ON PENANCE.

[Navigator 4260]

 

ON PENANCE,

A SECOND OPEN LETTER TO THE HOLY MOTHER CHURCH.

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THERE IS BLOOD ON MY HANDS. Whether I choose to acknowledge it or not, when my choice was made - to stand for my morality rather than my faith, to seek answers somewhere else than the light and wisdom of GOD and the Scrolls, I too made a choice to directly sponsor the spilling of Canonist blood, irregardless of my personal disagreements or gripes with the Holy Mother Church, or whether or not I believe the Pontifical States as an entity should exist, or whether or not I believe the Holy Mother Church should possess temporal authority of any kind. I THOUGHT I KNEW IT ALL, but now I see it takes a man just as well to admit his mistakes - and here I stand, before the public eye once more, to prostrate and seek penance. To admit, without shame;

 

I WAS WRONG.

 

ON QUESTIONING THE SANCTITY OF THE HOLY MOTHER CHURCH, I WAS WRONG.

ON QUESTIONING THE AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY MOTHER CHURCH, I WAS WRONG.

ON QUESTIONING THE KNOWLEDGE OF ITS OWN LAW, I WAS WRONG.

ON QUESTIONING THE LEGITIMACY OF BELLIGERENCE, I WAS WRONG.

ON QUESTIONING THE PRECEDENCE OF ANORHIL’S STATION, I WAS WRONG.

ON QUESTIONING THE CHURCH, I WAS WRONG.

 

THOUGH I BELIEVE I WAS NOT WITHOUT MERIT, History cares very little for merit or good intentions. A proverb of yore spoke that ‘Of good intentions, Hell is full’, and I have scarce any intention of my fate being bound to the deepest pits. Though I believe my excommunication was reactionary, it was done nonetheless, and it is my duty as GOD-FEARING man to seek penance. To be excommunicant is to imply one walks outside of GOD’s Light - I do not wish to be known as such.

THEREFORE, IT IS THROUGH THIS THAT I SEEK TO MAKE AMENDS. I believe in the sanctity of the Church, its authority, legitimacy and knowledge of its own law. I recognise my own youth, and through my youth, my ignorance. I recognise that, though I chose morality and camaraderie over faith and righteousness, that my choice was misguided. Apologies and begging are unbefitting; I am a man of action. A man that seeks to amend my actions with equal measures. Therefore, I ask of the Holy Mother Church…

 

WHAT IS IT I MUST DO?

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IN GLORIA ET LUMEN DEI,

Owyn Hector Ashford de Savoie,

Record-Keeper, Lawyer & Historian,

GOD-FEARING Man.

[Jihnyny 5233]

"Why does it take a loss for a man to find his mistake?"

Louis said upon recieving the missive; it drawn from another mans pockets,
only to be casted again to the darkness of one.

[Navigator 4260]

Just now, Jihnyny said:

snip

Spoiler

A mf can't get a win. . .

 

[framalam 837]

A concerned father writes quickly to the Savoyard, whose progenitor he dearly kept as namesake:

 

”I do not know of which diocese you hail, so I should not be the father responding. Regardless, you are in dire need of a kohenic education. It seems you have followed your own, admittedly, rational line of thinking, and never really stopped to self scrutinise.

 

Your first act of penance cannot be assigned, as you continue to affirm the Church in the wrong. You cannot at once dismiss an excommunication as reactionary, and as just - they are juxtaposed. Additionally, you fail to recognise that your perceived moral righteousness - your supposed reason for faltering in Virtue - is inextricable from your faith, and that, overmore, your morality is derived directly from it. Second, to quote camraderie as a reason for Sin is nothing but masking Sin. This is most Saulican of you. You were not engaging in camraderie, you were engaging in apostasy in the name of a licit force. A force that, may I remind you, has yet to surrender.

 

For this, I respect you. A smidge. You have come before your king has knelt. He will kneel, or his head will roll down the steps of his prized dragon skull throne (if it truly is the real one on display) in righteous Vander justice. All the same, defeat was assured to the apostate from the beginning, so this respect is perhaps misplaced. I respect you secondly, a smidgen more, for your blood, that blood which you disgrace! You are a little prideful boy who has thought himself better than not only great men, patriarchs of your house, but also better, with no theological instruction, a fact I would surmise from your utter miscomprehension of all things Faith, than the entirety of the Temple of the True Faith of the Canon of the Creator.

You are not recognising your faults. You are Saul. This is the first step towards even being assigned penance. Recognise you are Saul. You, Owyn, inspired discontent and revolt against the true word of the Lord. You, Owyn, took the name of the most purifiying Exalted, and sullied it with your sorry excuse of penmanship. You, Owyn, inspired Sin in the camp of Horen. G-d is all merciful, so he loves you, but I do not. I spit on your kind, you are naught but a slithering snake in the reeds latching onto whichever beast’s muscles bulge strongest and hanging on, glad to be a part of something great that you never contributed to. You kvetch. Recognise this: you would be most rational in taking your own life and pleading your case directly to the Lord. Was this not the reason for your insurrection? Logic?

 

You were not WRONG, my son, you were SAUL. You were not WRONG, you were SINFUL. You were not WRONG, you were PRIDEFUL and IMPRUDENT.  Apologies and begging are most fitting. Beg and grovel before the Tabernacle to be forgiven for desecrating it. To be excommunicant is not to imply you walk out of His light. It is to declare the state that you do walk out of His light, like you do. To equate you to another excommunicant, the company in which you now lay, let me tell you of Richard Stassion. Apostate, schismatic, oathbreaker Stassion who rebelled against his crown and fled north. I enlisted thirty years as a Holy Ser, and I still am a man of cloth and sword such as St. Robert, and I hunted him down. I spent four years of my life to find only his ashes. This is the dedication with which Owyn’s fury will rain down to you, Owyn.

 

You should admit this all with shame. I hope you feel it. I hope you see yourself in the reflection of a pond and hate what you see. I hope you feel your hand twitch around a sword at your hip, calling you to suicide. I hope you sob every night, knowing you are surely a disappointment to any who have ever loved you. I hope you hate yourself, young boy. Revel in this. In this shame. And when you do truly feel shame, and not the apostate whelp fear of retribution for your crimes that willed you to write this half-willed sheet of latrine paper, come before the Tabernacle and let your tears sizzle in the flames. Let the Mercyflame touch your heart.

 

I can only hope, young Owyn, that it does not consume you. If you truly feared the Lord, you would not reduce him by a common name of G-D, and would instead use his true names. If you truly feared the Lord, you would not have rebuked your faith. If you truly feared the Lord, you would not have chosen FOOLISHNESS and FALSE LOYALTY TO HERESIARCHS over the Ruach Ha’Kodesh. My most sincere advice would be to kill yourself, as you have already perverted the Lord’s gift.

 

My more priestly advice is sit with yourself. Be a hermit. This helps. I was a boy of great sin too, and many wished me dead. Hermit, hermit, hermit. Rebuke your compatriots that let you fall to whatever weird little freak you are today. Eat modestly. Dress modestly. Abandon your gentile titles. More importantly, please go by Hector. You bring shame to the name Owyn, and the name de Savoie. It will be good, and humbling. When you are prepared to do this, then, and only then, visit every place of worship on Braevos, concluding this Path at the Holy See. Ask for your penance there.

 

I wish you bountiful life in His light, and I hope your Saulican face is burnt off by the overwhelming flame of Virtue,

 

Light preserve you,

FR. HARRENIEL

PARISH PRIEST OF GOTTENTHAL

CARETAKER OF THE BLESSED TEMPLE OF ST LUCIEN

HOLY KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE GRAIL OF SAINT LUCIEN

KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT

KNIGHT OF THE RADIANT PATH OF MALCHEDIAEL

Edited April 4, 2025 by framalam

[HeyitsNano 1582]

1 hour ago, framalam said:

A concerned father writes quickly to the Savoyard, whose progenitor he dearly kept as namesake:

 

”I do not know of which diocese you hail, so I should not be the father responding. Regardless, you are in dire need of a kohenic education. It seems you have followed your own, admittedly, rational line of thinking, and never really stopped to self scrutinise.

 

Your first act of penance cannot be assigned, as you continue to affirm the Church in the wrong. You cannot at once dismiss an excommunication as reactionary, and as just - they are juxtaposed. Additionally, you fail to recognise that your perceived moral righteousness - your supposed reason for faltering in Virtue - is inextricable from your faith, and that, overmore, your morality is derived directly from it. Second, to quote camraderie as a reason for Sin is nothing but masking Sin. This is most Saulican of you. You were not engaging in camraderie, you were engaging in apostasy in the name of a licit force. A force that, may I remind you, has yet to surrender.

 

For this, I respect you. A smidge. You have come before your king has knelt. He will kneel, or his head will roll down the steps of his prized dragon skull throne (if it truly is the real one on display) in righteous Vander justice. All the same, defeat was assured to the apostate from the beginning, so this respect is perhaps misplaced. I respect you secondly, a smidgen more, for your blood, that blood which you disgrace! You are a little prideful boy who has thought himself better than not only great men, patriarchs of your house, but also better, with no theological instruction, a fact I would surmise from your utter miscomprehension of all things Faith, than the entirety of the Temple of the True Faith of the Canon of the Creator.

You are not recognising your faults. You are Saul. This is the first step towards even being assigned penance. Recognise you are Saul. You, Owyn, inspired discontent and revolt against the true word of the Lord. You, Owyn, took the name of the most purifiying Exalted, and sullied it with your sorry excuse of penmanship. You, Owyn, inspired Sin in the camp of Horen. G-d is all merciful, so he loves you, but I do not. I spit on your kind, you are naught but a slithering snake in the reeds latching onto whichever beast’s muscles bulge strongest and hanging on, glad to be a part of something great that you never contributed to. You kvetch. Recognise this: you would be most rational in taking your own life and pleading your case directly to the Lord. Was this not the reason for your insurrection? Logic?

 

You were not WRONG, my son, you were SAUL. You were not WRONG, you were SINFUL. You were not WRONG, you were PRIDEFUL and IMPRUDENT.  Apologies and begging are most fitting. Beg and grovel before the Tabernacle to be forgiven for desecrating it. To be excommunicant is not to imply you walk out of His light. It is to declare the state that you do walk out of His light, like you do. To equate you to another excommunicant, the company in which you now lay, let me tell you of Richard Stassion. Apostate, schismatic, oathbreaker Stassion who rebelled against his crown and fled north. I enlisted thirty years as a Holy Ser, and I still am a man of cloth and sword such as St. Robert, and I hunted him down. I spent four years of my life to find only his ashes. This is the dedication with which Owyn’s fury will rain down to you, Owyn.

 

You should admit this all with shame. I hope you feel it. I hope you see yourself in the reflection of a pond and hate what you see. I hope you feel your hand twitch around a sword at your hip, calling you to suicide. I hope you sob every night, knowing you are surely a disappointment to any who have ever loved you. I hope you hate yourself, young boy. Revel in this. In this shame. And when you do truly feel shame, and not the apostate whelp fear of retribution for your crimes that willed you to write this half-willed sheet of latrine paper, come before the Tabernacle and let your tears sizzle in the flames. Let the Mercyflame touch your heart.

 

I can only hope, young Owyn, that it does not consume you. If you truly feared the Lord, you would not reduce him by a common name of G-D, and would instead use his true names. If you truly feared the Lord, you would not have rebuked your faith. If you truly feared the Lord, you would not have chosen FOOLISHNESS and FALSE LOYALTY TO HERESIARCHS over the Ruach Ha’Kodesh. My most sincere advice would be to kill yourself, as you have already perverted the Lord’s gift.

 

My more priestly advice is sit with yourself. Be a hermit. This helps. I was a boy of great sin too, and many wished me dead. Hermit, hermit, hermit. Rebuke your compatriots that let you fall to whatever weird little freak you are today. Eat modestly. Dress modestly. Abandon your gentile titles. More importantly, please go by Hector. You bring shame to the name Owyn, and the name de Savoie. It will be good, and humbling. When you are prepared to do this, then, and only then, visit every place of worship on Braevos, concluding this Path at the Holy See. Ask for your penance there.

 

I wish you bountiful life in His light, and I hope your Saulican face is burnt off by the overwhelming flame of Virtue,

 

Light preserve you,

FR. HARRENIEL

PARISH PRIEST OF GOTTENTHAL

CARETAKER OF THE BLESSED TEMPLE OF ST LUCIEN

HOLY KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE GRAIL OF SAINT LUCIEN

KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT

KNIGHT OF THE RADIANT PATH OF MALCHEDIAEL

Spoiler

THATS MY PRIEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HARRENIEL!

 

[MRCHENN 4741]

[!] A bird reaches Owyn de Savoie.

 

"O' Ashford kin of mine,

 

It pains me to see that a man who claims my heritage, of the same zealous Savoyard men who answered the call of Daniel I, commit this act of anathema as you have.

 

You must realize that no amount of feigned ignorance will excuse the sin you have enacted, the most grievous sin. There is no reactionary excommunication, as it is the final sentence. 

 

If you claim yourself to be a man of action, then you will must understand that your attempt to rationalize the 'merit of your actions' is not enough, and instead, you must do the following to begin your penance:

 

Revoke your name, and revoke your ties to de Savoie. Take up the cloth of a monk, just as Oliver II did.

 

Once you have done this, you will be allowed entry to Lemon Hill. Otherwise, may your soul be damned.

 

Fr. Bertrand."