Cult of the Ancestor Moth

The Cult of the Ancestor Moth is an ancient order tasked with the reading and interpreting of the ELDER SCROLLS.
The cult was founded in 313 1E at a gathering of sages who had grown concerned with the potential power and attention that the scrolls drew from all the parties of Mundus and even the DAEDRIC PRINCES. The choice of this order is surprising, as all references to them before this time suggest that they were considered strange at best and down-right ridiculous at worst even by their Nibenese brothers and sisters. There are references however to the moth-silk that they wove having been of particular importance to the SLAVE REBELLION, but the exact nature of this importance seems to have been lost.
Dedicated to Julianos, the Moth Priests are often believed to be mad by outsiders even as they are revered. Many of their beliefs seem contradictory and outright mad at times, but as one of the only organizations which has continuously existed since the founding of the original Alessian Empire, despite countless attempts to murder or suppress them over the millennia, most civilians find themselves awed when they find themselves in the presence of these holy men and women.

Structure

The hierarchy of the priesthood itself is composed of the below ranks.  However, the priests tend to not follow such hierarchy too rigidly.  Rather, after someone has reached the stage of adept, the begin the proccess of attemting to understand where they are drawn.
The ranks are:

• Scroll Drudge - initiates taskedwith retrieving scroll from the library and maintaining the purity of the library.
• Adepts - Adepts are those who have been gifted with the ability and honor to begin reading the scrolls.  This is a truly difficult and dangerous stage for most priests, and some are driven mad or die.
• Librarians - These are Moth Priests who are charged with the maintaining the Elder Library.
• Abbots - These are the leaders of the monasteries of the Ancestor Moth.
• Augurs - Augurs are Moth Priests who are able to attract the ANCESTOR MOTHS.

History

After the founding of the FIRST EMPIRE

Mythology & Lore

The Order of the Ancestor Moth believes that the Ancestor Moths are manifested by the spirits of the priests who have come before. As such, the Priests nurture and celebrate them. The Cult believes every moth carries the "fjyron" of a spirit, which is loosely translated to the "will to peace". This "fjyron" can be sung into the silk produced by the ancestor moths, which can then be spun into clothing. If the genealogy of the ancestor is correct, when the silk is spun into cloth and then embroidered, powerful clothing could be made that is both light and hard as scale. 
When a person has dies in Mundus, the Monks believe a kind of dissipation begins, and the Ancestor Moths learn the song of a soul's fjyrons, which in turn are shepherded by the monks and protected for generations. The reason why this fjyron is sung into silk is because it must retain a connection to the fabric of creation. Through this link, with patient care, guidance from beyond the present, past, and the known world is received, where time is irrelevant. As such, the moths neither capture nor devour the souls of the ancestors, instead they repeat and pass along in ceaseless flutting whispers what they they have filtered from the dead. 
The Order has the sacred duty to study the Elder Scrolls, the knowledge of which they use to aid the Emperor. On occasion, priests are sent out to collect more Scrolls for their ELDER LIBRARY in the White-Gold Tower, where the Moth Priests occupy the Middle Floors. Adepts to the Order who have mastered their inner turmoil are gifted with prescient powers, as the wisdom of the ancestor moths can show the future while in the present. As a result of this, the Order of the Ancestor Moth is given the sole privilege to interpret the Elder Scrolls.  The priests say that these artifacts exceed even the powers of the Aedra and Daedra, though they know to keep this belief to themselves given the religious fervor many have for the supremacy of their particular gods. Reading an Elder Scroll comes at a price, however. Every reading of an Elder Scroll is more profound than the last, and every reading leaves the priest blind for longer periods of time than before. The last Elder Scroll a Moth Priest reads is the Scroll which leaves him permanently blinded. During the last reading, some priests achieve a nearly sublime understanding of the contents of the Scroll, and can be imprinted with its possible meaning and words.
Those who have become blinded are brought to the TEMPLE OF THE ANCESTOR MOTHS, which is located within the Jerall Mountains of Cyrodiil and is were the first Ancestor Moths were communed with. At the monastery, the blinded priests live out their lives among the Ancestor Moths which they so loved. Underneath the Monastery, the priests are often found, as these conditions are well suited to the moths. While the priests are blinded, they still raise and nurture the fragile moths, singing to them constantly. They still harvest the silk and spin it into bolts of cloth. This cloth they then also weave, embroidering it with the genealogies and histories of the moth which spun the silk.
As the blind monks tend the ancestor moths, so do the monks of the monastery tend to the blind monks, providing them with food, water, tools, furniture, secrecy, anonymity, and purveryors to sell the fruit of their labors. The novitates of the Cult also provided protection. Once upon a time, a monk known as Gudrun came to the monastery, being blinded of visions of what was to come she brought new teachings. Her visions had provided her with the foresight that the monks needed to defend themselves. Since then, the priests train and practice her teachings constantly, which would be known as THE WAY OF THE PEACEFUL FIST.
The Elder Scrolls
The Monks keep the Elder Scrolls in the ELDER LIBRARY within the WHITE-GOLD TOWER. Here, the scrolls were sorted based on a variety of categories, such as scrolls related to specific prophesies, or scrolls related to particular periods of history. Attempting to categorize the Scrolls, however, fails. As whenever they are attempted to be categorized, areas would overlap or contradict one another. Different Monks are even said to have claimed the same scroll to be located in a different section of the tower. When one attempts to count the Elder Scrolls, they are often tricked as well, as the Scrolls do not exist in countable form. Whenever a specific number of Scrolls is counted, this number changes when they are counted again, though a contradicting account by Moth Priestess Terran Arminus states that the notion of the Elder Scrolls moving on their own is false, having personally served as a Scroll Drudge.
There are four groups of effects of the Elder Scrolls, each belonging to different individuals. The first group, known as the Naifs, cannot learn a prophecy or gather knowledge from the Scrolls, when they look at the scroll, it is awash in odd lettering and symbols. The second group, known as the Unguarded Intellects, do learn from the Elder Scrolls. They possess knowledge to actually read what is inscribed in the Scroll. However, they have not developed adequate discipline to prevent the mind-shattering effect of reading the Scroll. When these people read an Elder Scroll, they are permanently blinded. This blindness is not without a reward, however, as a fragment of the hidden knowledge is achieved.
The final two groups are the Mediated Understanding and the Illuminated Understanding, both of which have only been achieved by the Cult of the Ancestor Moth, as only the Cult has found the discipline required to protect one's mind when reading the scrolls. Novitiates of the Cult must undergo rigorous mental cultivation, often spending a decade or more at their monastery before being permitted to read their first Elder Scrolls. During this time, it is not uncommon for the initiates to suffer from nightmares, even more so as they learn more of the Elder Scrolls and the Ancestors that grant the Cult the wisdom to approach their infinite mysteries. The monks claim this time of cultivation is for the initiates' own protection, as they must have witnessed a number of Unguarded Intellects among their more eager ranks. With the proper training, these cultivated initiates still achieve blindness, though at a far lesser magnitude compared to the Unguarded Intellects. Their vision is fogged slightly, but they retain shape, color, and enough acuity to continue reading normal texts. The information provided by the scroll is also somewhat tempered, and the initiates require both meditation and reflection to fully understand and appreciate what they saw. Monks have often attempted to translate the runes they find on the Elder Scroll after a reading, only to conclude what they wrote down is gibberish, as the messages of the scroll are only written on one's spirit and soul.
The Monks of the Ancestor Moth achieve the Illuminated Understanding. Through the continued readings of the Elder Scrolls, these monks become gradually more and more blind, but also receive greater and more detailed knowledge from their readings. Spending their days thinking about their visions, they also receive a stronger mental fortitude. As every Priest slowly loses their vision, the text in the Elder Scrolls gradually takes on characters of the language which is most familiar to the reader, making them more legible. Every monk also has a day of Penultimate Reading, when only knowledge an Elder Scroll provides is that the monk's next reading shall also be his last. When this Penultimate Reading comes is unknowable, as each monk encounters theirs at a different time, though attempts have been made to discover its origins, sufficient evidence lacks.
Before the Ultimate Reading, the monks often withdraw to seclusion to reflect upon a lifetime of revelations and dedicate their minds for revealing the last. Following this Ultimate Reading, the monk is permanently blinded. The new blinded monk retains his understanding over a lifetime, and is often able to describe what has been revealed to him in great detail. The Monks also acknowledge that every prophecy recorded within the Elder Scroll may or may not come to pass. No prophecies found within the Scrolls are stuck in the Scroll until they have actually come to pass.

Ritual of the Ancestor Moth
The Ritual of the Ancestor Moth is a ritual performed within ANCESTOR GLADES found across Tamriel. At these glades, Canticle Trees are located. The bark of the trees must be carefully removed using a Draw Knife, a ritual every Moth Priest is taught, but few get the chance to perform. Through this ritual, one can attract Ancestor Moths to themselves. These Ancestor Moths have a connection with ancient magic, which allow Moth Priests to decipher the Scrolls.
The higher ranking monks of the Cult have the ability to forego the ritual necessary to enchant the ancestor silk, and prefer to instead wear the moths around the neck and face. Through finely grounding the bark of the Canticle tree, these monks were able to apply the bark-dust to their bodies. By doing this, and sub-vocalization of certain mantras, ancestor moths would be attracted to the monks. The mantras had to be repeated constantly in order to maintain the skin contact with the moths, an effort the monks had to endure for the sake of cosmic balance. When a monk interrupts these mantras, such as in conversation, the moths burst from his body in a remarkable fashion every time he speaks, only to return to his skin when he resumes the, inaudible, chant. Within the Imperial City, moth priests could often be seen walking around surrounded by a cloud of ancestor moths.

Worship

The cult sings hymns of their forebears, who they say they have caught the soul of in their silk-gathering rituals. Those who have attended ceremonies to say that the swishing of the silk material during movement reproduces a wonderful ancestral chorus sound. It became a sacred custom among the Nibenese mystey cult, which persists to this day. The high-orders of the cult are able to attract the ancestor-moths through the application of ground bark from the moth's favorite tree, and through chanting inaudible mantras which they must constantly maintain, they befriend the moths and are able to guide them in the spinning of enchanted silk.

Political Influence & Intrigue

The members of the cult are, by tradition, the only people allowed to read the ELDER SCROLLS, a privilege which eventually strikes them blind. They care for the Imperial Library (also called the Elder Library) within the White-Gold Tower in the Imperial City. The monks use special cleansing bowls to remove impurities from their fingers before, during and after they read the Elder Scrolls. This leaves a residue in the bowls that has been suggested to be aetherial residue that could deaden their fingers like the scrolls deaden the eyes.[8] They are known to be reclusive and have hidden, or at least out of the way, sanctuaries scattered throughout Tamriel.

Type

Religious, Holy Order