Aiyan history refers to many people who have earned the epithet sankti (meaning 'of the saints', and thus applied to men and women alike). Zaron, as First and Last Prophet, is Sankto Primos. Every trade, craft or profession has its own patron saint, sometimes several. Realms, cities, villages, even ships claim the divine guidance and protection of one of the sankti. There are hundreds of saints, though not all are recognised throughout the Church.
After Zaron Himself, the three most important are the Trilumi, also known as the Transkendi or collectively as the Ome Sakros. These three, through their loyalty to Zaron and love of Aiyas, did much to consolidate the faith in its early years, and they were permitted to live as mortals beyond their allotted time and remain with Zaron until he returned to the earth from whence he originally came. The Trilumi are:
These three are acknowledged throughout the Aiyan Church, though different forms of Aiyanism place particular emphasis on one or other of them. Sinjeniks place Obas first and foremost, Parajeniks preferring Mor, and the Hittars elevating Eth above the other two.
The Marties Die, the Paladins of the Orders, sometimes refer to themselves as the Marties Obin, for like Obas they wield a sword in the name of God's righteous wrath. The Titans of Armoria, and the Blaide of Sudenin, prefer to think of themselves as the Marties Morin, since their duties are judicial as well as martial.
When the Trilumi departed with Zaron to join Aiyas, they left behind their icons of office, and these remain in Druthuin under the care of the Kaiat. The Sword Divine is now a sliver of rust, the First Sceptre a blackened and broken stick, and the Chalice a simple stone cup, cracked from top to bottom, but they are the greatest relics of the Church, tended with the utmost care. The Trilumi are gone, but others hold their offices as the Deputati, second only to the Kaiat in the administration of the Church.
After the Trilumi, by far the most important saint is Narasath, Kaiat XCII, the only Kaiat to be formally canonised, and the only one before the Emperor-Kaiats of the Lisbaric era to be known by his original name. He took the Holy Seat of Druthuin some 500 years before the Andronic Calendar, as an enemy of the False Emperor Tendeknazor, usurper of the imperial throne in Grimaba. Lured to the imperial city for an audience with the emperor, Narasath found himself caught in a trap. He only escaped through the valour of a gladiator slave, Paladin of Lafrion (the first paladin, in fact), and took ship with seven of his retinue and the most sacred relic of all the faith, Zaron's Trumpet with which the heathen host was scattered many centuries before. Blown out to sea by a storm, he was feared lost, and a new Kaiat appointed to replace him.
It was many years and three kaiats later that an old man demanded audience with the Holy Seat. He claimed to be the son of one of those who went with Narasath, born in a distant land of wild and merciless forest. The Kaiat indulged him for a while, but when the man demanded gold in return for guidance back to this forest, he lost all patience and slung the beggar in a cell, where he died. This incident remained as little more than a footnote in the Libris Annales for many centuries, until explorers discovered the great forests of the Ammath Albin on the south-western shores of Heptovania. This was a self-willed land, savage and untamable, and many thought that Narasath might indeed have ended his days here. Some ventured into its depths to search, but few returned.
In the 5th Century of Lisbar, famine in the north and a torrent of refugees from Haplovania sent many people down the river Url. Some of these tried to found lands of their own along the coastal fringes of the Ammath Albin. Few of these realms lasted more than a century, but in that known as Cenderath an ancient tomb was discovered. It had been torn open by wild beasts and only a few scraps of bone remained within it, but many were convinced that this was indeed the last resting place of Narasath Sankti, and the Marties Die were compelled to seize Cenderath, founding the first of the Martial Palatinates that now lie scattered along the shore, where the Ammath Albin meets the sea. Slass Albin is visited by many pilgrims, and this region of the mighty forest has at least been partly tamed.
Other persons have been elevated to sainthood through the centuries, many of them in historical times. As examples:
The karabdimi are the divine spirits who assist Aiyas in his watchful administration of the faithful. Many people have claimed to have seen them at some time or other, but for the most part they go about their work invisibly. Should a karabdim wish to appear before mortal eyes, he may take any one of many forms. Many reports talk of spheres of blinding light, as if the sun had descended to the earth, or of winged figures in the shape of men, golden-robed and silver-haired, with light streaming from their eyes. Yet the face of an angel might be discerned behind the most uncomely mortal guise, and at least one account from the Great Crusade against Saro (YL 620-718) tells of a host of angels, mail-clad with silver lances, descending from the skies on dazzling white steeds.
Angels are conventionally considered to be male, and this is definitely the sinjenic position. But it is not universal. Many parajenics are happy to see angels depicted as female, pointing out that Verina Konsortia was herself one of the Karabdimi. The Hittars prefer to regard angels as androgynous.
There are many kinds of angel, of which those most mentioned in the Libris Zaron are:
Verina Konsortia has agents of her own, karabdimi corrupted by her guile and allure. These are the tathadimi, or 'devils'.
One point that should be made clear is that devils are not to be confused in any way with demons. Tathadimi, like karabdimi, are divine spirits, albeit perverted ones, and hence rarely glimpsed by mortal eyes. Demons, on the other hand, are known to be of very real material form, and come from that dimension known as the Shadowland. Any learned churchman knows that demons are not necessarily evil by nature, even though many are malign. Devils, by contrast, are irredeemably evil.
(It is also well known that the orcs consider demons to be eshathum, spirits of the same kind as Anakhoth the Creator. Yet orcs are also held to be under the sway of the Consort. Might this then suggest that demons are, after all, a form of devil? According to official Church doctrine, no. The orcs have simply got it wrong.)
The true Aiyan knows that there are devils everywhere. They might not be visible (which is just as well, for simply to glimpse one is to court madness), but they leave behind them a trail of petty mischiefs and woeful calamities. Anything that might mar the perfection of the mortal world is probably the work of some devil. They whisper sinful thoughts in the ears of the weak-willed, and claw at even the stoutest souls, looking for some handhold that they might ride even the purest of heart for a while. No one is wholly immune to their seductions, not even the Kaiat.
There are many kinds of devil, at least one for every imaginable vice. Though they all swear loyalty to the Consort, they are in fact selfish, greedy and self-serving, regarding each other with intense loathing. For this reason, copious images of devils can be found in the margins of illuminated manuscripts, and carvings or etchings of devils swarm over church buildings. Such images of devils, it is hoped, will scare off the lesser kinds and distract the energies of the greater from some worse mischief.