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The aim of this document is to produce a first-draft proposal on how the worship of Aurora can be best integrated with the wishes and needs of the Company.

The following wishes were stated by a cross-section of Company members and must therefore be taken as a reasonably accurate consensus of opinion:

- We must learn who the Company’s enemies are and their weaknesses, with the objective of taking the fight to them.

- Retain the ideal of brotherhood, uncorrupted by religion.

- No forced worship of Aurora.

- Religious freedom for the army.

- Aurora kept close to home.

- Company must be able to call on Aurora’s full power when necessary.

Any widespread worship of Aurora runs the risk that the Company will no longer be at its core. Eventually the development of this new religion will grow beyond the Company’s ability to directly influence it. This will open the door to abhorrences such as corrupt priesthoods, fanatical sects and malign influence from evil gods.

Instead, the proposal is that Aurora be worshipped as a ‘mystery cult’. Initiates must pass though seven distinct steps, qualifying at each new step to learn more about the goddess. The first couple of steps need not even have anything to do with the Company. But as long as the highest steps are kept strictly within the Company, we can both retain Aurora with us and also teach initiates other valuable lessons as they progress though the steps.

At the grassroots level we will aim to merge the goddess into many of the established pantheons. She will, of course, be in a form that differs from pantheon to pantheon, a form designed to met the particular niche; yet always mysteriously elusive and silent - thus invoking curiosity and attract followers.

Followers who succeed in finding the Company will progress through the next steps of initiation. As they learn more about the true nature of Aurora, they will also have to learn religious tolerance, brotherliness and discipline.

The final three steps are only attained by full members of the Company. To take the oath, however, the initiate must also have passed all the requirements that a non-worshipper of Aurora would have to pass.

1) The Distant God

A worthy individual sees a vision of the god in his peripheral vision. A figure reminiscent of the gods of his pantheon, but somehow different. Whatever the pantheon, the figure is dressed in an enveloping cloak and a mask with a sun motif. Even the gender of the god is impossible to determine. If the god is approached, the figure will disappear.

Examples:

Someone from Galadiahos will see an austere god that will ignore him, surely associated with Ohros the Pale? To distract such a god would be folly.

A tribesman will see a charioteer hurtling across the plains, a child of Kavelarees or maybe a different relative or the god; but always in the far distance and riding away.

A citizen of Pembelian will see a dancer by one of the fountains, reminiscent of one of the civilized gods; yet always skipping out of sight down a side street when approached.

A kemes from Pasar will hear stories about, but rarely seen, the elusive thief-god that steals metakeenos from the unwary farmer.

2) The Beckoning God

If an individual is persistent enough in prayer, the god (still masked and cloaked) will eventually acknowledge her presence in some small way. Any conversation will be very brief. Limited to hints that to learn more and be formally initiated into the god’s cult, the individual must seek out the Children of the Dawn. Perhaps, depending on her worthiness, she will also receive directions to follow.

Examples:

The Galadrian might have to spend days deciphering clues from intoning inordinately long and tedious mantras.

The tribesman might have to chase the charioteer for many days and nights, picking up clues dropped by his quarry.

The Pembelian might be teased with devilish riddles.

The kemes might recover his stolen metakeenos to find a message written on its hide.

Once the initiate finds the Children of the Dawn, he becomes what the Company presently call a recruit or retainer. The god removes the mask to review the face of a goddess called Aurora, though she is still cloaked. As well as Company duties, which are all non-military at this stage, the initiate is taught that Aurora is the goddess of religious tolerance. Not only does she not require them to worship her above all others, but she actively encourages them to continue to worship their previous pantheon. Any initiates unable to grasp the principle of religious tolerance, whatever their deity (perhaps because they have developed a fanatical adoration of one god over all others), will not progress beyond this stage.

4) The Martial Goddess

The initiates join the rest of the Company in weapon training. Aurora appears to them armed for war, but without armour and still enveloped in a cloak. They learn that this aspect of Aurora is a fighter, she expects her worshippers to train well and follow orders. But more importantly, they must learn the strength that is only attained through the brotherhood of the Company. Those that fail to learn the Company values of discipline and comradeship never pass beyond this point, whether they have embraced the worship of Aurora or not.

5) Aurora the Guardian

The initiate begins this stage by formal enrolment within the Company and taking of the oath. New Company members that also worship Aurora earn themselves the epithet of Children of the Dawn. Aurora will then be revealed without the cloak, as the naked goddess that protects the Company from evil. The brother will learn of the full history of the Company and its enemies. The Children of the Dawn will be taught how to use the divine powers that Aurora bestows on them to enhance their ability to fight their enemies in battle. Each Child will also be able to call on Aurora for personal aid in times of direst need.

6) Aurora the Goddess of Knowledge

The Children of the Dawn who attain this level will learn that Aurora is much more than the guardian of the Company. Not least, they will learn that not even those at the top of the Cult know it all! They will, however, be able to converse with Aurora and have the opportunity to learn spiritual knowledge, and thus perhaps their own answers.

7) Aurora the Goddess of Change

One worshipper of Aurora has the special duty of caring for the entire community of the Children of the Dawn. This Pater or Mater also has the responsibility of being able to call upon Aurora in the most powerful and dangerous of her aspects known to the Company, that of the Goddess of Change.

It is very important that although Aurora will be an integral part of the Company, worship of her be neither a prerequite to joining the Company nor an advantage to promotion within it. All traditional prerequisites must still be attained by everyone wishing to join the Company. The only distinction is that the full members of the Company that also worship Aurora above all other gods will be known as the Children of the Dawn.

All posts within the Company are to be filled on a basis of merit, not religion. The two exceptions to this rule are the Chaplain and Standardbearer.

The Chaplain is expected to have a high degree of religious tolerance. The Chaplain is in charge of ensuing all who wish to join the Company have learnt an acceptable level of religious tolerance.

The Standardbearer is the only officer in the Company that must also be a worshipper of Aurora. The Standardbearer acts as the official representative of the Cult of Aurora within the Company, which otherwise may theoretically one day find itself without a single worshipper among its officers. The Standardbearer needs to have progressed to the sixth step in the Cult of Aurora. The position does, however, require someone with leadership and military skills. The Standardbearer ensues the soldiers make best use of whatever divine powers Aurora bestows upon the Children of the Dawn to use to fight their enemiesin battle.

It is proposed that the Cult of Aurora will official start on the dawn of the twelfth day of the third moon of the third year of King Tharos. The aim is to have these measures fully realised by the same date a year hence.

The initial Children of the Dawn will be:

Captain T’heros, whose actions brought about Aurora, will be the Cult’s first Pater.

Those who worship Aurora and have already spoken to her will automatically qualify for the sixth step.

All other Company members that worship Aurora will automatically qualify for the fifth step.

All remaining worshippers of Aurora that are present will be either on the fourth or third step.

I conclude by seeing how well the proposal satisfies the wishes and needs of the Company as specified in the introduction:

- We must learn who the Company’s enemies are and their weaknesses, with the objective of taking the fight to them.

There is still must we don’t know about Aurora. Even her true nature, all her aspects, and much else besides is all in doubt. This is reflected in the top steps of the Cult, where is it made clear the worshippers have no answers, but are themselves in the process of learning more from Aurora. As they learn more, of our enemies or whatever, the Cult will be refined further.

- Retain the ideal of brotherhood, uncorrupted by religion.

The brotherhood that has been so integral to the survival of the Company will be retained and held as a lesson to be taught to all who wish to join the Company.

- No forced worship of Aurora.

Rejection of the worship of Aurora will be no handicap to promotion within the Company, Standardbearer excepted, up to and including the post of Captain. This will mean that there may well come a time when the Mater of the Cult of Aurora will be a low ranking officer within the Company. This is fully consistent with the objective that the Cult of Aurora not be forced upon members of the Company.

- Religious freedom for the army.

As with brotherliness, religious tolerance will be a lesson taught to all seeking to join the Company

- Aurora kept close to home.

Knowledge of the nature of Aurora and access to her greater powers will be kept within the Company.

- Company must be able to call on Aurora’s full power when necessary.

The Company’s brush with Ssfayee has taught us that a god with many worshippers can be stronger than one with few. We must aim to spread the ‘Distant God’ aspect of Aurora as far and wide as possible. That way the Cult of Aurora can harness the spiritual energy of very many worshippers, but the enhanced power of Aurora is used in the service of the Company alone.

Divine power bestowed on the Children of the Dawn by Aurora as a whole, for example the ability to harm otherwise invulnerable enemies, will be co-ordinated by the Standardbearer.

When the Company have need of the full power of the Goddess, a worshipper of the sixth or seventh step will be able to do so.

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