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.
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