"Testament of the Dawn"

According to the Church of the Dawn's Light, the "Testament of the Dawn" is the word of their deity inscribed on vellum by the most faithful. Naturally, this is not entirely true. A dozen scribes labored for years to produce this book, the illuminations within, and others spent weeks to properly bind it in the approved materials. Not to mention edits and alterations... did you know this is the fifth edition?

— Arnan Blackroad, Bookshop Proprietor

The Church of Dawn's Light follow Apira Horizos, the Lord of the Sun, professing to be the first among the organized groups following the Rhyliss Pantheon. As proof, they will direct people to the first copy of the "Testament of the Dawn" which is on display at The Exalted Island. The form of this book there is a collection of parchment scrolls, with holes and missing passages, which is only handled by archival scribes. The age of this document is debated heavily, and the Church refuses any efforts of divination magic to determine the truth. Most agree it is less important than the current form of the book, which is a volume of bound vellum pages with beautiful illuminations to start every section. These books are produced at Mareje Monastery much like many others, by devout followers of Apira selected for their skill with writing. After they are finished, the physical books are distributed to major temples so they may be further sent to smaller temples among the towns of the Rhyliss Empire.

Contents

The "Testament of the Dawn" is a collection of both stories and instructions in uneven amounts, so priests could instruct their following on the basic tenets of the faith and the priest could properly perform the rituals. The stories are parables are meant to reinforce the three basic tenets, but the most recent editions have stories selected to reinforce one in particular: "Honor is not a word, it is a way of life." The higher priests in the Church believe this has become a lost ideal among the common folk of Erisdaire, and it must be taught to them again. This comes at the expense of another of the tenets ("The sun gives life and light. Respect its presence.") which has seen a decline in the last dozen generations or so.

The rituals are considered equally important, as the normal ones range from burial rites to marriages to giving a child their "True Name". Magical rituals include ways to heal the sick or sanctify a burial site to prevent casual desecration. Rumors abound about "resurrection rites", but if they exist they are not present within this book. Most of the contained ritual are necessary for what any priest might need to do either in a busy city or a sleepy rural town, and not the sort of divine miracles which are the seed of exaggerated tales passed through generations. (There is, in fact, a section about what a priest is to do if approached to perform these miracles. It can be summed up as "refer them to the higher priests and hope they leave peacefully".)

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