The foundation of our purpose

Purpose is a powerful word. It is one of the utmost importance to the Lancea Sanctum, for it is the nature of our Covenant with God. For all that we are eternally damned, we have been given a purpose in God's creation. I turn this night to the foundation of our purpose, the words that the archangel Vahishtael gave to Longinus. While the word purpose is used regularly throughout the Testament, here is the foundation for all of those references, for this was the moment of enlightenment:

7 “Fear me, Longinus. For I am the messenger of your purpose.
8 “The Damned are many, and they are denied salvation.
9 “But the Damned serve as the sign to humanity of the price of sin, and to make mortals fear and to understand that their lives are brief and full of pain, and they can only see the most pitiful reflection of the glories of Heaven, for they do not see clearly, but see as if through a blurred mirror,
10 and the Damned do not see through the mirror at all.
11 “And it is the lot of the Damned to take the blood of mortals, that mortals might know that they will die, and that their only salvation is in the next life.
12 “And it is your lot to go and give this message to all of the Damned, that they might know God’s purpose for them and rejoice.
13 “Now go, Longinus, and spread the Word to all the Damned.” - Malediction 14:7-13

For all that follows in the Testament, and all the context, nuance, and history that it contains, this is the most fundamental truth, that which all else rests upon.

In God's plan, the Damned exist for the sake of humanity. They are the center piece of his Creation and all things exist in relation to them. Our purpose is to steer them towards the Heaven that we shall never reach. Our method shall be the illumination of the flaws of this world and the certainty of death. We are given to share this purpose with all other Damned, but only so that the purpose may be more broadly fulfilled.

This is not a mission of politics. This is not a duty of love. This is not a purpose of peace. This is a call to focus the eternity that we are given upon humanity and their potential salvation. Let us hold this foundational truth in mind each night as we face a myriad of distractions. If, before each act we make, we ask whether or not it fulfills this purpose, we will find ourselves more fully focused upon that which truly matters. Let all the rest fall aside as mere distraction from our true purpose.

Simon Patterson Gloveli
Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni

In praise of our limitations

We are predators, superior to any natural thing that walks the face of the earth. We are given the gifts we possess in abundance in order to fulfill the greater plan of God. We survive what might kill lesser creatures, we heal rapidly when taking in sustenance, and time itself has no hold over us. Why then, given that we have a purpose to fulfill, would God place limitations—weaknesses—upon us, that plague no other creature? Why should the light of day lull us to sleep? Why should the beast rage within us? Why should we hunger endlessly? Why should fire burn us? Would we not be more fit and capable to fulfill our purpose without such limitations?

We know well that with the power of Damnation comes limitation. The Damned hide among those who still enjoy God's love, making themselves known only to exemplify fear. Though we are blessed by our Damnation, we are still denied for eternity the light of God's grace. These limitations are of God's design, and we are bound to them as surely as we are bound to the Vitae that gives us sustenance. Yet happy are we that we may recognize and celebrate our limitations as but one piece of the greater plan of almighty God, and follow them with piety and with good cheer. – Rule of Golgotha 5, paragraph 1

We are creatures of the corrupt and fallen mortal world. Even the most pure amongst us bears the stain of sin. God sets out to create an ordering to the cosmos, understanding and accounting for the moral shortcomings of all creatures. We bear our weaknesses in order to remind us of our proper place in that grand order. Though we possess greater strengths than any man, we are not entirely above him. It is not our place to rule over him, nor to pose as a god to him, nor to confuse ourselves as the same as him. We are not human, we have different purposes, and a different fate. Our weaknesses remind us of this.

It is within the Rule of Golgotha 5 that we find the earliest recording of the Traditions that govern our society to this night. We find them here because they help us to understand our relationship with humanity and with each other. What are the Traditions but a way of demarcating our place in the proper ordering of the cosmos? And what are our limitations but reminders of that proper place?

The light of day is denied us because it is given to man to enjoy. By giving us the night, we are encouraged to remain among, but apart from them. While man toils in the day, we toil the nighttime. The fire burns us that we might be reminded that our realm is darkness and within it we must hide.

The beast and the hunger within us reminds us that our place is the place of a predator. We are not lambs to walk the land in peace. We exist and endure to take the blood of life from others. All other form of sustenance is anathema to us that we might not confuse our place.

We properly celebrate our limitations because they are a reminder of our place in this world. They are a reminder that though we may look as men do, we are not men. Our place, our purpose, and our destination is our own. We know it through not just the strengths we possess, but by the weaknesses that are given to us. Rejoice in that reminder, for it is that which keeps us collectively safe and helps us find our way.

Simon Patterson Gloveli

Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni

Existentialism and Immortality

Kindred possess the ability to exist for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. This is the promise of immortality, a promise that can taken away only by violence, neglect, or self-destruction. Yet how few of us last for more than a century or two? Certainly, there exist some who have seen a half a millennium pass. A handful who walk any given night might have crossed that mark of one millennium. Fewer yet have endured two or more.

Existentialism is a modern philosophical term, having been discussed in mortal circles only within the past two centuries. The term itself was only coined in the 1940s. Yet the questions inherent in it are ones that kindred have wrestled with since the beginning. How do we create meaning in an existence that is relatively static compared the more frenzied tempo that surrounds us? What is truth to creatures who see cultures and mores change regularly in their perspective time frame? What even is the self when we must define ourselves not by what is around us (because we come to recognize it as an ever-changing thing), but by something internal? How do we wrestle with the mutability of our own selves in the face of torpor, the fog of ages, and the limited grasp of even the most principled mind to contain the knowledge of centuries?

If we are to have an authentic self at all, it must be one refined over time through self-reflection. It must be a search inward to find what is truly in our hearts and minds. It must contain an understanding of our nature, both collectively and individually. We must see past any one time or series of people who touch our existences to some true essence.

That promise of immortality is rarely realized, despite its potential in each of us, because of the difficulty of recognizing our authentic selves and bringing it forth. All too often, kindred attempt to define themselves by the mores of their mortal lives, the values of one people in one time and place, and as that moment in mortal history is swept away, they find themselves lost with it. When defining oneself by ephemeral things, the promise of eternity can not be realized. So often despair, disillusionment, and eventual self-destruction set in.

This is not to say that in finding one's essence the promise of immortality is sure to be realized. The reality is that the world is harsh and none are truly safe who dwell within it. One's nature may, and often does, lead one into conflict with others. Yet without that grounding, one is surely lost.

The Testament of Longinus is a powerful tool for self-reflection because it is a story of the journey from mortal life to the finding of purpose for one kindred, Longinus. The beginning of the Testament is a personal answer for Longinus and an offer to share what wisdom he garnered along that path of personal discovery. However, the Testament itself is but an aid, not a map to any one person's self-realization. It does not contain step-by-step instructions, any more than the Bible does for mortals. It is a series of parables that help us explore the existential questions that arise in kindred existence.

"We know that not every one of the Damned is of equal gift or similar vocation. Just as mortal man may be a soldier, or a cowherd, or a scribe, so may a Kindred be a prince, or a philosopher, or a councilor. Though the Dark Father was a soldier and a wanderer, it does not then follow that each Kindred who follows in his path must be the same. Let then each Kindred who feels in himself a calling to greater understanding and a deeper knowledge of God's plan submit himself to a life of study and prayer. He shall be guided by two things: the teachings of the Dark Father and the prayerful spirit of his own heart." - Rule of Golgotha 11

Simon Patterson Gloveli
Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni

On the Spirits of the Dead

"7 We walked between them, as they waited on their dead horses, and as we
passed each man, I saw that each had on his breastplate the thing that had
killed him: 8 this one had died of hunger, and had lain in a gutter; 9 this one
had given himself to wine and had ruined his body, and had died in his
own effluent; this one was killed in fire; 10 this one clutched his head one
day and died; this one had died of tumors in his chest." - Eschaton 12:7-10

Under the guidance of the angel, Vahishtael, Longinus walks among the spirits of the dead in a vision. The above section of the Book of Eschaton tells of witnessing the sleeping cavalry, those knights who await the final days for their resurrection. This time among the dead proves to be a mistake, as is recorded in Eschaton 12:21 "And one turned and saw me standing in their midst, and he recognized me for what I was, and as one the sleeping cavalry now awakened, reared their dead horses, and rounded on me, and began to pierce me with spears, and Vahishtael was not anywhere."

Trafficking with ghosts is a dangerous matter. Far more precarious is entering the realm of Purgatory. Commonly referred to as the Underworld, Purgatory is a vast and varied place. Some who die have their souls immediately travel on to their ultimate reward. Others linger in the realm of Purgatory for a time. Some even manage to cling inappropriately to this world for a time.

What is clear is that the longer the spirit of a person lingers, the more dangerous they become. True monsters are born of the dead who do not understand that this world is not theirs. It is but a brief stop for the living, but Creation is theirs. It belongs to no others. The proper ordering of the world requires that all understand their place in God's Creation. What place we kindred have is not among the dead, but among the living, assuring that their souls are set upon their proper course and not diverted. Time among the spirits of those who once lived is at best a distraction from our proper calling. The only dealing with a spirit of the dead should be in exorcising it from this world.

Simon Patterson Gloveli
Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni

The Need for Humility

I visit the palaces and halls of my kind, and find cold welcome there. 2 My attempts to bring to my brethren the truth that I have witnessed are met with public scorn and laughter. 3 Yet I persist in my efforts. Surely this willful ignorance must be provoking to the Lord! 4 Few and far between are the Kindred who humor me with a receptive ear or a kind word, 5 and they are reviled by the Romans for this conduct. 6 Yet I persist in my efforts. 

7 I cannot couch my message in the language of the philosophers and the arguments of Senators, and my speech is unimpressive. 8 Yet I persist in my efforts. 

 - Torments 4:1-8

Each of us have our strengths and weaknesses, our abilities and our shortcomings. As is evidenced by the failings of Longinus after he has received the message of his purpose, even those with righteousness on their side do not always succeed. A thing being right and just does not mean that it will come to pass in this fallen world. Yet conviction may drive us to strive ever harder in the face of adversity.

The fact is that though Longinus bore a message from God on the purpose of the Damned in this world, he did not have the skills to convey it at first. He persisted in his attempts until at last he proclaims in Torments 6:7 "I am too lowly a servant for this task."

In frustration and despair Longinus travels for a time, He wanders aimlessly, wrestling with these emotions. He admits to doubt in himself and his ability to succeed. He calls out to God. He weeps. He debases himself. In Torments 8:8 he has reached his lowest state: "I lie in earth like a pile of dung."

Longinus receives no word from God. He receives no sign of the rightness of his course. No angel visits him to spur him onward this time. Instead, he must reach within for wisdom, acknowledging his failures, but knowing that they need not persist forever: "I have failed in my ministry, but I cannot succeed while lying in the dirt." (Torments 9:2)

Longinus turns for solutions not to himself, for he has failed, nor to God, who has not answered his prayers directly. Instead, he turns to mankind. Though Longinus slew Christ, was Damned by God, and was visited by an angel to reveal his purpose in the past, he humbled himself before men so that he might learn. "With humility and faith I approach the teacher. 2 I come to him as yet another student and I beg him to impart to me his wisdom." (Torments 12:1-2)

Many nights pass as Longinus learns and studies at the foot of his teacher, a mortal man. When at last he has learned enough that he might better fulfill his purpose, he retreats to pray. "I fast and pray and beg the Lord for an answer, but all is silence. 2 I call upon my newfound wisdom, and decide that I must trust in man’s free will and God’s holy purpose." (Torments 14:1-2)

While guided by his experience with the divine, Longinus ultimately finds that God does not give us all the answers of how we might fulfill his will. That is for us to find. We find it in recognizing our shortcomings and in reaching out to others. We find our way in listening and learning, in the bountiful knowledge of humanity, and in ultimately placing trust in others. None can go it alone in this world. It is only with humility that we can ultimately succeed.

Sum Sanctus,

Simon Patterson Gloveli

Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni

On External Threats

Many view the Testament of Longinus as solely a religious document, but the fact is that it contains a tremendous amount of information on the kindred condition, kindred history, kindred abilities, and the matter which will be addressed here: external supernatural threats to the Damned.

A third night, Vahishtael came to me again, and said to me, “Come, and I will show you the creatures that you must know of, and understand. 

2 You shall teach your disciples of their existence.” - Eschaton 13:1-2

Within the Book of Eschaton, we find information about several threats to kindred, their creation, their abilities, and the means to combat them. Many of these threats remain with us today, nearly two millennia after they were first recorded in the Testament.

Larvae are the mindless kindred-like husks that can arise form sloppy feeding to the point of death. Belial's Brood are kindred who have "sold themselves to their sin" yet hold more reason than a draugr, including a cunning tongue with which they seek to convince others of their course. The half-Damned are part mortals who lure kindred with the most intoxicating scent of their blood, yet those who drink find it a poison. VII are those who bear the blood of Satan, which awakens every seven generations.

The strix, or Owls, are a most grievous threat which can inhabit the bodies of the dead, even kindred bodies, and bend them to their terrible will. Consider what the Testament has to say of them:

40 On the last page, I saw an Owl made of smoke. I trembled, for I knew that the Owls were more dreadful than any of the other monsters I had seen. 41 The Owl flew towards a dead man hanging from a tree and became smoke and entered into the corpse. 42 The corpse moved, and came down from the tree. 43 The Owl was in the corpse’s eyes, and they glowed. 44 The corpse with the Owl inside it waited by the street and ambushed the living who passed, and killed them and drank their blood. 45 And each time, it stole a new body from the people it had killed, now a soldier, now a Holy man, now a young woman, now an old woman. And always, the yellow gleam was in the Owl’s eye. 46 Presently, one of the Damned came by, and the Owl beat him down and entered him, and the Damned became his slave. 47 The Owl kept the body, and wreaked havoc with it, and the Assembly of the Sanctified was in ruins, as I saw the Owl whisper and make strife among the faithful. 48 And it opened the doors of the courts of the Damned, and a flock of the Owls came, and flooded into that place, and stole our bodies and crushed our souls, 49 and made the living suffer ten or a dozen times what we had, and not for the Purpose of God, but for the pleasure of it. Vahistael said, “Fear the Owls, and always remain vigilant. 50 Drive them into the sunshine, and do not allow the ones who deal with them to have any hope of survival, or any trial, or any forgiveness. 51 The Damned who deals with the Owls is cursed, and doubly cursed, and has no right even to Hell.” - Eschaton 13:40-51

This is but a hint of the knowledge contained within the Testament. Each of the threats above has at least a paragraph of information about them and the Church of Longinus has more recorded besides. This is one of the many reasons that the Testament's study is so vital to kindred society. Within its pages we find answers to questions that many who walk tonight have not yet even thought to ask. Yet here, for nearly two millennia, that wisdom has been recorded. Know that this body of wisdom is a thing to be shared with all kindred, that they might understand more of themselves and the dangers of the world we inhabit.

Sum Sanctus,

Simon Patterson Gloveli

Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni

On the Great Heresies

If any community shall be found to be in practice of heretical faith, they shall be expelled from the body of the faithful. Yet if they and their abbot shall make penance and recant all heresies, they shall be welcomed back to the community of brethren. - The Rule of Golgotha 7:19

A number of profound usurpations of the Longinian faith exist. These greatest heresies are persistent things, taking the essential truths of the Testament of Longinus and the teachings of the Lancea Sanctum and perverting them. What makes a matter heretical is that they adopt and twist aspects of the Covenant with God, rather than asserting their own separate and independent belief. While there may be spiritual errancy in a course that does not accept God or his plan for us, such matters should not raise the true ire of the faithful in the way that heresy does. Heresy is a blight that exists within the Church itself.

There are a number of great heresies, many of which commit the essential sin of taking the trappings of the Longinian faith and combining them with the practices of the more temporal covenants. These heresies are then a threat and affront to not just the Lancea Sanctum, but to the other covenant they seek to usurp and twist as well. I will present a brief overview of four great heresies and the manner in which they commit this usurpation of both covenants.

The Livian Heresy is the most familiar to many kindred. Livians combine the trappings of faith of the Lancea Sanctum with the reverence of the mother of Longinus as the Crone of the Acolytes. Livia is elevated to a state akin to Mary, but given the dark appellation of the Mother of Vampires or sometimes the Mother of Monsters. Livians seek to mingle the blood sorcery of the Circle of the Crone with the dark miracles of the Longinian faith. This mingling is clearly seen as antithetical to proper members of both covenants and has been seen as such for nearly two millennia.

The Crimson Cavalry is a much more recent heresy, born a little over half a century ago. It combines some parts of the Longinian faith, particularly its most eschatological aspects, with the most violent and anti-establishment impulses of the Carthian Movement. The Crimson Cavalry seeks to bring about the biblical end of days by overthrowing all established order in the world. Only once the world of kine and kindred alike is in a completely anarchic state, do they believe that the Second Coming of Jesus will occur. Clearly the extreme and violent nature of this heresy is an affront to the two covenants from which its ideology derives.

The formal Icarian Heresy is one which endured for a number of centuries from the late Middle Ages to the early Renaissance, with the threat of its originators dispersed. However, its general trappings are seen from time to time even unto this night. The Icarian Heresy is a blending of zeal of the Lancea Sanctum with the starkly political breeding and hierarchy of the Invictus. The heirs of Icarius created a familial dynasty, toppling rulers across broad swatches of land and replacing them with those who believed they were divinely gifted to rule over all kindred. This blending of the temporal and the spiritual is properly an affront to both the First and Second Estates, each of which should be kept distinct on focused on their own concerns.

The Masonic Heresy is another profoundly disturbing example of the inexcusable blending of covenants, one which appears alive and active in pursuing their agenda in these modern nights. The Masonic Heresy was founded by a former Cardinal of the Lancea Sanctum who named herself "The Carpenter" and began to utilize the secret practices of the Ordo Dracul in an attempt to seize God's power for her own. The Masons seek absolute dominion over kine and kindred alike through manipulation of occult forces to bind all in accordance with their will. They worship "The Carpenter" as a messianic figure. Their bastardization of the Longinian faith and the practices of the Ordo Dracul ought to make clear that they are antithetical to both.

One thing that is hopefully made clear in this discussion of four of the greatest heresies is that they present not just a threat to one covenant, but to all. Each seeks to upend the proper ordering of kindred society and assert their own misguided zealotry upon our society. While the Lancea Sanctum often engages in the most devoted efforts to identify and route out these dangers, they are a shared danger and one on which all kindred of good conscious should oppose and offer information where they possess it.

Sum Sanctus,

Simon Patterson Gloveli

Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni

On Inquisition

This week's exploration is of the role of the inquisitor, its basis in the Testament, and its ultimate purpose.

Perhaps the most blessed and most admirable scholarly pursuit, however, is one that takes as its center not the study of any one thing, but rather commits itself to the refutation and repudiation of heresies and slanders. We know that such Kindred that walk in these nights have intellects vast and creative. Their Damnation may have been given them before the coming of the Dark Father and his teachings, or perhaps they are yet newly Damned by sinful and impious sires, and so they use such gifts to harass and mock the fellowship of the Sanctified. 

Such scholars of the Sanctified as have talent for it must therefore bend their minds to the unraveling of arguments and the refutation of all points in these irreverent tracts and speeches. 

  - Rule of Golgotha 11, paragraphs 5-6

The words inquisitor and inquisition derive from the Latin quaerere meaning "to seek." An inquisitor then is one who seeks for something and an inquisition is the search for it. An inquisitor is someone who makes inquiry, who inquires, after something.

Within the context of the Lancea Sanctum, the inquisitor is one who searches for heresies and slanders that they might be exposed, laid bare, and confronted. An inquisitor in the Lancea Sanctum is concerned with matters that threaten the spiritual purity of the body of the Church, striving to identify and bring to the light any darkness that lurks within.

In order that an inquisitor might be able to identify errancy when it is found, it is important that they be well grounded in theology, comfortable with parsing rhetoric, and intimately familiar with the Testament and doctrines of the Church. Passing familiarity with any of these will fail to suffice, for those who go seeking darkness often find it in this world. If an inquisitor is not prepared to properly and clearly identify it, they are libel to wind up consumed by it. Any inquisition must begin and end within one's own heart, mind, and soul. If an inquisitor is not willing or able to look within and identify the weaknesses they themselves possess, sooner or later another will and turn that weakness to their own advantage.

In exposing errancy and challenging it within both the inquisitor and within the Church, an inquisitor brings about a more perfect Church, ready and able to fulfill God's will for kindred here on earth. While purity is much desired, it is also important to remember that an inquisition does not serve the ultimate purpose of purity. Ultimate purity is impossible given the nature of both the world in which we live, as well as our own Damnation. Ultimate purity would be the destruction of this world of sin, something that is not ours to fulfill. Instead, the ultimate purpose must be to enable the Church and its members to serve well and truly God's purpose for them. An inquisition must ultimately simply root out the worst of the errors within and serves as a reminder of the proper path. It is for this reason that the duty will last for as long as the world we inhabit, but that is right and just.

Sum Sanctus,

Simon Patterson Gloveli

Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni

L'Osservatore Longinian - volume 1, issue 1

L'Osservatore Longinian - volume 1, issue 1

On Kindred Rule

As kindred society finds itself in the grips of a fever with the underlying purpose being the creation of national bodies governing Clan and Covenant, my thoughts have gone to the following passages from The Rule of Golgotha 10:

We are not so innocent as mortal man, who professes that none shall be crowned except he who has striven lawfully. Man is hypocritical in his quest for a noble ruler; he will scheme and murder and bribe to gain what little earthly power he can, and then expects his comrades to hail him as a just and forthright man. The political mind is squirming and complex, twisting reason beyond recognition and pandering in all corners for the slightest advantage, both corporeal and spiritual. We need look only to the great cities of Rome to see and know that the governance of creatures of rational mind is a complex and bewildering undertaking. 

The pagan cities of Greece and of Persia and of the Far East have in their folly concocted mad stories of divine founding to justify the reign of one man over another. We know that there is only one divine city, the city of God which lies beyond death and is the eternal paradise. As sojourners in death we know that we shall not be given the death of the mortal, who may even with his last breath recognize the truth of God's presence on earth and embrace true faith. The city of God is not for us, and all mortal cities and courts are nothing more than dirt and despair. Thus, how much greater folly is it for us to say this unholy creature is more fit to rule than that unholy creature by virtue of his blood, or his sire, or his allegiances?

While this passage occurs within a particular historical context in the Testament of Longinus, the deeper question echoes across the millennia. In the fever of this new Crucible, we seem driven to seize upon some answer, whether that answer be right or wrong. I do not here wish to be sidetracked into the question of why this idea now burns within each of us, or of the fashion in which whatever answer is decided upon may mystically bind us.

Why, when, and how ought kindred rule over each other?

Kindred society is not now, nor has it ever been, a society of laws. We have found and accepted a few core Traditions that stretch back more than two millennia but, save for a few brief aberrations, there have been no empires, no far-reaching bureaucracy, no unified system of justice, and no common culture. Attempts to create each of these things have invariably led to bloodshed and violence, with kindred turning upon each other in bids either for their place at the top of the pile of corpses, or for freedom from the rule of another.

Kindred are not ruled, so much as policed within the bounds of the essential Traditions that we recognize as inviolable for our own survival. Much of the policing is and always has had to be done not by an elite few, but by each and every member of society. Certainly, titles exist, almost always local in nature, where the one who wears the title can regularly interact with those over whom they have some authority. That authority is granted and utilized by dint of ability, but also of acceptance. No one kindred is great enough to fend off all of the others within any but the smallest of groups. While variance exists, the relative parity of our powers requires a modicum of restraint. When one goes too far, they are inevitably brought low.

Some cry now that these modern nights are different. Kindred can rapidly communicate across the entire span of the globe en masse for the first time during a Crucible. Transportation likewise exists with sufficient speed to bring kindred together in the span of a few nights, no matter how great the distance between them originally. Surely, they argue, given these things, the possibility exists of real and far-reaching rule.

They forget that while transportation and communication may be possible, kindred at large remain relatively stationary beings. While some few might wander regularly a few hundred miles and attend the occasional gathering of a handful of Courts, this increased proximity is limited. Those who are present and involved with a local populace each and every night remain a true community. Distant voices may have weight, but presence rules our society. How many Princes rule for long who are only heard and seen upon special occasion? Why should we expect that it would be any different in this Crucible than in the past?

It is true that Clans and Covenants have deeper cultures and more common ties that do allow for stronger bonds across distances. It is for that reason that each typically possesses some form of regional structure. Yet, while these regional bodies may carry weight, few can be said to truly rule. The creation of far-reaching national or supranational bodies of kindred, given the disparate nature of our domains, the differing forms of our interests, and the native kindred drive to rebuke the authority of others over them, seems one doomed to be at most some fancy words on paper and a few new flourishes to an electronic signature if not well crafted with the reality of kindred existence in mind.

Whether, in our collective fever, we are able to tame the lust for power within ourselves and forge answers that are limited in scope to the reality of our condition, or if we are destined to fly too high like Icarus and burn up in the rays of the sun, remains unclear. I will pray that we have the wisdom to choose wisely and spare our society the painful cleansing by fire that has occurred in the past.

Sum Sanctus,

Simon Patterson Gloveli

Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni