Aelwyn Falsteph

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Saint Aelwyn of Lithmore was one of the first of Dav's inquisitors and a hero of the early church. Aelwyn Falsteph began his legend as captain of Dav's personal guard before the beginning of the Consolidation. Shortly before the death of the king's family and Dav's disappearance, Aelwyn resigned his post to join a religious order which railed against the evils of magery, becoming a fierce adherent to its dogma.

With Dav's return, Aelwyn exploited his friendship with the king to become a close advisor, his status in the embryonic Order rising in concert. His words would lead Dav, on the eve of his wars of conquest, to name the Order as his official state religion. The Order underwent rapid change as it changed from cult with only limited social acceptance to the dominant faith of the realm. Along with the administration of the faith, charitable works, and worship came a violent persecution of mages, with Aelwyn leading the charge. When mobs tore through Lithmore destroying any hint of magic, Aelwyn was always to be found at their head.

With his close relation to Dav and role in the new Order, Aelwyn was named to be the Grand Inquisitor upon the death of the first Grand Inquisitor, Cardinal Valinus. Thus was he charged with rooting out and destroying out magic in all of Dav's lands and was raised to officially lead the Order, and so he gained a seat on Dav's own royal council as the Cardinal of Lithmore.

Aelwyn would go on to a storied career spanning two decades as the Grand Inquisitor. Uncounted mages fell to his blade, uncounted more to his guile and wit. Alas, in SC 132, with the Consolidation still raging on, Aelwyn's life came to an end. He and a cadre of other clergy were ambushed as they investigated a suspected coven of mages. What few reports remain of that fateful day speak of Aelwyn alone leading a grand, if futile charge, only to be consumed in mage's fire and wholly destroyed. Not long after, Aelwyn was canonized as a saint by Dav himself, the first of many saints to be created from the fire and destruction of the Consolidation.

Legend has it that one last legacy of Aelwyn still exists. His sword was stolen out from that evil place by a young acolyte as he fled the mages' wrath, and remains to this day in the Holy Order's keeping.