Sgrios Shambler

  Sgrios enjoys a reputation as the guardian of the end. He is the last thing we see before oblivion, and, as such, the net that keeps us from throttling over the edge of mortality into the realm of unbeing. For those focused on the preservation of the past, they see Sgrios as a God of Death; those with eyes fixed on the future embrace his stewardship of the living. Regardless of the vantage, Sgrios stands as the God of Endings; which seems cut and dry - birth allows us a starting point, and death punctuates the finality of that journey. What do we do, however, when the concept of an ‘ending’ is more complicated than that..? We, of course, know that life is more than a single narrative; it is a thick tome of adventures in which you are the protagonist. It is a journey composed of countless endings, and where one bleeds into the next is never as clearly defined as the chapters in a book. So, my question is: how do we know when something is over? When the meal has been served and we ...

Praise Sgrios! Our Lord of Death, Decay, and Rot!  My Lord of Mercy! We gather today to embrace the truth! That death is not the enemy. Decay is not to be feared. And destruction - ah, destruction - is but the reshuffling of sacred bones to make space for blooming life. The aching roots of a tree draw strength from the fallen. The wilted bloom folds into the soil to cradle the next seed. That which breaks is never wasted. That which ends…prepares the way. Sgrios does not take from us out of cruelty. He quiets pain. He offers release. He welcomes those whose bodies have failed them, whose suffering has outlived its purpose. And in His gentle rot, he nourishes that which comes next. For mercy is not always a healing that preserves but a healing that frees. We, who heal, know this intimately. We stitch wounds that sometimes will not close. We offer medicines that sometimes cannot cure. We hold hands on nights where hope...is far less gift than burden. In those moments... **takes a dee...

Few Aislings experience only one life. When Deoch touched us with our spark, he granted us a sight beyond that which we use to observe the world around us. The very term Aisling marks us as dreamers. Many of us have an uncanny connection to our family; we’re able to see what they see, know what they know. Siblings, cousins, parents and children - to many there is often little to separate our perception. Further, still, as ‘dreamers’, we are possessed with the ability to experience a second existence outside of ourselves. When we dream, our spirit travels to other realms where we are witness to a life entirely distinct, yet fully tethered to our existence. Despite how foreign these realms may seem, we are bound together by a silver thread that can not easily be severed. I’ve heard numerous accounts of the fantastical lives people lead in their dreams and from all accounts, these lives seem to be as real as anything we experience in our waking lives, here, in Temuair. I often wonder if, ...

High Priestess Paramour:  For over ten cycles this temple has been entrusted to my leadership. In many ways, I’ve shaped the face of this faith - not through the determination of force, but for lack of collaborators. Much of my life I spent feeling uncertain about the weight of my contributions, feeling as if I was unworthy to instigate change as nothing more than a mere priestess. Knowing what I did of our history, and having been raised in that environment by Van Morgan, the father of the modern Sgrian faith, I spent half of my time wishing I had someone to stand by my side and help me, and the other half fearing what may happen should a spectre of the past should manifest and deem my leadership unworthy. Though ghosts of the old temple do manifest on occasions, my service to this faith has largely been the work of a lone individual, and in that framework I became accustomed to being alone. Eventually I just gave up on being, altogether. No voice could penetrate my slumber - non...

((Notes: I lost my mom a few months ago and I just had my first birthday without her. This mass is based on true IRL events and the lessons of life, love, and death my mother taught me. I hope you find at least some value in these words. Please forgive me this moment of selfishness. If I could only ever hold one mass for Sgrios, it needed to be this one.)) **visibly nervous, voice a little shy** I would like to begin tonight's mass with a poem of mine. In hopes that you might all get to know me just a little bit better.  **deep breath** **a second one** **awkward pause** The Sgriocan Assertion **checks the room for reactions** **voice gets stronger** I assert that I’m Sgriocan I know that’s rather strange I promise I’m not broken I stand here firm and sane Some people find it rather odd “A Sgriocan? what is that?” “You can only have one god!” “This I know as fact!” I will not argue you my friend You may only serve at one Though hearts have ample space within To worship whom you wan...

 A Reflection by Priest Heva of Sgrios ((Much more was added as improv such as emotes, roleplay flavor, interaction with attendees, etc - this is the abridged note version)) My brothers and sisters who gather for this sacred Mass, I speak to you as one who has walked many paths in service to our Lord Sgrios. When I first took the cloth in Deoch 28, I believed that prayer and ritual alone would bring me closer to His crimson embrace. How naive I was then. It was through the discipline of the monk that I first began to understand. Hours spent in meditation, feeling my own flesh grow heavy with mortality, taught me that our bodies themselves are vessels heading toward one destination. Every breath we draw brings us closer to that final exhale. In those quiet moments, I felt His presence not as some distant deity, but as the inevitable force working within my very bones. When I embraced the ways of the druid, true revelation came. In the deep forests, I discovered what our Lord had bee...

  Through many discussions and initiations, I have heard Sgrios burdened with the name of Chaos. Chaos, the realm of Chadul, is disorder without meaning, confusion without form, the raving of madness. Yet when we look with clearer eyes upon the God of Death, Decay, and Destruction, what do we truly see? Look not at the mutterings of men, but at his hand upon the Aisling spark, and at the mark he leaves upon us — the Scar. The spark is fragile. One need not die to lose it, as is plain in those who once woke but no longer rise, though the gift of rebirth remains. And when death does come, we stand before Sgrios in our most delicate form, our souls stripped bare, shielded only by that faint and holy light within us. Yet in this most vulnerable state, his touch is measured. He returns us with care, leaving only a scar as testimony. This is no careless ruin. This is not confusion. It is an act of precision, of balance — the furthest from chaos one could imagine. When we speak of order, ...

Let us look at the octave through the eyes of a young Aisling - one who’s spark just opened their mind to the wonders of the world around them. With this spiritual awakening, it is common to seek a faith to devote themselves to; a faith which will, in some way, hang a flag on their victory and apply a salve to the failures. So, what do they see when they examine the eight Gods of Temuair? Each of the Gods beckons for the devotion of the prospective worshipper, each making promises that speak to the blessings they can offer: full spirits, full minds, full strength, full hearts, full control, full bodies, full pockets... But one God remains, and He offers only loss. Sgrios is a God like a void, in that he is defined by what he takes, not what he has to give. So why, then, does He command such a rich and vibrant congregation? If we have eight choices and seven of them bear wondrous promises of a blessed life, what draws so many to worship at the altar of decay? Sgrios does not give us any...

Welcome one and all to our musty house of rot. Today... rather than boring you all with another long-winded sermon on the duality of death - instead I am extremely delighted to give  you a... "presentation" on the matter.  One of the wonderous gifts Sgrios can grant a worshipper is the ability to claim an Aislings soul. Sgrios grants us a great boon of faith if one can claim a soul prior to anoters departure. How many of you would enjoy a boon to our great Lord?  -- after gathering the volunteers. Alright then, now that we've gotten that out  of the way...   *screaming* Too long have the mundanes  diminished our Sgrian powers, hampering our  ability to spread our gift!  -- A sacrifice dies *gesticulating wildly* Removing our ability to sleep one another!?   -- A sacrifice dies *voice cracking* Getting rangers involved in  trivial matters such as murder?!  -- A sacrifice dies Our summons used to attack on sight; now they ar...

Mass as presented by Minister Peneann  Let us first offer a prayer to Sgrios, a prayer that was inspired by a fellow Sgrios believer who's known by the name Phever, and in which I would like to thank for inspiring me so.   Though we dwell in Death, Rot and Decay these aspects still all respect life, for they only come when the time is nigh upon us, and breath can not be taken again, and the rotted walls shall crumble to dust, but upon doing so they reveal unto us a new fresh path ahead us, so that we may strive to ever push forward unto this world and discover more than once was. It is with this belief in mind that we offer up this prayer unto Sgrios, so that we may not take for granted what we are given. Amen.   On this very day I would like to depart unto you all a subject that, as a follower of the Sgrios faith, lays close to my heart.  The subject that I speak of is: The role of Death, Rot and Decay in temuair, in which Sgrios presides over.  It is because o...

Look at your hands — the skin is not as it was. The flesh thins, the bones press nearer to the surface. The hair pales, the joints ache, the strength you had slips away. You call this aging. I tell you, it is decay — and it is holy. For our god is not a perfect idol, untouched by the world. He is not gilded, nor made in marble. He is the rot that does not end, the flesh that never stops falling away, the god whose being is an unending feast of decay for the darkness from which he emerged. He is perpetual ending — and in that ending, perpetual truth. Sgrios’ hunger is ceaseless, and so too do we hunger. Not for bread alone, nor for fleeting pleasures, but for the stripping away of all that hides the bone. We hunger to see the world as it truly is — to taste the end of things and know them without their veils. You may think hunger is a wound, a lack, a punishment. It is not. Hunger is the sign that you are still moving toward him. To be full is to be still, to stop the journey, to fall i...

I thought perhaps I would touch upon a talking point I hear bandied about quite frequently as of late. Perhaps through latent whispers of a dying world; permeating our souls and escaping our lips as its proxy - or perhaps just the warcry of the new generation who have no sense of exactly what is broken, but ache to fix the damage. Regardless of the origin of the cry, the word on everyone’s lips these days is balance. Yes, it seems that across Temuair people want to speak of balance. They want to restore balance to the land, find balance within themselves, balance their mug upon their nose while they sip their ale in the tavern. More absurdly, though, they talk about bringing balance to the octave. As the high priestess of one of the strongest and most active faiths in the land, let me tell you now that balance is a myth spooled out of some oracles' mind to give Cail something to busy himself with. It simply does not exist, nor should it. This concept of balance that so many seem to...

  Tonight we are not going to be discussing any musty old tomes, nor am I really even going to be touching on decay. Tonight, our lecture is something every guest of this temple is certainly already aware of. Tonight we'll be speaking on "respect" or... as I often find myself repeating - "we don't do that here." Now I'm not speaking of blind respect towards those that we perceive as above us. *laughs* That's a silly notion, for a worshiper of Sgrios matters just as much as a minister. But of respect towards those that have earned it and -mutual- respect for those showing effort. A minister deserves respect for the many masses and initiates that they have performed of course, but so does an Acolyte who has assisted the temple in other ways. And though I'm certain that all clergies have to deal with this unfortunate situation at times, Sgrios seems to draw those with more... sinister tendencies. I've witnessed one Aisling spit at every mention ...

  Our temple is a stronghold for creativity and thought. Yes, look around at this grim facade - take note of the dungeonous trappings and the persistent, musty smell of decay. Water drips from the craggy walls and the floor is an uneven mess of gravel and stone - no soul has ever made the mistake of confusing this as a place of comfort - not with the torture racks and abundance of  tombstones. Yet there is something compelling about this shrine, and it is not uncommon to find scholars here working silently on their next paper, or studying tomes from the library in the corner. There were times in the past when you could even find priests from other temples in here penning masses to deliver in their own shrines. But why? If not for the atmosphere, if not for the comfort, if not for the closeness to our Lord - what is it that brings Temuair’s bright minds to such a dreadful corner of the lands? I believe they’re drawn to the darkness. Not because they're sinister or seeking some ...

Let us first take a moment to acknowledge the accomplishments of a couple Aislings in our trinity. Tyl , who has been a fixture of the temple, has ascended to the rank of Priest here in our humble shrine. We are very proud to welcome him into the clergy. Additionally, over in the temple of Deoch, Priestess Inuyoko has taken her first step into the high clergy with her role as Cleric of Deoch, which is a tremendous feat. All of Temuair will benefit from the light these Aislings bring to our temples.  ------ Deoch gifted us with more than the inspiration to transcend lives of mediocrity when he chose us as bearers of his spark; he also gifted us with a sort of immortality. Wounds and illnesses that would rend lesser beings naught but food for decay simply give us an audience with Sgrios’ great judge, Nyarlathotep. Through the combined brilliance of the Aisling Spark and Sgrios enduring vigilance, we need not waste an anxious moment fearing death - either at the hands of a catastroph...

Come forth, you who are burdened — the weary, the disillusioned. You who stagger beneath the weight of your Deochs, take solace. For there is peace beyond the struggle, and Sgrios, the silent god, waits without judgment.  He does not call to you in shouts or trumpet blasts. He does not demand or promise. He waits — still and inevitable — at the far edge of every path. To walk toward him is to walk toward truth. Not a cruel truth, but a quiet one. Not a punishment, but a release. With death comes a beginning — but first, it marks an end. The end of suffering. The end of fear. The end of all things that torment the mind and wear down the soul. We struggle through pain and loneliness, through failure and regret, but no agony is eternal. Nothing is. That is the gift of Sgrios — the certainty that all things pass. Even the fruit of Cail ripens, falls, and rots. Gramail’s law, etched in stone, crumbles beneath time’s hand. Glioca grants love, yet love fades and grief remains. All gifts a...

Are the splendors of nature reserved for the worshippers of Cail? Many crook an eyebrow when they find out that I am most inspired when I’m surrounded by nature; be it beneath the shade of a mighty oak, or standing with my feet in the gentle caress of a stream or lake. I love to lay in the grass and watch the clouds pass overhead, and, on the rare occasion I take leave of my post here in the temple, I am most often found hiking the wilds. So why is it that these gifts should be reserved for those who worship the son of Ceannlaidir? Those of the Cail temple have elected themselves as the custodians of the natural world, yet their perception of what that constitutes is heavily skewed - a near fictional idealization of nature. A visit to the temple in Undine is a picturesque and tranquil retreat from the stress of the real world - but it is just that - an artificial mirage meant to evoke nature without confronting it. Plant life is tended to and nurtured; carefully curated to achieve a v...

       Tonight we'll be talking about "The Second Affront to Luathas." These are the written excerpts. It is part of the tome chronicling the Shadow Wars and the role the Academi Arcanus played in it. I'll present the dates to let you keep track. It throws us right into the tome.  Danaan 1703 5th Moon 3rd-20th Days      So a mage named Tezerah Thoth has two apprentices go missing (as one does, right?) and Logan - yes THAT Logan in the temple of Choosing - had him confined to his quarters. They search his study and find his research had gone into "dark areas." An ancient black stone tablet etched with dire glyphs thought to have been from Kadath, was found behind a row of books.       Now there are texts that speak of Aosda "opening a portal to Kadath" and releasing the Darkness within. Also, Kadath is where the Dubhaim are believed to have come from.      The tablet they found contained knowledge of a yet unknown...