Tales from Spéir: The Church of the Slain God

Show Notes

I don’t harbor any ill will towards religious folk. There’s lots o things that make an Airiner’s life dangerous. In the clouds, folk need all the allies they can get. Superstition can quiet an unsteady hand on the line, where anything less than a firm grip courts the cutting stone.

My generosity falls well short of tolerating The Church of The Slain God tho. Bein’ as large as they are I suppose it’s a bit of a risk sayin’ this to you folk, but most worshipers of the slain god got something of a look about them. I’d like to think even in my twilight years I’ve still got a keen eye.

No matter which port you call home you must have at least heard of the church. Even if you’ve never seen their red and purple robes or their strange brass masks. Their teachings are as old as the fall, and their history stretches all the way back to the age of nations. Of course back then the old church looked nothing like what it is now.

In the age of nations, the church was unremarkable in every way except for their reach. They preached to mariners, and traveled the seas. This helped the word of the church spread far over Speir. Picture of the old saying “a god that finds a bed with sailors, wakes up on foreign shores.”

Their god, and it was just the one, was supposed to be mighty, benevolent, and a prince above princes who suffered no pretenders. Can’t say I know much about the old teachings as they never suited my tastes for interesting tales. As their god was lordly, the church behaved very similar to a nation its own right. By the time the nations realized the true influence the church had, they found they were living with a powerful rival that they could not control. Many of the old wars were fought around the church.

Then the stars fell.With the seasons untamed and the seas a raging horror many folk looked at the church with different eyes. A lord that treated its subjects with the kind of cruelty shown to folk in the world after the fall would be seen as a tyrant true enough. The church might have faded alongside the old kings of nations had the church not found a clever profit to weave a new message.

I’m sure you’ve heard the shouting, even if you did the sensible thing and walked by. God is dead. Brought low by insolence, indifference, and sin. Their body cast into the seas, their angels dragged to the ground. In their heaven an empty throne, surrounded by mourning lost souls. The world shall suffer as they have. With no eye to tame the seasons they shall be as wild beasts. With no arm to hold death it shall act according to its own will. The blood of a broken heart will poison the waters of the earth and fill the seas with hate.

If I were to be a religious man, and I had my pick of gods I can tell you I would not worship a dead one. I suppose I just ain’t like other folk as I’ve heard many voices preaching the same nonsense.

It’s fitting in a way that the Church of the Slain God purports to worship a corpse. The foul blood of long dead nations runs through the heart of the church. Apart from the Red Feather the Church is one of the few institutions that’s left over from the old world.