THE PROPHECY
In light of recent ”revelations”, I am taken back to a sermon I attended in Macabrell. It was a time when I stopped by the Macabrell’s holy site, the Gilded Cathedral, to gather records on the settlement’s upbringing. The air was peaceful, and the architecture was immaculate, arches stretching the ceilings and murals decorating the floors. This church, deprecated during the Great Schism, had been fully restored after Edelith’s fall. This is attributed to the members of the Golden Council. Preachers of the gods aligned under a single faith, and their cooperation efforts have organized a society in which the Ministry was absent.
The records I was searching for were misplaced, so I had plenty of time to burn. That led me to the preachings of a gold-skinned dragonborne deaconess. I sat down in the pews and idly took notes during the gospel for later use. I think now is the time for that use.
I think that no story is complete without context. I’m no devout, I never have been. But, I have cross referenced the teachings of the Golden Council on other studies. As the Wake of Steel came to a close and the collapse of Solstitheo became inevitable, the gods no longer responded to their followers' requests. The angelic forces would withdraw from battling alongside humanity and retreat towards their origin, their bastion—the Circlet. Without divine protection, all would crumble under the might of the demons as they invaded the capital. However, it is said that one angel remained. This transitions into the main figurehead of the Golden Council’s new faith: Aurelia. The compassionate and high-ranking archangel of the gods, Aurelia, remained within Edelith with the gods’ creations. With Her radiant might beside them, the Edelithians repulsed the grand demon invasion and preserved the sanctity of the city.
_
At the end of the Wake of Steel, in a battlefield smoldering with the ashes of War, Aurelia prophesied. The following is an account of what She decreed after the battle, passed down upon the ages as words of devotion:
To powers exhausted hath delivered victory upon this land.
Yet thine struggle for survival will’st remain prolonged.
Mine fallen brothers, Heralds of the begotten Corrosion
And the Blackened Beast who will be borne into thee darkest hour
Must be slain and theirin essence receive benediction
Lest the hand of sin take its wicked forme
And sever the flesh of mine body.
Bringing forth the end of the Edelithian Age and the prospects of war.
After the battle, Aurelia would disappear with no explanation. Her followers would adopt the Gilded Cathedral into an order devoted to Aurelia’s prophecy. And thus, those under Her order are sworn to live and fall pursuing the Horsemen.
Author’s Note: Must it be this way? Is it really by law that the Horsemen must die or the city is destroyed? Is there really no other alternative, no other reason to take? Is this truly how her life must end? I thought she was someone I could finally trust.
