"Ok, yes, our spirits grew weak and corrupted in the absence of Sacred Earth. Yes, importing Sacred Earth from the Plateau and from the blood of the Palkha fixed it... but why? Why do Varic people seem to need Sacred Earth to be healthy?"

The speaker was Venno: kharubbite, Branded, Inductee and now youngest and most recent appointee of the Erda Tupar, the sacred shamanic Conclave of Flame. Like many of Venno's generation, those to first grow up on the Sacred Earth imported into Terkvarta, the questions of Sacred Earth were ever pressing to him. The oldest living Erdai had formulated the solution of Sacred Earth to begin with and accepted its soul-strengthening properties as merely cause and effect, a done deal. The middle aged considered it utterly sacrosanct and would not tempt fate by questioning that which had saved them from a life of aimless depravity. But to the youngsters like Venno, it was their birthright. Something to investigate, to play with, to know more fully.

"Why does there need to be a reason?" The response was from Istus, a man aged beyond his years as a result of a wasted youth. A man redeemed by Sacred Earth.

"The sky is blue, what reason is there for that? Why are leaves green? Why do the angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees? Not everything has a reason, some things simply are! Do not question that which births you, boy."

Boy. Verro grimaced at that, but would not rise to it. He was trying to prove himself worthy of his seat, and falling for such rudimentary bait would not do.

"But Istus, when is theology ever that simple?! What if there are reasons, reasons that are deep and perhaps even lost to us? It is no secret to anyone that The Black Sun has stolen as much of our heritage from us as he could, and that he would steal yet more if we allowed it. Nor is it a secret to anyone that we of Varic stock value ancestry more than the foreigners and the mudborn. Our very personhood is derived from our descent from Vari, from Ura and for our Palkha brothers, Palkh. Few others have any conceptualisations even slightly similar to Sacred Earth. What if the reasons behind Sacred Earth have simply been stolen from us?"

"Oh, and I suppose you know those reasons then, hmm?" Istus returned. "What is it with you youth and convictions that you are right? How does your lesser experience somehow amount to such wisdom?"

He stopped talking, though leaned forward from his seat, just waiting to cut Varro off again.

"I was j-" Verro began.

"Just asserting that we are all fools, and that you have knowledge that none of the rest of us are privy to? Appointing you was a mistake, nobody your age is fit to serve on-."

Two thunks sounded, the noise of wooden shaft on quarried stone interrupted Istus. All Erdai turned to its source, the eldest among them, a shaman named Kurumesh. The old man spoke softly, the others straining to hear him but listening all the more intently for the effort.

"I have lived a long life. During that time, I have seen many mists lifted. I badgered for many changes in my younger years... and was proven incorrect on most, but a few things once thought foolish by my elders we presently regard as accurate, and many things that were facts to my elders have since been acknowledged as lies or mere partial truths. Though we Erdai are wise, we are not immune to human failing. The longer we hold an opinion, the more we begin to see it as true instead of a point of view. So it is we elders, not the youth, who are more wholly convinced that we are right. So I ask you, Istus, to hear Verro out. Unlike us, he has not learned to regard his opinions as inviolable."

Istus scowled, clearly not satisfied but unwilling to contradict Kurumesh.

"As I was saying, we Urapi have an uncommon reverence for both our ancestors and for land, for Sacred Earth. Clearly this is related - we revere Urapivarta as Ura's resting place, though it lies outside our grasp, and we revere the Varic Plateau as the birthplace of Vari and his sons. What if the sacred properties of the earth from these places is derived from the burial of our ancestors? What if the earth IS our ancestors?!"

Verro scanned the room. Mostly sceptical faces and upturned eyebrows, some slight nods.

"Palkh was literally made of Sacred Earth and where he fell, the land was sanctified. I suggest that the same is true for all of us, though none of us are quite so sacred as Palkh. Most of Nekvarta is yet bereft of Sacred Earth, yet I would argue that as we inter our dead here the land will become sacred."

"I was born of Sacred Earth on soil taken from the Varic Plateau. I have never wondered of my place in the world. I know that I am Varic, and I know my duty to steward the world towards success in the temporal war. I have always known my ancestors. Some of my elders were not so lucky, born in Nekvarta before any of it was sacred, and so did not know their place in the world, did not know their ancestors."

"Noble Erdai, I submit to you that the Sacred Earth is our ancestors. I am of the Sacred Earth, and when I die, the Sacred Earth will be of me."