In the center of Caiyun lay an expanse of stone paving, elevated a cubit or so above ground level. That foundation was all that remained of the first temple of Sanguis Astroism. Weeds and moss grew about the old ruins threatening to swallow up the sacred site and disguise its last vestiges beneath a tangle of vegetation. Two figures stood at the edge of this sacred ground, where years ago the entrance looked out upon the main plaza of the Caiyun township. On the left stood a man in simple grey robes adorned only with an amulet that bore a silver chevron. A divot in the forehead distinguished the creased and haggard face of this man. On his right stood a woman clad in pure white. Her dark hair framed a face beautiful, yet with lips drawn tight and eyes distant, as though not seeing what lay before her or else not caring. The swell about her belly revealed her to be heavy with child and very near to the day of birth.
From the granite platform what was once the entrance to the first temple, the most holy of all sacred sites, Turin looked down on the gathered crowd. He spotted no familiar faces. Near the front stood a man in the robes of a priest of Sanguis Astroism, and not far off a priestess wearing the accouterments of the ecclesiastics. The others varied from commoners to lower gentry. He hoped many were messengers and servants who would carry his words to the congregation.
"Faithful," Turin announced, his words slow and deliberate to capture the gravity of that address, "Since the Prophet left us the church has been in a state of slow decline. The elders, most of them, have worked in sincerity to maintain our faith, I was once one of them, but their work is in vain without a prophet. Many years ago I departed on a pilgrimage to holy Darfix. I lingered there in seclusion seeking the answer to the tumults and calamities that have plagued our faith. With great joy I announce that I have found it. The answer to our woes lies in the secret of the Silver Temple. Many have sought out the Silver Temple of Darfix. Yet none have found it. The ancient monks of the city have guarded this secret since time immemorial. The Silver Temple is not as we imagine it. The temple is no glistening edifice of earthly masonry. See here, the sign of temple.
He held out his amulet a simple chevron of pure silver for all to see.
"Now look upon it from the celestial perspective," Turin went on.
With that he inverted the chevron.
"Behold the sign of the chalice, the symbol of the womb from whence we all arise," He explained, "the Silver Temple is the womb from which the Second Prophet will be born."
Turin lowered the amulet and gestured to the woman beside him.
"Beside me stands Lady Illyria, who serves as sacred vessel. She is with child and yet has never known the ways of men. Under my watch, with the aid of the monks of the Silver Temple she bathed in the waters of Boreal's Harbor and through the light of the Blood Stars themselves conceived by parthenogenesis. Long have I had the power to sense the human aura and know how near a person is to balance with the Stars. Her child will be born to spiritual perfection. Her child will know the ways of the stars as only Holy Mathurin did before. Rejoice all followers of the Bloodstars. These dark times are at an end. With the birth of the next prophet we will have a new golden age."
