Source
The Source, the temple that the Emperor and his party climbed up to the top of during the end of the PG series, on the Chatcaavan Birthworld.
Out in the middle of the water was a long finger of stone, its edge limned in amber light. The Emperor could just pick out the stairs hewn in a winding spiral around its girth.[1]
Since none of them could disagree, they’d taken the first step, and then the next. The staircase was wide enough for two people abreast, cut out of the wall of stone, and it had a thigh-height wall at its lip. The Emperor had wondered at that lip, for surely fliers need not fear falling. Had they expected females to make this long journey? Perhaps it had been the fabled bell-ringers who’d needed it, for children could not fly. He trailed his hand over it and continued up.
They reached a final plateau in the third afternoon, with the sun slanting low against the stone walls, and this smaller ledge had a single basin carved from the wall and a plaque beside it. Incised into that plaque, in letters worn with wind and hands, were the words, ‘Be clean before your god.’
...to the flattened top of the prominence where the Temple rose, a squared-off tower like a single talon. He’d expected flourishes, carving, lacework arches, architecture like that of the palace which had been built as a monument to Chatcaavan power. This looked more like an extension of the mountain. The smell in that dim, vast space was indescribable. Sweet with incense. Bracing with sea-salt. Complex with the scent of the world, carried on its highest winds, which whistled and sang high, fluting songs in the roof of the Temple, where the converging pylons were perforated with delicate openings. That music, the richness of the smell, the poignancy of the vacant hall, so large to be so empty.[1]
Its members lived in a complex carved beneath the building like the aerie to which the Ambassador had likened it, and in that sanctuary they had access to most modern conveniences. It was an eerie reminder that this world had seen the Chatcaavan rise to space, that they had built those ships and satellites after modifying themselves genetically and convincing themselves the Change was poison.[1]
Doctrine
"But what few females we could save, we have, and it is through them that we have preserved ourselves as we were born on this world. Because we deemed that the Living Air gives no gift it does not intend us to use. Our ability to Change allowed us to fly. We thought that one day it would once again save us."[1]
Clergy
- Breath of the Living Air (high priestess)
- Male-in-Waiting (her highest male executive)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 In Extremis, Chapter 22