Father Joseph was a tall and lean man, an Adept of Light and Water, not the most auspicious of Elements. Awakening Water first had kept him from martial glory and guided him as a youth into the arms of the Church of Light, where he had been ordained as a priest and served them in the singularly unimportant diocese of Saginaw, Michigan.
Then had come my revelation of what the Lords of Light truly were, and what their intentions were bringing about. Their ‘noble war’ against the Beasts was a complete lie, something merely meant to draw us away from our guardian Totem Beasts, and it had succeeded!
On top of that, the Kabbal’s finding that the Church had twisted the first Prophets and altered the very history of their tribes in so doing had shattered his faith in them completely. He had come to Coralost looking for a purpose in life... and the new Church of Heaven had given him one.
“Johnny Appleseed’s quest to spread the blessings of his trees to everyone never faltered, never died. As orchards of apple trees rose across America, apples became more than a treat for the wealthy; they became a staple of the table, available at all times of the year!
“All of America has taken up his life and passion to some extent, and you can see apple trees across all the lands of America where our people live, and even in many wild lands. We have taken his example and exported apples constantly for decades, inspiring other nations to start their own orchards, grow their own varieties of apples, and make it a staple for the whole world, instead of a delicacy enjoyed only during the harvest season.
“Johnny Appleseed died in Orchard Cove, Michigan as a Mage, at the ripe old age of eighty-two. During his life he was considered a vagrant and a vagabond, a coward for not joining the fight against the Beasts, and a fool for devoting his time to his task.
“Many men have fought and died, but the legacy of Johnny Appleseed has endured, and now we know, we can measure, and we can judge.” The greying priest paused as he surveyed his congregation. It was perhaps not the equal of what he once preached to, but it was far, far more than the emptiness greeting him soon after the nail of the Kabbalist findings had built on my warnings of the Lords of Light and Dark.
“Johnny Appleseed was a Good Man.” Father Joseph said it with careful emphasis. “He did not live his life wanting to loom over his fellows. He didn’t seek unending power, nor martial glory.
“No, Johnny wanted everyone to be fed, and to be fed well. He wanted peace, plenty, and prosperity, and he wanted it available to all, not merely the wealthy and the mighty.
“He died here, in the lands of the Blue Ox, because he appreciated what Bunyan was building and had built. Babe himself was there the day Johnny Appleseed died, and let all the state know that a Good Man had passed.”
The Church of Heaven wasn’t anywhere near as obsessive on doctrinal or ceremonial rigidity as the Church of Light. There were common elements, meant to bind all the various churches and congregations together, but there was no monolithic religious organization looming over and supporting everything.
Readings from the Bible of the Church of Light were strictly forbidden. Even the Kabbal said that they could not trust their own history now, much to their sorrow, and the stories of the miracles and magic of their ancestors could only be taken as myths and legends, none of them able to be proven with the very founding origins of their tribes so callously altered.
It meant that a lot of Church of Light traditions were thrown right out the door. A Church founded on absolute lies while priding themselves on their moral high ground was just a transparent farce. It was now visible as a power-hungry monolith grasping after power and control, no different from a Great Family business... only with far more dire ramifications concerning those standing behind it.
So, there had come into being new theologies, new traditions, and new stories to tell. Or, perhaps, old ones.
This was the reading of the Good Folk, people who had lived Good lives, be it with reward or without them, sacrificed for their people, and in doing so enriched others and society with the fruits of their labors.
It wasn’t Sainthood, as how many people could live at the level of a Saint? No, this was simply about Good people, examples for everyone to follow, which they could understand and believe.
Rooting out those kinds of stories was now the job of a lot of people, and the stories were accumulated and shared online. In many cases those people were at odds with their governments, or the wealthy and powerful, but the Church of Heaven did not care.
Paul Bunyan had been one of those. So was Babe. George Washington Carver made the list, as well. I’d heard stories of scientists, engineers, government workers, mothers and fathers, and even the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment, whose valor and sacrifice had started the unstoppable ball rolling of raising former slaves to full equality in America with their actions against the Boston Beast Tide of 1872.
“The virtue we will speak of today is Upeksha, from the Hindu. In our terms, it is equanimity, the ability to accept the good and the bad without falling to the ills of pride or despair.” Father Joseph took a deep breath at this. “This... is a very personal virtue for me. The realization that I had lived my entire life in service to a lie was a very crippling blow to me.
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“It took me some time to realize that while my faith had been to a lie, it was not my faith that I was being judged on, but by my service to my fellow parishioners. I had not done evil deeds, and indeed during my life I had managed to console many, help many, and aid my congregation. I blessed children, and welcomed them into our family. I brought many people together into marriages which have stood the test of time. I have broken bread at the tables of many whom I can call friends, and I have been there as good men and women have breathed their last, and sent them home.
“Equanimity. I have seen the highs and lows of tragedy, watched as the world I built crashed down around me. It took me time, and great effort of will, to simply let it go, and continue on with the future.
“I am far from alone in such travails. I have seen men and women lose themselves to drink and drugs; I have seen children kill themselves for not Awakening; seen fine folk lose the will to live at the loss of a loved one. I have seen others luck into great fortune, and become vicious, petty folk holding onto their gains with both fists, and those who have Awakened magic become arrogant churls no longer welcome even in the house they grew up in, so great did their egos grow.
“But equanimity is not ignoring such things. No, ignoring them is the route of the psychopath. Equanimity is making peace with Fate, for good or ill, and accepting that life can be good, can be bad, and sometimes it all is very, very much beyond your control... but you do not need to let it change you.
“It is merely one more trial, one test put forth for the spirit to that high road we all want to take. And that is the test that is facing all of us, each of us, right now...”
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He went on with his sermon, drawing in those people who’d had their faith shaken, their belief in a higher cause shaken, just as he had admitted with his confession.
At the end there was always a display of magic. Traditionally this was a Light spell, perhaps customized and tweaked by the Priest, a sign of the blessing of the Church, the Light that led them and defended them from them Dark Mages and evil Beasts.
Now Father Joseph was quite pleased to show off his Water Magic instead. He had been Awakened to Light Magic by his old Church, and while he had already changed the nature of it by undertaking Wizardry studies with literally fanatical determination, any non-Dark Magic could be wielded in the service of Heaven. He was plenty happy to show the glittering show of Silverfish refracting the prismatic light of the stained windows of his refurbished and redone Church.
There was one more addition all the Churches of Heaven had, and that was an Orb of Revelation.
Know Alignment could be altered to a broadcast form for the Light Element, allowing wizards with the Light Element to show everyone the hearts and Auras of those the Light shone upon. While it was possible to block The Light, falsifying the Colors of the Soul was extremely difficult without some very advanced illusion practice... and such false Colors looked like it next to the real things.
It was true. Evil had come to Earth in the form of the Netherworld and Dead Zones, all of the Undead showing Black, Purple, Red, and their darker hues. Likewise, snapshots of the upper hierarchy of the Church of Light showed predominantly Blue/Sapphire through Red/Ruby, with only the most marginalized Syndics showing White.
Auras Revealed like that couldn’t be caught on film or photos, as they were a spiritual hue, Auraspectral in nature... another revelation and fact which sent the theologists and atheists to debating.
Eternals like Sama, Briggs, or I touching such an Orb was a bad idea, as we could burn it out. On the other hand, I had demonstrated the Light of Revelation on multiple circumstances, and it was well-known that all three of us radiated Gold, with Briggs a bit tilted towards Silver and Sama towards Rainbow.
Of course, anyone regarding us in the Markspace had learned that a long time ago...
There was a lot of Yellow and White in the Allegiance now, a few Orange independent knuckleheads, and scattered Blues and Greens slowly climbing and lightening, including Beasts.
It was different, but it was sincere, and it was growing with strange speed as people looking for answers finally got some straight ones... and like the revelations that we were being played by powerful forces, they didn’t have to like them, they just had to deal with them, and decide if they wanted to fight.
Faith was the way those who couldn’t fight could do battle. This was, in the end, a fight for Free Will and Souls, and that meant their choices mattered.
I could have been the one up there doing the sermons and readings, Singing with the choir, demonstrating Typeless Magic to the non-mages and giving them or their kids hope that they didn’t have, and doubtless inspired legions of fanatical devotees.
But that was the job of the new Priests, to raise that devotion and stir others without me being there to do it for them.
I murmured for only Sama to hear, “Going to go up there and talk about grease and oil and grit again?”
She managed half a grin, but I saw the faint blush. Of all the sermons that had been recorded and posted up for the faithful to watch online, “Good people are the grease and oil that keeps the world running,” was by far the most powerful, the most-seen, and drove more people to the Church than any other.
Of course, a good chunk of that was that Sama was a 40+ Charisma force of nature that didn’t need magic to send hearts pounding with her words. Her stalking, prowling, almost feral, half-screaming near-rant against the nature of the world was near-impossible to look away from once you started watching it.
Good people kept the world running. Neutrals were cogs who went through the motions taking care of themselves and their own, and the Evil were sludgy grit who fucked it up for everyone else as they made bids of power for themselves. Without the grease and oil of Good people sacrificing their time and effort, being taken advantage of by others, Human society spiraled down into a crapsack parody she had pointed out tons of examples of without any effort whatsoever.
And she had fucking had enough of it. Her words were like talons, reaching into your heart and dragging out something people had no idea they had. We got so many recruits who never thought they would be brave enough to do something like this, coming to us and wanting to work for Coralost, or coming to the new Churches, looking for a better way after seeing that video.
If they were Good, we almost always had something we could do with them. If they were Neutrals, we had other things they might want to try, and not even always with us...
Still, sitting in for a church service once a week, somewhere, was something all three of us did, even if we never stood out and departed as quietly as we came in.