Hesiesh

Hesiesh, the Reciter of Loud Prayers and Efficacious Hymns, is the Immaculate Dragon of fire. He is usually depicted as a bald, broad-faced monk with saffron robes, a necklace of fist-sized prayer beads, and wrappings on his forearms. In the eastern parts of the Blessed Isle, the iconic Hesiesh is pale, looks Wàn, and clean-shaven, with a kufi cap. In many other parts, he is darker, and sports a trim red beard. He is almost always seated and meditating. In more strictly aniconic periods, Hesiesh is often symbolized by a flaming eight-spoked wheel or an empty brazier.
Hesiesh has among the smallest bodies of stories; Pasiap has fewer, but only because the Epic of Pasiap is fragmented. Hesiesh’s body of literature is focused almost entirely in the Epic of Hesiesh, with only a handful of supporting stories, mostly expanding on the cave meditations or his childish adventures as a young prince.

Early Life of Hesiesh

Hesiesh has the most coherent early-life narrative of any of the Five Imamculate Dragons. He was born as a prince in “His Father’s Kingdom,” the name of which is never specified. It is described as a land rich in magic and natural power, with hot summers. Modern scholars identify many places as potential candidates for The Kingdom of Hesiesh’s Father: some identify the wonderful climate of Numinous Rolling Wave Dominion, hoping to place Hesiesh on the Isle; others identify any of a dozen kingdoms throughout the Threshold matching this description.
Unlike the other Dragons, Hesiesh usually has no strong supernatural element attributed to the circumstances of his birth. His father was known to be an Anathema king – though some sources are more vague, leaving open the possiblity that Hesiesh’s Father was simply a mortal king allied to the Anathema or even a Dragon-Blooded king lead astray by the Anathema’s wicked words – who desired to appoint Hesiesh as his heir over Hesiesh’s older sister. The Texts note that Hesiesh’s birth was foretold by a comet crossing the sky on the night of his conception.
As a prince and favored heir in His Father’s Kingdom, Hesiesh was raised in luxury and with neither want nor need. From a young age, Hesiesh could see that the life he was living was unjust. He frequently pointed out the contradictions in his tutors’ teachings and criticized their moral failings.
By the age of eight, Hesiesh had already begun to criticize the hypocrisy and decadence of the devil-kings’ world, so his father forbade him from leaving the palace or from speaking to anyone aside from his tutors and his family. Despite his father’s provisions, Hesiesh continued to teach the other children of the palace and gradually, they grew to know him as a boy of great character and insight.

Hesiesh in His Father’s Court

The story of Hesiesh in His Father’s Court tells about how Hesiesh came to reject the decadence of the Anathema. After being shown his father’s throne that he is due to inherit – “a giant seat, seven times or more in height the height of the young dragon, and carved from solid gold; the cushion, bright red, stuffed with feathers of Harum the Thunderbird; the sides carved with idols of a thousand gods, each with rubies for eyes the size of a thumbnail; and raised on a marble platform surrounded on all sides by a sea of mercury” – Hesiesh was repulsed by the decadence and refused to inherit the kingdom.
Hesiesh’s father sent five ministers to try to convince him to take up the throne. Hesiesh rebuffs the arguments of each by revealing how they are hollow, selfish, or misleading. In the end, Hesiesh is moved to return to his duty by a servant girl who convinces him that the kingdom would be worse under any other ruler.
The story is one of three iconic tales of Hesiesh, and vitally introduces two characters strongly associated with him: the servant girl Maythra and Hesiesh’s older sister Aodri. In various apocryphal tales of Hesiesh, these characters are expanded upon. A particular heresy holds that Maythra in fact bore Hesiesh a child in his younger days, who later helps the other Immaculate Dragons to proselytize their religion after the Immolation of Hesiesh.
The ministers’ arguments in this story are five broad arguments about duty, justice, tradition, virtue, and leadership. Hesiesh refutes their arguments by revealing their own failing of understanding – such as revealing the supposed argument to justice to be an argument to cruelty. These responses are so famous as to be the source of several idioms within the Realm concerning failures of these same values.

The Burning Raiment and the Cave Meditations

At the time of his coronation, Hesiesh’s father’s ministers attempted to clothe him in “the raiments of wicked kings,” which ignited in flames as soon as they touched his skin. The resultant fireball destroyed the palace and scarred Hesiesh’s father, who sent the forces of the Anathema after him. Hesiesh fled the Anathema for ten days and ten nights. Every second night of the pursuit, he saw a comet in the sky, drawing closer – the same comet which foretold his birth. The comet was actually the fires burning in the souls of all humans for liberation from the forces of the devil-kings. On the tenth night, the comet crashed into Hesiesh, and his pursuers break off chase because they cannot approach the pyre.
Eventually, Hesiesh took up hermitage in a hidden cave. There, he meditated on virtue for many years. In the darkness of the cave, his mind was freed from the blinding Anathema light and he was able to achieve true wisdom. Hesiesh wrote thousands of verses of wisdom on the walls in ash. He survived off of the water dripping from the stalactites and what stray whisps of grain flew into the cave. He is even said to have taken a breath only once every day and twice every night.
While in the cave, hordes of demons try to tempt Hesiesh from his meditations. Stories vary wildly about the demonic temptation, featuring everything from swarms of stinging bees that burn when they touch his skin to poison snakes that die when they bite him to seductive spirits that try to tempt him with the shapes of nubile young men and voluptuous young women. Hesiesh refutes each demon with a barking prayer, driving them out of the cave with the power of his voice, and a sermon which banishes them back to Hell.
Every telling ends with Hesiesh defeating the final demon by singing a hymn so true and powerful that it is converted to Immaculacy on the spot. In most variations, this demon is the living storm Garuvar, who becomes known as the Foremost Among the Virtuous Demons. Some variations, not recognized as canonical by the Order, feature Hesiesh’s older sister Aodri, corrupted by Anathemic influence, as the final demon.
Hesiesh is reputed to have never in his life spoken an unnecessary word, and is admired for his terse, poetic wisdom. The proverbs, koans, prayers, hymns, and recitations of the cave meditations are insightful summarizations of complicated moral and ethical dilemmas. These startling insights today form the basis of Immaculate moral philosophy.

The Immolation of Hesiesh

The final iconic tale of Hesiesh is by far his most famous story: the story of his death by self-immolation and the purging of the world. This tale is recorded in the last chapters of the Epic of Hesiesh.
During the Five Days of Mela, as she leads the forces of the Righteous Army of Liberation against the devil-kings, Hesiesh avoids the fighting and spends his time cultivating religion among the soldiers. Hesiesh gives many short sermons and resolves many conflicts among the rear forces, focused more on the spiritual well-being of the men than victory.
Hesiesh periodically debates with Mela, arguing for peace against her arguments for war. Central to their conflict is the role of human beings in war: is it worth the toil, sin, and pain of war to defend the virtuous peace? Throughout these chapters, Hesiesh is heartbreakingly genuine in his appeals for peace, even shedding tears over the slain soldiers of the Anathema, who are but pawns in a war larger than any of them can know.
The debate between Mela and Hesiesh is left unsettled. Each point which one of them makes is perfectly countered by the other, leaving their debate in exact equilibrium. At the end of the Five Days, as Mela is struggling to end the war by eliminating the last devil-kings, she nearly falls to fatigue, having worn herself thin. Hesiesh steps in to defend her, and enacts violence for the first and last time in his life.
After handily defeating the final devil-king, Hesiesh warns Mela to find shelter for herself, the other dragons, and her men. Hesiesh takes a lotus position in the center of the battlefield, and as the vicious hungry ghosts of the slain devil-kings begin to rise, calls out echoing prayers as he immolates himself in his own anima. The purging fires of his righteous devotion sweep across the whole of Creation, burning away the corpses of the war and assuring rest for all those slain in the conflict.

Hesiesh’s Purviews and Mystery Cults

Hesiesh is a distant entity for many Immaculates, a serene and contemplative figure associated with meditation, the act of devotion, spiritual wellness, and internal alchemy. People often revere Hesiesh with the goal of achieving long life and serenity. His patronages include musicians, artits, policemen, keepers-of-the-peace, and monarchs, owing to his royal heritage.
Hesiesh is occasionally attributed to more eccentric patronages as well. He is often considered a patron of bakers, cooks, and tea-makers, as the Epic of Hesiesh notes that his only weakness was a love of food and tea. Bathhouses often have a shrine to Hesiesh, believing that his hot breath helps keep their baths steamy. For unknown reasons, peasants often associate Hesiesh with cats.
Mystery cults of Hesiesh are few and far between. Many of these cults are based around the worship of a supposed fragment of his skeleton – though several temples and relics are recognized by the Order as originating from Hesiesh, these bone-cults rarely have any grounding. Peasants often erect heretical edifices of Hesiesh, believing that his image frightens malicious spirits away.

Emulation of Hesiesh

Immaculates attempt to emulate Hesiesh by cultivating wisdom, practicing self-control, by being compassionate and virtuous, and by responding to falsehood with the truth. Emulating Hesiesh involves practicing meditation, the fasting traditions of many holidays, and a serene detachment from the temporary passions of the world.
Fire Aspects are encouraged to emulate Hesiesh by studying his control. He is known to have been precise, deliberate, and contained. Fire Aspects are often drawn to spontaneous action without considering the consequence of their action, and Hesiesh reminds them to consider and contain.