The Temple of Truth

The signs were more obvious as the days passed. Shallam no longer heeded the call of Truth in their duties as a city. The teachings of Lanos were long forgotten to most, and many among them followed no code of morality. The Priests and the Paladins began to follow the teachings of the Lord of Fire, and the patronage of the city sat with the Lady of the Seas.

A dire message appeared in the Temple of Truth. Shallam had strayed and if the Lord of Truth returned, He would not be pleased. A month later an unknown group moved into the Temple of Truth under cover of night and desecrated the temple, horrendously destroying its sanctity. The followers of Artifice had erected a shrine near the Sword of Truth. The vulnerable order had begun to crack.

Many came to visit the Temple and to determine what to do. The answers were few, however, until Marinetta, who called herself a Priest of Lanos, appeared in their midst. Many doubted her cause, and many were turned off by the hard approach she took towards restoring the grandeur of the Temple. While some pursued other avenues, Marinetta strove to raise funds to fix the temple and to research the means by which the Temple could be blessed again.

She spoke too loudly, however. In a rare instance, the Artificer appeared before her and parried words with her. Her Truth struck a chord in the Artificer, unfortunately, and he ripped her from the Temple of Truth and dragged her away to the Tower of Artifice. A large party moved to rescue her, and while attempting to barter with Sister Imperia, learned that Severn had a worse fate in store for her. Sister Imperia presented the gathered with the head of the Priestess, and ordered the assembled to leave the Temple at once.

When the group would not depart, the Artificer released a legion of Shadow Beasts into his Tower, and bade them hunt the infidels. Long thought to have been driven from this plane, Severn had tamed a few, and now keeps them as pets for an unknown reason. Eventually the group fell away, and the Tower of Artifice stood quiet once more.

The allies of Lanos were once again without a leader. The construction on the Temple had already commenced, but without a follower of Lanos the temple could not be blessed and could easily fall victim to another defilement. In her talks with the Priests and Paladins, Marinetta had mentioned another follower of Lanos who still wandered from village to village spreading his teachings. Pouriet was his name, and although now a lowly follower of Lanos, he had spent his youth learning to fight and growing up in squalor.

Shortly after hearing of the death of Marinetta, Pouriet hastened to the Temple to find a few allies there. He spoke to them, nervously, of the tasks before them. Their faith in him strengthened him, and he took up the mantle to lead the allies to finish the temple. He followed the trail Marinetta had taken to discover what she knew of the ritual, and it led him to a half-finished monastery in the Putoran hills where a great library was being crafted.

In the library, Pouriet learned that what had enabled the defilement was the loss of the Spirit of Truth within the hearts of those around the Temple. To fix it, Truth must be rekindled in the hearts of the allies, and so he set them up with a task. To gather the landmarks, as many as they can, in the good aspect, and to work together as a team to achieve this purpose.

The allies of Truth were outstanding in this regard. In the last month before the Landmarks were fixed, the landmarks slowly turned one by one from the evil to the good aspect, and as the last day of the month ended, all nine landmarks stood for good.

The preparations were then made to bless the temple once again, and on the 25th of Midsummer, in the Year 85 of the Midnight Age, allies of Lanos from all over the continent gathered in the Temple of Truth. Unexpectedly, Pouriet had recovered the body of Marinetta from the Tower of Artifice, and before the blessing, a small wake was held for his friend.

The blessing went on without a hitch. Pouriet gave a small sermon on the aspects of Truth, and then calling upon the Spirit of Truth which had gathered, infused the power of Lanos into the walls and ground of the Temple of Truth. In the revelry following, Lanos was praised exuberantly to the entire continent.

The revelry, however, caught the attention of the Artificer who was most annoyed by this event. Challenging the faith of the assembled, Severn sent a mass of shadowy horror towards to temple to wreath it in eternal darkness. It was for naught, however. The faith of the assembled, and the power of the blessing held, and the Temple continued to shine brightly.

Angry, Severn strode to the Aalen, where the Sword of Truth had been gathering rust for quite some time. Holding it aloft, the blade shattered into thousands of pieces which were cast forcibly around the continent. One piece came close to the Temple of Truth, barely missing it and instead slicing off the leg of Pericles who was standing outside.

What has happened to the Order of Truth? Are Severn's words to be believed that Lanos no longer thinks of the mortals he once protected?

Why does He harbor the shadows that attempted to destroy the Garden and Aetolia? Are pieces of the Blade of Truth recoverable, or are they buried too deeply into the earth? And what of the rift that Lanos once passed through and now which pulses like a scar in the midnight sky?