Szalavalar

While Zelagiur was charged with protecting the secret of Merisyl from escaping, his sister Szalavalar was instead interested in understanding how it worked.  Her attraction to the natural sciences and insatiable desire to learn led her to learn all that could be learned about this sanctuary that Apsu had created.  Zelagiur saw this as a threat to the preservation of the secret, but was unable to dissuade Szalavalar from probing at the fabric of this new reality.

With the Colonization of the Second Era, Szalavalar’s attention turned to the races that spread across Merisyl’s surface, constructing shelter and bending the land to their use.  She was so impressed with their ingenuity and adaptability that she spent years with them in Anthropomorphic Form both learning and teaching.

It is still common practice for large edifices to include a stone block blessed by a priest of Szalavalar as a request for her blessing the construction and durability of the building.

Followers of Szalavalar are sometimes judged as emotionless and cold based on their public persona.  Publicly, these followers do aspire to keep their decisions entirely based on logic.  Personally, though, they recognize the importance of passion and joy in the process of creation, and indulge in emotional relationships that inspire both.

Szalavalar’s devotees will always request that any significant agreements be recorded in writing.  While they may trust the intentions of the person or entity with whom they are making their agreement, they recognize that without recording these agreements in writing they are reliant on accuracy of memory, or the interpretations of others not privy to the original discussion.

The Church

There are two branches of the Church of Szalavalar. Most adhere to the Code of Justice as a stand-alone work and refer to themselves as “Oathbound”. They value honesty, keeping promises and hard work, and rely upon secular authorities for the enforcement of laws. The hierarchy of their priests places the Chief Justice at the head of the order across Merisyl, with each continent having its own Oathbinder and each Athear its own Witness and Vice Witnesses. Most Athear have a group of clerics and champions that are made available to the secular leadership of their region to help enforce contracts or in some cases assist with the construction of particularly impressive edifices.

The second branch of the Church of Szalavalar call themselves the Reckoners, and regard themselves as being responsible for enforcing the terms of broken contracts. Over the years the Reckoners have expanded their reading of the A Reckoning for the Unrepentant to include forceful action against anyone whose actions or behaviors run contrary to the teachings of Szalavalar, regardless of whether bound in a formal contract or not. These followers tend to be militant zealots eager to use logic to justify violence.

Holy Texts

The Code of Justice – The seminal work by the earliest worshippers of Szalavalar, which makes a compelling case for the importance of logic, honesty and the honoring of one’s word.

A Reckoning for the Unrepentant – A relatively recent (only a few hundred years’ old) “appendix” to The Code of Justice written by the former Oathbinder of Verchix, Agrassamore Litando. Oathbinder Litando was notoriously aggressive about using the wealth of the Church to leverage advantageous deals for land in the cities and villages across the continent. When the secular leadership refused to enforce what they saw as coerced agreements, Litando turned his Champions and Clerics against them and enforced those contracts by force. Most historians see A Reckoning for the Unrepentant as a poorly disguised post-facto excuse for this violent seizure.