Church of the Paladins

• Located in the Hillside district at the end of Strada Duomo.
• At the top of twenty-five staircases, each ending in a statue of a Major or Minor Paladin.
• Palpable feeling of reverence and awe here, almost a tingling feeling of power.
• Four domes surround a central dome. Under each dome is an altar to one of the gods, with the grandest central altar for Aruna. Beneath Aruna's shrine is a stone ramp spiraling down into the passagio dei below.
• The main walls and the domes of the church are built of Carolingian-era concrete, with a composition unknown to modern masons. The domes are unsupported on the inside, another construction feat lost to the ages on such a scale.
• The oldest church in Lorinne, built between 400 to 550 CE, and once the seat of the Seneschal. After the Citadel of Viresh was built during the 9th century, the Seneschal's seat was transferred there.
• The church has fallen on hard times (most of the worshipers have migrated to the Church of St. Roland in the last year since Pastore Gavinus has taken on the leadership there). As such, they have been late paying their protection and were visited by goons of Il Dolore. After a beating of Pastore Ameline and a general trashing of the place, Pulg the enforcer took the gilded softsteel orb held by the hands of the Guerisse statue as payment.
• Last summer, while digging a foundation for a new parsonage near the church, the builders uncovered ancient foundations and a mosaic floor dating into antiquity, perhaps as early as the 1st or 2nd century CE. Funding for the project ran out in the fall, and it has lain open for month. Ameline recently started to continue unearthing the old site herself, and in the center of the intricately patterned mosaic found a hexagonal silver plate etched with the words, "Regardez l'Asraveda. De peur d'oublier comment les dieux utilisent nos prières pour s'élever." [Translation: "Look to the Asraveda. Lest we forget how the gods use our prayers to rise."]
• She showed the plaque to Pastore Gavinus of the Church of St. Roland, whom she admires, and he passed along the information to the Seneschal. The Seneschal had the plaque removed and taken to the Citadel for safekeeping, and called the Convocation of Lorinne to debate whether the Gods indeed did rise from mortals.
• The center of the mosaic, where the plaque was taken from, is a bone-white ceramic plate. In the indentation where the plaque was mounted, three interlocked triangles are carved.
• Ameline did take a rubbing of the plaque (which she is calling the Lamina Vecchio) before it was removed. It shows the inscription and the 3 triangles symbol in the bottom left corner.
• Ameline has continued to unearth the old mosaic, and she recently noticed the patterns in the mosaic were actually an Bhaasa inscription, reading "The center leads to the Truth." She is excited by the prospect that the area under the center of the floor might have a clue to the lost Asraveda.

Purpose / Function

Pentic Church serving the Parish of Hillside.

Alternative Names

Chiesa dei Paladini (the Paladini)

Type

Temple / Church

Parent Location

Lorinne

Related Plots

• Arc 4: Getting Vengeance