Malicean

Malicean is the most revered figure in the history of the Church of the Sun and Moon. Prophet, saint, and father, he founded the Order of the Sword, and is called the first Lord Marshal of the Church. Under his leadership, the Church of the Sun and Moon achieved political dominion over the whole of the land of Crescent, destroying or driving into exile all the other churches.

Malicean was the first to wield the mighty Faithbrand, the bronze sword passed down through the ages as the greatest relic of the church and the symbol of the office of Lord Marshal. The rest of his relics – his remains, and his armor and shield and standard – are stored in the reliquary at the Holy Temple, and were thought lost until just recently.

Brief Biography

from the Historical Timeline of the Church of ORB

Moon-year 75

On the morning of the summer solstice, in a small fishing village on the Sae duChaad, a boy is born in jail to a young whore, who dies in childbirth before she can even hold the baby. Local rumor has it that the baby was fathered by a bishop of Phealas (the puritanical god of Death and Justice) in violation of his vow of chastity. Fueling this rumor, the priest takes the boy in and names him Malicean ("Malice's child").

Moon-year 57

After a violent disagreement with his father, now the head of the Temple of Phaelas, an increasingly bitter Malicean leaves his childhood home and runs away to the Island of Lost Souls.

Moon-year 42

Malicean, now known as "the Chaste", rises from obscurity to become leader of the Church of the Sun and Moon.

Moon-year 37

The first blow is struck in the Rising of the Sun, Malicean's jihad to restore harmony and root out evil and, not coincidentally, the other churches. Leading a ragtag bunch of refugees armed with nothing more than makeshift weaponry and ingenuity, Malicean takes control of the mainland port nearest the island temple. This battle is later to be known as the Battle of Wild's Reef.

Sun-year 1

The Council of Five, led by Malicean, achieves dominion over the continent

Sun-year 25

On the morning of his 100th birthday, the Holy Prophet, Malicean, is killed. The remaining four Council Members personally hunt down and execute the assassin, a half-orc named Mako.

Scholarly Notes

Though he is considered the Father of the Church, and a holy personage, many sages and academics of the last century or so have begun to write critically of Malicean - calling him a deeply flawed, bitter man who waged a war, not out of holiness, but out of bitterness at his father. Such scholars cite reports of his Order of the Sword acting as a death squad, executing anyone who dissented from the new world order, and his own supposed chastity. One scholar, writing under the nom de plume Jason the Forgotten, claims to be a direct male-line descendant of the prophet himself - a controversial claim at best.

Avatar

Aurora the Insightful recently told the Companions of the Rising Sun that the child born to the bishop of Phealas was supposed to have been the Avatar of the Sun; but in a ill-omened trick, Telemore switched him with the spirit of the Avatar of the destructive aspect of Bak-Ta-Thut, kicking off a jihad which nearly destroyed the Gods and the society of Crescent. This claim would have been contested vehemently, had the Companions told anyone about it.