History

The Church of Light, indeed all organizations of significant enough size, run on people like the man Roderick Hale used to be. Like hundreds of other servants of the Light, he was a priest of little import and limited ability. A man who lacked the strength and drive to rise above his station. Competent would have been the word most of his compatriots would have used to describe him. He preached to his flock, collected the tithes of the devout, and so on. An otherwise unnoteworthy cog in a vast machine of theological belief. There have been thousands of people just like Hale in the Church of Light, and for years it seemed that the only significant record of his existence was likely to be his tombstone.

In the year 2252, he suddenly vanished from his parish. Most who knew him simply thought that he had finally come to the realization that he wasn’t going to make it as a preacher and had abandoned his vows, or perhaps he had taken up with a romantic partner somewhere. What they did not expect was a man who emerged from the wilderness, burning with an inner light and full of a righteous conviction he had always lacked before. His thunderous voice carried far, and with it he preached that the Church of Light had fallen. Roland had shown him the rot at its core, the idolatry, heresy, and ignorance that festered within its heart like a cancer. The Gods themselves had lifted him up as their voice, so that he might cleanse the Church’s sin and show the faithful the true path towards salvation. First hundreds, then thousands, fell under the sway of his golden voice. His otherworldly charisma fueled an ascent so rapid it defies belief, and in under a decade he had risen from a simple parish priest, to Archbishop of the entire Church of Light.

Unlike many former Archbishops, Hale was not content to simply lead the Church as a figurehead or administrative leader. When the call to arms against Ga’more, the God of Domination, was sounded in the year 2261, he led the holy armies of the Church from the frontlines. He blessed them with unheard of miracles with one hand and smote hordes of insectoid Brood commanded by Ga’more’s corpse’s puppeteer, the Dragon Ta-Ba-Ret, with the other. Once their hard-fought victory was won, Hale gathered the teeming masses of wounded and exhausted soldiers and adventurers. This included many of the highest ranking members of all three factions of the Empire of Berphaunt, Whiteraven Alliance, and the amassed clans of the then Savage Legion. He proclaimed that his tolerance of their foul practices was at an end. No more would the Church of Light tolerate those who were in service to the Dragons, bound to the Dark Gods, or even those that felt the call of the Savage Deities of the Einher within their hearts. Those who did not bow before the Light were condemned as heretics, and the sentence for their blasphemy was death. He had the ships that came to ferry the various nations home burnt to cinders, and left with a few of his faithful in a pillar of white light before any could challenge his decree.

Current Events

Ever since that day, Hale has not remained idle. When King Roland, the former sovereign of Tiefanue, suddenly died under mysterious circumstances, Hale assigned his best Inquisitors to the task of ferreting out the truth. He was saddened, but not surprised, when they uncovered evidence that the culprit was none other than Prince Leopold himself. Hale moved quickly, having Leopold stripped of his birthright and charged with regicide, but like the guilty coward that he was, the former Prince fled Hale’s righteous judgement. With a lack of other options, Hale was forced to give stewardship of the throne to one Bartram Pierrot with Bishop Armenia Wrathmore as his direct advisor to the Church to keep the throne from falling to further corruption. Hale also proclaimed himself Grand Councillor of the Elder Council of the Whiteraven Alliance, replacing the deceased King Roland Tiefanue. In a short time all the various sovereigns of the Whiteraven Alliance bowed before him with veiled threats of death hanging above their heads. If any had any reservations about him at that time, then they kept such to themselves.

In the Winter of 2264, Roderick Hale forced open every Skein Gate upon Maud’madir, and bade all those nearby to witness the following events. He had secured hundreds of Elves, most of them survivors of the fallen Elven Nation of Suvant, and burnt them to ashes with a great pillar of holy flame. Such a release of Elven lives could have only one result, but Hale had been ready. By employing the use of the Black Wytch, an evil Grey Elf in the custody of the Church for centuries, he forced the arriving Mortigeist into a single physical form. The hate-filled Demon Prince struggled defiantly against his bonds, but was ultimately bound him to the Material Plane, mortal and seemingly helpless. With the terror of the Elves now shackled to his will, Hale bade all of Elvenkind to thank him for this deed as the image from the Skein Gates snapped shut. With the Mortigeist captured, he was carried into the dungeons of Castle Lightguard and secured behind the strongest wards the Citadel had devised for Demonkind.

Months later, the Queen Matriarch of Felnir, Seltia Allana, approached Castle Lightguard with her entourage. She expressed numerous concerns during her audience with the Archbishop. The appropriation of armies that did not belong to him, his self-appointment to Grand Councillor when he was forbidden by the Whiteraven Accord from doing so, and the judgement he unilaterally pronounced upon Prince Leopold all gave her hackles cause to rise. Further to all of this was the suspicious manner of King Roland’s death, which was her final straw and ultimately the largest reason why she now demanded he relinquish the crown of Tiefanue from its Steward and step down as Grand Councillor of the Whiteraven Alliance. Her battered corpse was hung from the ramparts of Castle Lightguard days later, as a warning to all other traitors who would stand against him. While most of her entourage met a similar fate, the late Queen Matriarch’s lover and consort Chandi Mayadev managed to escape northward, where it is assumed she has begun to rally support amongst the Felnirian people.

The frontier town of Misthaven was recently visited by Roderick Hale, and accounts of what transpired differ depending on the source. The Church of Light claims Misthaven had been utterly corrupted by Prince Leopold and the Church of Darkness, even going so far as to elect a Lich as their Mayor. Despite offers of salvation, the people of Misthaven refused any and all attempts at such. This left them with no choice but to entirely purge the town and its inhabitants. By the Church’s word, the town and its citizens are no more.

Meanwhile, reports from people claiming to be citizens of that town paint a very different picture. They claim that Hale and his soldiers did not come to save or redeem their souls; they came solely to cleanse and kill. Furthermore, they claim to have seen the Archbishop fall in combat against the adventurers who call Misthaven home, only to vanish in a pillar of white light.

The most recent reports have put Hale and his entourage travelling northward. While their numbers are hard to determine, it is well known that many are still yet swayed by his words, and his ranks continue to swell in number as they march.