“WE STAND TOGETHER”
MISSIV DE VIRTUTIBUS PRO HALIG VALLIS IN NOMINE PARAGON
Venerable Council of Six,
At your blessed meeting at the Summit of Summer 223, you did direct in assembly that I, Fr. Jacque d’Zisseau of Lerona Mere and Priest of Cervitas and Anarch, earnestly and honestly undertake to discover whether or not, following a vote of the Church Major, Halig of Alfwen’s Wall met the criteria determined by the holy Mother Church to be values worthy of a Paragon of the Spheres.
As the Spheres demand, and through acute awareness of the burden placed on us as heirs of St Niccolo, and of the trust placed in us, I have sought only to convey the truth and to argue in faith with my covenant to the Church in the light of Cervitas to my belief. I leave the determination of the facts to you; in faith that the Spheres will guide you in your deliberations.
Demonstration of Qualities
Voyager
To our dismay, we have no evidence that Halig’s soul had made the Journey to the Spheres and returned - he did not manifest any of the physical attributes born by Graces, nor due to the manner of his passing on the field of battle was there an opportunity to explore his past lives or discuss with his soul as it departed on the Journey.
For now, answering this question would require intercessions beyond the time and ability of your servant.
Benevolence
The precept of Benevolence as laid down by the founders of our Church is a broad net - the better to for a larger catch.
To qualify for the Quality of Benevolence, the candidate for Paragon must have been shown to by their deeds prosper ‘their whole people in a significant and lasting way’.
This definition requires immediate interpretation - before we can consider the question of prosperity, significance or longevity - we must ask ‘who was their people?’
This question may be answered in three ways - it is clear that Halig’s people were those of his borough of Alfwen’s Wall. But his people were also his sect, the Unbroken Chain. Or the people of the Valley. Or, given the testimony of many, the entire people of the Concord.
But we could also say that Halig’s people were those whom he affected directly with his deeds - the Heroes of the Concord who meet in Passage, selected by Realmic Tradition, to decide the fate of our Alliance.
And in this framing, many of those Heroes have testified to Halig’s benevolence. Doktor Ludwig of the Greenweald testified, under the penalty of breaking an oath sworn before a Priest of Cervitas, that Halig’s benevolence was significant and lasting - if we are to ask if his Deeds led to the prosperity of a group, then we can argue that Halig’s leadership and steadfast nature both in the halls of the Senate and the field of Battle directly led to the lasting prosperity of the Heroes and their Concord. This will be shown in detail in many other testimonies.
Halig was also well known for donating his material wealth to the Shrine of Panoply in Passage,
Inspiration
To be inspired is to be changed by the example set by another. In this matter, many Heroes of the Concord spoke as one - Halig was the inspiration the fired Arcadian’s steel, breathed on Anarch’s fire, steadied Cervita’s pillar, shone the light of Lumos and set people’s souls back to right-action with the Spheres.
Doktor Ludwig of the Greenweald, Eodwulf of the Iron Valley, Revna of Brotherslee, and Rook, Champion of the Greenweald all testified under the pain of breaking an oath sworn to a Cervitas Priest that it was Halig’s example that provided the inspiration that enabled them to act at key moment.
Rook, Champion of the Greenweald testified that Halig’s counsel outside the field, and defiance and courage on it, gave her the strength to have faith in herself. As Champion of the Greenweald, it is not a simple matter of a Priest inspiring one of their congregation to be brave enough to make a change, or to build towards a peace, or to face a challenge - the decisions of a Champion are greater than those of a single soul, and affected thousands upon thousands of lives - those of the Concordian military and layfolk alike. With his steady guidance and inspiring presence on the battlefield, Halig’s inspiration goes beyond that of the mere priest and, I would argue, becomes divine. Rook clearly testified that without this, she would not have had the courage to stay the course on the battlefield - and as Champion, this would have led to Halig’s guidance and inspiration preventing a defeat of the Concord’s forces on the field of battle.
Doktor Ludwig of the Greenweald testified, under penalty of breaking an oath to Priest of Cervitas, that Halig’s inspiring leadership during the Cursing of Sister Oak was crucial to the success of that attempt, arguably leading to an entire enemy faction ceasing their aggression towards the Concord. Again, an example of where the presence of a single individual steadied the hearts of so many others to continue to work collectively on their task. It is hard to imagine more perfect an example of the influence of Cervitas being felt on the most critical moments of the Concord’s history through a single man than these examples.
Miracles
I will not here debate the nature of what is a Miracle - I save this argument for after the facts. Instead, I will retell here a story told to me by Revna of Brotherslee, on pain of breaking an Oath before a Priest of Cervitas :
Revna accompanied Halig and the Unbroken Chain on a journey to two boroughs of the Iron Valley that had been riven by discord and were in conflict. They set out on this journey with the specific goal of, as priests of Cervitas, restoring peace to these two boroughs so they may prosper once more.
In the process of investigating the cause of this discord, the Unbroken Chain discovered a shine to Cervitas which had been desecrated, and being desecrated, was causing the discord in the two communities.
Halig led the Unbroken Chain in combat against the corrupted guardians of the desecrated shrine, and having slain them, was confronted with the desecrated shrine.
There, without arcane magic or access to the sanctified square of the Church, Cervitas acted through Halig to cleanse the shrine and restore unity to the two boroughs.
On their journey from the shrine to return to shelter, a pure white stag - a representation of the Iron Stag - appeared and acknowledged the sect and Halig in particular.
Pilgrimage
Raul of Andash, under penalty of breaking an oath in front of a priest of Cervitas, testified that Halig made a pilgrimage to Deorling’s Citadel.
Salvation
During his life, Halig was responsible for the salvation of at least two Heroes of the Concord, and untold others who have not earnt themselves a name in this manuscript - two examples hereby follow.
Lysander of Lerona Mere was born a slave in Artebazzani chains, and brought to adulthood without being tutored in the truth of the Divine Spheres. Appearing at Passage, he was immediately confronted with claims of heresy and apostasy, although it soon became clear that their ignorance was the fault of their oppressors and not their own malcontent.
Halig spoke for Lysander at the Church in Council, and took the newly freed slave under his wing to tutor in the teachings of the Spheres. This task he performed so well that not only did Lysander take confirmation into Our Church, but felt inspired himself to become a Priest of Cervitas, serving now under your humble servant’s tutelage and guidance.
Further, after the Battle of Amylstad, Doktor Ludwig of Greenweald relayed the story of how his actions in the aftermath of that conflict had shaken his faith in the Spheres and in the righteousness of his choices. In this moment of weakness, he turned to Halig to counsel him.
During this Conflux, the Doktor was faced with the impossible choice : to slay a child to serve the Concord, to to let the child live. Driven by his loyalty and duty to his people, the Doktor slew the child, but found his faith shaken to such a degree he had considered abandoning the Spheres. The Doktor’s view is that without Halig’s guidance and ministry, he would have lost his faith - instead, being guided back to devotion and with renewed confidence in his faith and himself.
Legacy
Halig’s Graver’s Skull - a physical artefact of his Cervitasi ministry - was recovered after his death, and a shrine to it has been constructed in the Iron Valley Quarter at Passage for all to visit.
Halig was a founding High Priest of the Concordian Church of the Divine Spheres. It was through his efforts, voice and vote that our Church has divested from the authority of the Grand Cathedral in Artebazzan and taken our destiny into our own hands. This decision - this influence - will affect every citizen of the Concord and likely many in Artebazzan, and shape the flow of history.
Precedence and Matters of Canon
We now move from fact to matter of argument. It is in these matters I turn most to the Council for guidance, for while the above is matters of fact, it lies with you to decide : do these meet the criteria for a Paragon?
I would invite you, at risk of drifting towards heresy, to consider the matter of our only existing paragon - Niccolo of Artebazzan.
Our Church recognizes Niccolo as a Paragon by virtue of his great acts - creating Niccolo’s Window and being the first mortal to have the truth of the Spheres revealed to them, and in founding our great Church.
It is unquestionable that these two acts have resonated throughout the history of the world, and without them we would be doomed to ignorance with regards to the nature of our soul and our chances at rebirth and reincarnation. This has changed the very nature of our relation to the world in which we exist.
If these deeds are the bar by which Paragonhood is judged, then the standard is simultaneously set too high and too low. If our bar is ‘divine revelation’ and ‘foundation of the most important institution in human history’ then Paragonhood is unachievable by any who have come after Niccolo.
At the same time, to compare Niccolo against the qualities we demand of our Paragons reveals that the bar is too low - we have no knowledge of if Niccolo had journeyed through the spheres prior to his revelation (although we are certain of it after).
He cannot have made a pilgrimage to a holy site, as none existed at the time.
Perhaps most carefully, we must question if Niccolo performed a miracle if we are to judge if Halig performed a miracle.
We know that Niccolo created Niccolo’s Window, an artefact that to our knowledge has persisted to the current day in the Grand Cathedral in Artebazzan, in doing so stepped beyond our mortal realm to the Void and was the first to see the Spheres.
We also know that Niccolo’s title in the Empire was Arcanist. He was a mage - and the creation of the Window an act of magical fabrication. As it is taught, the Spheres and the Void immediately became an object of magical research rather than religious devotion. It was not until significant research was completed that the nature of the Spheres was revealed to us, and the truth of our Church was revealed to Niccolo gradually. Further, Mages of our own Shardcircle have journeyed to the Void, and mages of the Idrian Cabal have damaged the Mortal Sphere so badly in Andash that the Void and Spheres were briefly visible. While not so great an act as the creation of the Window, these are further acts of arcane artifice that breach the boundary between the Mortal Sphere and the Void, demonstrating that to do so is an act of magic - not a miracle.
Our standard for Miracle shows that it must not be an act of magic, nor an act performed in a sanctified square. If we are to apply this standard - while Halig did not have as grand an impact on us as Niccolo, he certainly is responsible for a Miracle at least as great as Niccolo’s. And by this, we accept that in doing so, it is not necessary to meet the standard for Inspiration, Benevolence and Legacy set by Niccolo in your assessment of if someone fulfils the Qualities of a Paragon.
On this note, I close my argument for Halig’s Paragonhood.
No greater a servant of Cervitas could have been inspired to journey to Passage. Halig was a stern man who may have been seen to be cold, but whose firmness of belief in Cervitas was evident to all around him. Halig showed us that Cervitas is not just the sphere of community, but of governance and of leadership and that the role of us as Priests of Imperial Wisdom is to inspire in all those around us not just community but accountability - that the Sphere of Cervitas holds us to our promises to each other, our duties to those we have entrusted to govern and rule, and our promises as rulers and governors to those who are governed - that we are expected to honour our oaths, to serve our communities, and to be willing to make hard choices, to make sacrifices, and to place the many above the few. But he was not a cruel or unkind man - though many have thought so. His dogged adherence to these principles was also reflected in his kindness to many, in his love for the Valley, and in his deep concern for the wellbeing of his fellow Concordians - even if it may have been ‘tough love’.
Halig to some degree or another fulfills 5 of the 7 criteria for paragonhood, and it can be argued meets 6. If we are to accept that one can meet each criteria to varying degrees, and even not meet some of them at all, then by our own stated qualities we must admit that Halig has met the criterias for Paragon of Cervitas.
In the trying times facing the Concord, it may be tempting to choose a figure that would be less divisive, or more unifying, or perhaps more politically acceptable.
I would instead argue that Halig is a symbol of the Concord as it is, and of those things that have ensured our survival - unbreakable faith, bravery centred in the drive to defend our community, a determination to ensure that our experiment in this new government works for the best interests of the people, that individuals matter, and that above all - we stand together.
Yours in Faith,
Fr. Jacques d’Zisseau of Lerona Mere
Consecrated to Cervitas and Anarch
Superior of the Order of the Burning Column
A note from the Civil Service
This document was found to be persuasive enough for the Council of Six. Halig of Alfwen's Wall was exalted to the position of Paragon in the Summer of 224AE.