Temple to the God of Gods

By James Walker

**Flaming
Feather**

Of all of the Almighty's titles, "God of gods" causes Heaven the most problems. Uriel used it to justify the Purity Crusade - the title implied that the Ethereal 'gods' were required to serve the One True God; while the peace faction uses it as an argument for tolerating the existence of ethereals, as unless some existed to serve Him, the title would be void. Meanwhile, deep in the Far Marches, the Temple to the God of gods stands inviolate.

Khalid considers the Temple to fall under the his Word, and protects the Temple. The Temple guards are a strange lot, as most of them are ex-Tsayadim; should a Tsayadim decide to swear allegiance to Khalid, their long experience in The Marches and lack of knowledge of the Corporeal plane makes assignment to the Temple likely. They have strict orders: to destroy anyone who disturbs the peace within the Temple domain, and to only permit legitimate worshippers to enter the Temple.

"Legitimate worshippers" are defined as any being who has received worship and who has no motivation to enter the Temple other than the desire to worship the One True God. Should other motivations sully the worshippers intent, the guards will politely insist that the petitioner leave, and not return until their motivations are purer. Few object - the guards may have left the ranks of the Tsayadim, but retain their skills: and reputation for ruthlessness.

The worshippers at the Temple are normally ethereal gods who were absorbed into the monotheistic religion as saints, angels or Peri; St. Anne rarely leaves the Temple grounds. As their very nature has been changed by the changes into mortal beliefs, they rarely cause the guards any problems, and often lead worship. The mightiest angel to frequent the Temple is Janus, who will often arrive in a sombre mood, and remain until his fickle nature drives him to leave. Humans are fairly common; the guards deem prayers to saints sufficient justification to allow entry to a dream-shade or Saint.

Most of the problems at the Temple are caused by the Habbalah. A surprisingly large number of the Punishers devoutly wish to serve God, and have worshippers: the guards are obliged to allow theses demons to worship here. Further, Habbalah will sometimes arrive directly from Hell; a Habbalite spending essence on their prayers (CPG p10) will sometimes be drawn directly to the Temple - especially with a Divine Intervention. The number of Habbalah who end up seeking Redemption is nearly as large as the number who end up being soul-killed by the guards for disturbing the peace.

Not surprisingly, the ethereal pantheons try to ignore the existence of the temple, or dismiss it with flippant comments. However, rumours continually do the rounds...was Isis seen there in her Madonna image, or Odin as Santa Claus? Suggesting these possibilities around the appropriate pantheons tends to trigger a violent response, so determining the truth isn't easy.

**Flaming
Feather**

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