A Proclamation from Defender Austin Campbell

18th Shoring 1008

Fellow Longstorians,

Recent events have reminded me of what I believe is a growing problem in this land, and in fact in the churches themselves. That problem is how people view sin and excommunication. I would say that most people seem to view excommunication, the way that I view being in sin, and view sin as little more than an inconvenience until they are able to find a priest to cleanse them. I fear that if this continues it will undermine the very essence of both Ithronian society and the churches of light, something I will not allow to happen.

I then thought about what I can do to try to fix the problem?

Firstly my position allows me certain other powers within ithron with which I try to fight such undermining of the churches, unfortunately it is hard to bring charges for peoples views on this matter.

Secondly I can do something which we can all do, set an example. By not sinning (and I have never sinned), and by not treating sin and excommunication lightly.

Thirdly because of my position in the church I believe I must try to ensure the problem does not set in in my own church. While I do not believe there is a significant problem within the Longstorian church, I intend to ensure it stays that way, and reinforce teaching on this subject.

It is to this end that I make the following request.

I ask that when setting a penance for sin, from now on that the sinner be allowed to serve that penance for a period of time before absolving them. The penance could also still continue after the absolution.

I suggest that if the sinner can afford it there may be a charge for this service (I am asking the undercouncil for permission for priests to keep a quarter of this as usual but for now, tithe the whole fee to the church). However this fee is supposed to be punitive to help the sinner reflect on the seriousness of the sin, and like penances should be proportional to the nature of the sin and the wealth of the sinner. It must be also agreed with the local elders. It also must not replace the proper penance as the primary form of penance. Should I discover a case of a priest effectively robbing fellow longstorians or refusing to absolve someone who cannot afford to pay, there will be trouble.

There are obviously exceptions, for example vampire bites which are not true sin should be cleansed immediately. Or for example if asked to cleanse a village’s priest who you would not be able to visit for some time, it would serve the greater good to absolve them early rather than late as it were, so that the village is not without it’s priest.

I am aware that for some of you this may mean no change, but for others I am asking you to allow sinners to reflect more on their sins, I hope that by doing so we will reinforce the severity of sin and excommunication.

I Also ask that I be informed of every absolution carried out; who the sinner is; what the nature of the transgression was; what penance was given, and the justification for this; if a fee was charged, what this was and again the justification; how much of the penance was served before the absolution was carried out, and again why; and anything else you want to add.

I’m sure there maybe some who think this sounds a little extreme, but I together we can make sure that these matters are not taken lightly within the church, and this can serve as an example to the rest of Ithron and the world.

In faith,

Father Austin Campbell
Defender of Faith

Feelings on Faith

The Seven Sins of the Longstorian Church

A sermon by Victoria Ferris, read at Bone Island.

Allowing Others to Wantonly Damage the Forest
Alright, so, Longstor understand the need for wood for homes and keeping families warm and things like that, but needless damage to the forests could have devastating effects on the landscape. As Longstorians it’s our job to protect the forests from being damaged, to preserve Longstor’s hard work.

Interfering With the Natural Order
The way the cycle works in a certain way, creatures all have their own systems and habits, all the plants wither and bloom again at certain times, the sun rises and falls… The cycle goes round and around perfectly, and if we interfere with it we risk changing the way things work, and it’s important we don’t try to fix what aint broken.

Wantonly Damaging the Forest
Lonstor asks, fairly, that we basically practice what we preach. We protect the forests so it’s obviously to be expected that we don’t needlessly damage them. The forests are beautiful gifts from the Green Lord and should be treasured not picked apart, warped, corrupted, ruined or burned.

Refusing to Aid other Followers of Longstor When Requested
Krygonite’s work against each other, selfishly trying to achieve their own means. Longstorians, on the other hand, prove there is strength in numbers, and we can achieve great deeds if we work together. You’ll often hear about Longstorians being like wolves. We’re encouraged to work together and help each other. We prove the strength of our church and our faith by acting as one.

Failing to Observe a Feast Day, Shrine, or Service of Longstor
The Seven do so much for us that it is a wonderful thing to be able to give thanks. Shrines and services are fantastic ways to learn more about our Lords and ladies, and Feast Days give us time to commit to celebrating their Glory. Longstor gave us a beautiful world, with every part of it unique, and it is only right that we give thanks.

Showing Negative Emotion Over Life and Death
Life and death are important parts of Longstor’s cycle and so he asks that we don’t show misery over them. We understand that death allows life to go on, and that each time a creature is born, another dies. With life, their will always be death. And anyway, mourning is pointless and achieves nothing, so we don’t do it.

Aiding or Being Resurrected
Longstorians know about the cycle, and we are not scared of moving into the next stage of it. Lord Longstor’s most dedicated followers promise to never help to delay somebody else’s transition into the next stage, and we will never be resurrected ourselves.

The Faith of Lord Longstor – An explanation by Victoria Ferris

Longstorians… I have heard us called by many names. Feral, unfriendly, cold, antisocial and, my favourite, ‘weird.’ I suppose to an extent this is true of some of us, but it is also true many, many people who are not of our faith. I suppose our the warm way we greet life and death could make us… unpopular amongst people, but that is simply because they do not understand certain aspects of our faith, and that is what I hope to clarify here.

Lord Longstor, the God of Nature, the Hunt, and the Cycle. In many ways He works alongside the White Lady Vleybor and the Lord of the Dead, Kharach. As Vleybor brings life and Kharach brings death, Longstor watches over this and all that happens in between, keeping Arda balanced – where there is death, new life will bloom, and where there is life there has been death. Natural creatures, plants and beings fall under His domain, and He cherishes both their lives and their deaths for He knows that without both the Cycle would fail, and this must not be allowed to happen.

Therefore Longstorians attempt at all opportunities to keep the cycle in order, and prevent needless interference with the natural way of things. Though Longstorians will hunt for food, they do not hunt simply to harm natural creatures unnecessarily. Though Longstorians will understand the need for wood to build homes, keep families warm and such, wanton destruction of Longstor’s forests and lands is against His way. In this sense, consider the Rolborian belief – take what you need, but do not take needlessly, do not be greedy, for this is the way of darkness. Consider it the way I do – if you had worked for a long, long time to create something diverse, and beautiful, with every piece unique and every piece natural and wonderful in its own way, how would you feel if somebody came and picked bits of it apart? How would you feel if somebody set fire to a section of it, just to watch the flames?

Now consider how Longstor may take it, and why his followers respond the way we do.

All natural creations of Longstor are beautiful, though perhaps not in an obvious and striking way. The rose is beautiful, but personally I find its thorn has a beauty of its own. It is a protector, it is strong. The thorn is one of the reasons the rose has continued in the cycle. There is beauty in natural strength, in the abilities of natural creatures and how they operate, in plant life and forests and oceans… if you look for it, Longstor’s light has touched almost everything on Arda, and under His gaze and under the protection of His followers, all of this wonder will continue, like a perfect seem-less circle. The circle has no beginning, and no end… unlike the spiral.

If Lord Longstor preserves the cycle, the Mother of Monsters certainly has the correct symbol – a spiral. Consider the circle, perfectly equal, never ending. The spiral has a clear beginning, and a clear end. Kryganites do not create, they corrupt. They begin with something wonderful and natural, and try to ‘improve’ upon it. As Longstor’s natural creations are perfect as they are, they cannot be improved upon, and so the result is almost always a twisted, corrupt and selfish monster, which turns in on itself, becoming more corrupt inside until it either destroys itself or is destroyed by the followers of Light – the inside end of the spiral. It is a broken circle, a twisted version of the cycle, and though a circle could spin forever and stay the same, a spiral would inevitably have both a beginning and an end.

Corruption must be prevented at all costs, be it by cleansing that which is corrupted, talking down those who wish to make monstrosities, or moving the corruptors to the next stage of the cycle – it is important that something happens. Longstorian’s will often talk of ‘returning to the cycle’ when we die – which, if taken literally, would imply that whilst we live we are outside of the cycle. What Longstorians actually mean, and what I have always said, is ‘moving into the next stage of the cycle,’ and this proves how important expression and words are to our faith.

I hope this explains, at least a little, the Longstorian faith.

Regarding the Mines

By High Father Ellvar

I fell asleep whilst praying in the Grimsburg church tower and awoke with a start, as my right eye was hurting, As I shook the sleep from my eyes I saw a single drop of blood fall from the right one ….as it slowly descended towards the floor it grew and began to shine with an unholy light, I felt anger welling up within me as the blood continued its descent and then it struck the floor with a splash that resounded around the whole chamber.

It began to burn into the floor, red fire emanating from its centre, a hole burnt through the stone chamber floor, expanding as it hit the library below me, the novices scattered in shock and it continued through into the tower’s basement and still it burned.

The floor below me gave way I scrambled back towards the edge of the room, the burned edges of the circle continued to glow with red fire as the tear continued into the earth, for minutes it descended and then as I summoned the courage to gaze down into the depths, the floor finally crumbled away and I fell into the abyss.

The ground rushed past me I fell into crimson depths I was approaching a red circle, then I realised I was falling towards solid ground. Both of my arms shattered on impact my head connected with the ground and blackness overtook me. I came around again and tried to lift my head to look around, I could not focus, nor could I feel my arms anymore and shooting pains as I struggled for breath told me I had broken some ribs and possibly one of my legs.

I felt a presence around me however, evil and malign I looked up with blurry eyes towards the red tunnel that lead to the surface. Around me, hundreds of Demons began to swarm up the tunnel scaling its sheer walls with ease, I could see their faces were covered with radiating lines of darkness, then I was surrounded by twenty or so of these demons, the larger one to the fore leant towards me, despair flowed through me to the very core, unable to even lift my arms to protect myself.

Bloody saliva falls from his jaws as he simply says, “SO NOW YOU KNOW, WE, HIS RACE ARE COMING.” He lifted his sword upwards and to the side, far above his head and started to swing it towards my neck. I fell backwards, not sure if my head was connected to my body, but I felt free and ready to die. I could see the red landscape and units made of thousands Demons, an entire army climbing the walls of the mighty cavern, scurrying up towards the four massive tunnels in the ceiling.

It took me less than a minute to die and during that time still they climbed, towards fresh meat and Ithron.

I awoke, again, blood tricking from my right eye and struggling for breath, I felt alone, and very unsettled as well as very unwell.

They are coming.

Longstor’s Arm

By High Father Ellvar

Longstor slew the demon princes consort with his bare hands the killing blow was with his right hand.
The demon’s plan to break the pact may kill all the gods outright.
Longstor’s arm is no longer on this plane.
At Southoaks when we face the demon prince it is likely we will be cut off from our gods, at the moment we cannot prevent it.

A Vision of the God Mutilator

by High Father Tracker

This is my vision. I prayed over brands through ritual to Longstor:

My arm began to ache and I could feel wetness running down my forearm and when I pulled my sleeve back, I could see that wounds identical to those of Amon had indeed appeared upon my forearm. I continued to sink my hands into the ground and I felt a bond with Longstor forming, but as soon as the first drop of blood touched the earth I was thrown backwards, crashing into the floor… the only feeling I had was that I should remove the brands from the floor and to seek Longstor’s forgiveness by removing these heretical marks from my own arm.

I drew my knife and began to slowly saw through my right forearm, just below my elbow, the blood was now rushing from the wound, I bellowed out for strength and I cut through my arm and it fell to the floor, blood pumping from the stump into the ground I felt closer to my god. I closed your eyes, I could feel Longstor near to me, he was approaching me, from an unknown direction and suddenly he was inside of me standing where I stood. I was completely in awe of where I stood and my closeness to Him as he tried to communicate with me.

As I opened my eyes, I saw the arm lying upon the floor, but it looked strange, it was tinged with green and I noticed that blood did not flow from it, but a golden liquid that seemed infused with light and as I lifted up the stump of my arm, I noticed how it too exuded this golden ichor. With shock I knew that I was seeing what Longstor had seen and I, as Longstor, had lost an arm.

I was Longstor and I stood in the middle of a huge field, surrounded by thousands of dead, and the wailing of hundreds more in torment, the whole field was awash with gore and blood and I knew that of the thousands dead all were my followers and the figure that stood in front of me had killed almost all them. He was surrounded by 14 demons, 7 were horned, red faced and wielded swords, 7 were blue, skeletal faced and have no weapons. The mortals who wandered the field all bore the mark of disgrace and he too had caused this… a shriek emitted from the two handed sword he wielded in one massive hand and he struck out at a passing figure who fell to the floor clutching his face and screaming for my forgiveness.

His silhouette was massive and black and in a voice filled with evil and hatred beyond mortal comprehension he held his sword forward and simply said, “Behold, the Sword of the Emperor, for I am his general and even Gods may be slain by my hand.” He raised the sword above his head and I ran.

Longstor and I fled from this vision, I was running through the woods, I could hear something pursing me, I turned and my head connected solidly with something and I fell to the ground. The last thing I can remember is tasting the loam in the forest floor upon my lips.

When I awoke, I was Tracker again; my head had been split open, and judging from the amount of blood on the nearby tree trunk and the headache that I had, it seemed simply caused by a collision the previous night. I was feet from where I started to meditate, and my hand marks were till in the floor…