Noble of Bearing, Humble of Demeanor, by Agrias

Posted to the holy room board Apr 26, 2017

Humble of Bearing, Noble of Demeanor: A Sermon of Truth and Honour.

Greetings, and welcome, all! I would like to begin by thanking you all for making time to attend my humble sermon. I am Priest Agrias Saestas, of the Temple of Waylumi, and I would like to take this time to speak with you all about Truth and Honour, what they should mean to a Waylumi Cleric, and how they should be probated by one such.

Before we may begin, we must first, however, define Truth and Honour, we must understand them, and we must acknowledge them.

Honour, as you may all be aware, is one of the four pillars upon which the Goddess beseeches us, her faithful, to stand. However, not all Honour is equal. There are many types of Honour, and those whom would argue of their definitions until they are blue in the face with others who choose a path of Honour. In the end, we must all acknowledge, and accept, that Honour is subjective to the claimant.

If Honour is subjective, you may ask, how, then, am I to define it? I will not define Honour in general, no, for such would be impossible. That which I see as Honourable may, in fact, be viwed as weakness, or idiocy, or even patronizing by others. To attempt to define a code of Honour, that which is subjective to organizations and even, in some cases, individuals, for all is folly. Therefore, I must focus on defining the Honour of the Light, that credo to
which I have sworn.

The Honour of the Light is a living, and giving, thing. It is organic in that it grows to encompass those who would accept it, regardless of oath to it. It is a static thing in that it demands of those who have oathed to it the same
code, the same strictures, and the same behavior. But what -is- it?

I was once asked to offer a single sentence as to how I would define the Honour of the Goddess, and it took me quite some time. How do I explain that the Honour of the Light is in treating others with respect until such time as they prove unworthy of it, while also including that it is holding to your word, and deviating not into temptations against oath and faith alike? How could I explain that it is conducting yourself with a regal, noble bearing, and
attributing all of the good that you do to the Goddess, for it is Her Blessings and Her divine plan that placed you in a situation where you -could- perform such miracles in Her name? How could I explain all of this, and more, in a
single sentence?

Eventually, I came to this one sentence. 'The Honour of the Light is knowing, when you are alone, that you are not alone, and that your faith, your bearing, your actions, support others, just as theirs support yours.' Of course, being the verbose overachiever that I am, I could not stop there, and went further to say this. 'The Honour of the Light is conducting yourself to the same conduct, regardless of whether you are alone or amongst others, be they friend, foe, acquaintance, rival, superior, or inferior alike.'. That is the Honour of the Light.

We hold to our word. We hold our hands out to all, regardless of station or stature, unless and until they turn away from the Light of the Lady. We treat all others with respect, and control ourselves to conduct and convey a respectful, righteous demeanor at all times, be we alone, or surrounded on a battlefield by those who would see us struck down and laid low. We seek to eschew ourselves of those temptations to break these codicils of behavior, and carry ourselves, and those beside us, to the Light of Waylumi.

This is how one who exemplifies the Honour of the Light should behave. This is the Honour of the Light.

How, then, does Truth interact with Honour? What is Truth?

Indeed, once more, Truth is subjective. Given a situtation involving just two individuals and a corpse, you have at least as many as six Truths. The Truth of the first individual, the Truth of the second individual, the Truth of the
corpse, the Truth witnessed by the area they occupied, the Truth of the Justice of whichever sovereignty they were in at the time, and the Truth of whichever sovereignty to which they claimed citizenship, -if- that citizenship was the same amongst all of the individuals. On top of this, there is the Seventh Truth, the Truth of the Divine.

Each may speak the 'Truth', but upon hearing all sides of the story that we mortals may hear, the picture may yet remain incomplete, or even muddled. Each could tell a differing story, and yet each story may still yet be the Truth.
How is this so? It is so because each individual, each kingdom, each Justice, each person who adds to the situation's investigation of the Truth brings their own perspective, their own values. They bring their own beliefs, their own views as to what is important. It is only the Divine who know the Unadulterated Truth of what happens in any given situation.

How, then, does this subjectivity, this perception-coloured variability interact with the Honour of the Light?

It is simple. We are believers in a greater cause, the Divine Lady of the Light, who instructs us to act with Wisdom and Honour, with Love and Vigilance, each in equal measure. Honour is inseperable from these Tenets, for without
Love, we could not respect others. Without Wisdom, we would not be able to acknowledge when the Blessings we have to share are accepted, or spurned. Without Vigilance, we can not strive to strengthen ourselves, and deepen the Honour with which we treat our foes, for to the blind, we have no foes.


It is this inseparatable nature of our Tenets that codifies how Honour and Truth, thusly, interact. We seek to be like our beloved Lady, and thus, understand the Unadulterated Truth of any situation. It thus behooves us to
investigate, to seek all of the information we possibly could, and to -understand it-.

Upon finding all of the information, we must then take it -further-, and ask 'Why?'. Why did that corpse happen? Why were the two individuals involved? Why did it occur where it did? We mus How do the Justices react to the corpse's presence? We must ask 'How?'. We must ask 'Where?'. We must ask 'What?'. We must ask 'When?'. We must ask every single question we can think of in relevance, and, with our Honour, understand the motives behind these actions. Then, and only then, may we act or fail to act. If we do such, we may then say our Honour is satisfied.

This is how Truth and Honour interact and intermingle. Our Honour will not allow us to settle for just one of the six Mortal Truths, but to strive to see and discover the Unadulterated Truth that our Goddess always sees. Our Honour
will not allow us to do otherwise. Each Unadulterated Truth we discover and bring to the Light is one step closer to the perfection we Mortals will never truly experience.

Even so, in this search for the Divine Perfection we will ever be denied, we must always remember, even if Honour is satisfied, it always hungers anew, immediately thereafter. We have sworn to the Love of the Light, the Honour of
the Light, the Wisdom of the Light, and the Vigilance of the Light. These Tenets may ever be satisfied, but even so, they are never not hungry. To swear to them, to promise to them to be Humble in Bearing, and Noble in Demeanor, is to be so at all times, be they times of great celebration, or unbearable tribulation.

This is our Honour. This is our Truth. Even this, though, is but a small part of our devotion to the Lady.