Divine Sacrifice

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Infragris
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Divine Sacrifice

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A sort of "call-and-response" liturgical text often used in rituals of the Great Faiths and Imperial Cult. A semi-common book, for priests at least. Clarifies and hints at some of the essential aspects of the Imperial view on the Divines, which are repeated in other texts of this nature. Part of an ongoing effort to make the Divines a bit more interesting than the original game presents them. Not quite sure how to format this.
DIVINE SACRIFICE

Before all of Creation came to be, there we were dwellers in the Beginning Place.

The Beginning Place contained all that ever was and ever will be, but it was a place of potential only. Nothing could grow there, and nothing could change.
Change and growth were foreign to the Beginning Place, it was void of such things as change and growth.

The Divines, great spirits, had entered this place fully formed and within their power, but the lesser spirits of mortal men were pale and feeble things.
Pale and feeble were the spirits of mortal men, their souls were neither vivid nor strong.

The Divines then took pity on these lesser souls, who would never become as great, wise, and full of power as they are.
Great, and wise, and powerful are the Divines, and in their power they took pity on us.

Led by the spirit Shezarr, they set about building the World as a house in which mortal souls could grow, by trial and sorrow.
By trial and sorrow we are born, by trial and sorrow we die, and this was the idea of Shezarr.

Many lesser spirits contributed to this great work, they became part of the World entirely. It was a long and difficult labor.
Long and difficult was their labor, the labor of they whom we have forgotten.

Other spirits refused the labor, pleased as they were with their own lot, or covetous of the power the great and enduring Divines possessed.
They who are pleased do not covet, they who covet are not pleased, beware of spirits that are both pleased yet covet.

Still other spirits gladly contributed, but at the hour they grew afraid, for there was a price to pay for the making, and not all were willing to pay it.
Not all were willing, not all are wont to pay the price. Let them flee, their star-eyes are the prize of Shezarr.

For it is said that the Divines gave freely of themselves, and they were thus forever diminished within the making of the World.
Forever diminished in the making, so freely did they give flesh, blood, and bone.

With their flesh they fed us, with their blood they washed us, with their bones they spoke to us in the World their creation.
The World their creation, bones speaking, blood washing, flesh feeding.

Then the Divines departed for Aetherius, the place outside of the world, where all things that die aspire to go.
To the place of death the Divines went, but not into death, into the world of the dead above us.

But the Divines were mindful of their children, and left behind signs and mirages to guide and protect the wandering souls.
Signs and mirages to guide and protect, in the sky, the earth, and the temples of Man.

Look to the sky, where the planets whirl in omen. They are a sign of the Divines, an arm outstretched to the center of the World.
Their path in the heavens is an omen of things to come.

Listen to the earth, whispering in solace. The Divines are there also, their essence a piece of the self they left behind.
Through the world of trial there leads a virtuous path for us to follow.

Obey the temples of the spirits, and the temples of law. Listen to the saints and oracles, their word is the wisdom of the Divines.
Study the Covenants, they will not lead you astray.

For it is in Divine sacrifice that we learn the true essence of the Divines.
Sacrifice is the true essence of the Divines.

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