thesmellypocket

THE CHURLMEN "Haec plebs bibere vinum et commedere carnem sine fine amant. Suntne tanti magni Horberti?" (This people love to drink wine and eat meat without ceasing. Are they not little more than big Hobbits?) -The Earliest Recorded Heartlander Reference to the Churls, A Merchant's Complaint. c.600.- "In piety unceasing, in archery unmatched, in merriment unbridled, but in victory insufferable." -An Auvergne Monk on the Churls, Upon Saint Godwin's Day, 1522.- "The hot-blooded Hengst and the lily-white Aethelflaed would go on to marry, and live happily-ever after. But, as mentioned before, Hengst, first King of the Churls, went down in history by a different name. He was called Aelfwine, which means Elf-Friend, and to this day the word of address for a ruler among the Churls is an Aelfwine, an Elf-Friend. All Churls alive today are said to be flowers borne of that noble root, descendants of that noble stock, and to this day they still sing the fame of their first parents...To this day the Churls, or Coerls, which is the Old Churlish word for farmer, have a special love of the Elves, whose magic, by God’s grace, saved their race from destruction." -A Judite Monk on the Story of the Churlmen, 1886. Name THE CHURLMEN, Churls, or Ceorls, which is the Old Churlish word for farmer, go by many names. To themselves they are known as Churls, but they are also called Yeomen, Great Hobbits (Bearing no relation to that race, except that a Merchant commented on their eating habits, and it stuck), Elf-Friends, the Thee-Thous, How-Nows, Beseechers (These last three due to their dialect), and, as a stab at their rather...phonetic approach to spelling, they are sometimes slandered in Flexio texts as the Illiterati, or Illiterates, which is rather unfair. They are a race whose early history is shrouded in saga, dwelling in various little towns called Burhs and villages called Hams. Due to their obscure origins, whether they are Highlanders or Heartlanders is actually a disputed question. However, when looking at their ancient language, Old Churlish, its similarity to Waldenian in terms of vocabulary would seem to demonstrate that they are, in the greater part, Highlanders in blood, with very considerable Heartlander inter-mixing. They are a race of yeoman farmers, fine archers, epic poem enjoyers, God fearers, myth embellishers, ale drinkers, pony riders and Psalm singers. It is worth mentioning that there is also a sub-group of Wood Elves who ‘went native’ and embraced Churlish religion and culture. Many of these are some of the most revered and notable characters in Churlish history. They are called Fiergennesmen, as derived from the genitive Fiergennes (‘Of the wood’) and therefore they are called something like “Men of the Wood” or “Woodmen.” They hail from an island on the edges of the Known World, which, when Aeldin was more accessible, represented a halfway point toward the continents presently inhabited by the descendants and the great mysterious continent beyond. This island, known unimaginatively as Iegland (The Island), is also home to other peoples, notably Auvergnes, an isolationist Wood-Elf kingdom, and several Highlander peoples. History “Aethelred cowered to save his country’s breath, Aethelred found a meet reward in death. Aelfwine disdained, and fear’d not the Dragon’s flame, Aelfwine found himself a country, life; endless fame." Origins: Era of the Elf-Stone (1-600) Ancient Churlish history is obscure. For the first 200-or-so years of their existence, the only written account we have is that of an Elf called Gildas who spent considerable time among the early Churls and wrote an account of his experiences around the year 400. Gildas was probably the first Woodman. We also have many sagas about this mythical period, but the extent to which they embellish is disputed among writers. According to Gildas, the Churls were descended from a man called Offa and his companions, who were among the 7000 ‘brothers’ of Horen later mentioned in the Scroll of Gospel as being created by God. These men settled in Churland during the Tribal Era. Those companions became the patriarchs of families and the leaders of tribes, and, quite soon, the elders of ‘Hams’, or villages. Heartlander and Highlander settlers freely intermixed into the native population. They remained in this scattered way for several generations, when a leader emerged. Legend says that a dragon called Churlsbane attacked and threatened to wipe the Churlish race from the face of the earth. One of the village elders wanted to prostrate himself before the Dragon and worship him, and offered his only daughter in a sacrifice of praise to the beast. But one of his companions, his nephew Hengst, refused to go along with such a cowardly course of action. Aided by a wood Elf lady skilled in magic, who gave him an enchanted sword (called an Aelfsword by the Churls) and Aethelstan (Elf-stone), he was able, with the help of the daughter who had been offered, Aethelflaed, to slay the beast. That man was honoured by Man and Elf as ‘Aethelwine’, a name which means ‘Elf-friend’, and to this day a king or man of honour among the Churls is reckoned with that title. Aethelwine was the true father of the Churlish people, and Aethelflaed its true mother. It was they who invented many Churlish customs, wrote the first literature in Old Churlish, and established the first traditions of the Churlish religion. “Heroic Elflede! great in martial fame, A man in valour, woman though in name: Thee warlike hosts, thee, nature too obey'd, Conqu'ror o'er both, though born by sex a maid. Chang'd be thy name, such honour triumphs bring. A queen by title, but in deeds a king. Dragons before the Churlish heroine quail'd: Edmond himself to win such glory fail'd.” At this point, Churlish society prospered and developed under the watchful eye of Aethelwine’s descendants. Elvish magic and Churlish bravery was a powerful combination, but, around the year 600, society began to corrupt and splinter. This first part of history is also called the ‘Era of the Elf-stone.’ The Pagan Era (600-900) "I feel...thin. Sort of...streched, like butter scraped over too much bread." - A Churl describing the early effects of a magical item which was prolonging his life. In their fondness for the magic-loving Elves of the nearby forests, the Churls became addicted. They sought nothing but signs and wonders and would kill and murder for magical objects. These objects promised the prolonging of youth and everlasting life. But they gave no new life; merely stretched it out, like butter scraped over too much bread. The religious rites were evil and often emotionally manipulative, focusing on working men up into a frenzy. Even the Aethelstone and Aelfsword, which of old had humbled Churlsbane, were lost in the chaos. Eventually, they abandoned the monotheism of their fathers and began to worship the gods of the Wood Elves in special groves. There is evidence, the Churls maintain today, that the Wood Elves of the Churlish forests were themselves originally, or had at least been at one time, monotheists. In any case, they turned to the general religion of their race and soon converted the Churls also. An evil sect, calling themselves the Secret Friends of the Gods, began to burn and pillage everywhere, murdering and destroying on the farcical pretext that bringing the land under human cultivation robbed the gods of the splendour of the forests. Only with the extermination of farmers and the destruction of farms, they said, could peace and balance be once more restored to the world. Modern persons will, of course, protest that this is a perfect perversion of the principles of that religion, and they are perfectly correct. The Wood Elves who had ventured from the forest to help the Churls, who had been given a position of trust over these people, themselves became corrupt. Some of them started to rule over the Churls as ‘Aelfproestas’ or Elf-Priests. They exploited the Churls, keeping them in terror using the Secret Friends and taking any fruits of their labours. The royal family was little more than a set of puppets. Civilisation descended into barbarism, fettered only by usage at the pleasure of the tyrants. There was, in the truest sense, an anarcho-tyranny over the realm. The most terrible crimes of the Secret Friends were passed over. One who killed an elderly thrall some angry locals attempted to bring to justice. The Elf-Priest demanded him back; “Oh what a poor thing, what a terrible crime, what a wicked deed,” said the Elf-Priest “For this poor man’s langseax to be dirtied with the blood of animals.” Another supposed saying of the Aelfpriests: “There are no criminals, only friends or enemies of the gods.” Those who held to the Old Religion were systematically butchered. Civility and freedom were vanquished and the name ‘Churl’ was associated only with evil. Oaths were mere words, and all had forgotten the name of Aelfwine. All except one man. The Restoration (900-918) HERE STANDETH SAINTE RAEDWALD KINGE AND HERO OF THE CHURYLES PERMIT NOT OUR COUNTRIE NOR THE RAYCE OF MENNE TO WANTE OF SUCHE SOUYLES. “Erat vir qui timens Dominum. Quis est hic, et laudabimus eum? Fecit enim miribilia in vita sua.” - “There was a man who feared the Lord. Who is he, and shall we praise him? For he hath done wonders in his life.” Such is the first written reference to a man known to history as Benedict, after the Flexio Benedictus, or The Blessed One. Around the year 900, this young man, then of little note, saw a man sell his own only daughter as a slave to the Elf-Priests (for slavery was not abolished among the Churls at this time) in exchange for some magical trinket - one that did not even work. Confused and disgusted, Benedict wandered into the wasted lands, intent on leaving behind his native country, if he might, having given up on her. He then had a chance and choice encounter that is described by Churls as a marvel of Providence. He met a young Elf in the wilds. Gazing sadly on a ruined townhouse, Benedict, seeing his pointy ears, was restrained only by fear from unleashing an act of racial revenge upon the lone and unguarded enemy. But enemy he was not. He was a Woodman, and, in fact, he was Gildas the Younger, son of that Gildas who had first written an history of the Churls. Benedict could see that he was weeping. More than weeping, he was praying. Benedict’s anger was disarmed by the man’s piteous appearance. The two conversed, with raised guards at first, but with increasing familiarity. Gildas the Younger, himself around 500 years old, spoke to Benedict of the history of the Churls, and of their founder. Benedict was struck by the parallel of the tribal chieftain who tried to appease the dragon and the man who had sold his daughter to appease the Elf-priest. “Fain would I slay the dragon that now oppresses us! But how can I, a cowardly man, be Hengst to my people? For I see no other Men left to be such.” “My friend”, replied Gildas, “Did Hengst think himself a Hengst? No hero of old thought himself heroic. Rather, it is necessity which is the mother of heroism, and it is those who do not think themselves heroic but do what adversity requires that she crowns as her children, and endows with her virtues.” It was this conversation, reproduced a thousand thousand times in sagas and histories and dialogues, which bestirred Benedict onto the heroic quest of finding the Aelfsword and Aethelstan to slay the new dragon which enchained the hearts of Man and Elf. In a brief outline of history, it suffices to say he succeeded in that quest through many heroic feats, including being the first of the sons of Men to enter into the jealously-guarded Wood Elf kingdom which lay at the door step of the Churlish lands. Those Elves were offended and scandalised by the behaviour of their countrymen, and the covenant between Man and Elf was once again reforged - as once again was the Aelfsword of old. “To overcome his prejudice against Elvenkind,” writes a chronicler “is reputed to Benedict’s magnanimity, as that race it was that destroyed his country. But he realised that they too had saved her in former days, and that, whilst all of them had consented with one voice to the saving, but a sect of them were responsible for the destroying.” “These are rebels, enemies of my race and yours”, said the Elven king. “Fight them.” Benedict first returned to his home village, and, with the Aelfsword, slew the tyrant slave-merchant who styled himself Elf-Priest of that district. Immediately, those decent men that remained flocked around his banner, and his fame spread. Then came a brutal reprisal. Benedict was defeated at the Battle of Evesham and forced to give up any territory he had managed to capture. His allies were simply too few. He fled into the country, a fugitive and rogue fighting for his life every day. It was the lowest ebb. He was barely able to establish a guerilla hideout in the marshes. At that vital moment, when all seemed lost, Benedict found a new friend. Raedwald, king of the Churls, escaped from house arrest in his palace and was able to make contact with Benedict. Raedwald granted the official use of the potent symbols of royal authority to Benedict, and also called for the Fyrd - the national militia of all the free men of the land. From their marshy Burh they disseminated the message by every means available. But who would come? The Fyrd was a name breathed in legends. The king had not exercised that right in centuries. In fact, the king had not issued any right whatever for centuries, let alone such an important one. Also, the Fyrd pertained only to free men - about half the population were slaves. There was every chance people would even think it was a joke! Even though King Raedwald was of the unshakable conclusion that no Men would come and they would fight and die that day, he remained fixed to his duty with an awesome fatalism. And, hoping against hope, they waited at the assembling-field, a place strangely called Malinsham, in the year 918. And the Men came, and what was once thought to echo in the pages of myth, coloured the annals of history. The Monastic Revolution (920-1200) "Nihil operi Dei praeponitur." Needless to say, Benedict was victorious that day. The new Churlsbane had been slain. The Churls consider this the greatest victory ever won in the history of land warfare. So high was Benedict’s honour that, when the newly-restored Raedwald died in 920, the Witan or royal council offered the crown to him. Even members of the king’s family voted in his favour! Yet, Benedict chose a path that would immortalise him even more than had he been a greater king than Hengst the Aethelwine. He insisted on Raedwald’s son continuing the dynastic tradition of royal succession. One day, Benedict’s supporters literally said “this is a god and not a man”, and began to insist on his own deification. This made Benedict realise that the Churls had no real guidance or principles. The religion of Aethelwine had long since vanished. Now, the tyranny of the Elf-Priests had gone also. The Churls felt a vacuum, and it was felt that they would embrace anything that could fill it. Benedict chose to live a monastic life, and, inspired by his example, young men followed him. Soon, young women established convents in the land. He lived a life filled with wonders and miracles, but, more strikingly, a virtuous one. Benedict left them a Regula or Rule that was full of practical wisdom on the living of this life. Above all, he insisted on a life of poverty, chastity and obedience, and, crucially, manual labour. This revolutionary idea seemed calculated to win the hearts of the Churls. In contrast to the Elfpriests, who scourged the land on the principle of hating cultivation and yet lived off its fats, the monks were men of work. Their disciplined manual work - that they contributed to the communities with their own hands - restored the glorious Churlish countryside of hedgerows and fields, and now church spires, too, became integral to the landscape. “This land is a land of monasteries' ', came the report of an Orenian traveller at the death of Benedict around the year 1000. The Churlish religion, that of Hengst, was once more established in the land, and not only this, it seemed to quickly become its root and cornerstone. Civilisation was restored, art and literature were once more made, and more regular relations with the Elves were maintained, to avoid such evils ever coming to the people again. Auvergne Renaissance (1200-1500) and Modern Period (1500-1900.) Battle of Hengsborough (1204.) GREAT has been the influence of the neighbouring Auvergnes on Churlish language, culture and civilisation, and this influence reached its peak in the period called the Auvergne Renaissance. First, there came, in the year 1200, a succession crisis when King Offa of Hengsborough and his two sons were all killed in a freak boating accident on their way to a foreign country. “No ship ever sailed that did bring such disaster upon mankind”, wrote one chronicler. Several claimants arose, and found battles and skirmishes. In the chaos, the King of Lisieux, a nearby Auvergne kingdom, invaded. He thought that the outdated Fyrd system of shield walls and boars’ snouts and other outdated tactics, combined with Churlish disunity, would make her an easy conquest. However, whilst Offa had died tragically, he had beforehand set in motion military reforms during his long reign which would prove the Lisonians had miscalculated gravely. The chief weapon of the Churls was now massed archery combined with heavy infantry and spearmen, and, at the Battle of Hengsborough (1204) a local army made up purely of the lower classes was able to withstand a force of Lisonian knights and mercenaries five times its number. The triumph of this humble ‘band of brothers’ against the pride of a much larger feudal nation is still a point of pride among Churls to this day. But the wise Lisonian king, Phillipe, realising that conquest by force was not such an easy option, turned to diplomacy. He was able to get the support of a claimant, and through that claimant was able to obtain the Aethelstan and Aelfsword of old. When he ‘placed the sacred objects in Our court for safe-keeping’ it was obvious to too few men, too late, that he himself coveted the crown. The king offered to arbitrate the struggle and restore peace to the realm. The war-weary populace agreed. When it became obvious that none of the claimants could reach a satisfactory compromise, the king presented himself as the only viable solution. The Witan eventually agreed that he was to marry the closest female relative of Offa still living, his daughter Osburh. The resulting issue would be recognised as the true offspring of Hengst, bringing Lisieux and Churland into direct, personal union. Phillipe had a separate coronation, and took a sacred coronation oath in Old Churlish to respect the rights and autonomy of the people. This proved to be a great partnership. The intervention of Lisonians is viewed favourably by most Churls today, who know that they defeated the Lisonians militarily, but chose freely to pledge allegiance to their king. And, in their eyes, he is their king also - the blood of Hengst flows through the veins of the Lisonian kings. This tradition continues, as intermarriage between the royalty and nobility of the two countries is commonplace. Indeed, the Churls are more loyal to the king than most of his own countrymen. The Lisonian king still takes a separate coronation oath in Old Churlish, and wields the potent symbols of Churlish legitimacy - the Aelfsword and Aethelstan among them. He is still also technically elected by the Witan, although this has become little more than a formality. He also has a special dispensation from the Canonist Church to offer the ritual sacrifices prescribed by the Churlish religion. The union of the Churls with Lisonians would be the beginning of a happy period in their nation’s history. Particularly flourishing during this time were the arts, heavily patronised by a king eager to be viewed as a supporter of Churlish culture. The gradual influence of Auvergne culture would see Old Churlish, still used as a literary language, evolve in the vernacular to the Churlish that is so famous today. The monasteries, meanwhile, from their humble beginnings became sprawling centres of knowledge. But for the Known World, the greatest impact of the Auverginian Renaissance would be the arrival of the Churls themselves - as Churls, under the influence of Auverginian friends and in-laws, follow them to realms such as Aevos, and, for the first time, begin to branch out from their little island. Language Much of Old Churlish literature is highly poetic, many monks writing wreams of poetry about elements of the liturgy. To be considered an educated man among the Churls, it is necessary to know three, arguably four, languages. Common (in the Churlish dialect), Old Churlish, Flexio and, among the nobility, Auvergne. Woodmen also speak Elvish - and some Churls themselves have learnt the language. The bi, tri or even quadrilingual nature of the Churlish upper class has made the Churls masters of linguistics. The most famous Churlish linguist is the Woodman palace official Aelfred of Malinsham, rumoured to be still alive in Aeldin. He is said to have taught languages to the Churlish royal family for centuries, and during his long life has mastered dozens of languages. Others say he embraced a monastic life and wrote a 100-volume ‘Historia Mundi’ and then translated it into every language in the Known World. Old Churlish - The most ancient of the languages. There are some remote villages where it is still spoken, to the exclusion of any other language. It is said to be the language of Hengst and the first generations of Churlish tribesmen. It is the exact equivalent of Old English. A largely literary language, it is the stuff of saga, epic poetry, and the royal chronicles. Churlish nobles, clerics and learned men know it. Much of their royal ceremonial is in this language. Even Churls who do not know it are familiar with Churlish words relating to royalty, Elves, weapons, the weather, various expressions, and history. Churlish - The butt of many jibes against the Churls, considered by most linguists a dialect or variant of Common, and by a few fringe Churlish patriots as its own language. It resulted from a mixture of Old Churlish, Flexio, Common and Auvergne and is the result of centuries upon centuries of development. It reached its current form during the Auvergne Renaissance. It is the most commonly spoken language among the Churls, and, historically, was rarely used in literature, until the Auvergnes brought the printing press to the Churls. Recently, it is experiencing something of a literary golden age - much of what is rich and engrossing in Flexio, Old Churlish and Auvergne literature is turned into plays for which this form of Churlish has become famous. It is equivalent to Early Modern or Shakespearean English, both in speech and spelling. Churlish is further sub-divided into two accents, sometimes considered dialects in themselves: ‘South’ Churlish is spoken with a West Country English dialect (see examples.) It must be noted that Churls have no set way of spelling, being isolated from such institutions as the Great Library and the Canonist Church. They tende to spelle thinges qywte phoeneticallie, often adding weirde 'e's' to the endes of their wordes. ‘North’ Churlish is spoken with what is called today the ‘Black Country’ accent of the West Midlands. (See example.) Given here is the conjugation of the present tense of ‘to be’ in Churlish: 1st person singular: I be 2nd person singular: Thou beest (Thou bist, in South Churlish Thee Bist) 3rd person singular: He beeth 1st plural: We be 2nd plural: Ye be 3rd plural: They be ‘To have’ I have Thou hast He hath We have You have They have Flexio - Flexio is the ecclesiastical language of the Churls, as well as the language of much of their literature. It was once the lingua franca between Man, Elf and Auvergne in Churland, and hence, it is still taught as a spoken language, despite its largely literary use. It is still spoken by Woodmen and by the Elves of the forest. It is generally the language of both science and religion. (Because monasteries are the centres of learning.) Also, philosophical treatises are written in this language. Auvergne - The language of the ‘Renaissance’ period, and thus, along with the vernacular, the language of much of the ‘new’ literature among the Churls. It is largely associated with romance and chivalry. Some Churls are not happy with this adoption of Auvergne romance, but many are thrilled with the idea of tournaments, heraldry, cavalry charges, princesses locked in towers, and so forth - the kind of crazes that have gripped mainstream Heartlander culture for centuries. Others have synthesised romance and saga in a new way. Names Among the lower classes, surnames are rare. People generally have Old Churlish names. Some Churlish immigrants to foreign lands accept surnames as a way to fit in with census data and so forth. In these cases, nicknames generally become surnames - Offa the Smith becomes Offa Smith, or Offa Smithson, for example. Names: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Old_English_given_names Among the nobility, it is necessary to adopt surnames in order to compete with Auvergne competitors. They generally take the name of the place of origin - someone might be ‘Denewulf of Evesham’, for example. Some very noble Churls adopt Auverginian surnames, to the distaste of their countrymen! A few Churls have adopted first names from Common and Auvergne, and monks sometimes take Flexio religious names, as Benedict did. Some have adopted Elvish names. The Elvish influence on Churlish culture can be seen in the Old Churlish names - names like ‘Aelfred’ (Elf-counsel.) Many Woodmen have kept their Elvish names - others have adopted names from a variety of linguistic sources - Old Churlish, Flexio and Common. Placenames - Placenames tend to be fairly literal and often from Old Churlish, but often they betray a deeper cultural influence. For example, places named after Saints and heroes, and with obvious Elvish inspiration (Malinsham) are not uncommon, and betray the deep influence of Elves on the Churls. The basic unit of Churlish society is the Ham, or village. Many Hams grow, but retain their name. They also have a few fortified settlements called Burhs. This is from whence the suffix boro comes from, e.g. Hengstborough. There is also the Caester (Chester), or city, e.g. Witancaester. (Win-chester.) Many Churlish expressions of every-day speech relate to Elves. Rain is called Aelfegan (Elf-tears), bread pudding is called Lembas, after the famous Elvish bread, an enchanted sword is called an Aelfsword, and it is highest mark of respect for a man to be called an Aethelwine (Elf-Friend), or Aelfred (Elf-counsel.) Religion "This lande be a lande of monasteryies." The Churls are not, contrary to popular belief, Canonists. Not for the most part. Most of them, those who are not part of the Canonist minority, belong to the Ealdagas - a word which literally means ‘the olden days’ but which most translate as Religio Antiqua - The Antique Religion. This religion, due to heavy similarities with Canonist aesthetics and practice, is confused with it, but differs from it in some ways. The Churls inherited a strict monotheism from their fellow Men. As mentioned before, the Wood Elves of the Churlish lands were also said to be monotheists, only later adopting the general religion of their race - and even then, they are considered different enough by some persons as to be their own religion. This is excluding the significant minority of Elves in the Iegland who have embraced the Ealdagas. (More on Woodmen religion and culture to come.) Ealdagas - the Antique Religion After the people turned to dragon-worship, it was Hengst who restored monotheism to the Churls. Hengst was not only a hero-king of old: he was a prophet. His religion was re-established by Benedict, and hence got its name - Ealdagas - translated as Religio Antiqua by monks, and from thence to The Antique Religion. It is also called the Benedictine religion, but Churls do not like this, as it implies it originated with Benedict rather than Hengst. Churls have something of a complex relationship with Canonism. They do not believe in any universally-binding divine revelation as such, nor do they consider the Canonist Church as a body to which all Men must belong. This is because their religion was already long established before Godfrey and Sigismund. They rather believe that God has inspired many Men in history to seek Him and to worship Him according to a covenant. They believe that the Canonists represent one covenant, and they their own - and that the former err in ascribing themselves a monopoly as Man’s religious body. Because of this view, Churls venerate Canonist Saints in some wise as they would their own, and some even partake in Canonist rites when no Churlish ones are available - as is the case in the Known World. Churls are bound by two covenants (trēowa, sing. trēow), or agreements between God and Man. The first is the Covenant of Hengst, also called the Royal Covenant. This stipulated the worship of God according to various ritual sacrifices as offered by the King-Priest figure (Hengst and his descendants.) The people, for their part, offer a spiritual sacrifice - the sacrifice of inward contrition for sins, of praise, and of righteousness. Later on, when all except the Woodmen had apostatised from this Covenant, the Lord sent Benedict and established a new covenant with him, called the Benedictine or Monastic Covenant. This bound the Churls to offer this Sacrifice of Praise in a more concrete way - by the ritual chanting of Psalms at certain hours. Benedict established eight times of prayer (called ‘hours’): Mattins (night vigils), Lauds (morning praises), Prime (6am), Terce (9am), Sext (12pm), Nones (3 pm), Vespers, also called Evensong (Early Evening) and Compline (Later evening/early night.) Monks must offer all of these hours, laymen only Lauds and Vespers, which they observe within their homes and by going to monasteries to join the monks. Because of this, all Churls know how to sing Judite Chant, and literate persons can read it. At Lauds and Vespers time, you would hear every household gather together and sing chants in Flexio, Churlish and Old Churlish. This discipline means Churls generally get up fairly early and go to bed early! This ‘Sacrifice of Praise’ is called ‘Divinum Officium’ - The Divine Work, more commonly The Divine Office. St. Benedict famously said: ‘Let nothing be preferred to the Divine Work.’ Lauds is centred on the ‘Benedicite’ Canticle, which calls on creation to bless its Maker. It is not uncommon for people to know it by heart - and, people often shorten it by saying ‘Benedicite’ (Short for 'benedicite omnia opera Domini, Domino') as a blessing at meals, and in place of the other hours of prayer which they do not say. In order to make the Psalms and Hymns accessible to laymen, an anonymous Churl translated the texts into the vernacular, Churlish. These are sometimes chanted in the choral style that can be found in Anglican cathedrals. (As below.) At the end of summer, Hengst’s covenant is celebrated with a great festival. It is celebrated in summer because it is the fairest time of year - but then shortly gives way to autumn and winter, showing how the ‘perpetual summer’ offered to the Churlish people was forsook for idolatry and witchcraft. At the start of spring, Benedict’s feast-day is celebrated, to show how God offered a new dawn to the Churls and has ended the winter of their most evil days. Also, the feasts of great Saints - Churlish, and often Canonist - are celebrated throughout the year. (More can come on Churlish Saints and heroes.) The Churls observe the first day of the week as Holy Day (or holiday). They abstain from work on this day as part of the Royal Covenant. They play football - a game which involves getting a leather ball through the gate of an opposing village, and which can become quite bloody. Warfare "Tak'st thou this shieylde, hardened by the blowes of thy fader's enemyies. Take it up to defende thy hamme and thy Shire, or not at all. Become thyself a warrior, or not at all. Be preparyed to looke deathe in the fayce, or call not thyselfe a Churlish Manne of the Fyrd."-Churlish translation of one of the things said At the Reception of the Shield. In the Churlish homeland, the backbone of their might was always the Fyrd, when the free men of the land would gather together to fight as a militia, usually in a shield wall. However, the Fyrd is now obsolete. Despite this, Churls in their own villages still gather and take part in drills, parades, historical reenactments, etc., and act as a local militia to slay beasts where necessary. The Churls are thus evidently very proud of their status as warriors, even though now few of them exercise it. A Churlish boy coming of age at 13 is given his father’s shield in an Old Churlish vigil by candlelight. He makes a vigil outside the house of his father, keeping watch through the night. This symbolises that he is now a Man, with the right and the duty to defend his people and his village from attack. For Churls, to be a Man is to be a warrior, and to have a shield is the mark of a free man, so they are often prized objects passed down through generations. In the morn, he is made to withstand twelve shots with the bow with his shield. He takes part in the drill that day with the others - a member of the shield wall! In the late 12th century, King Offa realised that this ancient system needed to be adapted. But he knew better than to get rid of 11 centuries of tradition, and therefore preferred to build around it. He spent his entire reign propagating the use of the War Bow among the Churls. Churls can now pursue a life of adventure as Bowmen for the King, accompanying him on campaign. The finest archers of all are the Woodmen, having both Churlish steel and discipline, and Elvish skill. Other Churls have embraced knightly ranks and honours from the Auvergnes. King Philippe settled a number of these horse-loving Churls on the frontier of his kingdom, on wide and open plains, where they have proven as keen to remain on horseback as their homely cousins are as keen to remain on foot. Such men are called Ridan (Riders, singular Rida) Still, other Churls prefer to remain as Huscarls (Housecarls), fighting on foot in the shield wall or protecting the archers. These Footbound Churls even go as far as to disapprove of the uses of horses in war entirely, seeing them purely as made for racing! More could be written about the Ridan. A trait that each Churlish warrior is supposed to possess is a kind of grim fatalism. This was inherited from King Raedwald, the victor-king at Malinsham and the restorer of the Fyrd. Many Men became obsessed with control, power, and the prolongation of their earthly life - the kind of powers that the magical objects gave them. They were unwilling to simply lay down their lives and let nature take its course. Even good Men were corrupted by their desire to do good, and became the kind of busybodies who would render Men’s lives miserable. But Raedwald embraced the inevitability of death, and, even after being convinced of defeat, did not fall into despair, content that he could only do what was his power and duty as king. Thus Churlish warriors cry “death!” They embrace the uncertainty of death as the necessary portal to the Skies; the ultimate act of trust in the Living God and love to one’s brethren is to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Ultimately, Raedwald’s honourable action was rewarded against any hope he himself could devise; and thus the Churlish warrior must do his duty even when all seems lost, for there is a Providence in this world, and virtue does not go unnoticed or without purpose. Cuisine Churlish cuisine is shaped, above all, by religious practice. Churls tend to fast prior to Lauds and the Priestly sacrifices that are offered with it. Thus, the first meal of the day is called Break-fast, for it is when this fast is broken. Breakfast is regarded as the finest part of the day, and is made up of small parts that have slowly accumulated to take its present form. The Churlish breakfast consists of bacon, gammon, fried eggs, beans, sausages, cooked tomatoes (Fruit and vegetables are often cooked, according to one Churlish author ‘'Beware of green sallettes and rawe fruytes for they wyll make your soverayne seke'), and a country delicacy called black pudding, usually made with pork blood. Dinner tends to consist of a great stew called pottage. Other Churlish foods include shepherd’s pie and bread pudding (called Lembas.) Another more modern form of nourishment is peppermint confection which tends to be called 'White Lembas.' It contains massive amounts of sugar, and is used by pilgrims and marching soldiers as a refreshment. "Oh, it is Lembas indeed!"-Report from an Elven traveller. On holidays, families tend to place a large cut of meat in the oven before Lauds. When they return, they tend to enjoy a mighty meal called the Holieday Roaste. Monks often brew beer, so that the Churls are famous for their ales. The Churlish immigrants to the Known World tend to have a particular obsession for continually drinking tea, which some have said is some kind of genetic trait. Society and Governance "Oh, how sadde and ignoble thatte foren facions do prevaile upon the lande, in playce of that owre faders wore!" Since the Auvergnes abolished slavery in Churlish society under Canonist influence, the Churls have followed a feudal structure, albeit with some distinct characteristics. The highest social class consists of the Earls and Thegns, advisors of the king who own large areas of land. They are the rulers of Shires or counties. Earls are admitted to the Witan and elect the new monarch, although this is now a formality in the basically hereditary tradition of Churlish monarchy. Certain monastics, especially Abbots (but not Abbesses) are appointed Priests by the king. These are anointed to offer sacrifice according to the prescriptions of the Royal Covenant in a particular locality. Under the Thegns are the Huscarls, roughly the equivalent of a knightly or gentry class. These men attain their status by affording the best armour and weapons and undertake elite military training. Most Woodmen, although they are archers, are considered Huscarls by class due to the high levels of education and respect they have, meaning that they outrank most Churls in social status but are not generally at the top of their society. The bulk of Churls are simply called Churls. That means farmer - the free and prosperous class of ‘yeomen farmers’ that also form the bulk of the Fyrd. Many, however, have become educated or work according to a skilled profession. The majority, though, remain simple farmers in the countryside. An underclass has emerged in Churlish society. The Thrall or slave-class, having been abolished, have not been able to enjoy the full and true status as Churls. The Auvergnes originally wanted to simply repurpose their own institution of serfdom, but the ex-Thralls cast off this burden in a series of short but bloody revolts. In the end, although officially Churls, an underclass of non-landowing ex-Thralls with little security and few prospects lingers at the bottom of society, forming around 15% of the population. Churlish society is Patriarchal. Virtually all political power, with notable exceptions, is exercised through and by men. When women do influence great events, as they often have, it tends to be as the wives, mothers and daughters of the great men, or as abbesses of mighty houses. Churlish religion teaches that ‘The father is the head of the household, whilst the mother is its heart’, meaning that woman occupies a submissive, but not unimportant, role in household affairs. Man is also the head of the family as a religious unit, and Men alone offer ritual sacrifice as Priests. Ideas of chivalry and courtly love have also given women a more privileged position in society, as men, perhaps for the first time in Churlish history, put women 'on a pedestal' and seek to do things for them. Women are not called up for the Fyrd. Note on Relations with Other Cultures Churls tend to have a very high regard for Elves, especially Wood Elves. This may not have been the case, had not Benedict of old taught the Churls to forgive the trespasses inflicted against them. They also tend to have both a friendship and a rivalry with the Auvergne peoples, since historically they have been enemies but now for 700 years have shared a monarch and have fought alongside each other in wars. Most Churls came to the Known World as retainers, servants and knightly companions of Auvergne settlers. Now the hostilities of old are reduced to friendly banter, although some Auvergne noblemen still look down upon the Churls as a savage and ignoble race speaking an antiquated and barely comprehensible peasant dialect. These bigots tend to be few, fortunately. On the other hand, a few Churls only speak Old Churlish and avoid Auvergne literature and culture like the plague! With most other races the Churls tend to be of a neutral disposition, being little known to them, and in turn knowing them little. Of these unknown races, many take a cautious approach, especially towards those bigger than they are, such as Uruks. Sometimes the Churls can clash with Men. Their liking of the Elves can cause tension with their fellow sons of Horen because of the prejudice that some Men have towards Elves. Some Men see the Churls as a kind of “Fifth Column” - the fondness of the Elvish race they see as a comprising factor.

Your Name and Surname: Theophane de Lisieux [Your Username]: TotusTuusEgoSum Your Age: 13 [Your Discord]: TotusTuusEgoSum Your Expertise: The mercy of God Singing Psalms in Auvergne

FLEXIO PER MODUM NATURUM A textbook for learning Flexio, in Flexio. Preface Great is the necessity for Men to know the Flexio language if they wish to consider themselves educated. For without it, not only are the Scriptures accessible only through the veil of a translation, but a great part of Human literature is thereby rendered obscure. Flexio is sometimes called "High Imperial", because it was used of the Orenian court of old. Thus those archives are unintelligible without this tongue, for much of them remain untranslated. At the same time, the greater part of Mannish tongues and even Common itself can be showed to be evenly derived from Flexio. It is reckoned that 60%of Common words are derived therefrom: simply put, to understand Flexio, is to understand Common, and to be ignorant of it, is to be ignorant of Common. It is also called the Angelical Tongue, for the common opinion among Men is that it is this language that the creatures of Pure Spirit do speak, and is therefore a language greatly suited to poetry, religion and all manner of beautiful and angelical things. Therefore, I hope to disseminate its study among all races, for all races, Canonist, heathen, Highlander and Heartlander, Man and Elf, may find in it beauty, honour and goodness. Especially this textbook will be useful for aspiring clerics in the grasping of the Flexio language. A brief note on the "Natural" or "Nature" Method. This method is contrasted to the method called "Grammar-Translation." The Nature Method attempts to teach a language more organically. It teaches the language through itself (per se illustrata) by revealing the meaning of words through context, pictures, and other means that relieth not on the first language of the learner. The language was pioneered by the High Elves. Saint Pius of Sutica, who was, in his youth, a great linguist of the Silver State's Library, was taught through this method, and taught his fraternity Priests Flexio and Akritian by the same means. However, he was not, and nor am I, wedded to it in a dogmatical way. Flexio grammar is significantly different from Common, and therefore, certain things must be explained grammatically. Therefore, I will hope to make available grammatical notes with each chapter. How to use this book. Each chapter is split into three lectiones (lessons.) It is recommended to 1)read the lectio on one's own (worrying not if little be understood), 2)read the grammar notes and read it the lectio again more carefully, using a dictionary or lexicon to look up any words that thou understandest not, and 3)read it again, with the normal speed to apply what thou hast learnt. I recommend also that, when thou, at thy next lesson, move on to the next lectio, read thou the previous lectio quickly, to remind thyself of the vocabulary and grammar of the previous lectio. But its particular usage is left to the discretion of the teacher and the self-taught learner. Most likely, thou shalt not find it necessary to do this in the first few capitula (chapters.) ((I hope to post a capitulum fairly regularly, until a complete Flexio textbook has been made. The grammatical notes for this chapter are not yet done, I shall add them later, but the chapter is pretty straightforward anyway.)) CAPITVLVM PRIMVM - IMPERIUM ORENIUM. LECTIO PRIMA Ecce, Haensa et Orenia. Haensa regnum est. Orenia quoque regnum est. Ubi est Orenia? Orenia in Almaro est. Ubi est Haensa? Haensa quoque in Almaro est. Haensa et Orenia sunt duo regna in Almaro. In Orenia est Providentia. Quid est Providentia? Providentia oppidum est. In Haensa est Karogradus. Quid est Karogradus? Karogradus quoque oppidum est. Estne Providentia regnum? Non est regnum, sed oppidum. Estne Karogradus regnum? Karogradus non est regnum, sed quoque oppidum est. Suntne Providentia et Karogradus duo oppida? Ita, Providentia et Karogradus sunt duo oppida, non duo regna. Num Orenia oppidum est? Non est oppidum, sed regnum. Num Haensa oppidum est? Haensa non est oppidum, sed quoque est regnum. Num Orenia et Haensa oppida? Non sunt oppida, sed regna humana sunt. Num Providentia in Haensa est? Providentia non est in Haensa. Ubi est Providentia? Providentia in Orenia est. Quid est Haensa? Haensa regnum est. Ubi est Providentia? Providentia in Orenia est. Nonne Orenia regnum est? Ita, Orenia est regnum humanum. Orenia et Haensa sunt duo regna humana. LECTIO SECUNDA Fluvius Augustus Ecce fluvius, nomine Augustus. Ubi est Augustus? Augustus est in Orenia. Quid est Augustus? Augustus fluvius est. Nonne Augustus in Almaro? Ita, in Almaro est. Avonus quoque fluvius est. Augustus et Avonus fluvii sunt. Suntne multi fluvii in Almaro? Ita, multi fluvii in Almaro sunt. Suntne multa regna in Almaro? Ita, sunt multa regna in Almaro: Orenia, Haensa, Norlanda, et cetera. Num multae Oreniae in Almaro? Non sunt multae Oreniae, sed una Orenia est in Almaro. Estne multae Haensae, aut una Haensa in Almaro? In Almaro est una Haensa. Deserta Mundus Ecce deserta. Ubi est deserta? Deserta in Almaro est, sed non in Orenia neque in Haensa est. In Orenia sunt multi fluvii et multa oppida, sed in deserta pauci sunt fluvii, pauca sunt oppida et nulla sunt regna. Suntne multae desertae in Almaro? Non sunt multae, sed paucae sunt desertae. Num fluvius Augustus in deserta? Augustus non in deserta, sed in Orenia est, et Orenia deserta non est. Orenia regnum est. Haensa et Norlanda quoque regna sunt. Quid est Augustus? Augustus fluvius est. Ubi est Augustus? Augustus in Orenia est. Ubi est deserta? Deserta in Almaro est. LECTIO TERTIA Litterae Flexionae Litterae Akritiae Ecce litterae Flexionae et litterae Akritae. Nonne δ littera Akritia? Ita, δ littera Akritia est. Quid est 'V?' 'V' est littera Flexiona. 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', et ceterae sunt litterae Flexionae. Num γ littera Flexiona? Non est littera Flexiona, sed littera Akritia est. Litterae Akritiae sunt α,β,γ,δ,ε, et ceterae. Oppidum est vocabulum Flexionum. Regnum quoque vocabulum Flexionum est. Oppidum et regnum sunt vocabula Flexiona. Estne Orenia vocabulum Flexionum, aut Akritium? Orenia est vocabulum Flexionum et Akritium. Estne deserta vocabulum Flexionum, aut Akritium? Deserta est vocabulum Akritium. Verbum Akritium pro deserto est ερέμος (Eremos.) ερέμος non est vocabulum Flexionum, sed Akritium. Quid est Providentia? Providentia oppidum est. Quid est Orenia? Orenia regnum est. Nonne Haensa et Norlanda quoque regna sunt? Ita, Norlanda regnum est et Haensa regnum est: ergo, Norlanda et Haensa regna sunt. Fluvius est vocabulum masculinum. Singularis est: Fluvius. Pluralis est: Fluvii. 'Ergo, Augustus est fluvius.' 'Augustus et Avonus fluvii sunt.' Mundus quoque verbum masculinum est. Deserta est vocabulum femininum. Singularis est: Deserta. Pluralis est: Desertae. Ergo, 'deserta in Almaro est', 'desertae in Almaro sunt.' Cetera verba feminina sunt 'littera', 'Orenia', 'Haensa', 'Norlanda.' Regnum est vocabulum neutrum. Singularis est: regnum. Pluralaris est: regna. Ergo: 'Orenia est regnum'; 'Orenia et Haensa sunt regna.' Cetera verba neutra sunt 'oppidum' et 'vocabulum.' ((Note: Grammatical notes to follow, later tonight hopefully.))

[OOC Note: This origin story I created as an introduction for a new culture I am creating, the Ceorls, or Churls. But it got too long so I made it its own post! All this is original, but the last poem about Aethelflaed I took from the panegyric a mediaeval English chronicler praising a Mercian queen, for I could think of no better words to give our heroine.] The Legend of the Churls By Br. Edmond, O.S.J. In the remotest epoch of ancient history, when Man and Elf were still young upon this earth, and shadowy saga sings of heroes but barely known, a quaint little hillfort on a lonely hill was the centre of a people’s hope. This is the story of that hope as the Churls tell it today. The surrounding countryside, inhabited by peaceful farmers, was ablaze with dragon’s fire, and the awful roar of the beast echoed through the valleys, shaking the hearts of men to their cores. The keep of the fort was little more than a hovel with a flat wooden roof, built that a man might observe the plains and valleys beneath. On top wobbled a withering ash-tree, a trembling old man; a slave to fear. His name was Aethelred, whose name means in Old Churlish, the Poorly-Advised. He was once a great warrior. “We must prostrate ourselves before Coerlsbane, mightiest of Dragons! We must forget the Covenant of Horen, for where is he, or his Creator, upon this day? To see my people consumed with flame! O sad day! There is no fighting such a Dragon. Let us surrender ourselves to him; let us implore his mercy. My Huscarls! Presently bring hither my most precious possession - my joy, my life, my loveliness - yea, my heart and my soul! I know what must be done to save my people. Bring also the Dragon Priest!” A sinister man shrouded in black robes slithered to the old Chief’s side. Aethelred said: “O Friend of the Dragon, thou mayst yet be the saviour of my race! Bring thou my only daughter down to the valley, bind her to a tree, and leave her there as an offering to the Coerlsbane. It may be that her virginal goodness shall yet appease his ire. Go!” “O Father!” Cried the beautiful princess, the golden-haired Æthelflæd. “Thou needst not force me so to offer of myself as oblation for our people, if it be thy will! ” “O, ‘tis a heavier weight to me that if thou hadst resisted, for truly, O thou brightest evening-star of thy people, thou hast out-manned me upon this fateful day.” “What be the manner of this devilry?” Roared a young Huscarl, the hot-blooded Hengst. He would go down in history by a different name. “How know’st thou that the Dragon will be thus appeas’d? For thou think'st to choose between death and disgrace! Disgrace thou choosest, and death too shalt thou have. If we die, let us die honourably with swords in our hands, for, even if die we must, the Creator shall accept us as a burnt offering acceptable to Him. His is not the ire of Men or Dragons, which flares up to destroy for its own sake. Rememberest thou not the trials of Horen, of Owyn and of Godwin? As silver is tried by the fire, so the Lord refines the just by trials. Therefore, let us humble ourselves before the Lord, believing that these scourges are meant for our profit rather than our destruction. If we win, we have won ourselves a great name for courage. And if be destroyed we must, eternal redemption is in the fanning of the flame. Therefore, my liege, be constant, and sin not. Do manfully.” “This lad has read too many sagas and romances. Boy, thou hast not seen but a fraction of what I have. Obey thou my orders.” The valiant-hearted Hengst replied: “Do as pleases you, but I shall go to face the Dragon.” This was the most preposterous suggestion the boldness of youth had ever conceived. Scornful laughter filled the air, and then…silence. “If any man prefers noble death to long life, follow me.” He cried. But none did follow. And breaking the deafening silence was echo of what the Churls now call Dracaansbell, Dragon’s roar, which is now the Churlish name for a thunderstorm. His resistance broke. He sheathed his sword and laid apart his shield. Below, in the Valley, the noble Princess now stood bound and utterly at the mercy of Coerlsbane, who still circled the valleys and turned villages into ash. Hengst watched, dejected by his own cowardice and saddened by the fate of the sweet-tongued Aethelflaed. The strength of Men had failed. He could now see two fates for his people: either they would be slaves to a Dragon, or ash. As the wound in his heart festered to its lowest ebb, the dreadful roars seemed to be suddenly vanquished by a gentle, feminine voice that melted into his ear. “O, thou lonely one”, said she, pitifully. “Come down.” His determination was renewed. He thought he was going down to die, as before. But a faint flicker of hope also enlightened him, and suddenly he raced down to the Valley, whilst Aethelraed called after him desperately. On a dirt path meandering down the hill, he met the one who had spoken to him. His jaw dropped in astonishment. Her Elf-eyes were fairer than snow, her mantle calmly fluttered in a gentle breeze, which seemed to come from her, rather than pass by her, and she extended two merciful hands which held a shining sword. To this day, Churls call white flowers Aelfegan (Elf-Eyes) they call a gentle breeze Aelfsbraeth (Elf-Scent) and an enchanted blade is called an Aelfsweord - an Elf-Sword. The sword was pattern-welded in the Churlish fashion, meaning that it was awash with glorious spirals that bejewelled the blade. But, more than this, the spirals shone with a brilliant splendour, leaving Hengst with no doubt that this was no sword of Men. He took it into his hands with exetremest reverence. Gently, she tied a stone around his neck. “Drop thy shield, child, and take off thy hauberk. Faith in thy God must be thy shield today, and valour thy mailshirt. There is no more to say. Whether thou shalt win or lose, I know not. But go gaily into the dark!” As he walked out upon the wide plain, he found the lily-white princess bound to a stalkish tree. As he was walking to the side, he heard something terrible. Something few men have ever heard. A laugh. The laugh of a dragon. It is very hard to put into words, and lives only in legends and the nightmares of children. Churlsbane’s laugh seemed to scorn even the stars into lowly contempt, melting oaken-sinewed Hengst’s valiant heart. He stood motionless whilst he saw the beast flutter silently over the hillfort, and all of a sudden consume it in flames. But the dragon did not roar this time. It seems he wanted the damsel to hear the screams of the burnt and burning, which pierced the plains all around. The hot-blooded Hengst was about to run over to the lilly-white AEthelflaed, when the Dragon landed in front of him with a terrific crash. The Dragon did not talk, yet he spoke. They call me the bane of your people. I alone am your god. I did not spare those who sought to worship me, but thou hast shown promise. Thee shall I spare, if yield to me thou wilt. These words seemed to enter Hengst’s mind, but he shook them off with an Horenian effort of willpower. He took the Elf-Stone and held it up in defiance. Another terrible laugh. Then, just as Coerlsbane was about to engulf him in a mountain of flame, he drew the Aelfsweord. The flames seemed to cannon off the blade which blazed a brilliant red. Seething with anger, the Dragon picked him up and hurled him down, sending the Elf-stone tumbling down the valley. O slave of mine! Torturous shall be thy death, and long and cruel. First thee shall I mutilate, then the maid, and thee again, and slowly, till thou shalt see each other thus mangl’d, and be cursed by a mutual piercing of hearts. Then at last shalt thou die. A fameless death, a hopeless death; a loveless death. And why has thy so-called God suffered thee to have such evils, being a man reputed upright? “Not without love”, responded the king-hearted Hengst faintly, “For if I loved not, I should not be thus pierced out of pity for my lady. But I know that my Redeemer lives, and that this flesh which thou shalt turn to ash upon this day, shall gaze upon my God, even the Living God, and what in time is corrupted, shall put on incorruptibility. The flame is but temporal, but the flames of thy punishment shall be everlasting. And enslave me canst thou not, only thyself, if I fear not death.” They dialogued thus for a few minutes, and many a saga has dwelt on such a dialogue. Not all versions of this story have such Creatorist themes, but this is the story as the Churls presently tell it. Yet while they thus dialogued, the Elf-Lady reappeared, and untied the dove-gentle Aethelflaed. Aethelflaed crept down to find the Elf-stone, and tied it to her mantle, the symbol of her virginity. The Dragon did not feel the patter of her feet upon his back. She tied the stone-adorned headdress about his neck, and all of a sudden he howled in anguish and fear. The enormous Dragon winced pathetically as the little maiden’s tiny foot seemed to him a weight that crushed his head. The Elf-Stone had unmanned the beast! Clemency might have been shown the beast, had he remained thus. But, as the hot-blooded Hengst let his guard down, he attempted to swipe at him in one final gasp of strength. Hengst blocked the blow with the sleight of his sword, and then thrust it deep into his belly. The dragon dissolved into an enormous cloud of ash such as he had wanted to turn men into. The hot-blooded Hengst and the lily-white Aethelflaed would go on to marry, but, as mentioned before, Hengst, first King of the Churls, went down in history by a different name. He was called Aelfwine, which means Elf-Friend, and to this day the word of address for a ruler among the Churls is Aelfwine. All Churls alive today are said to be flowers borne of that noble root, descendants of that noble stock, and to this day they still sing the fame of their first parents. “Aethelred cowered to save his country’s breath, Aethelred found a meet reward in death. Aelfwine disdained, and fear’d not the Dragon’s flame, Aelfwine found himself a country, life; endless fame." And of Aethelflaed was sung: “Heroic Elflede! great in martial fame, A man in valour, woman though in name: Thee warlike hosts, thee, nature too obey'd, Conqu'ror o'er both, though born by sex a maid. Chang'd be thy name, such honour triumphs bring. A queen by title, but in deeds a king. Dragons before the Churlish heroine quail'd: Edmond himself to win such glory fail'd.” To this day the Churls, or Coerls, which is the Old Churlish word for farmer, have a special love of the Elves, whose magic, by God’s grace, saved their race from destruction. And Aelfwine and Aethelflaed lived happily ever after, in this world and the next.

Edmund, having been learning to read for almost a year now, does so with some difficulty, but at length is able to understand the message. He has to read it again and again in order to understand it, and one phrase in particular jumps at him every time: "our era in Oren ends with this day." That word, Oren, had meant to him the whole world once. He had always been raised a loyal subject of that country, whilst he had only served Jazloviecki a couple of years. Oren was dissolved, and with it every civil institution he had been taught to reverence. And Jazloviecki had taken him in with great kindness. Only now did the realisation of the depths of the gravity of what was going on hit him. But he stiffened his resolve. He said he would follow his liege wherever he went, and he would. And now, a sense of daring and adventure welled up in his young heart. "GRODNO!" He cries.

Edmund sighs. "Lord 'ave mercy, this weigheth heavy. Fond am I of the land, of the high walls, the distant mountains and the green hills." His grief stiffens to resolution. "But where my liege leadeth, whither shall I go." Over time, the yeoman even warmed to the idea. He tries to comfort his liege: "All places that the eye of heaven visits are to a wise man ports and happy havens. Teach thy necessity to reason thus: there is no virtue like necessity. Think not that the Harvest did banish thee, but thou the harvest: Woe doth the heavier sit where it perceives it is but faintly borne. Go, say we are sent forth to get thee honour, and not that are banished! Or suppose devouring pestilence hangs in our air and we are flying to a fresher clime. Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it to come whither thou goest, not whence thou comest: suppose the singing birds musicians, the flowers fair ladies, and thy steps no more than a delightful measure or a dance! For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite He that mocks at it and sets it light. Wher'er I wander, boast of this I can, though banish'd, yet a true born Grodno man." (( inspired by Richard II act 1 scene 3))

Edmund, a lowly recruit, saw the treaty up close, seeing with his own eyes the pen of his liege Maciej sign the historic document. But his illiteracy prohibited him from reading it. In his heart he knew he saw history unfolding before him, and his heart stirred and yet saddened. He was filled with a desire to learn, to know, to continue his great adventure that had brought forth unfolded wonders, and yet knew that because of this desire he could never return to his village, nor would life ever be as simple. He was in the world.

TotusTuusEgoSum #3901

THE PHILOSOPHATE OF ARBINA "Most excellent, most noble, most good Antipater, I do hope your Excellency is as full of good health and humour as last I found you. You did ask me for a report on how the old Queen of Cities fares and if the political issues there render her unsafe. I attach my report, beginning with the speech of the one they call Gaius Severus, which I have translated from their ancient tongue. Make of everything what you will." "My bold countrymen! The Assembly meets as men refreshed, about to embark upon a bold new venture. We have, for generations, preserved the ruins of the Queen of Cities from utter destruction; guarded her philosophic secrets with a jealously not to be rivalled by the most ferocious guard-dog, and even kept good order and discipline between the cruelty of tyranny on the one side, and the horror of anarchy on the other. Mark how many nations fall to barbarism and lawlessness, mark well their savagery and baseness, and reflect how good it is to be a Citizen. But there must come a new chapter if ere the tale is to continue. Are we mere custodians of ancient stones? Worshippers of dying embers? What! Shall sheep and cattle continue to graze under the ancient triumphal arches, their owners blind to the glorious history they once were built to celebrate? I would rather be a dog than a citizen of such a place! It does not take long for dying embers to become dead ashes. No! We must be carriers of a living flame, bearers of a noble torch, warriors for a noble cause! Friends, we must not stagnate in the towns and villages that were once arms of a single great Corpus! Men say we are in dark times. They despair. They think on former days. Ye look upon yourselves and ye see not the great Philosopher who died in the cause of truth. O slight man. Knowest thou not the All-Seeing Eye of Divine Providence? Then weep not. Aye, God hath brought thee to the present time to do Him such definite service. We are born now. For the present moment. Not to bring back to an old time, but to forge a new one in the image of the old. Then let us go forth, striving! Let the walls of the City once more rise! Let her fam'd library once more become the envy of the world! But first, let the Schools be once more be filled with eager young men ready to do their duty; presently the rest we shall have if they be willing." Severus' opening speech was greeted with rousing applause. It was surprisingly fiery for the stoical 'Traiarius' School. (You see, your Excellency, they think emotions are below them.) But as he was to find out, to make speeches was easy, but to navigate the Assembly was harder. He would soon come to wish himself the absolute monarch of the state. "What is now remiss that this Assembly must address?" He began calmly. "Noble Brother", spoke up the equally young, equally brilliant and equally annoying (according to some) Titus Antoninus of the rival Honorific School. Whispers of outraged discontent feathered the air like so many newly-lit sparks. How dare he address the Noblest, Best and Wisest Philosopher as 'brother!' Waiting for silence to return, he weighed his words with sure deliberation. "I stand like a charioteer on the Circus Antiquus, reins in hand, ready to do my country good. And the good I seek, is this: THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY!" "WHAAAT!" "OUTRAGEOUS!" Even a "BLASPHEMOUS" Roared from the Traiarian benches. "HOW DARE YOU MAKE SUCH AN ACCUSATION!" Came the reply in an hundred voices. But this time, there was no silence to follow the rage. Men who, moments ago, just heard a speech about civilisation with utmost self-righteous composure began to give vent to the worst passions, brawling, beating and bearing down as blows landed. The moderates (or Custodian School) stood agape in the middle, motionless. "He had the reins in hand, aye." Complained Severus bitterly to a nearby friend. "And he let them loose, and behold, the horses do come barrelling into the crowd! Mark'd you his words?" And then it came. The silence. Why? A word, barely a mutter, came from a frail old man at the far side of the room. (A foreigner such as your Excellency or myself might have supposed him to be a spellcaster.) He held the folds of his worn toga in his shaking hands, up to the assembly before him. His voice was tedious, barely dragging itself to the ears of his listeners. But men listened like as if some prophet spoke. "O Philosophers, be worthy of your name!" He pleaded. "Here, within the folds of my toga, I hold peace and concord, or civil war and strife. Which will you have?" "Peace." Said Severus with a sigh. A little while later, Antoninus the Honorific agreed: "Peace among us, most noble Claudius." "Allow me to propose a motion..." Severus said. "Let us try to restore the great library built by our fathers. It will take many years, but he who begins is half done, said great Mato of old. Wisdom is more precious than any jewel, so it shall be the first to be enthroned in our new City-State. That is I wanted to propose before we were...led amiss." "I...second the motion." A defeated Honorific managed. "I second the motion." He managed with greater enthusiasm. It was passed unanimously. (But passing a motion and putting into practice are not the same thing.) "I propose a motion." Said Severus again. "To condemn violence in the Assembly." "I second the motion" the Honorific replied again. It was passed unanimously. "Dear Darius, your report is far too elaborative. It reads like cheap fiction, not an official report. I like it. Carry on. His Excellency, Antipater." Actions -The insanely ambitious plan of Gaius Severus begins. Texts of the most important antique works are searched for, copied and catalogued very carefully. The ancient ruins are searched for books, scrolls and manuscripts. The once famous Great Library has been devastated and destroyed, that plan is abandoned. Instead, the most intact and largest ruin that can be found is invested into building a new library. Until then, books and scrolls are stored in the Villa Sempronia, in the house of Claudius the Custodian. (2 B and 6,000 C invested for now.) -An harbour is built on the riverside. (1 Harbour built) -Political strife in the Assembly is stopped by the intervention of the ancient statesman, Claudius. Speculation begins as to what will happen to the Philosophate when he dies and the passions and calculations of these young men are let run free! -Emissaries are sent to the Republic of Lena.

Discord Name (If I don't already have it): TotusTuusEgoSum #3901 Nation Name: The Philosophate of Arbina Nation Government/Leader Rank: Oligarchy/the Philosopher. Description of National/Provincial History & Culture: The Philosophate is the last remnant of antiquity, a state that before the Great Comet was famed for commerce and learning. Arbina was styled Queen of Cities. Now graze the sheep below the triumphal arches where once victorious horsemen did ride. Nevertheless, a small number of enthusiasts - or fanatics - keep alive the old flame of the great philosophical state and its old glories admidst the ruins. The Philosophate is a strictly hierarchical society governed by several schools which disagree with each other on fundamental issues. In this, however, they agree and bind themselves: that there be the One, and no other, viz. they reject polytheism, that the pursuit of wisdom and virtue are the highest goods, and that life ought to be governed by the strictest adherance to civic virtue. They trace these ideals to the universally venerated Gaius Mato, usually called Mato Maximus. He was put to death for turning the City away from the old gods and laying down the principles of the ideal philosophical state. His idea was of a City-State governed by a Philosopher class. Mato in death had the ultimate victory: his disciples seized control of the City and it has been governed according to his principles since. The Comet saw the Queen of Cities disrobed of her regal glory. But in the depths of despair arose a new leader, Numerius Didius Severus, who intepreted events as providential. Surely the One was displeased at how the Philosophers had grown fat and degenerate? Surely this trial needs must come? For a lesser man might have seen death only in the Comet. But Severus perceived that new life might emerge. He gathered together the remnants of the noble families. The young Philosophers must now live a semi monastic life and keep the flame of learning alive. Every since Severus, the Philosophate has remained steady, although a figment of a shadow of her former glory. Her goal, thus far, has been merely survival and preservation. But is there something more? Notable Characters; [VERY Important to have flushed out RP for vassals, politicians, w.e your government type is. Due to small scale of nations, characters with RP and Lore behind them will have much more impactful actions, will get events, boons, etc: Gaius Didius Severus: the chief Philosopher of the state. He is of the so called "Trairius" school. This school believes in strict, hereditary hierarchy, time honoured ritual, and is generally opposed to expansion and the idea of a standing army. They believe that a moral life necessitates nullifying passions and emotions that reason might rule. They also uphold slavery, teaching it to be part of the divinely constituted order of the universe. This makes him popular among the "craftsman" and "soldier" classes. A direct descendant of the elder Severus, he is an idealistic and rather gallant young man who believes in old ideals. Although personally brave, showing signs of being a good general and a clear thinker, he lacks political nouse. Ironically for his position, he often invests emotion in his arguments and places his own sentiments always before political expedience. Appius Sempronius Claudius: Severus' main political, personal and intellectual rival. He is head of the "Honorific" school, which is more meritocratic, democratic and expansionist in its outlook. It believes in expanding Philosophate rule and even opposes slavery outright. Unlike their main rivals, it believes emotions and passions are good if ordered according to reason. Claudius is quite similar to Severus, which makes their rivalry even more intense. They do agree, however, on the importance of civic virtue and are often able to put aside their differences. Claudius is a gifted orator, a spirited man popular among his own class, and, it is said, the slave class. Titus Aemilius Antoninus: head of the third main school, the Custodians. The Custodian school is one of moderation and expedience. "Prudence is charity finding a way", said one of its key proponents. For example, Custodian orators have always defended the rights and conditions of slaves when attacked and deprived, but never attacked the institution itself. Antoninus is a veteran politician standing between the two rivals, and who acts as a moderating force. An affable and gentle man, he is a rather dull orator and poor soldier, but is surprisingly popular and almost venerated as a kind of grandfather of the nation. Unique Military Units (One): Philosopher Heavy Spearmen: being drawn from the sons of the highest caste of society, these men are considered one of the elite infantry units of the world. They are given training from the youngest age and buy themselves the finest money can buy. However, drawing from but one class, their manpower pool is extremely limited, and a military disaster could wipe out the flower of the nation on a single day. In olden times they were hoplites; with the development of armour they have become foot knights armed with halberds, poleaxes and other heavy polearms. It is important to mention that the Arbinans have no standing army. Rather, a well motivated milita is drawn up from all classes of society. Much of the militia use out dated weaponry. National Idea (nothing strictly mechanical): Civic Virtue: liars are utterly despised in society, and integrity upheld at every moment. Typically, an Arbinan would rather suffer death than contaminate his hand with a bribe, or break his Oath. This makes for a place where crime is remarkably low and whilst the Arbinians are utterly incapable of intrigue, so also do they appear to be immune thereto. Player POI: a small city next to a medium sized river, centered on the ruins of a sprawling metropolis, surrounded by grassy plains.

"So doth a man that drinketh wine thereby blaspheme? For it is a sure truth that wine gladdeneth the heart - and therefore it seemeth incorrect to say created material things ought not to raise our spirits, but faith only." Comments an Acolyte.

"Only 100 left alive? Never did I hear the like in the Chronicles - how terrible a war!" Exclaims Pius.

So sad I never saw this. Are you gentlemen still willing to do it if we get 2 or 3 new players?

"Dear Ms. Ursuvic, I regret to inform you that your ordination was invalid, you do not have a flock, and that your claiming continuity with such holy figures as St. Julia is a contradiction of everything they stood for. Expect further elaboration at a later date. I remain your humble servant in St. Jude, Fr. Petros the Akritian, Tractarian."

INASMUCH as the High Pontiff and most of the clergy have wantonly chosen to fornicate with the spirit of the age rather than remaining faithful to the revealed truths so graciously vouchsafed unto them by Almighty God, it seemed good to me to set out the true position which a faithful Canonist ought to hold. "I, [name], profess and believe with complete submission of intellect and will, that, at the command of God, a Priesthood was established for the administration of the Sacraments and the instruction of souls. I believe that this Priesthood will persist until the end of time. I hold as a divinely revealed truth that this priestly authority was reserved solely to adult males, and that therefore it is part of the divine constitution of the Church. Hence any upholding of the reverse, though it come from a superior, cannot be obeyed, for it would really be not obedience, but disobedience, inasmuch as to obey one's superior is to disobey that Superior who established the Church through the Prophets in the first place. Hence obedience to such a thing is really disobedience, and disobedience to such a thing is actually obedience. Those who, though they hold high office, embrace the heresy of denying this truth, are truly rebelling against the Church (not I), for they are rebelling against the Church as it was irreformably constituted. On the basis of this oath, I hold any ordinations conferred to the contrary to be utterly invalid. I will not receive "Sacraments" given by women "priests", or those who have been consecrated by female "Bishops," or any who have received ordinations of doubtful validity. I hold the Pontifical teaching to the contrary to be not binding in any sense. I pledge to seek ways to ride out the storm of heresy, to continue to promulgate the true line of the Priesthood, and to restore it to its proper place and glory, once that storm is o'erpast, so help me God, amen." I remain your humble servant, Father Petros, Tractarian. Saints Clement and Everistus, pray for us. Saints Pius of Sutica and Seraphim of Leora, pray for us. Saints Kristoff and Jude, pray for us. All ye holy Priests of God, pray for us.

Pius of Sutica looks to his old rival, the Venerable Boniface, in the Skies. "You were right," he says. "You were right."

"King Ioannes Version 1611 or 1662 edition?" Asks If-Horen-Hadst-Not-Been-Baptised Barbones.

"It is disgusting to even contemplate a society named after St. James II, a staunch defender of Canonist orthodoxy, seriously contemplating and downright supporting known heresies, with the support of senior Cardinals. The Sacramental Priesthood is reserved for the male sex. This is a divine tradition received by Exalted Owyn itself. To go against it is to reject the Canonist revelation." Says Fr. Petrus, who has all-but retired to a monastic life.

Fr. Petros receives the reply with the joy of vindication - not of his own, but of the doctrinal unity of the Church. He had for the last few years suffered a silent martyrdom, criticised by his closest friends in the years between Tract VI and the reply for his silent patience, and being forced to withdraw from most of public life till the controversy be finished. And although he had always remained truly faithful, nagging doubts beset him with terrible anxieties. At last, a tremendous peace of soul floated upon him. "In pace, in Idipsum, dormiam et requiescam: quoniam Tu, Domine, singulariter in spe, constituisti me."

"Why does a self proclaimed heretic and heathen have a say in the internal discipline of the Church, much less a Canonist association?" Asks Fr. Petros.

"Dear Miss Xatophon, May the pure love of God reign in our hearts! I am not a Canon Lawyer, and will not venture to argue for or against the validity of this marriage, whether it is what is called a Catherinite marriage - viz., a marriage in which the sexual act is never consummated - or a normal one. But if a Catherinite Marriage is valid in your case, I would still advise strongly against it. Such a marriage requires the very highest level of heroic chastity. Usually it is not binding under sin, so that, if the spouses should fail in their resolution to live celibacy, they would not be sinning, but merely reverting into a lower state of marriage. But if you and your spouse fail in this, and only a virginal marriage keeps you free from sin, you will indeed be placing yourselves in the gravest peril of your immortal soul. Living under the same roof and sharing the intimacies of marriage with a strong mutual sexual attraction is basically setting yourself up to sin, and placing yourself in grave danger of falling into sin. We must all recognise the frailty of our nature. I will quote from our founder, St. Pius: "We were unwilling to acknowledge our own mortal frailty [and hence fell into grave sin]... I have since learnt this: that any man who refuses to pity his brother when he falls into a serious fault, shows himself to be in great danger of an imminent fall himself. For pride refuses to admit weakness, and hence, as a hot-headed general is easily lured into ambushes, so Iblees can easily overcome those who are assured of their own strength." (Confessions 2.9) Hence we cannot deliberately place ourselves into proximity of sin and be surprised when we fall, or go into a dangerous situation and say: 'God will protect me'; for that is the error of presumption; we place ourselves by our own act into a situation where we are likely to fall, despite saying we resolve not to fall. Is it any surprise that God would permit us to fall if we acted thus? What would we say to that hot-headed general who ran into the ambush, and how much worse if he knew the ambush was coming, but did not prepare the forces or warn anyone? Such is the pitiable state of those who place themselves in the occasion of sin. We must avoid all sin. And to do this, we must avoid occasions of sin. This definitely represents an occasion of sin to two young people. Therefore I do not see how you can reasonably co-habitate without committing the sin of presumptuous pride. My strongly-held advice is to remain single and either live celibately, or wait for a more appropriate match. I remain your humble servant, Father Peter of Akritos, FSSCT."

Blessed Seraphim, FSSCT, pray for us! [!]The work is obviously very hastily put together and printed. There are probably blot marks obscuring words and misprinted words on your copy. It is printed en-masse on a cheap, double-sided piece of paper. TRACTS FOR THE TIMES. TRACT VI: ON FEMALE DEACONS. Written by Petros the Akritian, FSSCT (Provost.) I. Introduction. Reasons for this Tract. Venerable Fathers, Bishops of the most Holy Canonist Church, venerable brothers, my fellow Priests of that self-same Mother, and my dear children, the monastics and laity who look to us for guidance, this letter is for you. It is hastily written. You must forgive my haste in writing and publishing this, because it is in response to an immediate need; without swift action, I foresee the ruin of many souls in the perilous waters of either schism or heresy. I have been flooded by many of my penitents in Savoy with the most urgent requests for guidance on the late Bull of the High Pontiff. I must confess that I myself, with the deepest reservation, find the document to be very poorly judged on a prudential basis. One particular penitent, a very zealous man, took it very badly and it is in the interest of his soul and those of others, that I write this Tract in order to seek clarity. For my order, the FSSCT, is one whose very basis is the Sacramental Priesthood. Our founders, Pius of Sutica and Seraphim of Leora, understood the Sacramental Priesthood to be both the basis of the Church, and the key to her liberty and exaltation. They call it an inestimable burden and grace, an honour far greater than any that can be found on earth, and a weight bearing on any soul who fears God more heavily than a crown of the purest jewels. If the interpretation some give of the latest Bull is right, it speaks very gravely about the state of the Church and even, it must be said, the orthodoxy of the Pontiff, perhaps being the final nail in the coffin of the supposed doctrine of Pontifical Infallibility, something the Tracts originally upheld. But if the interpretation that is proper is less rash, then we are to carry on as normal, as his servants. My intention therefore is to avoid division and seek clarity. II. Interpretation of the Latest Bull. The section to which I refer is Number Eight. I will quote it in full for the proper context: "We call on all faithful Canonists to answer God’s call, for we are all called to service by the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings. Those who are skilled in fighting may serve God by joining the Supreme Order of the Exalted Owyn, and using their skills to protect Our clergy and Our flock. Those with a gift for speaking and interpreting may join to become a monk or a priest, to shepherd parts of God’s flock. Women too have a calling, either to serve as a deacon and aid priests with services or even perform them when no priest is available, or as a nun to provide charity and compassion to those who have none. All who wish to accept this higher calling are urged to speak to their local clergyman. Let all things be done for the greater glory of God." The interpretation which my zealous friend gave was that the word 'services' included both mass and sacraments, essentially delegating them both to the new female diaconate. The Church has stated that, in exetremis, the Sacrament of Baptism can be offered by laity. This was discussed in an Ecumenical Council, the proceeds of which discussed the nature of the Sacraments and how they ought to be reserved to the Priesthood. They rejected the extension of the Sacrament of Ablution beyond the Priesthood. St. Pius of Sutica spoke thus: "How can this Absolution - sorry, I am old - Ablution be performed apart from the Priesthood? We didn't create the Sacraments, we received them, because it was not we who established the Priesthood, but God. God never demands of us the impossible, of necessity He cannot condemn us for what we cannot do, being infinitely just. And so Confession and Ablution in exetremis, in this circumstance [of someone who has literally no possibility of getting it from a Priest], the rite itself, without priestly absolution, will do, for God accepts the contrition without the medium of the Priest. This does not mean, however, we should not make it the rule, for that is not God's will. The Sacraments serve God; He is not junior to them, but being their Author, He desires to ordinarily work through them, but He is not confined by them. And hence here, the desire of ablution signified by the Confession of sins and the act of a layman is sufficient to give the remission of sins. But in the ordinary, the Priest is the visible representative of God, and absolves in His Name, and therefore Absolution and Confession are joined in what was traditionally called the Sacrament of Confession." He went on: "That is not true [that who can administer the sacraments can be changed at will], for you merely lack a distinction between what is rigid and what is firm. The age of admission to the Priesthood, except that, I suppose he be old enough to have the use of reason (For Owyn instituted men as Priests and not toddlers as the Gospel tells us), is, I grant you, fluid. But the very form and nature of this Sacrament is vested in the Sacred Priesthood. For the Prophet has said: "No man can call himself above them." Them being the Sacraments; Proverbs chapter three; verse six. For it has always been held that this renewal of Baptism given by the remission of sins, is explicitly rooted, and, as part of the very form of the Sacrament, indelibly linked to the Sacred Priesthood. This is clearly the authoritative teaching of the Church as regards this Sacrament and has always been so, that this not be merely a changeable discipline, but a matter of the form of the Sacrament itself, thereby being a matter of faith, and there can be no innovation there. I should consult the wonderful Encyclical of Blessed Jude the First, which, I repeat, every Priest and Acolyte should read at once, and for that reason I have brought it with me here. Sacerdoti in Nostra Ecclesiae makes it explicitly clear. Moreover, so does the Act of Absolution itself: wherefore Ven. Humbert added: By that same authority or something to that effect, I mean to say the authority of the Sacred Priesthood, I absolve thee. It is therefore clear that it has always been understood that it is on the Priestly authority from whence the Absolution comes. If there were no Priesthood, there would be no Sacrament. Dispensation is given, again, as I said, to in exetremis Ablution, but that proceeds from desire and not from substance, for they receive the benefits of the Sacrament because God is pleased to grant their intent, not because the form of the Sacrament itself is apart from the Priesthood. To therefore extend the Sacrament apart from the explicit Sacerdotal dignity is a perversion of the very Sacrament, not merely a disciplinary change, for the remission of sins has always proceeded, as part of the Sacrament itself, from the Priest, and on his authority alone, a layman's authority being insufficient to absolve." Thus, the layman who 'administers' the Sacraments, does not do it as such, but acts as a marker of the desire of the person to receive them which cannot be realised, and this desire gives the graces of the Sacrament without itself being the Sacrament. Hence a man who is trapped on a desert island with his wife, who has no viable way of finding a Priest, may confess his sins to her and pronounce his desire and need of absolution, and this will show that, if he had a Priest, he would have done the same. And if both of them die on their island, the man would have received the grace of the absolution in an extraordinary, non-sacramental way, rather than receiving the Sacrament itself. Therefore, if Pius of Sutica is to be believed (and among my friends, he is), and if my penitent's interpretation is correct, then the very nature of the divinely instituted Sacred Priesthood has been changed. This would essentially mean the High Pontiff and has severed himself from that very institution in the very act of trying to dismantle it. For the Priesthood is a divine institution, and who happens to be individual Pontiff at a particular time owes to the things of temporarily, and therefore he should be like a stick trying to break a rock; he himself would be broken. However, I do not myself accept this interpretation, and I have advised my penitent to withhold judgement until proper clarity is given. I would be very slow in ascribing an interpretation that would leave us in a very difficult position. I do not interpret the Bull as meaning this. I interpret the word 'services' as essentially meaning mass, sermons and so forth, which are non-sacramental. These things are not in an essential way linked to the Priesthood exclusively, but they are heavily associated with it. The Scroll of Gospel says that Owyn established the Priesthood as a teaching office in matters of faith and morals. But there is no reason why a layman or monastic cannot speculate about the faith, admonish the sinner, console the scrupulous, or give his own interpretation of a given passage or theological issue. St. Jude himself was a teacher before he was a Priest, Venerable Julia of Haense wrote edifying pamphlets, and we even ask Acolytes to submit theses, some of which have even made it into the Canonist Commentary on the Scriptures, before they are ordained. Canonist mass itself is not a divine but a human institution; this can be proved from the fact that there are different rites of it which differ wildly in form and purpose. Personally, I would find it a troublesome development, although it would not be heretical as such. Such an interpretation would cause us to charitably argue for the reversal or clarification of this decision (expect a later Tract), but if it is to be upheld, schism should be as far from our minds as iblees, for iblees is the author of schism. I would only ask that, as a matter of absolute necessity, laity and monastics be barred from the celebration of Judite mass, since this is explicitly sacramental in nature, rather than the main Canonist rite which is essentially a Scripture reading, prayer and sermon. In fact, as the Provost of the only existing Judite Order I hereby bar non-ordained persons from celebrating mass in our Fraternity. III. Conclusion. Call for Renewal of Priesthood and Tractarian Movement. The clarity I seek is therefore very clear. How is the Bull to be interpreted? Are the Sacraments to be administered by Deaconesses as such? Or only the sacred ceremonies, and then only in extreme circumstances? One thing is clear. We need good Priests who are faithful to orthodoxy. Let us revive the Tractarian spirit which imbibes fervour for the Sacred Priesthood and the Sacraments as a thirsty man quaffs water.

"Time to revive the Tracts for the Times..." Says Fr. Petros the Akritian ominously.

Fr. Petros, FSSCT, quotes from the Thesis of St. Jude On Conversion and Humility. "Now, I write this thesis because I strongly disagree that those who convert and were of a different race, or religion, are below us in any way. In the end, we are all below one great Being and we will all be judged differently. Just because you may have been a pagan or nonbeliever once doesn’t mean that you are not a brother or sister of the Creator now. We are all equal and should love each other the same. Now I leave you to think upon this: If you are someone who believes converted heathens, pagans, or heretics, are below you, how would you feel if you were in their shoes?” "Holy Father Saint Jude, pray for us!" He exclaims.

THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT PIUS OF SUTICA BOOK II: ILLUSION. ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Blessed Pius of Sutica (1610-1803), known before his conversion as Malgath, was an High Elven philosopher who converted to Canonism and later became a Canonist Priest, founding the Priestly Fraternity of SS. Jude and Kristoff. He was the author of many influential spiritual works. Disowned by his natural family as “impure”, High Pontiff Saint James II called him “An example of humility whom I wish to emulate and a teacher to whom I submit”; he was beatified for the greater glory of God by High Pontiff Jude II in 1807. He was canonised by Everard VI in 1836. READ HERE: BOOK I (IMPURE), PUBLISHED BY FRATERNITY PRESS. CHAPTER I - THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE. I.My philosophy of life, then, was thus: having abandoned any attempt to build character, I resolved that the only meaning to life was to suck as much pleasure out of it as could be gained, and to avoid as much pain as could be avoided. My sense of morality was hence bent towards this, so that I never indulged brutal or greatly mean tendencies in terms of causing physical harm, which I would have rejected as uncivilised, but remained always outwardly polite and seemingly harmless. I was a coward, what might informally be called a ‘wimp.’ I stood for no principle or cause, except to not stand; and I would rather look in the mirror and see a coward than incur any pain to myself. Although it was of course, contrary to Thee, the experience of this philosophy taught me much which I now know. For example, I cannot now delude myself into believing myself a strong or courageous man, capable of standing up without Thy holding me up. I know that when I stood for nothing but my own self, I really did not stand at all. I was content to avoid trouble and pursue pleasure, and, again, this I called Life on the Basis of the Pleasure Principle, as if some great intellectual invention of mine, when in fact it is as old as iblees. Thou wast not my God, my God. Rather, I was my own god, a rule unto myself, and I thought this bold and new! But most novelties are just old philosophies with new labels. II.For this reason, I never explicitly crossed the line to do acts or say words that would render me Impure in the eyes of the State. I kept these things bottled up within my head. And yet, along with this contentment - that the struggle did not really matter and that I might as well get as much pleasure out of it as I could - I remained angry with the Silver State and what I thought was her fiction of Purity. Perhaps it was because they denied me the most intense pleasures, such as fornication. A lust denied is often the wellspring of anger. I cannot claim to have lived chastely at this time, for although I kept the outward chastity of Mali’aheral, yet inwardly I would not have, with only my own cowardice preventing me. Hence, I have no moral high ground whatever over the adulterer: in spirit, I was an adulterer, with only a slavish fear of the State and society that kept me from consummating the acts I desired. III.Wherefore, I desired the thrill of being a rebel, testing the line, but never with the backbone to actually cross it. I would drink altogether too much, each week, each day; each hour daring to push toward the edge of the line closer and closer. I fell in with a bad group, and they accelerated my ‘progress.’ My life hence became one of petty crime. I was merely a petty criminal simply because I was too pathetic to be a serious one. My friends were bolder than me; and I often-times lied to them in order to make it seem like I had committed crimes as grievous as theirs. A man, boasting of an act of lust, or wickedness or rebellion, would make me feel compelled to lie that I had done just as bad, if not worse. My family were worried about my habits, but they never really became aware of their true extent. And if they did, my parents loved me too much to expose me to the scandal of our society. CHAPTER II - THE NATURE OF SIN. IV.One night, it came to a head when we broke the Silver Laws in a clear and indefensible manner. Second among the ‘Obvious Laws’ is that in which stealing is strictly prohibited (Eltiran’thilln I.I.II) - and it was this Law which we violated on one warm summer night. But unlike some of the laws written in our code, this was not merely an offence against the Silver Laws, but against the very Law which Thou hast engraved into our hearts - namely the natural Moral Law which belongs to all men. It was in the trade district of the city, where we stole some bottles of rather mediocre wine. The wine was of no real value. We had much better at home. There was nothing financial in what I did. But to the man from which we stole, it could have represented a serious loss. V.If it was not money, why did I choose thee, O sin of mine? “It’s a victimless crime, Malgath.” The boys urged, their smooth voices like melting butter. Yes. I would not have chosen thee alone, O cursed one. Were I alone, the thought of stealing would never have entered my mind. But shamed by the urging of peers, I caved to the baser instinct. Again, O my soul, learn thy lesson. Thou art not as strong or self-dependent as thou thinkest thyself to be. No, no! Thou art inclined to take the path of least resistance - and in a fallen world, that path is often the road that creeps softly to death. There is no man so vulnerable as he that trusts in his own energy and resources! Lean, O my soul, on Thy God, and never forget all that He hath done for thee. VI.That is the tension which I think must shatter any remnant of Mali'thill pride which still remains with me. I once read in one of the Akritian pagan poets: Video meliora proboque, deteriora seqour. ((OOC Note: Ovid, Met.VII.20-21)) “The better things I see, and I praise them; but it is the baser that I follow.” Or in other words, as one wise man, or perhaps rather God in him, put it: “Non enim quod volo bonum, hoc facio: sed quod nolo malum, hoc ago.” ((OOC note: Romans 7:19)) Viz., for the good which I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Is it not amazing that I never read the like in any of our authors, despite the fact that we pride ourselves on being wise above men? Our Laws say: “Our ancestors strove for Purity...” (Elitiran’thilln I.I.IV.) but it seems that even peer pressure, passions and emotions, the law of our members and flesh, and such influences, can cause us to capsize like a gunboat on the open sea very easily. We do not realise that we are fallen creatures. Sin has a certain hold over us, and we are compromised by a mortal weakness which inclines us to the baser instincts. The refusal to acknowledge this weakness makes the High Elf even more likely to fall, and, worse, makes him refuse to pity his brother who does fall. We need to realise we all have something of the Old Krug in us. Deliver me not to a prideful heart, my God. VII.But there was more. It was not merely a caving into pressure, but I took a positive pleasure in the act. Whence came this pleasure? Allow me to guess, my Lord. I think it came from that instinct of pride and rebellion which caused me to have a contempt for a higher law placing a restriction on my free act. In my licentious philosophy, if it can be honoured by that word (for philosophy means love of wisdom, and this was the love of nothing), freedom was the highest good. By therefore inordinately chasing freedom even at the cost of evil, I fell into a bad way. Sin seems to me to be rooted in nothing less than a pursuit of a lesser good to its extreme, to the point where it overrides the Moral Law. VIII.This is why we need to have moral absolutes. My father used to tell me a story about a plotting human queen, the wife of the king. The queen desperately wanted her son, the king’s step-son, to follow after the death of the childless king. Therefore she poisoned, blackmailed and schemed, stopping at no length, ceasing to commit no evil to obtain this end. In the end, even the husband of her bosom and king was made her victim when it became clear to her he was going to prefer another man to her son. At her husband’s deathbed, she justified herself: “I never did anything, never thought anything, never said anything except for thee and for the kingdom, my lord,” sounded she in the ears of the dying king. If she was a mere lunatic it would not be a frightening story. But the truly abominable thing is that she truly believed - or at least convinced herself - of the necessity of these acts. For, she reasoned, without a single heir, the kingdom would be plunged into civil war. Her son, in her mind, would be the only one who could be universally accepted as king. This is a terrifying truth cloaked in a fictional story. For, without moral absolutes, we can justify any evil to pursue any lesser good. Convicted of our own righteousness, we will, in our pride, do every evil imaginable before facing the trial of conscience which our sins - at the least - deserve. IX.In these acts I sought to make myself free, but merely enchained myself afresh. And the chains were more chafing than before. For when I held myself to the laws of Purity, the chains were outward - now the chains enclosed my very heart and soul. O, that I had wings like a dove! Thou art my desert place, O my God, and let my soul take its final flight to Thee. [Editor’s note: Pius’ declining health meant he was convinced his own death was close at hand upon writing.] For who was freer, the man from whom I had stolen, or the thief? I had loosed myself from a Law, but bound myself by sin. My victim was constrained now by a new economic necessity. But in his heart and conscience he remained innocent and free. This is true freedom. For the just man, though a slave, is free. But the wicked man, though he reigns, is a slave, for the slave has for his master but one, and that outward, but the wicked man has as many masters as he has vices which enslave even his very interior life. I therefore freed myself only to enslave myself yet more profoundly, convincing myself that slavery was freedom, and freedom was slavery. O, had I known the free and true law of Love! She has the chains of law, but they chafe not: for they are held in place not by servile fear, but by the sweet bonds of charity. Late have I come to Thee, O my Love. But possess me ,for I am utterly Thine to possess. Hold me fast, and let me never depart from Thee! CHAPTER III - ACADEMIC CAREER. X.Whilst this reality dawned upon me, I began to suffer from intense boredom. I went from enjoying life to sneering at it. This was another flaw in Life According to the Pleasure Principle. For pleasures are transitory and suffer what I may call a Law of Diminishing Returns. That is, sensual pleasure gradually loses its novelty, and so we become weary of it, and so, to stimulate an ever-decreasing capacity for pleasure, one must seek for pleasures more and more intense, novel and illicit. Therefore, that night of my theft was when things came to a head. After that, for weeks, I would go seeking to replicate the thrill which I experienced that night. But I could never find it. I went to the same stupid job every day. I drank the same wine. Everything seemed grey and meaningless. I have felt grief, anger and other negative emotions at various points in my life. But to feel truly grieved, I must love something greatly, care greatly about something. But I cared for nothing. So there was no passion; no lamentations cried to an unknown god. Grey. Transitory. It was the true face of nihilism - a blank nihil staring me down the long prospective centuries, and driving me insane. After a time I decided I could not live by this principle any more. XI.I returned to the Silver Library. The pleasures of childhood had been more wholesome, so I suppose I reckoned that in the pleasures of the Library I might find solace. I encountered a genre of literature which might be called Self-Improvement. It involves things such as “Growing in Knowledge of Self” “Self-Esteem”, and Listening. (A Full Guide to Meditation and ‘The Self.’) As the name implies, it is far too self centered. Nevertheless, devouring volumes such as these which gave practical tips for “self-actualisation”, I sought a perverted kind of asceticism, which is far from the kind which Thy servant, our Holy Father Saint Jude practised upon this earth. Saint Jude understood that the love of Thee takes the primacy in our lives. (Thesis on Love.) We rather chase an inordinate love of self and chase “improvement” out of self-love, rather than seeking out the other to become the object of our love. XII.Dearest God, my Creator, I exist only in relation to Thee. Without Thee I am nothing. Apart from Thee, I have nothing to claim for my own but sin and death. Thou art the source, summit and sustainer of my entire life from the womb onwards. Thou art Wisdom - without Thee I am only pitiful unwisdom - Thou art beauty - without Thee I am only brute ugliness - Thou art Goodness - without Thee I am only utter wretchedness. I therefore give Thee all of my love, I make to Thee a sacrifice of love as I say: I love Thee. I immolate myself in this Act of Love. Let ‘I’ only exist to be in the ‘I’ in ‘I love Thee!’ let me be enclosed within this Act of Love in time and in eternity. I love Thee with my whole heart and above all things. O let all other things dissolve before me in this Act of Love; let me be wrapped up in the consciousness of two, and only two, luminously self-evident beings: myself, and my Creator. CHAPTER IV - PIUS REJECTS CONTRACT. XIII.It was therefore in this self-absorption that I gave myself to return to an academic career. I chased “success.” That meant power, wealth and prestige. But to what end? That question I carefully avoided, deciding to cast myself body and soul into the pit of materialism. This provided solace, for a time. I gave myself up furiously to the study of architecture for several decades until I was considered a respected master of the field. At the end of my resolve, I finally found what I had grasped for so anxiously: the great work which would propel me into an illustrious career. A senior magistrate in the Silver State commissioned me to build for him a great townhouse which would gain for me great fame in the land and would probably be enough to secure me great favour with the State. My family would be proud of me. A woman I was sweet on would be greatly impressed, and I would gain universal admiration, a comfortable life and a reputation as a great patriot. But despite all my vehement devotion to my work, I could not bring myself to sign the contract. My pen shaked, much as I did when I began this writing. Something was off. XIV.I requested a few days off to consider. The magistrate eagerly granted, but seemed surprised. I had, after all, seemed such an ambitious sort! But there was a nagging doubt which I could not answer, because I could not work out what it was. I could not sleep. I had always kept on my desk some archive documents talking about the calendar: the months of the year, the difference between Elven and normal hours, and so on, and so forth - and, most importantly of all, the years of the various realms upon which the descendants had dwelt in modern history. I studied the details only because I had nothing else to do for lack of sleep. Anthos. 1420-1454. 34 years. Athera. 1470-1513. 43 years. Vailor. 1513-1570. 67 years. And then my birthplace, Axios: 1571-1642. 71 years. And now Atlas: 1643-1704. 61 years. And now I was in Arcas and they wanted me to build a townhouse. 1704-to...what? When would this one finish? I swiftly calculated the median of the time it took for each continent to implode and force a mass migration. 61+71+67+43+34. Divided by 5. 55.2. My mind raced: in about half a century, this new place I was supposed to call home would be finished, on average, by 1759. (Griffith, thou must needs understand - that seems a long time for a human. But to an Elf, it is almost nothing.) So what? Was I to lay the foundations of a townhouse which would be abandoned so swiftly? How fleeting an honour! How pointless an endeavour! How futile a contract! O, Vanity of Vanities! And yet my blessed race, which looks upon men with pity for their short years, differ nothing from them in this manner of thinking. I was building as if for eternity something which would last, in Elven terms, ten fortnights at the most. XV.I took that contract which I had coveted for half a century of gruelling mental labour and I ripped it in shreds. At first, I felt a tremendous weight lift from my shoulders. Although I knew it not, Thou hadst delivered me from the cage of covetousness. For I now see that I would not have wrested myself from that pitiable position: there is no reason I should have read that calendar and raced my mind along such a path, unless Thou didst spur it on. Thou hast spared me from the fate I deserved, from the fate I had chosen for myself, Lord - centuries of centuries of labour ever more futile, working away at a thing that passeth away like stubble in the wind, ere its foundations were laid. O, Thou art my Liberator who hath broken my bonds asunder. Having received of this unmerited grace, unknowing that it be grace at all, I returned home that very night, unsure of what to do next. CHAPTER V - PIUS TAKES UP THE VOCATION TO PHILOSOPHY. XVI.The Library was the only place I knew where to go. And so I did. My employer was there and was looking very smug. “Ah, after so rudely ripping up the opportunity of a lifetime, young Malgath hath returned. I will, in my generosity, over thee a second chance.” He thought my refusal was a thing of vanity, and that I would now accept a worse offer. He was wrong. XVII.What now? As a child and young man, I had studied the Flexio and Akritian languages. But I had considered other races, naturally, inferior. In the natural order of science, such as in medicine, perhaps they might have something valuable to teach us. But in terms of philosophy and metaphysics, we were told as a rule of dogma that there was nothing possibly they could teach us. Indeed, to embrace foreign ideas was considered of questionable Purity, and to do so to the exclusion of the State’s ideas of Purity and so forth, utterly Impure. [Editor’s Note: c.f. Othelu Orrar, Enumerated Distinctions of Purity.] Therefore, whilst I had studied Flexio and Akritian works on mathematics, medicine, architecture, linguistics and so forth, I had never read any work of philosophy not approved by the State, except works bent toward ‘self-improvement.’ But now my mind took a different turn. The philosophy of the Blessed Mali had proven nothing but disastrous and illusory for me on a personal level. Nihilism had proven equally so. These people seemed very advanced in the natural sciences. Could it hurt to start to study their philosophies as well as their natural sciences? I had to give it a try. XVIII.I take a moment to observe how excellent the timing of this decision, or rather how excellent Thy timing was. If I had studied these things as a boy or a youth, I would have read them with nothing but scorn, disgust and a deep conviction of my own superiority. But now I was eager to learn from them. Before I would have read the philosophers to lecture them on my own superiority. Now, all that I had experienced, the lies upon which I was brought up, the utter evil of hedonism and the giving over of monstrous enemies to a transitory gust of wind, I had gone from lecturer to student. I knew I did not have the answers so I sought them elsewhere. Before I thought: I do not have the answers; surely these inferior civilisations cannot tell me them. There are no answers. Now I had abandoned that evil line of thinking, and was determined to investigate. XIX.I took another job at the Silver Library as a linguist and translator. After a few months of study, I came across an Akritian pagan writer writing in Flexio called Archimedes. Akritos was a far-away country which for centuries had never been Canonist. I did not read the Canonists because I considered them fanatics, so I stuck to the pre-Canonist philosophers. Archimedes wrote an epistle to his friend exhorting him to the love of wisdom above all things and how she needed to be preferred over any material thing. I was entranced. “Did this Archimedes have disciples?” I asked. If so, they must be found abroad. Yes, I must go and talk if this man hath any more written works and any men who know his philosophy in detail. Everything material was vain; I was now inflamed with the spirit of a philosopher. I knew that I could not rest until I knew where the true good of the sons of Malin lay. My vocation was clear: I was to become a philosopher, a Lover of Wisdom.