Temple of the Herald Declaring the Exalted Way
Nestor: ?
Location: Five Dragons Courtyard (Temple District, Imperial City)
Description: Temple to Parad, god of inherited power and of Terrestrial Exaltations. Of course, in Immaculate teachings no god bears power to manipulate a soul towards enlightenment, yet Parad maintains an important position in the Prayer Calendar, for it is said that he dutifully defends the passage of souls onto the next life so that their spiritual advancement might be inherited by a new incarnation. As part of this duty, it is said that he tirelessly labours to remind the gods that they must do their rightful duties in obedience to the Perfected Hierarchy and acceptance of the Dragonblooded as the Princes of the Earth.
The Temple itself is approached along a covered colonnade, the pillars of marble coloured to match the five colours of Jade, ending in a gate of carved Green Jade decorated with weather-worn images of mothers and their children, which histories say originally decorated a temple in the capital of the Shogun before the Scarlet Empress had it restored and transported to the Imperial City. The gate is closed with doors of polished bronze, which are normally closed to the general populace. However, as is their right as the most enlightened, the Dragonblooded of the Dynasty often make donative appointments when expecting children, and the waiting rooms within are furnished in proper Dynastic style.
On those days when rains are scheduled by the Bureau of Climactic Deliberations, a tradition exists amongst some of the common folk that if a pregnant mother shelters beneath the colonnade, then Parad will bless her child to be hale and successful. The Immaculate Order does not look kindly on such superstitions, though there is some dispute as to the solution: the monks of the Temple of the Herald tend to take a direct physical approach, casting the commoners out into the square for their heresy, an approach the nestor of the nearby Temple of He who hath Strewn much Grass considers excessively harsh... on such days Sextes Jylis' Temple attempts to intercept approaching or ejected mothers so they can be brought into their own Temple and properly educated in theology and the best techniques for childbirth.
The temple is located in the northeast of the Temple District, close to the Temple of He who hath Strewn much Grass (to the southwest) and the Temple of the Moon in Passage through Proscribed Phases (to the northwest).
Monks: ?
Patrons: Mnemon Kuvon, ?
