Saint Arvand's Close
Saint Arvand’s Close is the solemn, incense-scented religious heart of the city, home to the great Cathedral of Saint Arvand—a towering edifice of grey stone, stained glass, and echoing chants. Here, the Church of Holy Law holds court over faith and morality, and the Iron Precept walks brazenly among the cloisters.
Pilgrims, penitents, and priests fill the Close by day, while at night, its shadowed courtyards grow still. Adventurers seeking blessings, absolution, or secrets spoken through lattice screens will find all three within its solemn halls.
Purpose / Function
Saint Arvand’s Close serves as the spiritual and judicial center of Crodeux, where doctrine is taught, disputes are judged under holy law, and the faithful come to seek absolution or deliverance. It is the seat of Archprior Malvourne's authority, housing the offices of ecclesiastical record, the tribunal hall, and the training chambers for acolytes. Processions, sermons, and quiet confessions all pass beneath its stone arches—a place where law and faith are inseparable, and where the Church watches not just over souls of Othvarand Reclaimed.
History
Saint Arvand’s Close was established in the early years of the Mornish reclaimation of Othvarand, built atop the shattered foundations of a pre-Rupture Imorean basilica. Though much of the original structure was lost, fragments of its stonework remain buried within the cathedral’s crypts—alongside the bones of early martyrs and forgotten judges. The Close was named for Saint Arvand, a reformer-saint who codified the Laws of Penance and was said to have walked through an immolating monastary unburned, holding the Book of Weights whose words were etched by the flames.
During the rise of Crodeux, the Close became the center of religious authority in the region, serving both as a beacon of lawful worship and a bulwark against heresy. It was here that early trials against sects like the Coterie of the Hollow Saint were first conducted. The Close expanded over time, adding tribunal halls, archives, and cloisters, becoming a symbol of discipline and divine order.
In recent decades, as tensions grow between the Church, the Ducal Court, and arcane institutions like the Lyceum of the Pale Sanctum, the Close remains a stern, unyielding presence—its stones older than the ducal line, and its judgments said to echo long after the gavel falls.
Tourism
Pilgrimages to Saint Arvand’s Close are common among the faithful, particularly those seeking atonement, legal intercession, or spiritual clarity. Many come to kneel before the Reliquary of Saint Arvand, said to hold the Quill of Penance with which he penned the Laws of Penance, witness pages of the Book of Weightsor to walk the Steps of Judgment—a worn stone path in the cathedral’s nave believed to mirror his final trial.
Petitioners often arrive in silence, bearing written confessions or tokens of debt, which are burned in ritual fire during holy days. Some pilgrims seek healing; others seek punishment. All leave marked—if not by the clergy, then by the weight of the law itself.
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