Saints

Nine great individuals from the founding days of Deshret comprise the pantheon of Saints venerated by Sepulchre as exemplars of the faith. In Deshret, it's common for people to take one of the Nine as a personal patron. This is a social signal: the Saint you keep represents what you value, or what you want others to think you value. These associates with Saints are often conveyed by wearing their colors, bearing their symbols, or toting their Seals (if relevant).

Saint Marrow

The head of the Founders, Marrow is the one that led the people and the Nine into what became Deshret. During the first year of the city, 1AC, he died - the accounts differ on exactly how - and on the third day he rose from the dead in a new body, whole and himself. This is the founding miracle of the city and how Sepulchre came to be. He is the one proof that the soul can cross death intact if it is guided properly. Marrow returned whole because he was holy and ordained, but because the rest of us are not, splintering is imperfect.

• Themes: death, faith and the soul
• Colors: bone-white
• Symbols: an iron lantern shaped like a ribcage, with a bone-white flame inside
• Seals: Heaven/Fate (officially); Water/Void (non-canon, border heretical)

Saint Vael

When Deshret first came to be, there was no Mythos. There were no machines, forbidden explicitly by Marrow. Vael was the one who kept people alive and taught people how to with her hands and rudimentary tools. She set bones, cut rotting flesh. She passed in the wasting plague during 9AC, delivering the limited amount of cures to people while keeping none for herself. Her image hangs in every clinic owned by Mythos.

• Themes: healing and mercy
• Colors: red
• Symbols: a red open hand
• Seal: Lake/Flesh

Saint Ferro

Ferro was the first smith and the first engineer of Deshret. He was the one to reinforce the walls to shield people from radiation, and raised much of the early city with his own hands. He died in 4AC when a radiation breach opened on a construction crew: without hesitation, he sealed the gap with his own body and shielded a young apprentice of his. Suffering extensive burns over the course of days, he held on, but passed soon after despite efforts to save him.

• Themes: protection and sacrifice
• Colors: embers
• Symbols: a simple iron anvil with crossed hammers
• Seal: Earth/Matter

Saint Lyra

Lyra can be called the glue that held the city together after everything burned down. She was the one who sang and wove stories and tales of hope for the people, the beating heart of the survivors. There are some who call her out as a liar, but most agree that a lie is worth it if it gives hope. Around 35-40AC, it's said that she stepped into the Matrix and never came back out.

• Themes: beauty, grace, and hope
• Colors: gold
• Symbols: a lyre
• Seal: Wind/Mind

Saint Cinder

A tragic hero, there aren't many details on what or who Cinder exactly was. In canon, the story is that they were the one to carry what the Prophet forbade: that they went against the doctrine, pursuing forbidden work and technology in an effort to save the city. It's unknown when they passed, but the canon is clear on the how: because of the forbidden work they fielded. Sepulchre uses them as an example of how sometimes, the few must hold the fire for the many: and it is the intellectual backbone of their doctrine. Technology is damning, but sometimes survival requires the very thing that is damned.

• Themes: prudence, foresight, shrewdness
• Colors: deep blue
• Symbols: hands cupped around a fire
• Seal: Fire/Energy

Saint Vesper

Vesper was the one who braved the surface during the early days to bring down what the city needed. While the city cannot produce everything it needs even now, during the Founding years it was practically impossible to survive without scavenging outside. She braved the outside world and came back changed each time, physically and mentally, and over the course of years it is said she became a hollow shell of the bright, joyful person she once was. And then one day she did not come back at all. She has a shrine at the surface gate leading outside. The Outriders and most freelance scavengers leave their very first haul of that run for good luck and protection each time they return.

• Themes: freedom, adventure, curiosity
• Colors: violet
• Symbols: a star over a horizon
• Seal: Thunder/Motion

Saint Severin

Severin is the patron Saint of the Guardsmen and the Inquisitors. It is said he was the right red hand of Marrow, his lieutenant and enforcer, purging out heresy and corruption throughout the early years of Deshret. The canon states that he shed tears only once during his duty: when he had to condemn his own wife and children for heresy, and then never again.

• Themes: law, judgment, wrath
• Colors: black
• Symbols: the Scales of Justice
• Seal: None

Saint Wren

Wren was the only one of the Founders who gave up her place among them. She was also the longest lived, dying around 92AC. As the Guilds came to be and the city expanded, she chose to stay behind in what became the slums among the guildless, the refugees, the undocumented, the underserved. The matron of the slums, she has a cult of personality dedicated to her with makeshift shrines spread throughout the slums, and is routinely prayed to for everything from food to good fortune.

• Themes: charity, servitude, offering
• Colors: green
• Symbols: a wren nesting inside a crown-shaped nest
• Seal: Mountain/Self

Saint Cassius

Cassius was the first one to doubt the Prophet. He was the one who betrayed him and fell from grace, only to repent and be redeemed by Marrow in his forgiving embrace. He is venerated by the Church as the saint of second chances and forgiveness and as proof that even the worst of the worst can be redeemed if they decide to right their path. There are, however, no canonical details on the betrayal and why, when or how it happened.

• Themes: redemption, forgiveness, sometimes rebellion
• Colors: grey
• Symbols: a single wing
• Seal: None