Watchpriest Aeran The Gleaming of the Risen Brotherhood Watchpriest Aeran of the Silver Azimuth Year 137 A. I. A.

We are the Free People of the Sanctuary Below. Our forefathers fled the ruins of the city above in search of freedom from the diseased corruption of flesh and mind. They saw that material comforts bred false contentment, and that false contentment bred complacency toward our captivity in these depths. Every law, every building, every guardsman, by their very nature, undermine our sole purpose -- to escape. Each must be held accountable to the greater good of that Ascension which is our birthright and promised end.

We will never forget. We will never give up.

We are the Brotherhood, heirs in spirit to Frederick Bresley. Since these lands were settled we have made our home here, and through peace and discord we have taught the virtues of the Ascenion and preached the promise of the sun-kissed surface world that is our home. We are the heart and soul of the people here, the shining vision on behalf of which all men labor, the guides toward that bright birthright which all seek to claim. While those in the old ruin worry themselves over laws and silver, jurisdiction and security, we have turned our eyes outward and devoted ourselves to the one true purpose which the Ascended One laid out for our town: to find the safe hidden Way to the Surface World. We are those who want to go home.

We persisted and grew through peace and concord, through uprising and rebellion. Foes we had, who were many, who sought to amass power here for themselves, trading our freedom for gold, our liberty for silver, our faith for steel and spell. Each came from the ruins above, into our realm, into the vast and open and libertine caverns of the free people, and sought to blacken our name. They came with books and shields and bickering balding barristers; they came with spells and robes and sly deceptive lies. We, who had seen such foes before, who had seen their corruption, who had seen the disease, who had seen the plague of body and mind that their ideology had bred, we turned them one and all. They did not fool us, and though they harried us with decree and proclaimation, our people lived on in peace. We continued to seek the Way.

We will never forget. We will never give up.

We overcame foes blundering and bold, cunning and crude, craven and cruel, until that night of fire and blood when the soldiers marched upon our homes, slew our brothers and burned our wives and children alive. One can scarce recall a more horrific sight, than to see the faithful burned alive for imagined crimes and treasons. The dark fortress, that had lain nigh abandoned for thirty years since the uprising of the angry men, was taken by the foreigners; inside they sheathed their swords still red with our brethren's blood. All who opposed their arrival met the flame; all who spoke out disappeared into the darkness of the night. The few who surrendered were shackled in golden chains, rewarded like dogs with coins that could never buy them what they treasured most. The wages of treachery are despair. The promise of faith is Ascension.

So it was less than five years ago that the Brotherhood was faltered, and the hopes and dreams of the Sanctuary Below, the birthright of all people in these depths, were shackled with golden chains to slavers' boots. The grey-robed rulers of the old ruins let these cruel masters run free, so long as they keep us from rising up; their countless crimes are overlooked, so long as our hopes are dashed and our quiet roar silenced; their hatred of the golden sun raises nary a brow so long as their brute strength breeds our consent to our oppression.

We will never forget. We will never give up.

Our faith does not fade, we who worship in silence. Our determination does not break, we who once were slaves and once more are brought low by oppressors. When the time comes, and with each dawn above us, as the silver stars pass into the golden sun, the time draws near, we who have been silent will reap the rewards of our virtue. We shall rise up, we who follow the path of the Ascended One. We shall rise up, and break free of the chains of gold and blood and fire. We shall rise up, and end our oppression for one last and final time. We shall rise up and Ascend.

And even now, as the times have changed, the truth has never been any more evident. We do not belong here, trapped in the darkess. The Surface is waiting. All we have to do is reach for it, have faith, and freedom shall be ours to take!

The Way is in Your Heart

If you still believe, seek us. We welcome all.