Fitzalan

Northern Imperial Temple » Fitzalan

The Northern Imperial Temple and its offshoot, Haelyn's Bastion of Truth are the names for the organization run by the successors of Fitzalan the Blessed, which still adheres to Fitzalan's fatalistic ethic of work and humility combined with Janna many-toungued gospel of gardening and floral spiritualism. Followers of Fitzalan and Janna might be found anywhere, but the successors of Fitzalan have political and religious power only in Talinie, Boeruine, and Dhoesone while they might influence followers anywhere.
Fitzalan came from the knightly class of Talinie, but like many younger sons was found a place in the Imperial Temple to serve as a cleric. He studied logic, rhetoric, and grammar at a Daliburgh, mathematic, astronomy, music, and law and then became a doctor of both law and theology at Tariene. He was the paragon of a scholar in the Imperial Temple: precise, logical, orderly, complete.
At the end of the 3rd century MR things were quite desperate in Talinie. Civil war was endemic and the priests fought as much as the nobility. Fitzalan was deeply spiritual, indeed zealous for his faith, but found the temple wanting, unable to bring order, civilization, and stability as Haelyn's doctrine preached. How is it, Fitzalan wondered in his writings, that the message of Haelyn could not bring about the ends of Haelyn? His conclusion was that the instrument of his will, the Imperial Temple, was deeply flawed. So, like the rigorous, methodical scholar that the Imperial Temple was so proud of producing, Fitzalan set about examining how the Imperial Temple had failed to successfully bring its values to the people, the nobility, and even the priesthood of Talinie.
First he concluded that the rituals were empty of meaning for the anyone not steeped in the teachings of the church. He once remarked, "Perhaps it was Ruornil who devised the rituals of the Imperial Temple to keep them a secret from those who struggle." Then he distilled the message of Haelyn into a spiritual message of humility, grace, and stewardship combined with an guide to personal conduct that emphasized work and fatalistic submission to the world as it is. Fitzalan saw work as a method of establishing the self discipline necessary to lead a moral life.
Fitzalan had raised some controversy and won some followers among the priesthood when the temples of Talinie turned on themselves. It was typical then, just as it is typical today for priests to adopt one of two primary foci of Haelyn's message, one based on the lawpriests revering Haelyn first as the Lawmaker, and a second sect based on warpriests, understanding Haelyn primarily as the Lord of Noble War. These two groups fell into conflict because each sect preferred a different number of candles be lit on Haelyn's altar. This conflict is known as the War of the Candles and it provided the great opening for Fitzalan.
The scholarly priest attacked the temple ritual by asking crowds what the rituals meant, and the concluding that a war was being fought and people were dying for purposes known only to the priests, priests who job it was to explain the teachings of Haelyn to the people before pausing to fight about them, not the other way round. He was a popular and compelling speaker and the attack was sweeping. Fitzalan