THE CHOIR

[Onnensr 1908]

 

Loving kindness bless you and summon you,

O’ Meak Ones

O’ Gentle Ones

O’ Righteous Ones 

LET MERCY RAIN.

 

HIS HOLINESS HARRENZEDEK, High Priest of the Church of Canon, Shepherd of The Flock of Urth, does so decree in the name of GOD…

The Bene Lissë Choir of Saints Avenel and Amyas, initially approved by the Blessed Antonius Cardinal Artorus, is now open to receive applicants devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and proliferation of Divine Love across the realms of Urth and beyond. Here emerges a new Holy Order, not pursuant in the execution of living-shadow, but undertaking that exalted anguish which is the nurture and security of the living-light. We are foremost a political subdivision of the Church, accepting a broad range of skills to proliferate education, health, and faith across the face of Aeos.
 

From time immemorial, the Holy Mother Church has been the devoted bride of our Lord God, and through the fulfillment of our righteous vocation do we maintain the sanctity and wholeness of that union. The music of our labors on this terrestrial plane and all others besides reverberates into the Skies, and those efforts are ever an exercise of love. Foremost as scholars of the mysteries, we have endeavored to comprehend the virtue of our charge, liberate those good souls from the agonies of ruin, and spread the holy word of God to those less fortunate to know Him. Over the centuries, the Church has waxed and waned as a martial power, accumulating Orders of the militant faithful, dutiful and just in their efforts to destroy and remove seditious and more often violent forces that prey upon the flock. As the clergy are the head and voice of the Church, these Orders have been our leal right hand, wielding the flaming sword of Owyn outstretched in retaliation against the innumerable hordes of the Deceiver.    But there is a significant neglect the True Faith has suffered for centuries. As we have taken up our Scrolls and our swords, and set a cleansing fire upon the world that once was, the esoterica of Creation -- the mysteries of the Divine, have been abandoned in the imagination of Canon's most devoted children. Only in small and private sects of zealous fellowships do Canon's academics speak to one another, frequently hoarding sage insight against the risk of critique or danger. And so consumed by the love of God and the infatuation with secular politics, the laymen have given less concentrated attention to the secret qualities of His immaculate design for too many ages to count. I say to this then, permit now the Church extend Her Left Hand, and let us orchestrate a new order that shall elevate and alleviate the torments of our ignorant minds and punished flesh.

Saint Amyas and Saint Avenel, blessed be they, were two men of outstanding character that represent the values of this new Order. Saint Amyas was a pioneer of medicine, the ever evocative merciful healer, who upon his knees a lame boy did kneel before Amyas’ hallowed tomb and was cured of his debilitation by a miracle of our Lord. In the time whence he lived, there were many terrible plagues, and he stood against the short-lived prejudices that victimized the sick and ministered to them without fear, and was caged among them only for our Father to shield his good soul from all affliction. Saint Avenel, misunderstood to this day as the ‘Father of Transmutation’, was a brilliant pioneer of engineering, rejecting the influence of the Void for the splendor of God’s own cunning. Many of the animii devices we use to this day were first given form by this man, devices which have saved lives and given strength to the weak, given sight to the blind, and given life to the machine. By the hallowed luminance of his mind, he foresaw that through education the condition of Man could advance, and made it his mission on Urth to provide as much to all those with eyes to see and comprehend. Health, and insight. One is not attainable without the other. The organic receptacle which receives the Light of GOD upon conception is cunningly knitted by His gentle hands in order to grow in strength and knowledge. We have grown much in strength, Canondom is at last prepared to wage a thousand-year crusade against the pernicious black stars that have subjugated us for so long, but for as long as we are not exceedingly wise, and exceedingly courageous in our pursuit of wisdom, rebellion would be our ruin. That is why we must open the schools and the hospitals, study the arcane and the outlandish, for all knowledge of GOD’s Creation vinifies our knowledge of GOD Himself. This New Order aims to bring us into a renaissance.

 

The Bene Lissë is separated into two harmonies, the Upper and Lower Choir. Beginning with the highest office of the Upper Choir is the Pater Archintellex, the managerial figurehead of the organization. His role is as any Grandmaster to a martial order; drafting projects, recruiting members, dressing them in the cloak and cap of the Order, and communing with the Church to guarantee a stable exchange of authority. Arcane badges pass under his scrutiny and his powers, then delivered to the archives of the Church. Additionally, it is his purview to establish new Oratories – a Bene Lissë chapterhouse – where they might serve as a boon to Mankind.    Below the Archintellex is the Synod of Provost, and the Sanhedrin. The Provost’ duty is to facilitate the proliferation of Divine Love across the cosmos, presented in its most moderate form by way of lectures, medicinal exercises, and speculative reconnaissance. Each Provost is selected for their enlightened grasp of particular subject matters, be they occult, terrestrial, benign, martial, political, or otherwise singular and of precious value. Of greater worth than their knowledge, they are selected for their steadfast obedience and adoration of the LORD, for in Him do we digest a resistance against the poisons of insight. So then let it be that every Provost must be a member of the clergy, be they deacon, vicar, or priest. Be they bishop or cardinal. Be they friar or patriarch, in accordance with whatever vows they have taken.    To ensure the lasting virtue of these individuals, a Sanhedrin is selected as the judiciary official of the Choir. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. It is by this truth that many wisemen have fallen to iniquity and madness, and it is in revenge against this truth that the Sanhedrin maintains a surgeon’s observation to the wellbeing of the Choir’s own flesh and mind. Below and sustaining the Upper Choir, exists the Lower. This is the Ministry of Choirists, men and women that have chosen to devote their intelligence to God under the pursuit of elevating the condition of Man. Scholars and students, merchants and tradesmen, esoterics and wizards. Each processed under trials suited to their Ministry, of which three exist. Bene Theria: The Ministry of Health, whose directive is the literal, material vitality of the Sons of Man and wholeness of their form. Their research and capabilities extend into the organic and medicinal, and serve as surgeons, neuromancers, and pillars of sustainment for their communities. A Bene Theria should be capable of traditional medicinal practices if not an aspiring student of such, sufficiently trained in related alchemy, and provide treatment within their Oratory.

Bene Logos: The Ministry of Education, whose directive is the overall administration of scholarly affairs across Canonist realms. This is in part though not limited to; alchemy, scientia, arcana, theology, history, heredity, and medicine. They are the center repository of information, serving as educational mediums to disseminate Canonists teachings and establish intellectual dialogue and trade. This is also the Ministry most formally associated with magic in its various forms. Bene Dayanim: The Ministry of Vindication, whose directive is the devoted protection of the Canonist flock not simply from physical harm, but spiritual and mental. Whereas the previous two Ministries are indirectly managed by any one specific Provost due to their blend of scholastic proficiencies, picking and choosing students predominantly based on interests alone, the Bene Dayanim answer directly to the Sanhedrin and the Archintellex. They are the only martially-concentrated part of the Choir, and could be referred to plainly as ‘Witch-Hunters’.   Ministries blur together at times, a Bene Dayanim may for instance administer medical treatment, or host lectures, the distinction is in how a Chorister would foremost like to assist Canondom and Her Choir, as well as how they would like to be engaged with professionally. In addition to Ministries, there is much in the way of volunteer service one may enter into at the approval of any person within the Upper Choir. Naturally, these persons possess no hierarchical voice and are there to support their elective ministry on an as-needed basis, and are thereby expected to heed the instruction of inducted members. By entering the Choir’s sworn service one is recognized as a votary of the Order, and given trials that not only prove a dedicated Faith, but the necessary cognition needed by those that make martyrs of themselves by undergoing limitless agonies for a brighter tomorrow. These persons share with their superiors a bond of the same heart, proven to be merciful, reverent, and competent. Whereas a Volunteer’s service to the Bene Lissë ends when they remove their badge, with or without the cloak and cap a Bene Lissë Chorister remains a responsible and active party of the Order, and held to that standard of exceptional virtue.

 

As this war of unification draws to its close and swords turn to plowshares, the Church of the True Faith has seen with true prescience that this time exists only as a preliminary era to a far greater battle to come. Greater fields of combat await, with foes that bear no resemblance to our own Brothers and Sisters. Mankind rallies on either side of Aevos beneath the bounteous light of Heaven, at long last indivisible and eternal. Should we desire it, as we do, to never again witness such hideous fracture as has for eons enslaved us to petty tyrants and black-tongued powers, we must at last throw open the gates from whence the legions of abomination entered through, and bring the flame of Owyn roaring into the night of the cosmos.

 

Already, artifices of cunning make are in the works to transport no small gathering of knights into the unclean beyond, but entire legions. We will bring to them the trumpets and drums, the roaring of men and women who have all suffered iniquity, and at last Mankind will no longer languish merely on the defensive, but weep with triumphant tears at the culmination of our victory, which belongs to GOD. 

 

To this end, we must realize and leverage that Mankind’s finest gifts, of which GOD has given us many, is not merely our enduring flesh, or our luminous minds, but our SPIRIT, for which no other life among the stars can compare. The Spirit is a wellspring, feeding the body, and feeding the mind, and to all would-be Choristers, it is our due diligence to support both as an instrument to the Church. 

 

O’ GOD even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

 

 

 

[Gustando 1990]

[!]

A choirsman of Avenel's lineage smiles from space at the continuation of his shortly lived order

[Wand 1220]

A pale man, tall and lanky beneath his choir boy robes, smiled and prayed beneath the White Tree. At last, a sign of service, that he might sing forever GOD's glories and mercies!

[Xergarok 811]

An Abdastaerian Alchemist takes note of the recent developments and, intrigued, decides to contact the Order...

[SimonItorp 124]

An artisan of the Void, exuding smog and embers of arcana from all over his body, stood beneath the Obelisk in his forge, stares at the missive he's been handed. His expression remains still, but his eyebrows furrow together and a low, resentful murmur escapes him before the missive is incenerated within his grip.

[Hawkeye_Gough 624]

The first Abdast, and all the Abdast'Zar kneeling beside him, say a short prayer for the health and prosperity of the Choir.