Lore: The Paragons of Marble Halls

The Marble Halls is a medieval realm populated by recognizably human people.

Specifically, "Marble Halls" is the the name for the realm as conceived in the kingdom of Welland, which is in the home country of Fleta in the series beginning with The Proving of Champions. Most of this entry is from a Wellander perspective. This post will avoid spoilers for the series and provide helpful background.

The name "Marble Halls" refers to the temples of the Paragons. The porches for the temples are, in part, inspired by the Gate symbol for The Marble Halls: a triangular roof set on two pillars. Such porches in reality require more pillars, but the first and last pillar are usually extra ornate to emphasize the traditional icon from the Gates.

The term the Marble Halls is used in three contexts in Welland.

• The Marble Halls as a particular realm in contrast to other realms that can be traveled to by gates, like The Jungle or the Deathless Faire (often known in the Halls as The Market of the Damned). Fleta, the main character of The Proving of Champions, is mostly thinking about the Marble Halls in this sense.
• The Marble Halls as an earthly place, a domain of mortals, as opposed the Sky Halls where Paragons and ancestors dwell. This sense is used in a religious or ritual context most often.
• The Marble Halls as the society of gifted men and women, as opposed to normal people or sorcerers. This sense is used more often by nobles and disciples in the Wellander capital of Seagate.

Cosmology

Wellanders are rather unconcerned with the creation of their realm. The most widely popular story is that the world is the by product of a fight between two conflicting powers of creation and destruction. Wellanders do not believe them to be involved in the affairs of mortals, having either killed each other, disappeared, or moved their fight elsewhere. A few odd stories have them watching mortals and bickering over whether to create more or destroy everything and start over. Any stories of creation tend to be hazy and underdeveloped.

Paragons

Paragons are extremely gifted individuals. Wellanders believe they have ascended to the halls of the sky after their death, where they can grace mortals with their gifts. These gifts are not-magical in the sense that they allow a human to do the impossible, but only in the sense that they can do what a regular human could do, but much, much better. For example, a gifted individual cannot move an object with their mind, but they could be several times stronger than a regular human and be able to lift heavier objects the normal way.

The earliest story of the Paragons is called the Gate Tide Saga. In the Gate Tide Saga, the paragons arose to fight off an invasion of monsters coming through the Gates. The source of their gifts is hazy at best, and stories disagree whether it was leftover power from the Creator, some invention of the Gate Maker, or just their own extraordinary abilities. Typically, the Paragons mentioned Gate Tide Saga tales include a subset of the major Paragons. This almost never includes Undora, the most recent addition to the Wellander cannon of major Paragons. Asenor and Ursil are often overlooked as well, as their gifts bear little direct application to war.

Paragons are divided into major and minor. Minor paragons impart talent or skill in a specific trade or craft. Major Paragons impart not merely skill but some attribute, like strength, speed, insight, empathy, brilliance, creativity, endurance, etc. The cannon of major Paragons is not static, with Undora being admitted in the last generation or so, and some scholars arguing over whether Ursil is truly a major Paragon.

Major Paragons

• Asenor, Paragon of Creativity, associated with the color orange, air, and traits of joy and fickleness. Gifts disciples with creativity, expression, charisma, and beauty.
• Baltir, Paragon of Endurance, associated with the color brown, earth, and traits of courage and greed. Gifts disciples with endurance, toughness, longevity, tirelessness, focus.
• Hersuf, Paragon of Growth, associated with the color green, plants and animals, and traits of trust and foolishness. Gifts disciples with growth, animal ken, as well as skill in growing plants or breeding and training animals.
• Luthfen, Paragon of Insight, associated with the color white, light and darkness, and traits of wisdom and disdain. Gifts disciples with sight, intuition, and widsom.
• Mett, Paragon of Luck, associated with the color silver, metals, chance, and traits of optimism and insecurity. Grants disciples with luck.
• Thorgarick, Paragon of Power, associated with the color navy, storms and weather, and traits of pride and anger. Gifts disciples with strength and speed.
• Undora, Paragon of Emotion, associated with the color turqoise, water, and traits of compassion and sadness. Gifts disciples with empathy, emotion, and skill in medicine.
• Ursil, Paragon of Loyalty, associated with the color yellow, relationships, and traits of love and jealosy. Gifts disciples with loyalty, kindness, and skill in teaching.
• Valcot, Paragon of Genius, associated with the color red, fire, and traits of genius and apathy. Gifts disciples with reasoning, brilliance, invention, as well as the crafting and making of things.

All eight major paragons have large temples in the Wellander capital of Seagate, flanking the royal palace. Those temples in particular have huge political sway. Smaller temples devoted to the major paragons are also scattered throughout Welland, such as the Thorgarick temple at Lyntre, the Valcot temple Riddleberg, and the Undora temple in Koganiyama. While not every town will have a temple dedicated to a single paragon, large towns will either have ecumenical spaces with shrines to several paragons or individual shrines sponsored by local guilds.

A lot of folklore has evolved around the major paragons, such that they are associated with particular personality traits and natural phenomena. Some commoners pray to the paragons for help concerning natural phenomena (like praying to Thorgarick to stay his storms), but this is officially heretical. One should pray for the gifts to manage the world as it is, rather than pray to change the world. However, there's even debate on whether or not Paragons answer prayers for grace at all. Some people believe that Paragons grant moments of extraordinary skill or insight to ordinary people, while others believe their grace is limited to those few who have permanent, extraordinary gifts from their youth.

Minor Paragons

Minor paragons are seen as giving a skill in a particular craft, but not necessarily granting the broad, powerful attributes of a major paragon. However, minor paragons can command quite a bit of respect.

The most prominent minor Paragon is Karatuk, Paragon of Weaponcraft. Karatuk is one of the rare minor Paragons with a dedicated temple that functions like the temples to the major Paragons, and gifted Karatuks are sought out as swordmasters, personal guards, and tournament champions.

Temples

The temples of the Paragons are a phenomena unique to Welland. Different cultures have different relationships to the Paragons, some even treating them as simple just-so stories. However, Welland specifically believes that gifted individuals honor the Paragons and bring grace and gifts to future generations by training their abilities in temples. Each temple will have its own rituals and devotional practices, but the vast majority of their time is either on training or working with their gifts.

The leader of a temple is called a High Skald. Originally someone who embodied the virtues of a Paragon in both body and character, it has become more of a fixed, leadership and administrative position. A High Skalds hires swornmen and swornwomen (non-gifted or not-very-gifted) individuals who are sworn to the service of the temple, and generally see to the day to day maintenance of the temple and training of young disciples. The Skald also negotiates patronage or contracts for the services of adult disciples, taking a portion for temple. Skalds also typically lead rituals and holy days and play a role in local politics.

Gifted individuals usually join a temple at a young age, within a year or two of their gift manifesting. Typically, parents will take their child to the temple. The high skald will determine whether the gift is worthy of the temple's training resources, helped along by a donation in the case of wealthy and eager parents. Gifts vary in intensity (some gifted are a little strong, some are much stronger) and breadth (some people are generally strong, others are limited to strong legs or even just a strong jump). Not every gifted individual joins a temple and becomes an official disciple, but the most gifted usually do.

Upon joining a temple, the new disciple takes the name of their Paragon and begins to wear his or her colors. For example, Fleta Karldotter became Fleta Thorgarick when she joined the temple of Thorgarick at Lyntre. She typically wears a navy tunic.

When gifted individuals come of age and are deemed ready, they are generally hired out. In practice, this varies widely and does not occur all at once. A young disciple takes a local jobs for small sums as practice until they are ready to hire out their work to a guild, or noble, or to earn their keep with winnings from tournaments and competitions. It is not unheard of for temples, particularly the rich ones at the capital, to hire out disciples of other Paragons to complement their abilities. For example, Valcots might hire a particularly strong or speedy Thorgarick to help in the manufacture of something difficult or time sensitive, and then sell their products to other temples.

This pattern varies widely between paragons. Thorgaricks almost exclusively make their money based on the hire of their disciples, while Valcots almost exclusively sell their inventions instead of their labor. Likewise, Hersufs sell specially breed and trained animals. Asenor artists generally find patrons among the nobles, but some work in theatres or produce artisanal crafts for export. The Baltir sometimes hire out a tireless worker, but for the most part, they have become a sort of merchant guild that leverages their focus and longevity.

Most minor Paragons don't have elaborate temples and dedicated, full-time disciples. They are generally venerated by a mundane guild, and those gifted by a minor Paragon build a modest reputation through their guild. A few of the greatest gifted craftsmen become renown across all of Welland, and sometimes beyond.

There is no official hierarchy of temples, but in practice temples have a differing amount of prestige and political capital. Temples in the Wellander capitol of Seagate, surrounding the king's palace, tend to draw the most gifted (and connected) individuals from across the kingdom. However, other temples have their own advantages. The Thorgarick temple at Lyntre oversees the only working Gate in Welland, which gives it the ability to attract gifted individuals beyond the quint slopes of its village. The Valcot temple known as "Riddleberg" is famous for its eccentric geniuses and its library. Riddleberg has a lot of influence in Kurnam, a central barony and the breadbasket of Welland. The Undora temple at Koganivaya, in the northeast of Welland is almost as far from the capitol as one can get, but it is older than the Undora temple in Seagate, and is often thought of as the seat of their power.