San Sylvester

San Sylvester is one of the Great Saints of the Bastonian Pantheon, elevated to godhood by the Almighty Herself to be an example to her chosen people, the Bastonians. A powerful wizard in life, he has become the effective patron of the arcane arts among Bastonians who practice them.

His symbol is an eye on the palm of a hand, symbolizing an expression pulled from his text and often quoted by his followers "The key of the mind is the eye". Known for their own cunning and peculiar wisdoms, corvid birds and Blue Jays in particular are seen as sacred to his people.

History

Junior among the saints of the Bastonian Pantheon, San Sylvester was, in life, a powerful wizard living in the wealthy duchy of Zeemarch, where he maintained a private sanctum at what is now called Sylvestri Point, driven away from the major cities by those fearful of his talents. Nevertheless, he gained the attention of the Almighty by interrupting his own labours at a critical moment, using his incredible ability and mastery over the arcane to save Oversea Bastion, which still persists through his magic today, having avoided the watery grave of an entire city.

For his efforts, he was elevated to Sainthood and immediately ascended to Heaven, serving the Almighty as the Sacred Sorcerer, one of his many epithets. Since then, he has become particularly known for his patronage to mystics.

Relationships

San Sylvester is junior to many of the Great Saints. In spite of his continued worship and fealty of the Almighty, he is seen by many to be the dangerous new element, and is particularly looked ascance at by San Heather (who, though polite, occasionally treats him as a child) and San Lauren, who views his embrace of the Arcane as a rejection of natural order.

Of the Saints, he is particularly close with San Elijah, who shares the reputation for heterodoxy, and both share the uncomfortable distinction of being especially favoured by two castes by and large seen as outsiders to the overall Bastonian community. He is likewise in the favour of San Marino, who finds the other's talents extremely useful in expanding his own profile.

Regarding the evil saints, San Verus and San Meteo, Sylvester is among the most sympathetic, sharing the Almighty's belief that they can be reformed, and turned away from the Enemy. In this regard, he is particularly soft on Verus, whose own experiments and failures with the Arcane were responsible for Verus's madness, and thus were a cautionary tale for aspiring wizards like Sylvester himself. Meteo, on the other hand, is seen as salvageable but particularly perverse, and as Sylvester's moral and ethical opposite, a creature to be closely watched at all times.

An enemy of the Enemy, San Sylvester is frequently pulled into conflict against both the Enemy and the enemy's followers.

Appearance

San Sylvester has the appearance of a learned human scholar, of long hair and noble bearing, in his late fifties. He dresses in a robe of blue fabric, often with a cloak whose inside shimmers with the light and dark of the heavens themselves.

Realm

Like many of the saints, while San Sylvester is welcome in Heaven and frequently present there, the very nature of the universe is such thathis true realm, the Schola Sylvestria, is in the Cradle of the Wise, in Elysium. This grand school is home to the god himself as well as being frequented by planar travelers who wish to petition him for soothsaying or tutelage, and is the base of his diplomatic mission to Elysium on the Almighty's behalf.

Providence

San Sylvester's attention drives magical discovery, often to the point of causing wild magic to run rampant in an area. Sylvester frequently influences dreams among his followers and enemies alike, though these dreams are often highly cryptic and their true meaning becomes clear only too late.

Servants

Like many in Elysium, San Sylvester is served by Azatas who are native to that plane, as well as a small host of angels assigned to his service by the Almighty who make up the diplomatic staff.

Unique Servants

The Lens of Sylvester

San Heather's herald is an intelligent minor artifact in its own right, a fresnel lens occupying the peak of his former tower at Sylvestri Point, and through which he can make pronouncements with the greatest clarity.

The Bastonian Church

The bastonian church is unified in the worship of The Almighty, which is observed by not just her direct followers, but even by those patronized by the other Saints of the Pantheon. The church teaches the performance of good works and the cultivation of compassion as the roadmap to ultimate salvation and an afterlife spent in Heaven.

Devotees of San Sylvester are known as Sylvestrites.

Worshippers

All Bastonians worship the Almighty, and some further dedicate themselves to the saintly wizard, San Sylvester. His clergy make up its own order within the Bastonian Church, the Sylvestrites, who have a ranking structure similar to the hierarchy of the church at large.

Among his followers in particular are scholars both magical and mundane, wizards, fortune-tellers, and archaeologists.

Clergy

As what the Bastonian Church calls a religious order, San Sylvester's clergy have their own manner of uniform dress, distinct from direct priests of the Almighty through its simplicity. These tend to be blue, hooded robes, and are often more comfortable and more fashionable than those used by other saintly orders.

Temples & Shrines

Like much the rest of Bastonian architecture, temples and shrines to the Almighty are often masterworks of masonry or stonework, which in wealthy communities are often further embellished with stained glass and frescos, depicting a popular saint in the region or scenes from the sacred texts. Such structures are usually subdivided internally, with an area for public ceremony and worship (which is frequent) and an area for the sole use of the clergy and those who serve the clergy in liturgical preparation, and temple complexes almost always include an outbuilding or suite of rooms known as the rectory, where the priests serving a particular temple have residence.

Many who follow San Sylvester do so in the chapels of magical universities, or have constructed shrines to their patron in their own magical laboratories and sanctums.

Holy Texts

In addition to the holy texts used in the worship of the Almighty, members of the Sylvestrite order follow a document called the Thirteen Theses of San Sylvester. In addition to being a treatise on the importance of common knowledge and personal development, the Thirteen Theses are also useful texts in the direct study of the arcane schools of magic, often framing moral lessons as arcane metaphors and hiding arcane knowledge in apparent moral allegory. Written out in full the thirteen theses are, unsurprisingly, thirteen volumes, impressively thick on their own merit, and are almost always quite well made. Many who follow San Sylvester, clergy or not, own not just copies of these volumes but, if their resources stretch to it, many other additional volumes of commentaries on the original theses written by Sylvester's contemporaries and other wizards down through the ages.

Church History

The church and the state are intimately connected within Bastonia, with the state relying on the church for its legitimacy and the church relying on the state's realpolitikal power to stay in rule. The Almighty's church is considered coterminous with those of all other saints and is the only legally-permitted form of open worship within the Kingdom.

Holidays

San Sylvester's feast day is marked on the full moon nearest the summer solstice, when arcane energies are said to be at their peak. In communities where it is marked it is often celebrated by fantastic displays of evocation and illusion. He is commonly invoked as convocations of students of formal education.

Favoured Animals

While all corvids - even, according to some, [Dire Rooks] are sacred to San Sylvester, blue jays in particular are associated with him personally.