vaelora/Setting/Philosophy/Creed of the Veil.md

_(Faith of the Shattered Age, Guardians of the Last Light)_

> [!infobox|right]
> # Creed of the Veil!
> ![[creed_symbol.png|cover hsmall]]
> <table>
>   <tr><th colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#652121;color:white;">History</th></tr>
>   <tr><td>Founded</td><td> Circa 1st Era, Year 150 (Post-Shattering Age</td></tr>
>   <tr><td>Founder</td><td>The First Circle (anonymous seers and survivors)</td></tr>
>   <tr><th colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#652121;color:white;">Belief System</th></tr>
>    <tr><td>Symbol</td><td>A broken circle (representing the world) enclosed in a closed circle (representing the veil)</td></tr>
>    <tr><td>Sacred Texts</td><td>Psalm of Binding (hymnal prayers),  Chronicle of the Sealed Skies (historical and prophetic account), The Five Truths (philosophical discussion of the doctrine)</td></tr>
>    <tr><td>Core Tenents</td><td><ul><li>The Veil protects Vaelora from cosmic annihilation.</li><li>The Veil also imprisons all souls and spirits within the world.</li><li>To endure suffering is to honor the gods' final sacrifice.</li><li>Spiritual balance between mortals and spirits must be preserved.</li><li>Seeking to breach the Veil is heresy.</li></td></tr>
>   <tr><th colspan="2" align="center" style="background:#652121;color:white;">Structure</th></tr>
>   <tr><td>Seat of Power</td><td>Hall of Silent Light, Bellerand (Mentralian Kingdoms)</td></tr>
>   <tr><td>Current Leadership</td><td>The High Synod (Council of Arch-Creeders) </td></tr>
>   <tr><td>Orders &amp; Branches</td><td>Veilwardens (inquisitors and military enforcers), Pallbearers (priests overseeing death rites and spirit care), Choir of Sighs (scholars and lorekeepers)</td></tr>
>   <tr><td>Ranks</td><td>High Synod (arch priests), Creeder (priests), Laymen</td></tr>
>   <tr><td>Known Heresies</td><td>Seekers Beyond (pierce the Veil and reach the stars), Unshackled Flame (destructionists who want to tear down the Veil)</td></tr>
> </table>

## In the Shadow of the Shattered Sky

When the Shattering broke the world and the skies wept molten tears, the last gods and the ancient [[Tul-Dar]] wove the Veil — a wall of breathless spirit and severed light — to seal [[Vaelora]] from the ruin beyond.  The Creed of the Veil was born in those desperate, ash-choked centuries that followed, when mortals, abandoned by their gods and starved of magic, needed a reason to endure.

The Creed teaches that the Veil is salvation and damnation in one: it protects the world from the cosmic hunger that blackened the heavens, yet in doing so it has caged all souls within Vaelora’s battered sphere. No spirit may depart. No god may return. The dead linger, the living are forever bound to the Wheel of Becoming, and the very world groans beneath the weight of spirits that can neither ascend nor escape.

It is a faith of sorrow and endurance, preached from stone temples and whispered over the graves of the fallen.  

The central truth is simple and merciless:

> [!quote|author mark] Psalm of Binding, First Verse
> _"The Veil protects. The Veil imprisons."_  


## The Long Road of Faith
The Creed was not born fully-formed in the ash of [[the Shattering]].  In the centuries of ruin that followed the fall of the [[Tul-Dar ]]and the retreat of the gods, countless sects, shamans, and city cults vied for understanding of the broken world. Fear and despair gave rise to a thousand fragmented faiths — some worshipping the lingering spirits, others clawing in vain toward the dead stars.

Among them, a group of survivors in the eastern highlands — known only in surviving chronicles as the [[First Circle]] — pieced together the ancient prophecies of the [[Tul-Dar]] and the death chants of the last priests of the gods.  

Their vision was stark, but clear: that the Veil was no curse, but a final mercy — a prison willingly chosen to stave off annihilation. The [[First Circle]] gathered followers among the scattered peoples, teaching a grim hope: to honor the sacrifice of the gods by enduring, not by seeking escape.  
Over generations, their teachings hardened into doctrine, and their gatherings became the first temples.

By the time new cities rose from the rubble and the first fragile [[Mentralian Kingdoms|kingdoms of Mentralia]] unfurled their banners, the Creed of the Veil had already woven itself into the heart of civilization. Kings knelt before the High Synod for coronation. Armies marched with the [[Veil]]'s sigil sewn onto their standards. The Creed offered order in a world adrift — and a reminder that all blessings come edged in sorrow.

Through wars, plagues, and the slow fading of magic, the Creed endured. It crushed rival faiths, absorbed kindred sects, and sharpened its guardians into the Veilwardens.  
Today, it stands not only as a religion but as a pillar of history, memory, and power — an ancient voice whispering across the ruins of a brighter world:

> [!quote|author mark] Chronicle of the Sealed Skies, Chapter VII
> _"The Veil was our cage and our covenant.  
> We chose it freely, lest we perish unmade."_  

##  Doctrine and Faith
The Creed of the Veil holds five sacred truths, taught from cradle to grave:

- **The Veil is the Last Gift.** Without it, Vaelora would have been swallowed whole.
- **Life is a Cycle without Escape.** All beings are bound to endless return or fading stagnation.
- **Suffering is a Sacred Duty.** To endure is to honor the sacrifice of the gods who gave their last breath for the Veil.
- **The Stars Are Silent.** Prayers sent beyond the Veil are as dust on the wind; only within Vaelora can strength be found.
- **Preserve Balance.** Spirits must be honored, bound, and guided lest they fall to corruption and tear the world asunder.

The Creed does not promise salvation. It promises only the dignity of perseverance, the nobility of standing unbroken under an empty sky.

### Duties of the Creeders
To serve the Veil is to serve both the living and the dead.   The Creeders — the sworn priests and wardens of the Creed — bear solemn duties that weave through the life of every believer, from first breath to final death, and beyond. A Creeder’s charge is twofold: to guard the balance of spirit and soul within the world, and to keep the memory of the gods’ sacrifice alive in the hearts of mortals. They act as guides, healers, and wardens of rites too ancient for common folk to understand. Their robes, often of gray, black, or muted silver, mark them as bridges between flesh and spirit, duty and dream.

The core duties of the Creeders include:
- **Birth Rites:**  At the moment of birth, a Creeder must anoint the newborn’s brow with _Veilwater_ — sacred water blessed in darkness — and whisper the _First Binding_ prayer, tethering the infant’s soul safely within the Wheel of Vaelora.
- **Spirit Soothing:**  Spirits, restless or enraged, must be calmed lest they bring misfortune.  Creeders are trained in ancient rites of appeasement: singing the _Lament of the Hollow Sky_, weaving spirit-dreamcatchers, or offering consecrated food and breath-prayers.
- **Marriage and Oathbinding:**  When two souls unite, Creeders perform _the Joining Under the Shroud_ — a ceremony held at twilight where couples swear their oaths not just to each other, but to the Veil itself, promising to strengthen the mortal world through their bond.
- **Death Rites and Mourning:**  No death may go unmarked. Creeders oversee _the Passing of the Threads_ — a funerary rite where the spirit is gently severed from the body and woven back into the Wheel.  Without this ritual, it is feared that the dead would wander, lost and vengeful.
- **Guardians of Forbidden Lore:**  Within each major temple, Creeders guard hidden libraries containing _the Broken Truths_ — relics, records, and forbidden magics from before the Shattering. Only trusted senior Creeders, the so-called _Grey Binders_, are permitted to study these.
- **Guides of Penance:** For those who have broken the Veil’s laws — necromancers, soul-tamperers, heretics — Creeders offer strict paths of penance: long pilgrimages, seasons of silence, or seclusion in spirit-forged monasteries.

### Common Life Woven by the Creed
The Creed is not a faith of grand sermons or distant miracles.  It lives in the quiet corners of daily life — in whispered prayers, in the worn threads tied to a traveler’s wrist, in the mourning songs that drift over frostbitten fields. In every village, from the storm-hammered west to the sunlit terraces of the east, the people of Mentralin weave the Creed into their days like breath itself.

Before each journey, no matter how short, men and women knot three black threads around their wrists: one for the body, one for the spirit, and one for the unknown road ahead.  
Children are taught early to pause before the weathered shrine-stones at crossroads, leaving small offerings — a smooth pebble, a braid of grass, a drop of milk — to the local spirits who guard the ways.

At the turning of the seasons, whole towns gather in the temple squares.  In spring, during the Binding Vigil, families write the names of their lost on slips of tattered cloth and float them down the rivers, hoping the Veil will remember their dead kindly.  In autumn, the Sighing Festival cloaks villages in drifting blue smoke, as spiritfires are lit atop hillocks and crossroads to guide wandering souls back into the Wheel.

Weddings, too, are veiled acts of devotion. At sunset, under a sky often cold and dark, couples stand before a Creeder and offer oaths not only to each other, but to the Veil itself — pledging that their union will be a light against the slow forgetting of the world.

Death is the surest shadow of all, and when it falls, the people do not mourn for the soul’s journey, but for its long imprisonment.  The dead are wrapped in twilight-grey shrouds and borne through the streets in silence, followed by black-robed kin bearing spiritfires on long iron poles.  No name is spoken; no weeping is heard.  Only the soft chanting of the _Endurance Verses_ marks the passage, until the body is laid within the earth or set upon the silent rivers, carried back to the Wheel.

And on the Day of Sealed Skies, when winter holds the land in its iron grip and the sun forgets the horizon, the faithful gather beneath the black-draped temples.  The spiritfires burn cold and blue; the hymns rise in low, shuddering waves.  That night, prayers are not offered in hope of change, but in solemn endurance — a promise made once again: to suffer, to persist, to await the day — if it ever comes — when the stars are no longer silent.

Thus the Creed endures, not through the power of kings or the fear of swords, but through the hearts of common men and women who still believe, who still bind themselves to the broken memory of salvation.

>[!quote|author mark] First Verse of Endurance
> The Veil protects.  
> The Veil imprisons.  
> Thus we remain.

## The Structure of the Creed
In Mentralin, the Creed stretches from sun-bleached coast to icy mountain citadel, a pillar of law and tradition.

At its head stands the **High Synod**, a council of robed Arch-Creeders who interpret the ancient Chronicles and pass decrees binding across all faithful lands. Beneath them serve the **Creeders**, who maintain temples, perform rites, and shepherd the living and the dead. The **Pallbearers** — gaunt figures in bone-white vestments — conduct the sacred funerary rites, ensuring that the dead do not rise in torment. And where spiritual rot festers or heresy takes root, the **Veilwardens** ride: steel-clad zealots armed with blade and binding prayer, enforcers of purity at any cost. Scholars of the **Choir of Sighs** dwell in shadowed monasteries, preserving the psalms, histories, and dying tongues of the world before the Shattering. Their laments fill the twilight hours with hollow, echoing song.

### Temples of Stone and Fire

The temples of the Creed are solemn places, built of dark stone and heavy timbers, shaped into circles and spirals to mirror the unseen curve of the Veil.  
In each stands the **Circle of Light**: a vast brazier fueled by spiritfire, burning with no smoke and no heat — a remnant of the magic before the world was sealed.

Pilgrims come to kneel before the **Wall of Names**, where the vanished cities, lost gods, and forgotten heroes of the Shattered Age are carved into endless spirals of stone, some now so worn they are illegible.

Smaller shrines dot the roads and wilds of Mentralin: cairns of piled stone, ringed with offerings of bone, cloth, and silver, watched over by the Creeders and the faithful.

### The Sacred Words

> _From the Psalms of Binding:_
> _"Mourn the stars that fell.  
> Honor the spirits bound.  
> Walk the path of stone and dust.  
> For the Veil is the Warden of our Light,  
> And the Shackles of our Souls."_

This fragment, taught to every child before they can walk, encapsulates the Creed’s essence: grief and reverence in equal measure.

## **Regional Faces of the Creed**

The Creed wears many faces across the broad lands of Mentralin.

In the sun-drenched east, where olives grow on terraced hillsides and the seas glitter beneath a forgiving sky, the Creed leans toward hope.  Here, the faithful celebrate survival itself as a sacred act. Songs rise with the dawn; weddings and harvests are seen as triumphs against the silent encroachment of entropy.  Priests in white and silver vestments bless the fields, and the Veil is honored not only as a bulwark, but as a gift that grants mortal life its fleeting, precious radiance.

In the storm-ravaged west, where frostbitten peaks claw at leaden skies, the Creed hardens into something colder, heavier.  Among the wind-scoured cliffs and black forests, to suffer is to serve; to endure is to worship.  Monastic orders retreat into crumbling fortresses, their chants echoing against stone walls older than memory.  Funeral processions stretch like rivers of shadow through the valleys, and the Veil is spoken of in the language of iron chains and the blood-price of survival.

Between these extremes, in the verdant heartlands of the [[Mentralian Kingdoms]] and the [[Temerian Empire]], the Creed shifts yet again — often blending with local spirit cults, honoring the smaller guardians of hearth, field, and forest.  Here, Veil temples stand side-by-side with ancient spirit shrines, and the boundary between reverence and fear blurs.

Yet despite all regional differences, all corners of Mentralin unite in the great and solemn observance of the **Day of Sealed Skies**. Held at the dead heart of midwinter, when the sun barely kisses the horizon and the night reigns supreme, the temples swell with black-clad mourners. Spiritfires burn cold and blue, casting a ghostly pall over the gathered faithful. Choruses of low, mournful hymns rise into the darkness. The prayers spoken on that night are not for salvation — for that hope was lost long ago — but for endurance.  
To endure, to hold firm beneath a silent, unyielding sky, until the stars awaken once more — if they ever shall.

Other rites weave through the year, binding the faithful to the turning of seasons:
- **The Binding Vigil** at spring’s cusp, where names of the dead are inscribed on threads of silver and cast into sacred waters.
- **The Sighing Festival** in late autumn, where spiritfires are kindled for the lost, and offerings are made to soothe restless souls.
- **The Long Silence**, a private rite of penance in which individuals vow a season of wordlessness to honor the gods' sacrifice and steel their spirits.
- 
Across Mentralin, in hope or despair, in joy or grim resolve, the Creed endures — as constant and inescapable as the Veil itself.

### **Whispers of Heresy**

Not all accept the Creed’s binding. In hidden hollows and crumbling ruins, forbidden voices rise.   Some whisper of forgotten rites to pierce the Veil, to call back the lost gods, or to ascend beyond the endless Wheel.

The **Seekers Beyond** dream of stars still burning beyond Vaelora’s sealed skies, yearning for a freedom they barely remember.  They speak of realms untarnished by the [[Shattering]] — realms worth the price of rupture.

Darker still are the **Unshackled Flame**, a sect that sees the Veil not as salvation, but as a blight.  To them, the Veil is a shackle forged by cowardice, and they preach that only by tearing it asunder — even at the cost of all life — can true liberation be won.  Better annihilation, they claim, than eternal stagnation.

To the Creed, both are heretics beyond redemption — traitors who would undo the gods' last sacrifice. The Veil must not be breached, the Creed thunders, lest the ancient darkness devour all once more. And so the faithful endure, generation upon generation, imprisoned within their cage of stone and spirit, their dreams tethered to the cold, endless turning of Vaelora’s silent sky.