Mayhiros Tesos
"Horses are strong, lovely beasts. They race ast families, kept close for protection. To see them race past a window is art. But the art is only momentary, and when the horses have gone, all you have before you are their leavings. This is a metaphor for the whole Marukan Alliance. The people here are blithely unconcerned for the condition of their souls. Those few who save breath for prayer make sacrifice to their ancestors, and too many are the shrines they raise to their horse god, Hiparkes. Since coming here, I have even heard strong rumor that the Hundred Gods Heresy has taken root deep within the hills and spreads like cancer out into the plains.
"But the flock of a monk in the Scavenger Lands is widespread, indeed. There are children of the Dragons here, and I cannot leave them on their own when they ask for my guidance. Not that I am fooled into believing Tesos' only thought is of piety. He has as much authority over these backwater plains as any man can claim, and he will pretend to whatever faith he must if it can gain him the power to keep it. Nor would he be the first to use the Immaculate Faith so; even the great houses on the Blessed Isle send their children to the Cloister of Wisdom more for the puissant arts we teach than the enlightenment we offer. And I will do with Tesos' children what we Immaculates have done with the children of the great houses for centuries. I will train them in our arts, I will mold them in the image of the dragons and I will raise them to righteousness, no matter their father's reasons for sending them to me.
-- Ragara Junet, Immaculate Abbot of Nexus
