The Immaculate Dragons

The Immaculate Dragons are the five warrior-saints that founded Immaculacy and wrote the first of the Immaculate Texts. The Immaculate Dragons fulfill a messianic role, having brought the wisdom of the Immaculate Order to the masses after their conquest of the Anathema. They also fulfill an aspirational role, as all Immaculates are encouraged to emulate them and their virtues.

Aniconism

The Immaculate Order has a complicated relationship to images and icons. All images of gods and spirits are forbidden, as such icons lead mortals astray and encourage direct worship. Likewise, images of Immaculate figures are largely forbidden as well, because these figures are to be admired and emulated, not worshipped.

However, the status of temple iconography is more complicated. For many, many periods throughout the Realm’s history, the Order has voiced no objection to the construction of statues as part of the architecture of temples. In fact, in many cases, entire shrines are bedecked in draconic imagery. At other periods, the Order has grown more conservative, and restricted the production of icons, focusing instead on abstract representations.

No incarnations of the Order have encouraged iconoclasm, which has thankfully left many ancient shrines in good repair. Even during very aniconic periods, the monks have largely protected the statues, especially if the monk was old enough to remember a more iconic period.

The current Order, under the XXI Mouth of Peace, is among the more liberal. The Order formally disapproves of the production of trinkets, such as necklaces carved in the image of Daana’d, but they are nonetheless very popular among the peasantry.

Daana’d

Danaa’d, the Arbiter of the Immaculate Complaint, is the Immaculate Dragon of water. She is frequently depicted as a dark-haired woman in a breasplate, carrying either a sword or trident. In her warrior aspect, she is sometimes presented with a long, curling tongue, claws, and black skin; this figure is called Daana’d Vengeant. In her aspect as an arbiter and judge, she is often depicted blindfolded and strangling a serpent, which is said to represent ignorance and prejudice. This Danaa’d Obscure aspect is often seen at shrines which serve judges and government officials.

Daana’d’s life story is mostly contained in two epics: the Younger Epic of Daana’d, which chronicles her origin and adventures as a wandering figure of justice, and the Epic of Daana’d Descendant, which tells the story of her role in the Anathema War and her trials to seal away the souls of the devil-kings beneath the sea.

In strict aniconism, Daana’d is often symbolized by the lotus flower.

Early Life of Daana’d

Daana’d is known to hail from a mystical kingdom called Sua, described in the Texts as a temperate land of pearl. The physical location of Sua is disputed by scholars. A majority believe it to be near the island of Soham in the Pendant Isles, at the far western reaches of the Blessed Isle. Others claim it to be even further, in the islands of the Southwest near the Caul, citing that Daana’d is said to have “sailed across the waters” to find the Isle.

Three parallel narratives of Daana’d’s birth exist in various texts. In the first, Daana’d is said to have risen from the sea fully-formed as a baby, and was carried to shore on the tides by a huge purple lotus flower. In the second, Daana’d is said to have been born from a mighty pearl, coveted by the king of Sua, which hatched like an egg when she was ready to be made. Lastly, Daana’d is sometimes said to have been born to a sworn virgin sailor woman, who conceived the child after receiving a vision of the Water Dragon beneath the sea.

Despite the fuzzy circumstances surrounding Daana’d’s origin, the Texts are largely in agreement about her childhood. It is said that by the time she was five years old, Daana’d could speak as eruditely as a grown woman, and did not need to drink, drawing instead on her own glory. Fish and crustaceans would offer themselves to her so that she would not grow hungry. She was famed among her people for her intelligence, martial skill, and judgement.

The Trials of Daana’d

Upon coming of age, Daana’d rejected her childhood name, shaved her beard, and set out into the world as a wandering magistrate seeking justice and righteousness. The many adventures she got up to are compiled in part in the Younger Epic of Daana’d. These tales emphasize Daana’d’s skill at arms, but more importantly, her wits and cleverness. In the Younger Epic, Daana’d wins through ingenuity and deception as often as through martial conquest.

Eventually, Daana’d became so famed that the devil-kings of the Realm Before came to test her virtue. The Texts recount that she endured five tests, one each for the Forsaken, the Blasphemous, the Unclean, the Wretched, and the Deceivers. However, only two stories are recognized as canonical by the Immaculate Order, with the other three considered apocryphal.

The Test of the Crowning Sun was the test of the Blasphemous, which Daana’d overcame with ease. The second test, the test of the Wretched, involved Daana’d battling with the cruel Anathema warlord Moon-Cursed Gushan. This story remains an extremely popular folktale. Formal Immaculate recitations emphasize Daana’d’s moral superiority – Daana’d is self-sufficient and uses secrets to protect the innocent from harm, where Gushan is cruel and unable to speak the truth to his allies in his time of need. The popular retelling involves a lot more duels.

The Schooling of Samwat

Daana’d’s antithesis is the Unmanly Babbler, a fool who relies on others to fix their problems when the real solution lies within. In many of the Daana’d stories, the boy Samwat is understood to represent this antithesis. A coward, a fool, and a devoted follower of Daana’d, the character of Samwat seems to exist in the Daana’d stories largely to ruin things, make poor decisions, and be educated by Daana’d on his failings.

Dozens of parables, collectively the “Schooling of Samwat”, detail his failings and how Daana’d corrected them, often with clear morals for the reader. Many of these fables are apocryphal, but a handful are canonical within the Order. Scholars believe that if Daana’d’s homeland of Sua were ever to be found, the true canon of the Schooling of Samwat could be uncovered.

The Epic of Daana’d Descendant

More famous than any other Daana’d story, the Epic of Daana’d Descendant is the defining epic of Daana’d and the one which most shapes her legacy and image. Beginning shortly after the Five Days of Mela and the Immolation of Hesiesh, the twelve parts of the Descendant tell the story of Daana’d’s quest to imprison the souls of the Anathema deep beneath the sea.

Throughout the epic, Daana’d reflects on her duty and her struggle coming to accept that she, like Hesiesh, must sacrifice herself for the good of humanity. Other chapters chronicle her Journey to the West-like travels in the mythical kingdoms beneath the sea, before finally assembling the required pieces of the Jade Prison and making the ultimate sacrifice to seal the souls of the devil-kings that they will never rise again.

The Descendant is a transcription of the oral tradition of the epic on the Silk-and-Pearl Peninsula, and thus exists in many forms, each reflecting a different oral history. In some renditions, Daana’d remains beneath the sea as a statue guardian of the prison, and will return to herald the rebirth of Creation when she is needed most. In others, Daana’d escapes from the Underworld and reaches unity with the Water Dragon.

Daana’d’s Purviews and Mystery Cults

Daana’d is the dragon of water, and thus naturally associated with sailors, fisherfolk, boatmakers, beachcombers, and others who make their living by water. Extending from her position as patron of sailors, Daana’d is also the protector of all travelers, especially travelers-by-night.

Daana’d is also known as the Remover of Obstacles, a sacred figure who can be invoked in times of hardship for devotion and strength. In times of injustice, Daana’d is invoked as the Arbiter and defender. Lastly, Daana’d is also the dragon of transitions, who guards the shore, represents transgender individuals, and oversees the change of things from one state to the next.

Daana’d rivals Sextes Jylis as the most widely-worshipped of the dragons, with peasant cults dedicated to her located in almost all villages and towns. As a righteous and beloved hero, remover of obstacles, and defender of the weak, she is especially worshipped in hard times. Peasants often believe that invoking Daana’d can bring rain in times of drought and liberation in times of bondage.

Mystery cults of Daana’d are widespread, often emphasizing her trickster nature. These cults often find secret wisdom in the Schooling of Samwat and the Younger and Descending epics. Criminals often revere Daana’d as well, due to her trickster nature. Many members of the criminal element have a tattoo of Daana’d or aquatic imagery in her honor.

Common syncretizations of Daana’d include: Daana’d Wayfarer, syncretized with gods of travel or the maiden Mercury of the House of Journeys; Daana’d of a Thousand Faces, syncretized with gods of night, the moon, trickster spirits, and criminal gods; and the Ashen Lady, who watches over the long, dark sail across the seas of the dead.

Emulation of Daana’d

Immaculates are encouraged to emulate Daana’d by bending without breaking, by being clever and quick, by being devoted and righteous, and by being self-sustaining and persistent. Daana’d encourages an Immaculate to face new challenges and adapt to overcome them.

Water Aspects are encouraged to emulate Daana’d by retaining their focus. Water has no shape, but instead takes on the shape of its vessel; it has no boundaries, but flows around obstacles. Often, Water Aspects can find themselves adrift, pulled in many shapes by their flows. Daana’d reminds them to focus on what is important, and to define their own shapes.

Hesiesh

Hesiesh, the Reciter of Loud Prayers and Efficacious Hymns, is the Immaculate Dragon of fire. He is usually depicted as a bald, broad-faced monk with saffron robes, a necklace of fist-sized prayer beads, and wrappings on his forearms. In the eastern parts of the Blessed Isle, the iconic Hesiesh is pale, looks Wàn, and clean-shaven, with a kufi cap. In many other parts, he is darker, and sports a trim red beard. He is almost always seated and meditating.

In more strictly aniconic periods, Hesiesh is often symbolized by a flaming eight-spoked wheel or an empty brazier.

Hesiesh has among the smallest bodies of stories; Pasiap has fewer, but only because the Epic of Pasiap is fragmented. Hesiesh’s body of literature is focused almost entirely in the Epic of Hesiesh, with only a handful of supporting stories, mostly expanding on the cave meditations or his childish adventures as a young prince.

Early Life of Hesiesh

Hesiesh has the most coherent early-life narrative of any of the Five Imamculate Dragons. He was born as a prince in “His Father’s Kingdom,” the name of which is never specified. It is described as a land rich in magic and natural power, with hot summers. Modern scholars identify many places as potential candidates for The Kingdom of Hesiesh’s Father: some identify the wonderful climate of Numinous Rolling Wave Dominion, hoping to place Hesiesh on the Isle; others identify any of a dozen kingdoms throughout the Threshold matching this description.

Unlike the other Dragons, Hesiesh usually has no strong supernatural element attributed to the circumstances of his birth. His father was known to be an Anathema king – though some sources are more vague, leaving open the possiblity that Hesiesh’s Father was simply a mortal king allied to the Anathema or even a Dragon-Blooded king lead astray by the Anathema’s wicked words – who desired to appoint Hesiesh as his heir over Hesiesh’s older sister. The Texts note that Hesiesh’s birth was foretold by a comet crossing the sky on the night of his conception.

As a prince and favored heir in His Father’s Kingdom, Hesiesh was raised in luxury and with neither want nor need. From a young age, Hesiesh could see that the life he was living was unjust. He frequently pointed out the contradictions in his tutors’ teachings and criticized their moral failings.

By the age of eight, Hesiesh had already begun to criticize the hypocrisy and decadence of the devil-kings’ world, so his father forbade him from leaving the palace or from speaking to anyone aside from his tutors and his family. Despite his father’s provisions, Hesiesh continued to teach the other children of the palace and gradually, they grew to know him as a boy of great character and insight.

Hesiesh in His Father’s Court

The story of Hesiesh in His Father’s Court tells about how Hesiesh came to reject the decadence of the Anathema. After being shown his father’s throne that he is due to inherit – “a giant seat, seven times or more in height the height of the young dragon, and carved from solid gold; the cushion, bright red, stuffed with feathers of Harum the Thunderbird; the sides carved with idols of a thousand gods, each with rubies for eyes the size of a thumbnail; and raised on a marble platform surrounded on all sides by a sea of mercury” – Hesiesh was repulsed by the decadence and refused to inherit the kingdom.

Hesiesh’s father sent five ministers to try to convince him to take up the throne. Hesiesh rebuffs the arguments of each by revealing how they are hollow, selfish, or misleading. In the end, Hesiesh is moved to return to his duty by a servant girl who convinces him that the kingdom would be worse under any other ruler.

The story is one of three iconic tales of Hesiesh, and vitally introduces two characters strongly associated with him: the servant girl Maythra and Hesiesh’s older sister Aodri. In various apocryphal tales of Hesiesh, these characters are expanded upon. A particular heresy holds that Maythra in fact bore Hesiesh a child in his younger days, who later helps the other Immaculate Dragons to proselytize their religion after the Immolation of Hesiesh.

The ministers’ arguments in this story are five broad arguments about duty, justice, tradition, virtue, and leadership. Hesiesh refutes their arguments by revealing their own failing of understanding – such as revealing the supposed argument to justice to be an argument to cruelty. These responses are so famous as to be the source of several idioms within the Realm concerning failures of these same values.

The Burning Raiment and the Cave Meditations

At the time of his coronation, Hesiesh’s father’s ministers attempted to clothe him in “the raiments of wicked kings,” which ignited in flames as soon as they touched his skin. The resultant fireball destroyed the palace and scarred Hesiesh’s father, who sent the forces of the Anathema after him. Hesiesh fled the Anathema for ten days and ten nights. Every second night of the pursuit, he saw a comet in the sky, drawing closer – the same comet which foretold his birth. The comet was actually the fires burning in the souls of all humans for liberation from the forces of the devil-kings. On the tenth night, the comet crashed into Hesiesh, and his pursuers break off chase because they cannot approach the pyre.

Eventually, Hesiesh took up hermitage in a hidden cave. There, he meditated on virtue for many years. In the darkness of the cave, his mind was freed from the blinding Anathema light and he was able to achieve true wisdom. Hesiesh wrote thousands of verses of wisdom on the walls in ash. He survived off of the water dripping from the stalactites and what stray whisps of grain flew into the cave. He is even said to have taken a breath only once every day and twice every night.

While in the cave, hordes of demons try to tempt Hesiesh from his meditations. Stories vary wildly about the demonic temptation, featuring everything from swarms of stinging bees that burn when they touch his skin to poison snakes that die when they bite him to seductive spirits that try to tempt him with the shapes of nubile young men and voluptuous young women. Hesiesh refutes each demon with a barking prayer, driving them out of the cave with the power of his voice, and a sermon which banishes them back to Hell.

Every telling ends with Hesiesh defeating the final demon by singing a hymn so true and powerful that it is converted to Immaculacy on the spot. In most variations, this demon is the living storm Garuvar, who becomes known as the Foremost Among the Virtuous Demons. Some variations, not recognized as canonical by the Order, feature Hesiesh’s older sister Aodri, corrupted by Anathemic influence, as the final demon.

Hesiesh is reputed to have never in his life spoken an unnecessary word, and is admired for his terse, poetic wisdom. The proverbs, koans, prayers, hymns, and recitations of the cave meditations are insightful summarizations of complicated moral and ethical dilemmas. These startling insights today form the basis of Immaculate moral philosophy.

The Immolation of Hesiesh

The final iconic tale of Hesiesh is by far his most famous story: the story of his death by self-immolation and the purging of the world. This tale is recorded in the last chapters of the Epic of Hesiesh.

During the Five Days of Mela, as she leads the forces of the Righteous Army of Liberation against the devil-kings, Hesiesh avoids the fighting and spends his time cultivating religion among the soldiers. Hesiesh gives many short sermons and resolves many conflicts among the rear forces, focused more on the spiritual well-being of the men than victory.

Hesiesh periodically debates with Mela, arguing for peace against her arguments for war. Central to their conflict is the role of human beings in war: is it worth the toil, sin, and pain of war to defend the virtuous peace? Throughout these chapters, Hesiesh is heartbreakingly genuine in his appeals for peace, even shedding tears over the slain soldiers of the Anathema, who are but pawns in a war larger than any of them can know.

The debate between Mela and Hesiesh is left unsettled. Each point which one of them makes is perfectly countered by the other, leaving their debate in exact equilibrium. At the end of the Five Days, as Mela is struggling to end the war by eliminating the last devil-kings, she nearly falls to fatigue, having worn herself thin. Hesiesh steps in to defend her, and enacts violence for the first and last time in his life.

After handily defeating the final devil-king, Hesiesh warns Mela to find shelter for herself, the other dragons, and her men. Hesiesh takes a lotus position in the center of the battlefield, and as the vicious hungry ghosts of the slain devil-kings begin to rise, calls out echoing prayers as he immolates himself in his own anima. The purging fires of his righteous devotion sweep across the whole of Creation, burning away the corpses of the war and assuring rest for all those slain in the conflict.

Hesiesh’s Purviews and Mystery Cults

Hesiesh is a distant entity for many Immaculates, a serene and contemplative figure associated with meditation, the act of devotion, spiritual wellness, and internal alchemy. People often revere Hesiesh with the goal of achieving long life and serenity. His patronages include musicians, artits, policemen, keepers-of-the-peace, and monarchs, owing to his royal heritage.

Hesiesh is occasionally attributed to more eccentric patronages as well. He is often considered a patron of bakers, cooks, and tea-makers, as the Epic of Hesiesh notes that his only weakness was a love of food and tea. Bathhouses often have a shrine to Hesiesh, believing that his hot breath helps keep their baths steamy. For unknown reasons, peasants often associate Hesiesh with cats.

Mystery cults of Hesiesh are few and far between. Many of these cults are based around the worship of a supposed fragment of his skeleton – though several temples and relics are recognized by the Order as originating from Hesiesh, these bone-cults rarely have any grounding. Peasants often erect heretical edifices of Hesiesh, believing that his image frightens malicious spirits away.

Emulation of Hesiesh

Immaculates attempt to emulate Hesiesh by cultivating wisdom, practicing self-control, by being compassionate and virtuous, and by responding to falsehood with the truth. Emulating Hesiesh involves practicing meditation, the fasting traditions of many holidays, and a serene detachment from the temporary passions of the world.

Fire Aspects are encouraged to emulate Hesiesh by studying his control. He is known to have been precise, deliberate, and contained. Fire Aspects are often drawn to spontaneous action without considering the consequence of their action, and Hesiesh reminds them to consider and contain.

Mela

Mela, the Petitioner of Clouds Accordant to the Call of Battle, is the Immaculate Dragon of air. In many depictions, she is a gray-haired woman with armor and a spear. As Mela Insightful, she wears a broad conical straw hat, carries a bandolier of scrolls and ink, raises one hand in contemplation and holds a wreath in the other. In her aspect as Mela Perilous, she appears as a six-armed woman in motion, running forward, brandishing two swords, a lantern, a horn, and making the Sign of Saturn with her two remaining hands. Mela Perilous wears a towering headdress and is nude from the waist up.

In strongly aniconic times, Mela may be depicted by a swirling triskelion, a radiant feather, or an encircled fan.

The First Epic of Mela, the Second Epic of Mela, and the Final Epic of Mela describe Mela’s life, with a heavy emphasis on her role as the supreme commander of the forces of the Righteous Army of Liberation. Her Epics are rich in military detail, and the Thousand Correct Actions of the Upright Soldier borrows many idioms and techniques from these epics.

Early Life of Mela

Mela was the first of the Immaculate Dragons to incarnate into the world, leading the others by many decades. The First Epic of Mela begins with Mela as an adult, and contains scant references to her childhood; as a result, differing accounts of her childhood have emerged over time.

The most widespread account of Mela’s birth describes her as “a forceful and impetuous wind,” tearing through many evils as a youth. In this account, she is said to have been born from the heart of a storm and emerged fully-formed as a young adult, bearing a lightning spear of virtue. She then laid siege to the warlord Yasu the Great and defeated him in single combat.

A much later, and much more controversial, account emerged during the early Shogunate period, and is often attributed to the insights of Immaculate abbot Ten Peaches in Harmony. This account describes Mela as being born in mundane circumstances to two peasants, and skilled in arms a child. After her family is slaughtered by Yasu the Great, the child Mela takes up a mundane spear and uses it to slay him, thereupon transforming the spear into her mighty weapon.

The child Mela is said to have known how to read and write from the moment she was born, and to know poetry and meter by the sound of wind whipping through the branches. Mela’s most common miracles include summoning spirits with her fingernails and binding them with her hair, whispering to the sky to change the weather, and breathing chill winter to freeze her foes.

The First Epic of Mela

The First Epic of Mela begins with Mela as a grown woman, traveling the many ancient cities of the Anathema to test her skill-at-arms against the greatest warriors the Anathema have to offer. She defeats all of the Anathema’s masters with ease, and in so doing develops the five Immaculate Martial Arts. Eventually, her ashamed and defeated foes raise an army to defeat her, and narrowly manage to drive her into exile. While traveling between the cities, she is waylaid by many side adventures, including sealing away the one-hundred-and-eight wrathful ghosts at Red Plum Gorge, defeating a poetry god in a game of rhymes set to music, and the cleansing of the Library At Qupo.

The First Epic of Mela chronicles a time in Mela’s life before the incarnation of the other Immaculate Dragons, and features a Mela who is, individually, more powerful than she appears in the later epics. It is also likely the youngest of the three epics, leading some branches of Immaculacy to consider it non-canonical. The Immaculate Order currently considers large parts of it apocryphal, but preserves the canonicity of some chapters. The Younger Epic of Mela, named in accordance with the Younger Epic of Daana’d, is the Order’s abbreviated canonical version of the First Epic.

The Second Epic of Mela

The second epic of Mela begins in Mela’s exile from the lands of the Anathema kings, and focuses on the story of her gathering the other Immaculate Dragons and her foundation of the Righteous Army of Liberation. In contrast to the First Epic, the second epic – hailing from a much earlier period – features a greater emphasis on Mela’s community-building and strategic genius than on her individual martial skill.

Mela is prompted to unite the Immaculate Dragons after receiving the Vision of Clouds and the Shaking of the Earth, which is conveyed in a prismatic dream sequence lasting nine chapters. Awakening back into the world, Mela swears her Three Oaths, and locates the other Immaculate Dragons by following the patterns of clouds in the sky. Having done so, Mela conquers several outlying kingdoms in a brief and vicious campaign, and assembles the Righteous Army of Liberation to finally defeat the Anathema.

During her assembly, the Anathema sent three agents to crush her spirits and stray her from her course. In challenging these Anathema, Mela is forced to undergo three sacrifices. First, the Anathema targeted her Love by murdering her unnamed and undetailed lover. Second, the Anathema destroy her Home by razing the kingdom of her youth and desecrating the tombs of her people. Lastly, the Anathema target her Cameraderie by separating Mela from her saint-like traveling companions. After enduring each of the Three Sacrifices, Mela redoubles her intent to defeat the Anathema, and delivers a speech indicating the virtuous reaction to loss and grief.

The Second Epic notably does not feature the character of Pasiap, who incarnated into the world during the Anathema War. Likewise, despite describing Mela’s early campaigns in extensive detail, the Second Epic of Mela does not feature the Anathema War. These facts, combined with commentaries from the early period and references in the sutras, indicate that the actual chronicle of the early years of the Anathema War are within the lost and fragmented Epic of Pasiap.

The Final Epic of Mela

The Final Epic of Mela consists entirely of a depiction of the Five Days of Mela, the final five days of the Anathema War. It tells the story of Mela’s generalship in leading the Righteous Army of Liberation against the slave-soldiers of the last Anathema devil-kings, of Mela summoning storms and binding spirits in aid of the war, and lastly of Mela’s death-by-a-thousand-stings on the end of the final day. The end of the Final Epic features the Immolation of Hesiesh (which is recorded in significantly more detail in the Epic of Hesiesh), and the Great Mourning Celebration that marks the end of the war and the liberation of humanity.

Mela was, of course, successful in leading the Righteous Army, but faced her own death at the end of the war. During her final climactic battles with the Forsaken generals of the devil-kings, Mela is able to defeat them, but at great cost to herself. Weary and fading, Mela is susceptible to the poisons and magical diseases of the “sour-edged swords and acrid spears” of the Anathema and contracts a condition so morbid that even Sextes Jylis is unable to heal her. Mela lives to see the Great Mourning Celebration – where the surviving Dragons establish Immaculacy with great prayers and honor the dead – but dies the following morning.

Upon her death, Mela sublimates into a divine storm, tearing through the dead cities of the Anathema and purging them of stragglers. When the storm dies down, Mela reunites with the Elemental Dragons and leaves no trace. Although such a fact is not noted in the Epic, it is widely believed that upon transforming into a storm, Mela gave an instantaneous virgin birth to a daughter, who grew to a full-grown woman in five days and eventually founded the First Dragon-Blooded Shogunate. Early in the Realm’s history, the Order, in collaboration with the Empress’ ministries, undertook an expansive genealogical effort, and traced the lineage of the Empress back to this daughter. Thus, it is canon within the Order that the Sacred Daughter was born and that the Scarlet Empress is her descendant.

Mela’s Purviews and Mystery Cults

Mela is obviously associated with generalship, martial skill, and the act of battle. She is widely revered by soldiers, Legionnaires, mercenaries, and others who make their living by the sword. Especially in the abroads, Mela is also a source of radical and widespread syncretism. The Order has, in its time, stamped out hundreds of cults blending Mela with local gods of war, combat, and strategy. The cult of Mela Perilous is widespread among the Legions, and some soldiers even construct the figure of Mela Rouge, a figure blending Mela, the Empress, and the maiden Mars of the House of Battles into a potent figure of war.

Beyond her purview of war and battle, Mela is also a patron of scholars. She is famed as a wise and fiercely intelligent woman, the greatest warrior-poet to have ever lived. Mela holds patronage over scholars and shares patronage over poets with Hesiesh. Although she is never described as a sorcerer in any of her epics or in any sutras, Mela is also often thought of as a patron of sorcerers, owing to her miraculous powers to bind spirits, control the weather, and evince mystical knowledge.

Mystery cults of Mela exist beyond her ilicit worship by soldiers and scholars. Owing to her miraculous feats in the Younger Epic, shrines of worship to Mela can crop up almost anywhere on the Isle or in the Threshold that obvious mystical happenings can be seen. In these cults, Mela is described as the ultimate cause of the phenomenon and she is worshipped either in gratitude for the phenomenon or to guard against its spreading.

Emulation of Mela

Immaculates are called upon to emulate Mela by being excellent at things. Mela’s defining characteristic is her arete in many different fields. Emulating Mela entails developing your own skills, mastering yourself, and never settling for good enough. Mela is also emulated through strong community involvement. As the organizer of the Righteous Army of Liberation, Mela teaches us that we must be active in our communities and share of ourselves and our skills. This is why her antithesis is the Sickly Whore, who squanders her natural gifts and does not share with the community.

Air Aspects can often be disconnected or float through the world with their heads in the clouds, forgetting to focus on the tangible and meaningful. Mela’s investment and focus on personal excellence remind Air Aspects that they must act, as well as conceive, in order for their lofty ideas to come to fruition.

Pasiap

Pasiap, He Who Illuminates Both Worlds With Majesty and Power, is the Immaculate Dragon of earth. He is depicted variously as a large man with a big beard, heavy armor, and carrying a club; as a handsome, almost monkey-like youth with a carpenter’s square, a bandolier of tools, and a staff, called Pasiap Ingenious; and as an elephantine man with underbite tusks, a long beard with many jewels, an exaggerated belly, and a halo of arms making sacred mudras, a shape called Pasiap Omphalos.

The character of Pasiap is something of a mystery to modern Immaculacy, despite his evident importance as a founding member of the religion. Numerous hints point to the existence of a fragmented Epic of Pasiap, chronciling both the early period of the Anathema War and the life of Pasiap, but a coherent, complete epic has yet to be found. The reconstruction of a canonical Epic of Pasiap is a lifetime passion for many monks, who scour Creation far and wide for all the stories and lore which can be attributed to him.

In strongly aniconic times, Pasiap is represented as an encircled mountain, as a jewel, or as a pair of upward and downward facing chevrons.

Constructing the Life of Pasiap

Given that the Epic of Pasiap is fragmented and scattered, monks and scholars must make do with what information they can find in stories of Pasiap scattered throughout the world. Despite this fragmentation, the shared aspects of many of these stories have allowed an understanding of Pasiap to emerge.

Pasiap was the youngest of the Immaculate Dragons; the Righteous Army of Liberation had already assembled under Mela by the time that Pasiap came of age. The stories tell that Pasiap was born from a jade egg deep beneath the earth, carving himself from it across many years. Once the baby Pasiap had shaped himself, he caused a great earthquake, cracking the earth above him that he may emerge into the world.

In other stories, Pasiap was born when a landslide threatened to crush a family of slaves, who prayed for mercy to the Dragon of Earth. In that instant, the stones and mud bent around the family, and Pasiap arose from the cascade, holding the devastation at bay with his bare palm.

Pasiap was raised as a slave and spent his youth mastering many crafts. By the time he came of age, he had completed his masterworks in many different areas, including carpentry, masonry, and geomancy. He toiled for many years as a luxury slave of the devil-kings, passed among them to build vain temples and raise cities in their image. Eventually, Pasiap dreamed of a mighty storm brewing that would purge the world, and joined the Righteous Army of Liberation.

The Final Epic of Mela contains suggestions that the Epic of Pasiap described the early period of the Anathema War, and thus how Pasiap came to find the Righteous Army. The surviving epics which cover the war period consistently refer to Pasiap as the quartermaster of the army, laboring day and night in the heat of his forge to create the magical armor that turned aside the lightning and witchcraft of the Anathema. He is said to have raised castles in a day from which to hold off the slave armies of the Anathema, and to have turned seafoam and ash into mighty siege engines that tore down the walls of the Anathema cities.

The House Which Pasiap Built

Mela and Hesiesh perished as a result of the Anathema War, and Daana’d sacrificed herself shortly thereafter. Sextes Jylis set to wander, ne’er to be seen again. After the end of the war, only Pasiap remained, to carry on the legacy of the Dragons to future generations.

He labored for many decades on his greatest creation, an edifice not of jade but of souls: the Immaculate religion. He spoke wisdom to the monks, who transcribed his words into the early sutras. He built great temples and founded many cities around his monasteries; indeed, most cities on the Blessed Isle attempt to trace their origin back to Pasiap.

Today, the Order is often called The House Which Pasiap Built. The Order conceives of itself as a single home, a massive family which encompasses all the souls of the world. It cherishes this imagery, using metaphors of house and family to describe the spiritual life of the Realm. Theological debates among friends are sometimes known as “dinnertime conversations,” larger disagreements as “rows in the family.” Schisms and factionalization are almost always referred to as “cracks in the wall” or “in the foundation.”

The Palace of Dust

A huge number of Pasiap stories exist, mostly as explanations for ruins, for cities, or as the mystical origins of Artifacts. The Order recognizes only a few of these stories as canonical, meaning that Pasiap has fewer canon stories than even Hesiesh.

The Palace of Dust is one of Pasiap’s canon stories. As a young man, before joining the Righteous Army, Pasiap was approached by an Anathema Lord hoping to build a spectacular palace. She paid him in silver, more than enough for Pasiap to buy his freedom from his master. In truth, the silver pebbles she paid him were enchanted seeds of rotten grain, for she schemed to humiliate him and thus deprive any other Anathema Lord of his glorious work.

She was shocked, then, to find that when the seeds touched Pasiap’s hands, they became true silver, as pure as if fresh from the mines. Pasiap quickly purchased his freedom and returned to honor his contract.

He built a spectacular palace, more lovely than any other. Its soaring arches and heartbreaking frescos drove even the most stoic to tears. But when the Anathema Lord strode into her new palace, the building collapsed around her, blowing away like dust in the wind.

Peasant retellings of this story often portray their local lord in the position of the Anathema Lord, an object of derision. They often include a humiliating public mockery of the Anathema Lord at the end of the story. The monks, on the other hand, place much greater emphasis on the story’s morals and lessons about the transience of material wealth.

The Lecturing of the Taxmen

The Lecturing of the Taxmen is usually analyzed to be set immediately before Pasiap’s dream and departure to join the Righteous Army of Liberation. At this time, Pasiap was traveling to his next lord to begin a new project, and found a village oppressed by vicious taxmen collecting extortionate tribute in the name of their king.

Pasiap interceded, and convinced the taxmen to return in one month, when he promised them as much jade in tribute as they would normally receive in a whole year. The greedy taxmen accepted and returned the next month.

Upon their return, Pasiap struck the ground with his club, causing great fissures to open. Stones, boulders, and rocks covered the ground. Pasiap told the taxmen that this was their pay, and the taxmen began greedily collecting the plain rocks, until eventually they crushed themselves beneath the weight of their own purses.

Confused, the serfs asked Pasiap why the collectors had so coveted plain gray rocks. Pasiap revealed that the taxmen were so greedy that they saw the rocks as silver, jade, and jewels. Having lived a life of leeches, drawing from communities and never contributing anything themselves, the taxmen were so foolish that mere boulders looked as rubies to them. The peasants, meanwhile, saw through the illusion, for they were rich not in gold, but in wisdom.

The story of the Lecturing of the Taxmen is again popular among the peasantry. In their tellings, Pasiap often reveals a real mine full of jewels for the community, as a reward for their good merit. Monks sigh and shake their heads, wishing that the peasants could understand the true message.

Pasiap’s Purviews and Mystery Cults

Pasiap is, first and foremost, the patron of makers. Smiths, masons, carpenters, wainwrights, shipwrights, and others are all within is purview. Pasiap is said to be especially fond of architects and temple-builders, who help to maintain the House He Built. Pasiap is also the defender of monks, whose protective presence guards the faithful against disruptions from heretics. In his aspect as Omphalos, Pasiap is an even broader defender, often invoked for protection from harm of all kinds.

Peasant stories of Pasiap abound, despite almost all of them being considered apocryphal by the Order. Owing to his humble origins, Pasiap is the protector of slaves and the downtrodden. This, combined with his relationship to wealth, makes him very popular among the peasantry. He is often heretically prayed to for wealth and success.

It is unsurprising, then, that mystery cults to Pasiap often focus their worship on wealth and material gain. Many of these cults believe that direct worship of Pasiap will bring them piles of silver or monetary success. More divergent cults syncretize Pasiap with local gods of mountains, caves, commerce, and sometimes of the dead. Syncretized Pasiaps are often worshipped to bring mineral wealth, to avoid earthquakes, and to keep watch over the buried.

A popular heresy holds that Pasiap is spiritually present within every consecrated temple and shrine, keeping watch over all who enter. For this reason, he knows if you are lying or skipping your meditations. Similarly, Pasiap is often ascribed to dwell within the cornerstone of the house of every true believer, and will punish the unjust if he catches word of them. For this reason, peasants sometimes kneel at the cornerstone of their home and whisper of community wrongdoings, hoping that Pasiap will intercede to set things right.

Emulation of Pasiap

Immaculates are called upon to emulate Pasiap by being creative, by passing on their knowledge, and by attending temple regularly. Pasiap teaches the value of hard work and labor. Emulating Pasiap entails thinking of the future and sharing your wisdom with those who follow.

Earth Aspects are encouraged to emulate Pasiap by thinking in new ways. Pasiap was endlessly creative and endlessly curious, in a way that many Earth Aspects, conservative in their thinking and stoic in their action, are not. Thus, Pasiap encourages them to share instead of hoarding and to focus on the future instead of on the past.

Sextes Jylis

Sextes Jylis, He Who Has Strewn Much Grass, is the Immaculate Dragon of wood. In temples throughout the Blessed Isle, he is a handsome man in a set of light armor, carrying a large bow, and dripping seeds from his palms. In his shape as Sextes Captor, he carries a ram’s horn in one hand and a dagger in the other, dressed in pelts and the trappings of an outdoorsman. As Sextes Medic, he is older and wiser – a huge bundle of herbs over one shoulder, a brace of acupuncture needles hanging from his belt, and carrying a shamisen.

None of these depictions, however, are what the people of the Blessed Isle picture when the name Sextes Jylis is said. No, they picture a blasphemy, a depiction of Sextes Jylis which the Immaculate Order has quite firmly rallied against. In their minds eye, they see a strapping, handsome young man, with a wise glint in his eye, wearing a magical jade cloak that allows him to travel the world, carrying a quiver with arrows to cure every disease. They picture the Sextes Jylis they grew up hearing folktales about, the Sextes Jylis that they may – just maybe – believe is still out there, still watching the world, still saving people and healing diseases.

The life of the canonical Sextes Jylis is captured in the War Epic of Sextes Jylis and the Medicine Epic of Sextes Jylis, which depict a heroic and virtuous Sextes Jylis and his actions in the Anathema War. These epics paint only a small picture of the popular figure of Sextes Jylis, who competes with Daana’d as the most popular and heretically worshipped Dragon.

In aniconic times, Sextes Jylis is represented by a bow, an incense burner, an encircled tree, or a curled ram’s horn.

The Early Life of Sextes Jylis

Sextes Jylis is said to have been born from a ghostflower, a rare and beautiful blossom with semitransparent blue leaves. The child Sextes Jylis is recorded to have been shaped from the nectar of the flower, and when the flower bloomed in early spring, the petals fell open to reveal his meditating form. The young Dragon spoke three sentences of profound wisdom, and the forest bowed to him. No record of these sacred words exists – were such a record to be found, it would offer a profound insight into the workings of the world and the foundations of the early Immaculate tradition.

Sextes Jylis was a radiant child, who brought health and good fortune to all those around him. Folktales say that flowers bloomed where he walked and snakes, spiders, and other wicked creatures would flee from his presence. His touch was remedial, curing fevers and coughs with a brush of his fingers. He took up residence in a bamboo grove, offering healing to any who could find him.

The First Epic of Mela makes reference to a “great healer” who patches her wounds after her battle against a Forsaken warlord. This “great healer” is not further detailed, but is mentioned to be a young man. Some theologians propose that this may in fact be Sextes Jylis, but such an incarnation would place his date of incarnation much earlier than would be expected. Regardless of whether the “great healer” is, in fact, Sextes Jylis, he is known with certainty to be the first of the Dragons united by Mela to form the Righteous Army of Liberation.

The War Epic of Sextes Jylis

The War Epic of Sextes Jylis is somewhat misnamed, as only the last few chapters of the epic deal with the Anathema War. The rest of the Epic details Sextes Jylis’ life as a young man, focused mainly on his prowess as a healer and as a musician.

The War Epic is one of the few epic sources to detail the birth of a Dragon, and introduces the story of his birth-by-flower. It spends several chapters detailing his adventures as a child, before depicting his capture by the Anathema king Yoza of Ten Thousand Candles. The Anathema king is old and dying of illness, and coerces Sextes Jylis into traveling to the peak of the Imperial Mountain to recover the only herb which will save him. Along the way, Sextes Jylis is joined by a colorful cast of characters and eventually returns with the herb. Yoza seizes it by force and exiles Sextes Jylis.

The newly-exiled Sextes Jylis joins forces with Mela, then the narrative skips ahead to briefly describe Sextes Jylis’ attempts to heal Mela of the wounds, poisons, and diseases inflicted on her by the Anathema during the Five Days of Mela. The Epic closes with their final farewell and the death of Mela on the crowning of the sixth day.

One of the most famous stories from the War Epic is the tale of the Great King and Captured Prince. While ascending the Mountain, Sextes Jylis comes across a valley kingdom ruled by a king touched with madness from the Anathema. He has imprisoned the son of his greatest rival, a beautiful young Prince. Sextes Jylis tries to poison the Great King, but he is unharmed. Sextes Jylis tries to infect the Great King with a plague, but aborts his plan as the disease threatens to break out into a pandemic. Finally, Sextes Jylis curses the Great King in his sleep, turning his body to soil and flowers with a touch.

The tale of the Great King and Captured Prince is expanded upon in several other sources. An ancient and widespread expansion features Sextes Jylis taking the Prince as his lover, a “sacred love” that transcends boundaries. This depiction of love between a Dragon and a mortal Prince has been removed from the canon at various points, but is old enough that it is likely contemporaneous with the original epic.

The Medicine Epic of Sextes Jylis

The Medicine Epic of Sextes Jylis describes Sextes Jylis’ cooperation with Pasiap following the war and his travels around all of Creation to heal the wounds inflicted upon it by the Anathema. Sextes Jylis spreads grass and grain all over Creation to offer food to the stricken people, heals the death-curse diseases that plague the populace, and eventually helps Pasiap in setting the strictures of monastic life and the outline of a healthy society.

The Medicine Epic contains many valuable insights into medicine and farming, the details of which are studied today as foundational to the spiritual philosophy of healing. It contains a (likely heavily fictionalized) depiction of the early monastic traditions and introduces Sextes Jylis’ magical bow, which is said to have an arrow for every disease – this bow features prominently in his folktales.

It is important to note that the Medicine Epic ends with Sextes Jylis still alive – the epic does not detail his death. In fact, no canonical source in the Immaculate Texts shows or claims to show the death of Sextes Jylis. It is thus never explicitly established that he sublimated to Wood and reunited with the Elemental Dragon of Wood – in fact, it is never clearly established that he died at all. The Order, however, is very quick to point out that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and teaches the canon that Sextes Jylis went to wander, ne’er to be seen again, and eventually disincarnated and reunited with the Dragons.

The Sextes Jylis Stories and the Heresy of His Divine Continuation

The lack of a clear death for Sextes Jylis has given rise to a popular folkloric conception that the Order has given up trying to completely stamp out. In the minds of the populace, Sextes Jylis has thousands of apocryphal stories, all of them adventurous, charming, and exciting.

The Sextes Jylis of these stories is a true folk hero. He is a compassionate, just, kind, smart, strapping hero doing good out in the world. He woos foreign princes, frees slaves from cruel masters, duels with evil gods, cures plagues with a clap of his hands, and so forth.

In these stories, Sextes Jylis is often attributed powers beyond even those in his epics. He has a magical cloak which “connects the green places of the world,” allowing him to travel from any forest in Creation to any other with just a single step. He is often a face-changer, able to take on any likeness he desires – this trait, shared by the silvery Anathema ogres, is particularly distressing to monks. His bow has an arrow for every disease, allowing him to give and take them with ease. His walking stick allows him to tread into the world of spirits and the world of the dead, and his looking glass can see the future.

Among these stories are a thousand variations of his death, but more often than not, the storyteller reminds her audience that Sextes Jylis never stays dead forever. This is the heresy of His Divine Continuation – the widespread peasant belief that Sextes Jylis is alive and incarnated right now, still traveling the world and doing good.

Purviews and Mystery Cults

Sextes Jylis’ primary domain is healing and health. He is a patron of doctors, herbalists, healers, midwifes, and all others who work to make life better. He is also the guardian of woodsmen and hunters, who keeps them safe from wild beasts. He inspires musicians and storytellers, and – of course – gives good fortune when using a bow.

Sextes Jylis is also, based on his folktales, thought to be the guardian of many things the Order would rather he not be associated with. Rebels, prisoners, escaped slaves, and the dispossessed all revere Sextes Jylis as their defender. Criminals honor him alongside Daana’d. Prostitutes especially invoke his image, but often not as a man – the figure of the Green Lady is a blend of Sextes Jylis’ healing traits with goddesses of love and passion, the lady Venus of the House of Serenity, and sometimes (worst of all) the Empress’ own famed beauty.

In addition to the Green Lady, Sextes Jylis has many other shapes, a surprising number of them female. The Healing Woman is an older figure who bears many of his traits, but is a female guardian of menstruation, childbirth, and labor. The Stag Prince resembles Sextes Captor, but more visceral and nasty, with deer horns and a thirst for slaughter. The King of Soil is a fearful Sextes Jylis, black and green, who is rumored to return the dead to life in exchange for an appropriate sacrifice.

All these figures and more can be found as objects of worship in the myriad mystery cults of Sextes Jylis. Other cults may be based on the heresy of His Divine Continuation, hoping to gain his attention by whatever means that he may be the hero they want. Lastly, some cults merely revere a recognizable variation of Sextes Jylis alongside Hesiesh, hoping to gain good health, long life, and a peaceful home life.

Emulation of Sextes Jylis

Immaculates emulate Sextes Jylis by being compassionate. The Dragon himself always worked first and foremost for the sake of compassion: healing the sick and feeding the hungry. Emulating Sextes Jylis is to approach all things with compassion, to engage in acts of charity, and to put your emotions to good, positive use rather than dwelling on them.

Wood Aspects are encouraged to emulate Sextes Jylis by focusing on others. Wood Aspects can often become hedonists, caught in the flow of life and death, living mostly for their own sensual pleasure rather than the betterment of the whole. Sextes Jylis reminds them to focus not on themselves but on what good they can do for others.