Sermon at the Sanctum of Solphirion¶
Delivered by High Priest Orenthal Veris at the Sanctum of Solphirion, Valtharion, on the first day of Accordance Watch, 5A 852. Attendance was noted as “lower than previous years.” The sermon was transcribed by a temple scribe as is standard practice. What is not standard is that Veris departed from the approved text.
Brothers and sisters of the Light.
Today we gather as we have gathered for four thousand years, on this day, in this place, to remember the sacrifice. Solphirion, the Arbiter, who gave his body so that the Veil might hold. Who gave his will so that the Covenant might bind. Who chose order over chaos, service over survival, silence over the screaming of a world that was tearing itself apart.
This is the story you know. This is the story I was given to tell you today, by the Office of the Sanctum, approved by the Senate Chaplaincy, reviewed for doctrinal accuracy by three theologians who have never once stood where I am standing and looked at your faces.
(pause)
I am going to tell you something else instead.
I have been a priest of Solphirion for thirty-four years. I was ordained in this building. I have spoken the Rites of the Light at weddings, at funerals, at the bedside of the dying. I have told grieving mothers that Solphirion watches over them. I have told frightened soldiers that the Light protects them. I have said these things because I believed them.
I am finding it harder to believe them.
Not because the Covenant is weakening. We can all feel that. The candles in the Sanctum burn shorter every year. The Light that used to fill this hall at dawn now reaches the altar and stops, as if it is tired. These are things I can see with my own eyes.
What troubles me is not the weakening. It is the silence.
If Solphirion is in the Veil — if his will is what holds the Covenant together — then he can hear us. Every prayer. Every plea. Every child who whispers “Solphirion, keep me safe” before they sleep. He hears all of it.
And he says nothing.
I do not know what that means. I will not pretend to. The theologians have explanations — the Arbiter’s consciousness is too diffused to respond, the Veil’s structure prevents communication, the silence is itself a form of guidance. Perhaps they are right.
But I think some of you came here today not because you believe, but because you are afraid. And I think the honest thing — the thing Solphirion would want, if the Solphirion I have worshipped for thirty-four years is real — is to stand here and say: I am afraid too.
The Light is still here. It is dimmer than it was. I do not know if it will last. But I will stand in it for as long as it burns, and I will not lie to you about what I see.
That is the only sermon I have left.
Go in the Light. Whatever that means now.
Sanctum record: High Priest Veris was summoned to the Office of the Sanctum the following day. The meeting lasted four hours. No disciplinary action was taken. Veris continued to serve as High Priest. Attendance at the Sanctum increased by thirty percent in the following month. The Office of the Sanctum has declined to comment on whether this is related.