Sanctuary of Our Guardian's Grace
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This section contains server-canon Ravenloft information from the Time of Unparalleled Darkness server; see the References below. |
The Sanctuary of Our Guardian's Grace was established 781 BC by Emmanuelle Skyshard when she and Talis Skyshard migrated from Vallaki to the larger bustling climes of Zeidenburg. When the zealous priestess came to the city and found the faithful relegated to using a single, undersized and ill-maintained chapel as their place of worship, Emmanuelle made it her goal to construct a much more appropriate church, and in so doing, ended up making one of the largest modern constructions of the Church of Ezra. Rumours say the land was granted by the burgomaster after banishing some manner of iadul fiend, in recognizance of her actions protecting the city in so doing. With many faithful willing to aid in its construction, and the coin flowing freely, the church's construction was completed in but a couple of years.[1][1.1]
With the old chapel, another in the Ashen Stronghold, and now this Sanctuary, Zeidenburg has become a center for the faith in Barovia, helped considerably by being on one of the main travel roads into Borca and therefore becoming something of a stopover point for pilgrims to the Great Cathedral. The church itself in terms of footprint is only of a middling size, dwarfed by the Great Cathedral or the Cathedrale Sainte-Mere-des-Larmes, but it is kept immaculately, and spans multiple floors, with construction underground undertaken twice now to expand traveller's quarters and other facilities for the church. With the passing down of the Fifth Revelation in 785, Emmanuelle named the Sanctuary of Our Guardian's Grace the home church of the Sect, bringing even more numbers onto it, to the point where a second underground worship chapel was built to serve the more private needs of the church's rites of Orders and other such ceremonies.[1.2]
As of the current year, the Sanctuary of Our Guardian's Grace has the second-largest religious congregation in the Core, second only to the Great Catheral of Levkarest. There exists some growing jealousy of this fact among outsider faiths, such as the Cult of the Morninglord, whom have a place of worship just a stone's toss from the Sanctuary.[1.3]
