Malkim

The Cants, as they are commonly refered to as (a slight misnomer as there are only 3 of them in the entire text) are the work of the Prophet, Ephraim "First among the bless'd, may the God shine His light upon his soul," the founder of what would become the Church of the New Sun.  Written in the days when the Eternal Night descended upon the world, the Cants recount the sins that led to the punishments that Man is now suffering, and what things might be done so that the God might forgive his wayward creations and lift the Dark.

Composed of 5 books, it is an incredible short religious text, unilluminated versions of the text take up a mere few pages of parchment, and the entirety of it is often carved into the walls of the temples.  It is often memorized in it's entirety by those pious souls that live in the Darkness.

Books:
Prelude - The first letter of Ephraim, "First among the bless'd, may the God shine His light upon his soul," to the people of the world, a message explaining just why the God has abandoned the world to the Darkness.

"Fear not this new night, my brothers, the terrors of an everlasting darkness are as nothing when compared to the darkness in Man's heart.  For, who among you knows what Man might do when Hunger sleeps in his bed and Famine is his child's only playmate?"

"Has Man not fallen greatly from when he walked with the One, are we not wracked now by every depravity imaginable, and some that make even the Night's blood run cold"

"In our Hubris, we sought to undo those chains that the God crafted himself, and because He loved us, he gave us the Keys."

"But, yea, I say unto you; we walked willingly into this Night, with each sin we crafted another paving stone on our road to destruction"

Book of the Rightous - The laying down of the Laws that Man must follow if he is to be purified in the sight of the God.

"Suffer not the Whore, for she makes her belly a shrine to every wickedness."

"The improprieties of the flesh are as nothing when compared to the sins of the Soul"

"Raise not your hand against your brother, for are you not of the same Flesh and the Craft of the God?"

The Canticles - Three hymns proclaiming the might of the God, and seeking His comfort and guidance in this Everlasting Darkness.

"God have Mercy on me, a poor sinner;
I see your glory shine through the night.
God protect your servent, a poor sinner;
So that the Darkness shall have no bite."

The Book of Bones - Regulations for the Clergy, on how to cleanse Man; as well as some prayers to the God seeking His Light and His Power.

"Suffer not the Sorceror, for his is the vilest wickedness; he communes with the Darkness to fulfill his desire for power, and thus chains Man to Darkness Eternal."

"On the third day of the month of Tayir, you shall bring the wicked out from their cells and purify them, that their sin might not condemn them when they're put to the knife."

"Our God, we seek only your forgiveness, ask only for your kindness, and desire only your Light."

The Song of the Coming Light - the Prophecy of Ephraim "First among the bless'd, may the God shine His light upon his soul"

"And I saw before me the Sun, and as it's first rays stroked the land, the wickedness was driven back."

"The Dark Mother sat upon her throne, gazing down upon her slaves and said "Go forth" and a great mass of Darkness detached itself and fought the Faithful."

"When at last the Day came, I saw in the Sun the face of the God, streaked by the tears of the Faithful."

 

Built upon the words of the Prophet, the Church sees to the spiritual and physical needs of the Pure.  Being the only organization of any significant power among the humans living under the Eternal Darkness its power reigns unchecked, however, at least in this case, absolute power has not corrupted absolutely, only moderately.  With missions found in every major community among the human 'lands' and roaming priests to see to the spiritual and earthly needs of those in the minor communities.

Orders:

Order of the Sun - traditional clergy + added duties of judge, census taker, and tax collector.  the cake job in the order is to get assigned to a fixed temple, to act as a local ruler/priest, however most jobs are of the wandering 'missionary' kind.  This is the primary branch of the Church, and what most people think of when talking about the church.  Higher levels are the bishops, ruling over larger regions, and the pope/caliph the head honcho for teh church.

Order of the Faithful - assassins witchhunters and spies, self references as teh knife of the prophet, never talked about, and feared to occupy every dark corner of the human world, and there are a lot of those, the Faithful are the inquistion of the Church, stamping out heresy where ever they find it, whether it be dogmatic heresy, with a single priest preaching that man isn't the author of his own destruction, or heresy of a viler sort, a sorceror among the populace. 

Wardens against the Dark - the militant arm of the church, this is the army of the faithful waging a constant crusade against the slaves of the dark mother.  Everyone is conscripted into the Wardens for a little bit in their life, to fight the hordes that threaten the existance of us all.

She was the companion of the God, and together they crafted Man; however even in those days Her envy was great, and she sought to use their creation against the God, and so for Her sins she was cast into the Abyss.

The Dark Mother raised above Man 13 disciples, and gave unto them the gift of Death Everlasting, and in those days she said unto them, go out into the world and spread the Truth of my return, that Man might fear and the very foundations of Heaven might come loose.

--

Undead goddess motivated solely by her hatred of the god, first she raised up the dead to walk the earth as her slaves, primarily to build her a tower of babel so that she might personally storm the gate of heaven and wreak vengance on the god.

In the beginning of the world she was bound to her tomb deep under the earth, and was wracked eternally by the fires of hell.  until at last she tricked some cabal or another to release her from her prison for some pretty lore or another.  she remained bound for a while longer, with chains of magic, and served mankind as a sort of enslaved tutor.

when she finally broke her chains the sun set on the world for the last time, the dead rose and she began slaying all those who bound her.  with the night came the cold, and the hunger, and in those first days many that had fled originally came and sold themselves or their family to the dark mother, to serve as sources of blood and slaves of her vampiric servants.

ephraim took his disciples underground and founded teh church to fight the dark mother.  ephraim possibly one of the ones who binded her, at least according to apocryphal sources, though to say that is to bring down the wrath of the faithful upon yourself.