Jalih Anoov, High Priestess of the Dreaming Tree
High Priestess/ High Priest.
In the Taurien year 1848 ( The current year is 7187) the Centaur High Priest, Jalih Anoov called a conclave in the town of Raerva. This was the end of the Taurian Ancient period of Stone and Copper. (Taurien History ) The Conclave was to unify the many cults and clarify the doctrines of the Mysteries of the Dreaming Tree. The final document was produced in 1849 and was one of the first and greatest documents of Taurien philosophy and theology, and the root of the Church of The Worlds Tree. It is primarily Priest, Novice and Initiate in question and answer and lecture format. It is widely held that the Priest was supposed to be Jalih Anoov herself. The text explores issues of existence, perception and reality, their philosophy of the fractured and fragmented nature of the soul, the natures of the Gods, and the paradoxes and mysteries beyond mortal understanding that make up the Dreaming and Worlds Tree. It is most interesting and little known to Imperial scholars that the Taurien recognize a God called Mermalin, who is exactly the same God we recognize as Worrozhi, The Dragon Flower. Only Ebi of our Order of Heaven comes close to a similar representation in the pagan Taurien Theology. It is strange that different creatures of Centaurs and Humans might share Gods, yet Worrozhi/ Marmalin is a God of Death (or properly denial of death) - a feature shared. Clearly, the ancient Torga people shared some similar contact with the same Gods as the Taurien before the Torga settled the Core approximately Taurien: 2686, and fell to the dominion of the Overlords after T:3600.
-Ridhi Yuqu, Master librarian and sage of the Imperial Library of Lanhou. "Treatise on the Taurian society" in the Imperial Year 1371, The 37th year of the Red Jade Empress.
Holy Books & Codes
Jalih Anoov oversaw the Conclave and codification of the Church of the Dreaming Tree which transformed the individual cults which had previously been involved in appeasing and seeking favor of the gods as manifestations of their aspects/ domain for fortunate weather, crops and production. Now omens and divinations might be sought and the Gods became more individualized and both patrons and objects of stasis representing vices. The spirit tree and the mysteries of the soul became the new focus.
Physical Description
Identifying Characteristics
Though neither the priests nor leaders of the Taurian wear crowns, they are frequently added in representations of great figures. Jalih reportedly was a dapple coat with a light skin tone, rare amongst the Taurien.
Mental characteristics
Sexuality
Historians report that Jalih Anoov seemed to have lived in typical traditional triad that calved three known offspring who followed unremarkable careers.
Morality & Philosophy
Even in the early Eras, the foundations of Centaur culture had formed and we know that Jalih was Day path (Jhioop) of Honor, and of the House of the Void and practiced the Pillar of Devotion: Clear, undiluted, pure and perfect motives of loyalty and excellence. The Night Path (Kwee*). (* slide mouth “click”) of Chaos and destruction, were suppressed and driven out or hid as Twilight path (Whi-vol) followers of Renoun.
Personality Characteristics
Likes & Dislikes
The High Priestess generally lived simply, typically eating oat porridge with nuts and dried fruits in the morning, tea through the day and night meal from the common village oven.
Vices & Personality flaws
Jalih's challenge was the God Skerrit's temptation - Sloth. Sadness, despair and depression. The lure of the easiest path, simple and least demanding. Ignoring right wrong or best in favor of good enough or only in self interest.
One instance occurred when the library of Raerva burned and Jalih so mourned the loss of lore that she went away into seclusion. It is said when she returned it was with her book of Philosophies.
Social
Religious Views
Jalih was a follower of the Philosophy of Reasoners which espoused that since all thing proceed from Causes and Conditions, it can teased out what precedings leads to what results in all things. She was also High Priestess of the religion which speaks of paradox and things outside of reason. Further, she was Jhioop ( The Day Path), which seeks to raise up the Po animal soul of the body (the source of growth and wound healing, hunger, thirst, tiredness, urges of urination and defecation, lusts and passions) to the Higher Soul (Mind and Will) and place it more firmly under control of the Will or merged into one soul.
The Way of the Faith
In the ancient days was the Dream Time when all the plants, animals, spirits and peoples of the world could change their forms, and went freely and in peace feasting upon the mana. Rifflian is the center of the Dream Time, the secret name of the Tree of Life dreaming the births and deaths of worlds. Over the ages the world has drifted away from the Dream Time and it's godlike powers. The plant spirits sleep and creature eats creature, yet all is balanced and the Tree of Life brings the cycles of the seasons / life / death and all things of the world. The Gods are the manifestations of the Dreams of the People as they parted from the Dreamtimes. But the Gods are also temptations and understood as imperfect steps.
Rifflian- the Tree of life - has infinite branches of worlds. Souls are fragmented like the Realms (Umbra, Dreaming, Astral, Mortal Realm) and scattered across worlds that are every choice, but are linked in the Dream realm. You are immortal and born across infinite worlds, the leaves of every branch and twig. In Dreaming we experience the fragments across the multitude of similar yet different worlds. The individual seeks to unite the higher soul and step away from the bindings of the world of flesh.
The Sky ( higher Realms)is home of Gods and Celestials, via the astral “sky”. Beyond the astral is the Rift. The Dreaming Tree is both reaching up from it's roots in the Underworld, and well as rooted in the Astral realm of true Forms and reaching back down.
The branches are the spirit realms of the umbra that connect to the trunk of the Deep Umbra and reach out to the boughs of Mortal, pocket domains and other worlds. Swirling around the tree is the wind of the Mists of the Dreaming.
The great trunk is the bulk of the deep umbra. It is dark except for the glow of passing spirits traveling rapidly up or down or outward to the boughs.
The roots: This area is dim and foggy and full of cracks and crevices and tangles. Beyond the roots outward is Chaos. What has fallen is drawn back up to feed the new leaves and branches.
The Underworld: This is the tangle of root and layers of fallen leaves, branches and spirit matter and death. It is in perpetual darkness in the shade of the tree. It is all the dust of ages, all the yesterdays and the detritus of dead worlds. Originally it was cycled and all fed back into the roots via the Wyrm, but Oboros/ Apophis has been bent and now circles around the roots, where the dead cluster while Oblivion pulls steadily down.
Species
Honorary & Occupational Titles
High Priestess. Honor.
Age
Calved: 1813. Died: 1919
Children
Gender
female
Quotes & Catchphrases
The soul is a broken and fractured thing. It lights up when it finds things of the shapes that fit the holes. They might not be the correct parts, but they point to the shape it should take.
-Book of Reflections
Suppose someone walks under the sunlight looking at the ground and seeing things by the shapes of shadows. They think "This is the shape." That the length and form of the shadow makes it tall or short, connected or apart. Now look up and see those are not the accurate shapes and connections. So too as we look above to the bright realm of the Astral. Mortal forms are shadows of True Perfect Forms of physical things, and we learn most spirits are crude points of Astral light, and their shapes are cast in the Umbra shadow of our mortal world. So also the Dreaming Realm is heart felt Truths, rather than Mind truths. Suppose you set a cup on a shelf and go away about tasks. You forget that you set the cup on the shelf. Does the cup cease to be? No, you come back to the place and find the forgotten cup. Someone tells a story and when you try to recall it, we have only the general shape - parts are lost or confused unless we repeat it over to fix it in memory. That we forget the Dream is in us, not the revealed.
- Mysteries of the Dreaming Tree
Aligned Organization
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