Was Nuwe Ales the son of God? That was the key question asked by the Urapi Sharite priests as they sat atop the Spines of Vari, where the firstborn of mankind had been born. There they sat at the Eternal Flame, lit by the very first flame ever gifted to mankind by Shar. With this flame they lit pipes of Telusver, Truespeech Flower, which enabled them to channel the divine.

To their recently acquired subjects, the Okranites of Okran's Gift, the answer to their question was an unambiguous "yes", and the Urapi were heretics for even asking the question. To them Ales had been the son of God, born into the world to teach the Sunborn the truth, so that they could guide and steward the mudborn into civilization.

Elswhere on the plateau were many of the Orthodox Mantalesi, known to the Okranites and therefore the Urapi as Savitrans. They too insisted that Nuwe Ales was the son of God, though they preached that his ultimate purpose had been to restore the Varic people to their state of natural supremacy, and to establish a strong state from which they could show the world their strength.

Were they right, though? They couldn't both be right. Their ideas of Nuwe Ales were fundamentally different, totally in conflict with each other. How could they each claim to have the truth? Surely the real truth could not be so readily debated, would not remain an unresolved question after centuries of infighting, even as mudborn encroached further and further on sacred sunborn land? Surely the truth delivered to the Sunborn would not have sewed poverty and chaos even whilst barbaric foreigners prospered and conquered them?

No, something was wrong. Nuwe Ales' message smelt fishy. But where was the conflict? His heritage was unquestionably Varic - he had been born to the Evarios, stalwart Varic men and women who had remained independent even whilst the Orissians had plagued the rest of the plateau. He had acted in Varic interests, restoring the Varic people to supremacy in their sacred land.

Yet...

Yet he had not done so alone. He had first marched against the Helioz, and won great victories against them. When he had returned to liberate the Varic Plateau, he had done so with Helian apostles, generals and soldiers. And when the conquest was complete, those same Helians were granted positions of authority. Of priesthood. When Nuwe Ales had departed for prophecized lands, his successor as Saint-Captain, ruler of Savitra, was "Saint" Menandir of Helioz.

A mudborn. In charge. Of Sunborn.

When the Sharites dissected this theology, they flew into a rage. How was this sacrilege, this vile affront to all their forefathers, to Vari and Ura and Vara and Teval, how was it possible? The Sunborn were not so blind as this! Not so easily mislead!

No. Their ultimate conclusion, once reached, was almost too obvious. God was a lie. Not just a lie, but a tool. A tool of The Black Sun, He Who Had Been Shattered, Yet He Who Becomes Reforged. The Black Sun had sent his agents out into the world to corrupt the prophecized hero of the Varic people, to destroy the state of the strongest of mankind so that they could not as readily oppose him and his designs.

He had corrupted the prophets who foresaw the coming of Nuwe Ales and taught them of "God", a facsimilie of himself, to distract them from the truth. The truth that Nuwe Ales was descended not from God, but from Shar. Nuwe Ales knew it in his heart of hearts, showing the world that the Sun was his true heraldry. The sun, Shar's flame, his gift to mankind.

Not content with so misleading Nuwe Ales, though, The Black Sun had gone further and infiltrated his circle of friends and confidants. He sent his own child, "Saint" Menandir, to be Nuwe Ales' fiercest convert and companion. Through Menandir, he had attempted to corrupt the Varic champion and his people.

Oh how he had succeeded! How he had usurped Savitra from underneath their noses, prompting it to collapse! Yet oh, how he had failed. For Nuwe Ales knew what was happening. His departure was not to preach in distant lands as he claimed, as he had lied to hide his true intention, but rather to escape the vile clutching hands of The Black Sun.

Nuwe Ales was indeed the son of a deity! The son of the foremost khan, of he who gifted mankind fire and forging, of Shar! Not of God who was but a lie, a conspiracy of The Black Sun.

This was no small revelation. It explained everything. The Okranites and Savitrans differed on theology by design, because neither grasped the truth. Both were simply manipulations of The Black Sun, aimed at keeping the Varic people in conflict with each other. The same had been true of the Alesians of Urapital, who had been influenced to destroy the last vestiges of truth, of Shar, in the whole world!

Yet... it did not explain everything. Truth in hand, what was to be done with it? All other Varic people had been mislead, or else were conquered or dead. How were they to be brought back into the fold?

The Sharite conclave had only had one answer to this final question: one at a time.