves among the reeds and grasses, thinking the new king to be some fearful giant. But they soon discovered how tame and peaceable King Log was. They took for granted that King Log had hollows to nestle them in safely, and that those frogs who became King Log’s ministers aided them in the finding of flies, and they felt no more hunger. In a short time the younger Frogs were using him for a diving platform and ignored the magister frogs, while the older Frogs conspired and overthrew King Log’s wise administrators. After only a short time, the Frogs once more lived in squalor and were kingless, and they asked again for God to send them a king.
To teach the foolish Frogs a lesson, God now sent a crane to be king of Frogland. The crane proved to be a very different sort of king from old King Log. He gobbled up the poor Frogs right and left and they soon saw what fools they had been. In mournful croaks they begged God to take away the cruel tyrant before they should all be destroyed.
"How now!" cried Order. "Are you not yet content? You have what you asked for and so you have only yourselves to blame for your misfortunes. A bad king is a punishment from God to bad serfs, and should be suffered under dutifully until God is satisfied!”
The Lord and the Serf
A servant was being driven along a road leading down the mountain side, when he suddenly took it into his silly head to choose his own path. He could see his stall at the foot of the mountain, and to him the quickest way down seemed to be over the edge of the nearest cliff. Just as he was about to leap over, his master caught him by the shirt and tried to pull him back, but the stubborn serf would not yield and pulled with all his might.
"Very well," said his lord, "go your way, you willful beast, and see where it leads you."
With that he let go, and the foolish serf tumbled head over heels down the mountain side.
The Hawn and the Swan
A hawk, whose feathers were of ruddy and brown complexion, was envious of the Swan, because her feathers were as white as the purest snow. The foolish bird got the idea that if he lived like the Swan, swimming and diving all day long and eating the weeds and plants that grow in the water, his feathers would turn white like the Swan's.
The Hawk pleaded with God to make him so, but God’s angel answered that the Hawk already knew his place. For his colors camouflaged him in the trees, and he was master of the sky over the pond, while the Swan ruled the water’s surface.
The Hawk did not listen though, and so he left his home in the woods and fields and flew down to live on the lakes and in the marshes. But though he washed and washed all day long, almost drowning himself at it, his feathers turned no whiter. And as the water weeds he ate did not agree with him, he got thinner and thinner, and at last he died.
When he died, he pleaded with the angels again that he only wished to become as beautiful as the swan. The angels took no joy in meeting out the fate of its immortal soul, but the hawk at defied God in life and so its fate was already sealed. The noble hawk was made one with the base of the ziggurat of heaven, where those who defy God’s wishes go, and there its soul burned in death to warm the rest of the ziggurat.
The Greedy Noble
There was once a noble who was a good and honest servant of God, who ruled his fief as a good steward and was honest and fair, but who nevertheless began to fall into poverty. To relieve him of his inevitable fate, Nobility blessed his estate.
Now, one goose on the noble’s estate laid a single golden egg every day. The noble’s fate was saved, for the gold was pure and true, and he could sell the gold to the other nobles of the realm. The serfs took great care of the goose, and honored it as they might a saint.
However, the noble eventually grew impatient. The goose would only lay one egg a day, no matter how much the noble pleaded with it and God to make him more money, faster. Eventually, he took the goose in spite of the objections of his serfs, and he slew the goose.
The serfs of his estate then rebelled and slew their overlord for having killed what made their fief rich. When the noble died, the Angel of Nobility chastised him for having overstepped his authority as a noble and did not chastise the serfs of his fief in the same way. He was placed in a low section of the ziggurat, where he was treated as a lowly noble but allowed to exist in golden heaven all the same.
When the serfs were captured and executed by the king of that realm for killing their liege lord, they too were chastised by the Angel of Nobility. They had slain their overlord! Though he had wronged them, it was not their place, and they should have pleaded to a higher noble instead of take rebellion into their own hands. For their rebellion, they were placed in the furnace of the ziggurat, for their souls to burn to warm heaven.