Melaphine

Melaphine is the end of all things, the chronicler, the remembrance, the celebrant of life.

Motto:  Embrace thy Death with Honour

Glory be to Melaphine

In the Ending of the Day

And the Coming of the Night

Not in Passion, Anger, Fear

But as the Poppy's petals fall

In Self Forgetfulness

Death is not an aspiration, nor the subject of fear, Melaphine looks well on those who recognise their eventual fate and strive to do good with the time they have. Patron to those who record heroic deeds and accounts of life, Melaphine wishes mortals not sorrow or sadness in the loss of a life.

To overcome the fear of death is a great feat of the mind. To continue with your good deeds knowing that your death will come about is to achieve this triumph. People praise Melaphine with festivals of remembrance for the departed, telling tales of their lives and achievements. Priests of Death say that no one really dies until they are forgotten.

From the dark spires of the Great Mausoleum in Cambridge to village graveyards, from town mortuaries to battlefield ossuary, shrines to Melaphine are found across Albion. Tokens and gifts are commonly placed here to remind the dead of the lives and guide them into the arms of Melaphine.

Those who dedicate their lives to the Goddess of Death are kind and gentle priests. They are well aware of the burden a death has upon friends and family. The encourage people to remember the good things done in the life of the departed, writing down even the most mundane account. Often skilled in the powers of spiritual magic, many priests are asked to pass messages on from beyond the grave, to warm the hearts of mourners and to banish sorrow.

The cockatrice is a potent symbol of Melaphine and guardian of her graveyards and catacombs. Other common images associated with Death include white poppies, an hourglass and a burning candle. The song of the nightingale is often held as being important to Melaphine.

Melaphine is often depicted wielding a halberd, its multiple head representing the multitudinous ways in which death comes to the enemies of Albion.

Church of Melaphine
The high seat of the Church of Melaphine is located within the Great Mausoleum in the City of Cambridge, in Essex. The dark avenues, weathered statues and dusty crypts of echo to the sound of tolling bells and the thick smell of incense. In the gloomy chapels of this vast edifice are numerous tombs of ancient kings, nobles and brave knights. It is here that people go to learn of the deeds, of the victories and the names of the honourable dead. In death no name should be forgotten, nor should a life well lived be one remembered in sorrow.

Deathguard of Melaphine
These knights are often solitary folk, dispatched by their order to protect mass graves after a battle or watch over those places where the dead seldom rest easily. These quiet warriors often come together when power spirits torment the peasantry, or whilst the body of an important figure lies in state.