Saint of the Trine
Saint Oran of the Burning Sun (sometimes known as San Orando) is a Braicosi Saint with a controversial history. In the days of the First Empire of Cyrona, Oran of Iagos was a famed soldier who pursued a quest into the burning deserts of Talumia. Several heroic deeds are attributed to him, and he gained a reputation for performing various miracles.
His story came to an end he was betrayed by a wicked king and sentenced to be burned alive. The legend says that his body burned for three days and three nights, during which time he neither succumbed nor cried out in pain. He was finally executed by being stabbed through the heart. After his death, a pall fell over the land, and it is said that for one year no fire would burn in the kingdom.
HISTORY
Martyred far from home, Oran was canonized as a Saint of the Prophet Braius, but also by the followers of the foreign Prophet Aramat. In the larger scholarship of the Three Prophets of the Trine, this was for a long time simply a curious footnote.
Saint Oran is the patron Saint of the inland Iagosi city of Oranda. In a temple there, his original armour was displayed upon the grand altar. Although the Armour of Oran recently went missing, it has since been returned to its proper home.
A similar theft was perpetrated on the Reliquary of Oran (his remains) from Oran-of-Ascenzia, and the remains of the saint are still unaccounted for. It is said priests from Oran-of-Ascenzia still comb the lands in search of these missing artifacts.
What truly transpired...
The theft of the Reliquary of Oran-of-Ascenzia was instigated by the curate of the Chapel of Saint Oran in Ladroa, Bruno Leocresca. This was arranged through the Baron Cordova at considerable expense.
However, this was not an attempt by Leocresca to repatriate the remains of the saint to Ladroa, but instead to obtain these artifacts for the shadowy Bletcher Fellows, harbingers of the Black Sun (who certainly planned to desecrate them). Afterward, it was discovered that the Armour of Oran had also been stolen by Leocresca for this purpose.
The fanatical high clerics of Oran-of-Ascenzia, the twins Pyreus and Ignis, sought to track and recapture the Reliquary. In an altercation with priests from Oranda who were seeking their stolen armour. Pyreus and Ignis accused them of plotting against Ascenzia, and almost burned one of the Orandans alive. Their cruelty was repaid when they died at the hands of Jack Tyrsson and his fellows.
Leocresca never planned to honour his deal with the Baron Cordova, and attempted to take the Reliquary without paying. The Reliquary was seemingly destroyed in the ensuing fight. It was later revealed that this was only a decoy copy used by the Baron to misdirect thieves and guard against betrayal.
However, the shared reverence of Saint Oran became more problematic after a branch of Aramati worship emerged based on a conflation of the Prophet Aramat with the Sankarite God-King, Darama (hence, the Daramadi Heresy).
The religious schism and the expansionist agenda of the Daramadi Caliphate set them at odds with the followers of Braius, and the Church of the Holy Wheel worked fervently to disavow the Daramadi claim to Saint Oran, and position him solely as a Braicosi figure.
During the period when Iagos fell under rule of the Daramadi Caliphate, the earthly remains of Saint Oran were returned to the land of his birth, and a Daramadi temple was constructed for him in Ladroa.
When Ladroa was sacked 100 years ago by knights of the Holy Wheel at the close of the Great Reclamation of Iagos, Oran’s remains were looted and taken to the newly-constructed temple to Oran in Ascenzia. Until its recent theft, the reliquary of Saint Oran remained in Ascenzia, and brought prestige to the temple there.
ICONOGRAPHY and PRACTICES
Saint Oran is strongly associated with fire and the sun, and is invoked in a variety of different rituals, including exorcisms, the driving out of vermin, and protections against the undead.
The religious schism and the expansionist agenda of the Daramadi Caliphate set them at odds with the followers of Braius, and the Church of the Holy Wheel worked fervently to disavow the Daramadi claim to Saint Oran, and position him solely as a Braicosi figure.
During the period when Iagos fell under rule of the Daramadi Caliphate, the earthly remains of Saint Oran were returned to the land of his birth, and a Daramadi temple was constructed for him in Ladroa.
When Ladroa was sacked 100 years ago by knights of the Holy Wheel at the close of the Great Reclamation of Iagos, Oran’s remains were looted and taken to the newly-constructed temple to Oran in Ascenzia. Until its recent theft, the reliquary of Saint Oran remained in Ascenzia, and brought prestige to the temple there.
ICONOGRAPHY and PRACTICES
Saint Oran is often depicted in a suit of gleaming mail. The most common icons used for Saint Oran are that of a man either wreathed in flames (in Talumia) or a heart aflame (in Duatha). In both cases, this is often used as a solar symbol.
Priests of Oran are usually clad in gold, orange, and ochre. It is customary for priests to subject themselves to a severe burn on some part of their body as a ritual of initiation that honours Oran’s martyrdom on the pyre. Customarily, the scar left by this ritual is a small area on the chest or the back of the hand.
Saint Oran is the patron Saint of the inland Iagosi city of Oranda. In a temple there, his original armour was displayed upon the grand altar. Although the Armour of Oran recently went missing, it has since been returned to its proper home.
A similar theft was perpetrated on the Reliquary of Oran (his remains) from Oran-of-Ascenzia, and the remains of the saint are still unaccounted for. It is said priests from Oran-of-Ascenzia still comb the lands in search of these missing artifacts.
What truly transpired...
However, this was not an attempt by Leocresca to repatriate the remains of the saint to Ladroa, but instead to obtain these artifacts for the shadowy Bletcher Fellows, harbingers of the Black Sun (who certainly planned to desecrate them). Afterward, it was discovered that the Armour of Oran had also been stolen by Leocresca for this purpose.
The fanatical high clerics of Oran-of-Ascenzia, the twins Pyreus and Ignis, sought to track and recapture the Reliquary. In an altercation with priests from Oranda who were seeking their stolen armour. Pyreus and Ignis accused them of plotting against Ascenzia, and almost burned one of the Orandans alive. Their cruelty was repaid when they died at the hands of Jack Tyrsson and his fellows.
Leocresca never planned to honour his deal with the Baron Cordova, and attempted to take the Reliquary without paying. The Reliquary was seemingly destroyed in the ensuing fight. It was later revealed that this was only a decoy copy used by the Baron to misdirect thieves and guard against betrayal.
For some time, both the Reliquary and the Armour of Oran were in the Baron's keeping in Ladroa. Eventually, the saint's remains were brokered back to a Daramadi temple in Talumia, while the armour was returned by Tyrson's party to the temple of Oran in Oranda.
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