A brotherhood ostensibly dedicated to Alberon.
History
During the Time of Schisms, the Temple Indivisible sought to utterly wipe out all other branches of the church. However, they were hard pressed to defeat the militant monks known as the Brothers of the Spear. Though fierce fighters and masterful assassins, the Brothers of the Spear were not strongly political so the Temple Indivisible eventually struck a bargain with them. The Brothers became the Temple Invisible, never again to be acknowledged openly in the Shuttered City; yet they would be the dark hand of Alberon, carrying out all the missions of subterfuge and violence that the mainstream Temple could not.
Somewhere in the City of Shuttered Windows tonight, there is a guildhall where the agents of the Temple Invisible meet and discuss plans. Tonight in the City there is a secret war taking place between the Invisibles and the Whispering Sisters. Elsewhere another agent may be carrying out a different mission, destroying the City’s enemies or guiding the City along a path to righteousness.
Meanwhile, in the snowy mountains west of the Shuttered City, there is a hidden fortress at the far end of a treacherous trail. It serves as a school for the next generation of Invisibles and is where the leader of the Temple Invisible, the Unseen Hierophant, resides (25.15).
The Final Heresy
Long ago in the City of Shuttered Windows, not long after the Gnawbone Wars with the gnolls of the Burning Lands had ravaged the lands around the Keening Sea, there was formed an order named the Brothers of the Spear, who today are called the Temple Invisible. The high priest of Alberon summoned twelve of his most powerful sorcerer-assassins, and brought with him the Tome of the Forbidden, in which the darkest secrets of the City are recorded. To these twelve he revealed the true name of She Who Waits, and the story of how she came to be banished to her dark lair beneath the world. He then charged them with a task that has never been given before or since: that of the assassination of a god. This was the original purpose of the Brothers of the Spear: to find a way to slay She Who Waits once and for all.
For centuries the agents of the Brotherhood did battle with the Whispering Sisters as they sought a means to destroy the dark goddess. In time they began to consider the task hopeless, until a new and terrible possibility was raised: for it was said in those days that the lion-headed sun-god, the King in Splendor, passed each night through the underworld realm, and that the Long Night comes about because the sun-god had been waylaid by the vile temptations of the nameless death-queen. In order to achieve their sworn goal, this band of Brothers of the Spear was forced to do the unthinkable: to turn away from their god, Alberon, and into the arms of the Lion.
Today in some dark vault beneath the Great Temple of Alberon, there is stored the Book of Heresies, in which all the heresies from the Time of Schisms are recorded. Last of all come the heresies of the Brothers of the Spear, and the Final Heresy is that they renounced their god and chose another. It is the last and most secret of the Heresies, for, to the undying shame of the Temple Indivisible, it is a heresy that continues to this day.
Connection:
- Hints about how a god can be killed are contained in the Scroll of Seven Shadows.
Hooks:
- Is the Tome of the Forbidden still extant? What other knowledge is written in it?
- What was the true name of She Who Waits, and why was she banished to the underworld?
- How can the sun-god help the Temple Invisible to carry out their ancient mission?
- What else is written in the Book of Heresies? Who would have an interest in its secrets being revealed?
- What will the laity think if they find out that the Temple Indivisible is tolerating a secret heretical sect within their midst?
The Temple School and the Extreme Oath of the Temple Invisible
The priests of The Temple Invisible go about the Shrouded City and abroad, teaching the virtue of Alberon and spreading the faith. None disclose - some do not even know - that their dark mission is the destruction of a god and their true allegiance lies with The King in Splendour.
The core of assassins inherited from the Brotherhood of the Spear are but a fraction of the order. Most are simple priests, scholars and teachers. They spend their lives with Alberon in their hearts.
Those who show great devotion - not all of them potential assassins - are inducted into the order proper and say the Extreme Oath:
If the temple says that day is night, it is night. I am a corpse walking, devoted to the flickering out of a being which should not exist.
To that end, I serve the Temple, I serve the Lion in Splendour, I serve the King in Splendour.
Let night be day.
In the City (29.14), there is a Temple School for orphans and poor children, as well as converts from the theocratic city-states that the Temple Invisible runs on other continents. The students are taught the basics, including theology. An unusual focus on athletics, stealth, poisons and warfare is explained away as a nostalgic holdover from the order’s martial past.
In fact, the most talented and dogmatic children are picked out to rise through the order with the eventual hope of recruiting them with the Extreme Oath.
Hooks:
- Who has graduated from the Temple School?
- Is anyone wise to the Temple’s ulterior motives?
- Give me some details about the theocratic city-states run on other continents.
Connections
- The Brothers sometimes cooperate with the Dead Men, which usually ends with the Dead Men living up to their name.
- The Temple of Alberon is another small breakaway sect that emerged in the Time of Schisms.
- The Temple Invisible also fueds with the Smiling Men.
- This monastery contains a redacted version of the Scroll of Seven Shadows.
Hooks
- What are the Invisibles doing to catch the Whispering Sisters? So far they don’t seem to have done a great job of it.
- How does the Temple Invisible ‘guide’ the City along the correct path?