The Pure Light

Start-class article · First seen: s02 (as Cholmondeley's pre-campaign affiliation); s14 (on screen as occupying force); s15 (named in play) · Last seen: s23 (Father Thomas calls himself a cleric of Aurelia and a devotee of the Everlight)

The Pure Light is the state religion of Aurelia: it teaches that arcane magic is a temptation towards arrogance, corruption and ruin, permits divine magic only in its goddess’s service, and stands behind Aurelia’s “divine right of exterminating all arcane users” [6]. The Aurelian forces that act in its name hunt the party under warrants for “obstruction of divine inquiry” [22], killed Ruin and Mike, and took The Egg. The deity of Aurelia is Aurelia [15], and the party has never seen a temple. In session 19 a priest of the order, Father Thomas, took leave from it to join them, and in session 23 he called himself “a cleric of Aurelia” and “a devotee of the Everlight” [17][59]; who the Everlight is remains open.

Overview

The Pure Light is the established state religion of Aurelia, the divine empire the world brief calls “the Shining Bastion of Purity”. Its Church teaches arcane power as a temptation towards arrogance, corruption and ruin, permits divine magic only in the Pure Light’s service, and is, with the city’s Nullstone masonry, the faith behind Aurelia’s ban on arcane magic (world brief). Its head is Seraphine, the sacred sovereign and living vessel of the goddess’s will (world brief).

In play the Church is met mostly through its instruments: the patrols, the warrants and the cloaks. The party has crossed Aurelian territory (sessions 18 to 20) but never entered the city or seen a Pure Light temple. Until session 19 everything it knew of the Church came from outside, from witnesses and from the steel of its enforcers; in session 19 a self-named Priest of the Pure Light, Father Thomas, joined the party [10]. The Church is distinct from the Aurelian forces that serve it, but in practice the two are hard to tell apart.

Known traits

  • Doctrine. Arcane magic is forbidden in Aurelia, and the DM has said the Aurelians “will and must carry out their divine right of exterminating all arcane users” [6], that “tieflings are exterminated on sight” [7], and that anyone seen practising arcane magic within Aurelian borders is “rapidly executed” [19]. The people of Arcanthys alone can use arcane magic near Aurelia and get away with it, because of something Aurelia has with that city [6].
  • Divine magic, and its limits. “People with magic rarely make it. Unless you’re part of the church, I guess.” [4]. A serving priest says “the Pure Light has bestowed magic upon me” [12], yet the DM ruled that his Shield would still count as an arcane spell in Aurelia [21].
  • The goddess. “The deity of Aurelia is Aurelia” [15], confirmed by the DM’s post-s21 clarifications (2026-09-27). The Everlight that Father Thomas prays to is not merged with her (see session 20 and session 23 below).
  • Enforcement. Patrols act “by order of the Pure Light” [8]; warrants charge not heresy but “unlawful possession and obstruction of divine inquiry” [22]; a wounded man in the sewers asked whether Vasquez was one of “the white cloaks” [9]. The DM remarked of the recruits that “it’s almost like there is a power hierarchy” [23], with a chain-wielding elite above them [24], and called Aurelian binders, trackers of heretics, “the Inquisitors’ general attack dogs” [25][26]. A priestly figure stood behind the patrol that executed Mike, and his raised finger flagged Mike’s cast [27][28].
  • Not monolithic. Cholmondeley, a Pure Light and Aurelian-aligned paladin, left it [29][30], and Father Thomas has taken leave from his order over its brutality [11].
  • Posture towards the party. Hostile. Since session 14 the party is wanted by description, five of them [31]. The Aurelian forces killed Ruin without a save, took the Egg and beheaded Mike [24][32][33]. The party’s answer has been concealment and, since session 19, retreat.
  • Not known. How the Church is organised below Seraphine; whether its inquisitors form a separate order (the world brief lists inquisitors among its enforcers); how arcane casters are found; whether the abductions through the Dawn Mercy Clinic have the Church’s sanction; and who or what the Everlight is.

Relationships

  • Aurelian forces: the muscle that serves the faith. The patrol that spoke “by order of the Pure Light” [8] and the occupation of Eldwythe [22] are the same forces, and the paladin “blessed by Aurelia” was one of their officers [2].
  • Aurelia and Crownspire: the city and its palace-cathedral-fortress; the Nullstone masonry fits the Church’s doctrine (world brief).
  • The Aurelian conspiracy: the abductions of the magically gifted through the Dawn Mercy Clinic [34]. The warrants name “divine inquiry” [22] and the patrols cite the Pure Light [8], but no scene shows who in Aurelia ordered the abductions.
  • Arcanthys: the old adversary, which Aurelia tried to destroy in the War of Fractured Heavens (world brief) and which is the one population exempt from the extermination [6].
  • Vhal’Zarim and the Platinum Order: a separate religious system (ruling 10). Aurelia and Vhal’Zarim hunted the chromatic dragons together [35][36], which does not make them one faith.

Notable named figures

  • Seraphine: the leader of Aurelia and head of the Church, first named in play by the DM in session 19 as the woman who “took on five Archmages” [37]. Never seen.
  • Father Thomas: a Twilight Cleric and Priest of the Pure Light, on leave from his order since session 19 and travelling with the party.
  • The chain-master: the unnamed Aurelian elite who beheaded Ruin and took the Egg [24][32]; see Aurelian chain-master.
  • The paladin of session 10: killed by the party; “blessed by Aurelia” [2]; see Aurelian Paladin.
  • The priestly figure of session 18: see Aurelian Confessor; not confirmed as Pure Light clergy.
  • Cholmondeley: the party’s first dead, a defector from Aurelia.

History in the campaign

Session 2: The Bark, the Dryad, and the Riddle that Wasn’t a Tree

Main article: Session 2

The Church’s first trace is a player character. Cholmondeley, Chris’s first character, said he was from Aurelia and had been part of its military, Harvo said he had killed many of his people, and the DM agreed the crests on his armour would be recognised [29]. In passing he said, “If there’s one thing about Aurelians, it’s that we don’t trust any outsiders.” [1]. The DM’s rulings make him Pure Light and Aurelian-aligned, not a “Paladin of Bahamut” (ruling 10); see Cholmondeley.

Session 10: Ruin Joins, the Aurelian Conspiracy, the Plate Armour

Main article: Session 10

The party’s first Aurelian combatant, the paladin of the Umbrafall alley ambush, fought with divine force: his sword “leaves this glowing slash in the air” and burned the demon inside Vasquez [38][39]. Asked how, the DM said, “He’s just blessed by Aurelia. The sword deals extra radiant damage.” [2]. He wore Nullstone-runed plate, which Vasquez took. It is the first line to tie the Pure Light’s divine magic to a fighter in the field.

Session 11: Owlbears and the Soulbinder

Main article: Session 11

The session opened with the DM’s remark that Cholmondeley’s fate was “what you get when you defect from the Aurelian Empire” [30]. In Umbrafall the potion-seller Alston said Aurelia was all “authoritarians just all kinds of churches”, and that “the Church of Light is just like, you know… Kind of clashes a little bit with my Umbrafall heart” [3]. On the road out, a farmer told the party that “people with magic rarely make it. Unless you’re part of the church, I guess.” [4]. Neither speaker was Aurelian.

Session 14: The Gummy Mummy and Aurelian Eldwythe

Main article: Session 14

Returning to Eldwythe at nightfall, the party found white and gold banners on the palisade, soldiers with the sunburst of Aurelia, and notice boards with a crude likeness of each of them: “Not wanted for theft, not murder, not heresy, but unlawful possession and obstruction of divine inquiry” [22][31]. Back at the camp, asked what they knew of Aurelia, the DM said only that Arcanthys’s people can use arcane magic near it, that the Aurelians “will and must carry out their divine right of exterminating all arcane users”, and that “you don’t know how they pin them down, but they do” [6].

Session 15: The Death of Ruin and Althea Joins

Main article: Session 15

A patrol hunting Althea Stormsoro called out, “By order of the Pure Light, step away from the fugitive and identify yourselves.” [8]. It had wanted to inspect her gorget, and she had refused [40]. Mharos urged Vasquez to “blame the arcane on her”; Vasquez stood up and offered himself instead [41], and a chain tore off Ruin’s head with no save [24]. The DM said the recruits seemed “a lot weaker than some of them”, a power hierarchy [23]. A second chain pulled Caelumn’s backpack, with the Egg, into the smoke [32].

Session 16: Through the Sewers, Onto the Skiff

Main article: Session 16

Deep in the Eldwythe sewers a wounded man, seeing Vasquez in looted Aurelian armour, asked, “You’re with the white cloaks?” [42]. It is the only civilian shorthand for the Church’s enforcers on record. On the skiff, Hugo gave the party’s working theory of the Church’s loophole: that in Aurelia a cleric might get away with casting because it would read as divine [43]. It echoes the farmer’s remark in session 11 [4].

Session 19: A Penitent Priest, an Unmade Leash, and the Pixie in the Dark

Main article: Session 19

The next morning a man in white robes, with a white wooden kite shield and no armour, caught up with the party: “I am Father Thomas. Priest of the pure light. And I have come to you in order to atone for the actions of my comrades.” [44][10]. He thought Mike’s punishment for “such a simple harmless spell” unwarranted, though he still believed the Aurelian teachings [45], had “taken a leave from my order” [11], and said, “the Pure Light has bestowed magic upon me”, casting Shillelagh: “Nature magic. Not all magic is bad.” [46]. Steven judged him honest but holding something back [47].

Session 20: The Man Who Was Always Here

Main article: Session 20

Father Thomas was heard “mumbling prayers to the Everlight” [48] and said it was “not the god of my order” [14]. The DM told Caelumn that the deity of Aurelia is Aurelia, and that a cleric of Aurelia who does not follow her is “relatively unheard of” [15][49]. Earlier, of a binder who came to the camp, the DM had said, “these are the Inquisitors’ general attack dogs” [25][26]. The DM’s post-s21 clarifications confirm Aurelia as the Church’s goddess; whether the Everlight is another title for her is open.

Session 22: The Dragon in the Statue

Main article: Session 22

The party met the wounded silver dragon Rime with an Aurelian bolt in his shoulder, who said Aurelian hunters had trapped him [50][51]. Caelumn presented Father Thomas as a defector from the Aurelian army, and Father Thomas told Rime, “I have adopted a new way. I now follow the path of the Everlight.” [52]. His History check recalled Aurelia and Vhal’Zarim hunting dragons to near extinction, metallic ones too [53].

Session 23: The Changeling in Manacles

Main article: Session 23

Introducing himself to Kole, Father Thomas called himself “a cleric of Aurelia” and, after asking the table “what do we call her?”, “a devotee of the Everlight” [54]. The DM at once called for a History check from everyone but Thomas, which failed, and closed it with “No one catches that detail, I guess.” [55]; what the detail was is not stated. The DM restated that anyone seen practising arcane magic in Aurelia is “rapidly executed” [19]. Father Thomas also said he had “contacts that go all the way up within the church” [20], and that casters are pinpointed at once [56], which are a player’s claims; the DM said the Egg’s holder is an Aurelian binder [57].

Status

As of session 23. Active. The Pure Light has issued warrants on the whole party, its forces executed Ruin and Mike, and the Egg, taken in session 15, is in Aurelian hands, its holder an Aurelian binder [57]. The party abandoned its push into Aurelia in session 19 [58] and has never seen a Pure Light temple. Father Thomas travels with it on leave and calls himself a cleric of Aurelia and a devotee of the Everlight; the DM has not said who the Everlight is.

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 2, line 266: Cholmondeley's in-character framing, "If there's one thing about Aurelians, it's that we don't trust any outsiders"; the original Chris PC was a paladin of the Pure Light on the run from Aurelian forces.
  2. ^ Session 10, line 836: DM confirms the Aurelian Paladin's radiant-rider greatsword is "blessed by Aurelia" (divine magic in service of the faith).
  3. ^ Session 11, line 672: Alston the potion-seller in Umbrafall describes Aurelia as "authoritarians, just all kinds of churches" and names the "Church of Light" specifically.
  4. ^ Session 11, line 841: A farmer on the road to Eldwythe (unnamed; the DM voicing him): 'people with magic rarely make it. Unless you're part of the church, I guess.'.
  5. ^ Session 14, line 1556-1561: Aurelian forces occupy Eldwythe while the party is away; wanted posters charge "unlawful possession and obstruction of divine inquiry".
  6. ^ Session 14, line 1616: (DM exposition) the Aurelians "must carry out their divine right of exterminating all arcane users".
  7. ^ Session 14, line 1619: DM confirms tieflings are "exterminated on sight" in Aurelia.
  8. ^ Session 15, line 103: Aurelian patrol arrives "by order of the pure light step away from the fugitive" (the only direct naming of the Pure Light by an in-fiction agent).
  9. ^ Session 16, line 1140: A wounded smuggler in the Eldwythe sewers identifies the Aurelians as "the white cloaks".
  10. ^ Session 19, line 695: Father Thomas, a serving Priest of the Pure Light, approaches the party to atone for Mike's execution: 'I am Father Thomas. Priest of the pure light... for such a harsh punishment for such a simple harmless spell, I am not confident it was warranted'.
  11. ^ Session 19, line 708: Father Thomas: 'I have taken a leave from my order in order to pursue good works'; a serving Aurelian clergyman separates from the hierarchy and travels with wanted heretics.
  12. ^ Session 19, line 710: Doctrine: 'the Pure Light has bestowed magic upon me'; Thomas casts Shillelagh and frames it 'Nature magic. Not all magic is bad'; the order grants sanctioned (nature) magic to its own clergy.
  13. ^ Session 19, line 724: Still steeped in Aurelian harshness even while atoning: 'i would not have taken his head for such a simple spell you know perhaps only a finger'.
  14. ^ Session 20, line 750: Father Thomas's player: the Everlight he prays to is 'not the god of my order'; whether it is another title for Aurelia or someone else is open.
  15. ^ Session 20, line 754: DM: 'the deity of Aurelia is Aurelia'; the DM's post-s21 clarifications (2026-09-27) confirm Aurelia as the Church's established deity.
  16. ^ Session 22, line 901-917: An Aurelian bolt in the wounded silver dragon Rime; Father Thomas tells Rime, "I have adopted a new way. I now follow the path of the Everlight.".
  17. ^ Session 23, line 1282: Father Thomas introduces himself to a newcomer: "I am a cleric of Aurelia" (his player's words).
  18. ^ Session 23, line 1284-1286: His player, searching for the name: "what do we call her?"; then "Everlight. Thank you. And a devotee of the Everlight." (the Everlight question stays open).
  19. ^ Session 23, line 1299: DM: anyone "seen practicing arcane magic within Aurelian Borders" is "rapidly executed".
  20. ^ Session 23, line 1405: Father Thomas: "I am a cleric of Aurelia. I have contacts that go all the way up within the church." (player-stated).
  21. ^ Session 19, line 1229: Inline citation.
  22. ^ Session 14, line 1556: Inline citation.
  23. ^ Session 15, line 440: Inline citation.
  24. ^ Session 15, line 117-119: Inline citation.
  25. ^ Session 20, line 277: Inline citation.
  26. ^ Session 20, line 285: Inline citation.
  27. ^ Session 18, line 1988: Inline citation.
  28. ^ Session 18, line 2044: Inline citation.
  29. ^ Session 2, line 228-240: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 11, line 138: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 14, line 1561: Inline citation.
  32. ^ Session 15, line 496-501: Inline citation.
  33. ^ Session 18, line 2274-2276: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 10, line 648-664: Inline citation.
  35. ^ Session 11, line 852: Inline citation.
  36. ^ Session 22, line 909: Inline citation.
  37. ^ Session 19, line 654-660: Inline citation.
  38. ^ Session 10, line 827: Inline citation.
  39. ^ Session 10, line 931: Inline citation.
  40. ^ Session 15, line 89: Inline citation.
  41. ^ Session 15, line 111-116: Inline citation.
  42. ^ Session 16, line 1140-1142: Inline citation.
  43. ^ Session 16, line 1635: Inline citation.
  44. ^ Session 19, line 677: Inline citation.
  45. ^ Session 19, line 695-697: Inline citation.
  46. ^ Session 19, line 710-712: Inline citation.
  47. ^ Session 19, line 703-704: Inline citation.
  48. ^ Session 20, line 748: Inline citation.
  49. ^ Session 20, line 762: Inline citation.
  50. ^ Session 22, line 901: Inline citation.
  51. ^ Session 22, line 904: Inline citation.
  52. ^ Session 22, line 916-917: Inline citation.
  53. ^ Session 22, line 909-910: Inline citation.
  54. ^ Session 23, line 1282-1286: Inline citation.
  55. ^ Session 23, line 1287-1291: Inline citation.
  56. ^ Session 23, line 1390: Inline citation.
  57. ^ Session 23, line 1357: Inline citation.
  58. ^ Session 19, line 229: Inline citation.
  59. ^ Session 23, line 1286: Inline citation.