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measured_wordsLook, something not Star trek related! It is gaming related though. I wrote this little sermon for a character I kind of play in a LARP. She's essentially a nun - she belongs to a holy order that worships the God(ess?) of Secrets and Darkness, Dietremen. This isn't going to get a lot of circulation in game, and ai'm an attention whore, and also it was a really interesting challenge, so I'm posting it here. Enjoy?
An Epistle delivered to the Church of Dietremen by the novice Chalaonar Belar’ryne of the Sisterhood of the Hunghym at the temple of Antioch on the Defiance of Shadows and Stars and the Power of Secrets
Greetings to the assembled faithful. I am blessed to be here to speak to you at this time, and it pleases me to say that it is because I have trusted in Darkness – in Dietremen – to keep and guide me that it is so. Though I had learned and studied these things, and had lived in sacred dark at the old temple, I had not the experience of this protection. After the fall of our beloved city to House Mesa, I found myself exiled from this, my home, and wandered in the dark and in the night. Though often I walked alone, never was I lonely, as the Dark, and God, were with me. In my travels, I have learned many things, and come to better understand the power of the Keeper of Secrets. It is of this power that I would speak to you.
Darkness First – darkness is the prime state of the world, and light the intrusive, the disruptive and distorting force. Children, conceived and formed in the perfect dark of the womb scream when forced from it, and cry at their first experience of light. This we are all taught, and our people feel this deepest who are the greatest of the races. Shadows show this power to us most clearly – look and see all around you: darkness in defiance of the brightest light. In the face of luminous oppression, we keep to the shadows – walk in shadows. There we find safety, protection and privacy for all our doings. We keep control, and the power of concealment or revelation is ours.
Fools who open their arms to the light will speak of revelation and truth, speak as though there is such thing as clarity. This falsehood serves to tangle other closed minds in misleading metaphors. Shadows belie this imprecision. If a thing cannot be wholly known by the light, any truths excised by it will by their nature be incomplete and inconsistent. Secrets remain – approach from any angle, and shadows shift. Secrets shift. There is no truth or revelation at all from light. Clarity is a lie. The power of light is a lie.
We who embrace the night realize that truth can never be wholly known. We use this. We keep our secrets – we take secrets. While others cower, we walk with strength and pride through the black, knowing that we are safe. There is no more to fear in dark than in light – less when it is your ally. In darkness we listen, in darkness we act. The Drael’Thalen, our people, know the protection of darkness. The light of day weakens us – the bright power of the sun is turned against us, and we shun it. When we must venture to the surface, we become shadows, and we embody their power. Though the other races think they know us, and see the truth of us, they do not and cannot. We become secrets, kept by the night. Such is our power.
What other secrets does the night keep? Many – many. Words whispered, actions cloaked and veiled: a dance, a prayer, a blade. Love and death, solace, devotion. In darkness there is possibility. Darkness first, and from the darkness all things and all possibilities. And for whom are these possibilities greatest, than for those who place themselves in the trust of Dietremen, whose power encompasses secrets, darkness and the night? For none – it is our place.
It is a place I know well. I have travelled many years, alone and with others, and always with the dark. I have seen danger, and the dark kept me from it – here in Antioch, in the Underdark, and above where the mystery of the stars spills out across the sky. Nightly, I seek to touch the power of the divine, cloaking myself in the night, drawing its power to me through meditation. This brings me stillness and comfort, strength to face the problems that oppress me. In my meditation, in the world above, I drew my eyes to the stars, and took from them a great lesson.
Look to the eight-pointed star. It is a symbol of mystery, of power. A star – but what are stars, but light that shines through the darkest night? What can this mean? We shun the light, and disdain it, and a star is the symbol of Dietremen. Why? I have thought on this. There are those of our people who shun us, call us weak or traitor because of our worship. The stars, they say, and those who bear them are no matter for the Drael’Thalen. The surface is no matter, no place for the Drael’Thalen. We should shun it and all those who walk there. Many of us will never venture above, and never see the sky at night. We have made a place for ourselves here, and it is good, and suits us well. We love our home, and have fought dearly for it. And yet what of the star? I will tell you what it has taught me.
The stars are light, and yet they are a power of the night alone. The moon may rise during the day and hang in the sky, revealing its secrets to all, but the sun washes all starlight away. The moon at its brightest forces their light from the sky. Points of light that hide from light. Points of light that hoard their own brightness – when the moon is black and the sky all stars, what does this show us but the sky? We see them but do not know them. They illuminate nothing but their own secrets. Their presence is known, but not their power. And stars have power – mystics take auguries from them. They pass in cycles through the night and mark the changing of the world. Like shadows, the defiance of stars in the night reminds us that the light has secrets. But these too belong to Dietreman, who keeps and masters all secrets, whose being is unknown, whose cloak, like shadows or the light of stars, masks great and true power, and is unknowable by the sun and those who turn to it. This is one truth of the eight-pointed star – light in darkness to remind us of the power of the dark.
Praise then the stars, praise the shadows, for all that they tell us of the light, its lies and power and selfish secrets. Praise the night and the power of the dark. Praise to Dietremen who is master of all of these, who guides us and keeps us safe as we stand in the darkness to make and become secrets. Pray with me.
O Dietremen!
Keeper of Secrets, Midnight Watcher,
Keep me hidden from my enemies,
Keep me hidden from those who would destroy me.
I am yours,
The shadow of your cloak hangs upon me,
My actions for you alone to know.
Make me master of the night,
Keep me hidden from my prey,
Keep me hidden from light that would reveal me,
I am yours,
I am your secret, I am your hand, I am your will.
O Dietremen!
Propter Vim Animi – I speak to you as an instrument of God.
An Epistle delivered to the Church of Dietremen by the novice Chalaonar Belar’ryne of the Sisterhood of the Hunghym at the temple of Antioch on the Defiance of Shadows and Stars and the Power of Secrets
Greetings to the assembled faithful. I am blessed to be here to speak to you at this time, and it pleases me to say that it is because I have trusted in Darkness – in Dietremen – to keep and guide me that it is so. Though I had learned and studied these things, and had lived in sacred dark at the old temple, I had not the experience of this protection. After the fall of our beloved city to House Mesa, I found myself exiled from this, my home, and wandered in the dark and in the night. Though often I walked alone, never was I lonely, as the Dark, and God, were with me. In my travels, I have learned many things, and come to better understand the power of the Keeper of Secrets. It is of this power that I would speak to you.
Darkness First – darkness is the prime state of the world, and light the intrusive, the disruptive and distorting force. Children, conceived and formed in the perfect dark of the womb scream when forced from it, and cry at their first experience of light. This we are all taught, and our people feel this deepest who are the greatest of the races. Shadows show this power to us most clearly – look and see all around you: darkness in defiance of the brightest light. In the face of luminous oppression, we keep to the shadows – walk in shadows. There we find safety, protection and privacy for all our doings. We keep control, and the power of concealment or revelation is ours.
Fools who open their arms to the light will speak of revelation and truth, speak as though there is such thing as clarity. This falsehood serves to tangle other closed minds in misleading metaphors. Shadows belie this imprecision. If a thing cannot be wholly known by the light, any truths excised by it will by their nature be incomplete and inconsistent. Secrets remain – approach from any angle, and shadows shift. Secrets shift. There is no truth or revelation at all from light. Clarity is a lie. The power of light is a lie.
We who embrace the night realize that truth can never be wholly known. We use this. We keep our secrets – we take secrets. While others cower, we walk with strength and pride through the black, knowing that we are safe. There is no more to fear in dark than in light – less when it is your ally. In darkness we listen, in darkness we act. The Drael’Thalen, our people, know the protection of darkness. The light of day weakens us – the bright power of the sun is turned against us, and we shun it. When we must venture to the surface, we become shadows, and we embody their power. Though the other races think they know us, and see the truth of us, they do not and cannot. We become secrets, kept by the night. Such is our power.
What other secrets does the night keep? Many – many. Words whispered, actions cloaked and veiled: a dance, a prayer, a blade. Love and death, solace, devotion. In darkness there is possibility. Darkness first, and from the darkness all things and all possibilities. And for whom are these possibilities greatest, than for those who place themselves in the trust of Dietremen, whose power encompasses secrets, darkness and the night? For none – it is our place.
It is a place I know well. I have travelled many years, alone and with others, and always with the dark. I have seen danger, and the dark kept me from it – here in Antioch, in the Underdark, and above where the mystery of the stars spills out across the sky. Nightly, I seek to touch the power of the divine, cloaking myself in the night, drawing its power to me through meditation. This brings me stillness and comfort, strength to face the problems that oppress me. In my meditation, in the world above, I drew my eyes to the stars, and took from them a great lesson.
Look to the eight-pointed star. It is a symbol of mystery, of power. A star – but what are stars, but light that shines through the darkest night? What can this mean? We shun the light, and disdain it, and a star is the symbol of Dietremen. Why? I have thought on this. There are those of our people who shun us, call us weak or traitor because of our worship. The stars, they say, and those who bear them are no matter for the Drael’Thalen. The surface is no matter, no place for the Drael’Thalen. We should shun it and all those who walk there. Many of us will never venture above, and never see the sky at night. We have made a place for ourselves here, and it is good, and suits us well. We love our home, and have fought dearly for it. And yet what of the star? I will tell you what it has taught me.
The stars are light, and yet they are a power of the night alone. The moon may rise during the day and hang in the sky, revealing its secrets to all, but the sun washes all starlight away. The moon at its brightest forces their light from the sky. Points of light that hide from light. Points of light that hoard their own brightness – when the moon is black and the sky all stars, what does this show us but the sky? We see them but do not know them. They illuminate nothing but their own secrets. Their presence is known, but not their power. And stars have power – mystics take auguries from them. They pass in cycles through the night and mark the changing of the world. Like shadows, the defiance of stars in the night reminds us that the light has secrets. But these too belong to Dietreman, who keeps and masters all secrets, whose being is unknown, whose cloak, like shadows or the light of stars, masks great and true power, and is unknowable by the sun and those who turn to it. This is one truth of the eight-pointed star – light in darkness to remind us of the power of the dark.
Praise then the stars, praise the shadows, for all that they tell us of the light, its lies and power and selfish secrets. Praise the night and the power of the dark. Praise to Dietremen who is master of all of these, who guides us and keeps us safe as we stand in the darkness to make and become secrets. Pray with me.
O Dietremen!
Keeper of Secrets, Midnight Watcher,
Keep me hidden from my enemies,
Keep me hidden from those who would destroy me.
I am yours,
The shadow of your cloak hangs upon me,
My actions for you alone to know.
Make me master of the night,
Keep me hidden from my prey,
Keep me hidden from light that would reveal me,
I am yours,
I am your secret, I am your hand, I am your will.
O Dietremen!
Propter Vim Animi – I speak to you as an instrument of God.
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Date: 2009-07-27 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 03:22 pm (UTC)I do like that line!