The Apostles of the Radiant

Epochs of lasting peace in Autauga has resulted in complacency among most of its inhabitants. Knowledge of the Gods that some claim created Autauga and the people who call it home has eroded over time as the worst thing most people deal with are border skirmishes between cities.   In spite of the reign of peace, there are some few whose knowledge is passed down to their children and their children's children. One such group are "The Apostles of the Radiant." Though the Apostles of the Radiant or the AOR are spread across Autauga, very little is known about them by the public.   The AOR was created some two centures ago by a few observant and concerned people who lived near the north. They witnessed an incursion of what they initially thought were Shadow Demons. Later simply called Shades, they seemed to appear from over the Diamond Mountains. The Apostles saw the results of the invasion of the Shades before they knew they would become Apostles of the Radiant. Some were farmers who lost all their livestock as they watched the Shades spread out across their fertile farming lands, seeming to erase livestock as well as people as they moved through the skies spreading darkness.   The organization was small, formed by like minded thoughtful souls who worried about the safety of not just their own lands and people, but of the world, devoted to stopping the shadow darkness devastations that the Shades left behind.   When the Shades made their first appearance, there was no reference to their appearance in Autauga before. It was up to them, the Apostles, to decide how to deal with the Shades and stop them from obliterating all of Autauga. Instead of merely running from the horror the Shades left behind, the Apostles made it their business to stop them.   They experimented, researched, observed and discussed their findings. Among the Apostles were those who, like most Autaugans had the capacity for magic. For Autauga's magic comes from the land itself. It is all around but those who are sensitive to it, acknowledge it, and learn how to use it are not common. Forming the AOR, the group began to recognize their potential for using magic as it seemed the only answer to the invasion of darkness from the north. Three of the Apostles were especially capable of weaving the land's magic to use in their fight against the Shades and they taught the others. Among them, there were varying degrees of proficiency in the use of magic but there were no inter-personal squabbles. There was no time for jealousy, envy, or wonder. Instead, they learned to use Radiant magic and believed it was divine.   The Gods may have been forgotten by most of Autauga but the AOR gathered information and grew in power. By the time the Shades got close to Autauga's 'bread basket' as it was commonly known, the Apostles moving always just ahead of the Shades learned to destroy them with Radiant magic. They were wizards, sorcerers, and included one of the 7 Tribes Demons (lawful evil). They included what is commonly known as hedge witches, and village healers and others. All worked together, grim, determined, and with soberness. It was the Apostles of the Radiant that successfully destroyed the threatening darkness but few Autaugans were aware they had just been saved from the darkness that had fallen over the north.   After their success, the AOR vowed to continue to work to ensure that all of Autauga remained free of what they described as the dark doom of the Shade magic. Over time, as years, then decades went by, the group met with less frequency. However, in their wisdom, they prepared for a future that might see 50 years or 100 years pass before being invaded again. They knew that natural death would remove members of the group and made a vow to pass on their knowledge to their children and their children's children.   The Apostles created an emergency alert system that required members to notify the group when they moved out of the area and a son or daughter replaced them after death. When and if one of the members became aware of danger, they had a list of members to contact for notification. Each signed a blood contract to remain true to the AOR. Any member notified of an emergency would, in turn, notify the member or members on their list of emergency contacts. The system might appear complicated to outsiders but it was created to be efficient, allowing members even far into the future, the means with which to gather to fight the Shades.   The system wasn't tested until nearly a century had passed and the darkness from the north seemed to appear out of the ice. The first member to witness the recurring horror that had beset her ancestors, immediately notified the three connections she had kept under lock and key as she had promised her father. The responsibility had been passed down to her. She had learned how to use Autauga's magic beside her father in the fields where their sheep were kept as she grew up. She had learned the history of the Shadow invaders and believed it in an abstract way, having no further thought than that she would pass the contract obligation down to her children. But when the Shadows advanced once again on Autauga, she knew immediately what was happening. The system put into place over a century before had held up. Members of the long dormant Apostles of the Radiant began arriving within days. These were the descendants of the original AOR and that they arrived ready to fight illustrated how seriously the original members of the AOR had trained and prepared their children, who had readied theirs and so on. Though some arrived nervously laughing, hardly believing their parents' teachings, they had been taught and trained well. Once again, the Apostles of the Radiant saved Autauga from the invasion of darkness.   The new generation of Apostles created a library of sorts. Each recorded the oral history of people in the regions who had been witness to the terror of the Shades. They themselves, wrote extensively on what they had seen and what they had done in response. Each of the Apostles renewed the original vow to be ever vigilant, teach their children and ensure that their children taught theirs because even after a century had passed, the system had shown it was efficient. They would always be ready.   If there was any weakness in their plans to fight a possible dark invasion, it was that the information, including eyewitness stories to the events was placed in a temporary library, a small dark place that wasn't maintained. They had meant it to be a temporary repository for information. The original plan had been to purchase a small piece of land and build a library, albeit a small one and furnish it with a caretaker who would conserve the repository of hand-written information within the leaves of leather journals as well as the individual leaves hastily scrawled on while speaking to a devastated farmer in his field standing over all that remained of their livestock and sometimes their families.   Some of the Apostles turned their attention to various esoteric pursuits, intent on discovering more about the Gods or unearthing even more ancient history. Somehow, the library and the AOR's plans for it were forgotten, put on the proverbial back burner of the stove. That the library survives to this day is all but a miracle. The repository had been stored temporarily in an abandoned feed store that hadn't been built to conserve books.