Elaith

Description of the Church

The Church of Elaith, often referred to as The Radiant Path, is a luminous and ordered institution, devoted to clarity, illumination, and divine presence. Where it holds sway, the Church is both spiritual and civic authority—temples doubling as places of worship, courts of truth, and centers of learning.

Light is sacred, and darkness is regarded not as evil, but as unknowing—a veil that must be lifted. The Church’s architecture is built to harness sunlight: open ceilings, reflective stone, and vast windows that allow the sun to stream across altars of polished brass and gold.

Clergy wear white, gold, and soft yellow robes, symbolic of the dawn and the cleansing sun. They serve as teachers, exorcists, and bringers of truth, often journeying to lands stricken with despair or shadow to reignite hope. The Church sees Elaith’s will in both literal daylight and metaphorical enlightenment—truth, discovery, and honest self-reflection.

Core Beliefs

• Light reveals truth; all things hidden will eventually come to light.
• The sun nourishes life and burns away corruption.
• Hope is a sacred flame, and despair is a shadow that must be overcome.
• Order and clarity are necessary for understanding the world and self.
• Darkness is not evil, but a space waiting to be illuminated.

Religious Structure

The Radiant Path is hierarchical, disciplined, and highly structured, reflecting the sun’s regular arc through the sky.

• The Dawn-Speaker – The high priest or priestess of Elaith, a figure of great political and spiritual influence. They are elected by senior clergy upon the death or abdication of their predecessor.
• Luminaries – Regional heads of temples who serve as guides, organizers, and defenders of the light. They are the Church’s voice in the courts and fields alike.
• Sunwardens – Clergy who minister to the people, guide public ritual, and study the cycles of day and season.
• Lightbearers – Traveling missionaries, healers, and truth-speakers. Often accompanied by assistants who scribe their journeys and deeds.
• Novices of the Flame – Initiates who study under senior clergy, learning theology, sacred law, astronomy, and oratory.

Rituals and Practices

• The Dawnbath – A morning prayer where followers face the sun, physically or symbolically, to cleanse the spirit and commit to the day.
• Rite of Illumination – Performed for those seeking truth or wisdom, often involving meditative exposure to natural light or revelation through divination.
• Searing Judgment – A high ritual used to expel corruption, disease, or lies—sometimes literal exorcisms performed in daylight.
• Solar Concordance – Seasonal festivals held during solstices and equinoxes, marked by light parades and the crafting of sun-emblems from gold leaf or polished stone.

Followers

• Healers, judges, and educators, who believe that light and truth must be shared widely.
• Paladins and light-mages, devoted to purging spiritual corruption and lifting despair.
• Peasants and farmers, who pray to Elaith for sun-rich harvests.
• Reformers and idealists, drawn to the promise of justice, clarity, and renewal.
• The Blinding Dawn, a radical group of zealots

Temples

Temples of Elaith are designed to catch the first and last light of day. High towers, domed sanctuaries, and open courtyards dominate their design. Most temples include:

• The Hall of Mirrors, where sunlight is magnified and scattered in sacred patterns.
• The Flame Vault, where a ceremonial fire is kept burning year-round—a symbolic shard of the sun.
• The Solarium, a circular chamber for meditation beneath a glass dome, open to the sky.

The largest temples often serve as beacons, lighting the night with braziers visible for miles—a literal and spiritual lighthouse to guide the lost.

Conflict and Controversy

• Often at odds with Malaclypse, whose domains of night and chaos stand in moral opposition—but some philosophers argue that the two form a cosmic balance.
• Tension with Faelahn, god of the moon, whose followers believe in the necessity of quiet reflection and mystery over harsh illumination.
• Has absorbed or subsumed many smaller sun cults over the centuries, creating internal division between:
• Purists, who worship Elaith only in his solar aspects,
• and Synthesists, who embrace metaphors of inner light, soul fire, and abstract truth.
• Has a strained relationship with Vohrmazh, who once sought to devour the sun. Some sects believe the divine battle between them occurs daily at dusk and dawn.

Relationships with other gods

Central Architect: Elaith represents revelation, the divine force that burns away shadow and doubt. Born from mortals’ longing for clarity, truth, and purpose, he is the illumination of the divine order—a guiding light, unwavering and absolute. If Marawae birthed beauty, Elaith made it visible.

Relationship with Hiruwen (healing): Symbiotic. Elaith’s warmth feeds Hiruwen’s remedies—light as a catalyst for recovery. Their temples often share courtyards, where the wounded bask in filtered sunlight. They are both forces of restoration, one physical, one divine.

Rivalry with Malaclypse (chaos, darkness): Eternal. Malaclypse is the void beyond Elaith’s reach, the undoing of structure. Where Elaith brings order through light, Malaclypse dissolves meaning into cosmic ambiguity. Yet some myths claim they once danced, birthing stars from their tension.