The Tyrant Philosophers/High Fane
The High Fane was the principal temple of Mazdek, the Chastising Flame in Jarokir, a seat of worship whose sacred fire had burned for ten thousand years before the Palleseen occupation defiled and ultimately destroyed it. The temple held out for almost a year against the Palleseen assault before finally falling, an event that occurred approximately thirty years before the present narrative of House of Open Wounds. By the time the novel begins, no physical structure remains; the High Fane persists only in the memories of those who served within it, and in the diminished, desperate form of the god whose flame it once sheltered.
The temple's destruction is the founding wound of Tallifer and Lochiver, who served there as co-priests before the fall. For Tallifer, the loss of the High Fane transformed her from an unremarkable member of its clergy into a priest of Mazdek in exile, a role she regards with exhausted pride. During the temple's final hours she was entrusted with carrying the sacred fire to a new site, but dropped it while fleeing and woke to find the god himself-reduced to the last surviving ember of ten millennia of flame-curled in her pocket. Her sworn vow to fight the Palleseen to her last breath curdled into years of patching their wounds in their baggage train, an alliance she despises, even with allies she calls "disease worshippers." Lochiver's own temple fell alongside the High Fane, and the twin losses anchor his bitter, bickering companionship with Tallifer throughout the novel.
Across the single book in which it appears, the High Fane moves from destroyed memory to active presence: the title "Priestess of the High Fane" is formally restored to Tallifer by the god's own choice, and the final escape from a Palleseen prisoner tent is announced under that restored name. The place itself is gone, but its meaning-what was owed, what was carried out, what was left behind-drives every decision its former servants make.
The Place
Geography & Character
The High Fane stood in Jarokir as the chief temple of Mazdek, the Chastising Flame. No physical description of its architecture survives in the text; what remains is sensory and elegiac. During services the candles of the temple guttered together, an effect Tallifer recalled with the thought, "Or carefully made candles. But why spoil the mystery?" - ch 45. The sacred fire at its heart had burned continuously for ten thousand years - ch 21. The Palleseen occupation defiled the temple - ch 5 - and by the novel's present day, roughly thirty years after its destruction, its former seat of worship exists only in the memories of those who served there - ch 45. Tallifer sums up the intervening years in a single word: "epilogue" - ch 45.
Who Holds It
Before the fall, the High Fane was held by a body of priests of Mazdek, among them Tallifer, who remembered herself as "just one more priestess" among its clergy - ch 45, and Lochiver, whose own temple within the complex was destroyed along with the High Fane - ch 39. The Palleseen assault and occupation stripped the temple of its clergy and its function - ch 5, ch 21. In the aftermath, the title "Priestess of the High Fane" lapsed; it was not Tallifer's by right of service but by the god's later, deliberate choice, formally restored to her in the prisoner tent near the novel's end - ch 46. The god Mazdek himself, reduced to a tiny salamander, is the last living claimant to the temple's legacy - ch 21, ch 46.
What Happens Here
The High Fane's final stand lasted almost a year against the Palleseen before it fell - ch 21. During those last hours, Tallifer was tasked with carrying the sacred fire to a new site; she smuggled it out but dropped it while fleeing, and woke to find Mazdek-the last survivor of the flame after it went out-curled in her pocket - ch 21. The fall "made a priest of Mazdek out of" Tallifer, a transformation she regards with exhausted pride: she did better than everyone else from the High Fane - ch 10. Lochiver's temple was destroyed in the same event, and the loss is named in the same breath as the debt owed to him - ch 39. Thirty years later, in a Palleseen prisoner tent, Mazdek-still diminished to salamander-size-burns the hemp rope bonds linking the captives with "an act of minuscule vandalism," and Tallifer, bearing the restored title, announces the escape - ch 46. The temple's function has inverted entirely: a god who once burned for ten thousand years in a great hall now performs the smallest possible defiance in a mud-floored tent, and his priestess leads a handful of prisoners out of captivity rather than out of a blazing shrine.
History
House of Open Wounds
The High Fane is the principal temple of Mazdek, the Chastising Flame in Jarokir, described as defiled by the Palleseen occupation (ch 5). By the present events of the novel it has been destroyed for approximately thirty years, and its former seat of worship exists only in the memories of those who served there (ch 45). It held out for almost a year against the Palleseen before finally falling (ch 21). The sacred fire (Mazdek) that burned within it had been alight for ten thousand years (ch 21). During services the candles of the temple guttered together, an effect Tallifer later recalled with the thought, "Or carefully made candles. But why spoil the mystery?" (ch 45).
Tallifer and Lochiver were former co-priests at the High Fane (ch 10). Tallifer served there as a priestess, remembering herself as "just one more priestess" among its clergy (ch 45). The fall of the temple made a priest of Mazdek out of her, a transformation she regards with a kind of exhausted pride: she "did better than everyone else from the High Fane" (ch 10). Lochiver's own temple was destroyed along with the High Fane, and its loss is named in the same breath as the debt owed to him (ch 39). After the fall the two former colleagues bicker constantly-Lochiver calling Tallifer a "flatulent sod"-though Tallifer softens when Lochiver invokes his lost title (ch 10).
During the temple's last hours, Tallifer was tasked with carrying the sacred fire to a new site (ch 21). She smuggled it out but dropped it while fleeing, and woke to find Mazdek, the Chastising Flame-the last survivor of the sacred fire after it went out-curled in her pocket (ch 21). She swore to fight the Palleseen to her last breath, yet now patches their wounds in their baggage train, having allied even with a "disease worshipper" (ch 21). The years since the fall have been, in her estimation, "epilogue" (ch 45).
In the prisoner tent near the end of the novel, Mazdek-reduced to a tiny salamander-burns the hemp rope bonds linking the captives with an act of minuscule vandalism, while Tallifer, her title Priestess of the High Fane formally restored by the god's choice, announces the escape: "We're getting out of here." (ch 46). Mazdek chose her, she reflects, "for the simple reason that Mazdek has nobody else" (ch 46).
Relationships
- Tallifer - Served as a priestess at the High Fane before the fall, self-described as "just one more priestess" - ch 45. Tasked with carrying the sacred fire out of the besieged temple; her failure to keep it safe instead saved the god himself - ch 21. Spent the intervening thirty years in self-directed exile, patching Palleseen wounds in their baggage train, regarding the period as "epilogue" - ch 45. Her title as Priestess of the High Fane is formally restored by Mazdek's choice in the final chapter - ch 46.
- Lochiver - Former co-priest at the High Fane alongside Tallifer - ch 10. His own temple was destroyed in the same fall - ch 39. The two bicker constantly in the aftermath-Lochiver calling Tallifer a "flatulent sod"-though Tallifer softens when Lochiver invokes his lost title - ch 10.
- Mazdek, the Chastising Flame - The deity to whom the High Fane was dedicated. His sacred fire, burning for ten thousand years, died when Tallifer dropped it; he survived as its last ember, reduced to a tiny salamander - ch 21. He is the sole remaining connection to the temple, and he chooses Tallifer for the restored title, a choice she attributes to necessity: "for the simple reason that Mazdek has nobody else" - ch 46.
- Palleseen - The occupying force that defiled the High Fane - ch 5 - and against whom it held out for almost a year before falling - ch 21. Tallifer's sworn vow to fight them to her last breath is inverted by the years she spends healing their wounded - ch 21.
Notable Quotes
- "Or carefully made candles. But why spoil the mystery?" - Tallifer, House of Open Wounds, ch 45
- "just one more priestess" - Tallifer, House of Open Wounds, ch 45
- "did better than everyone else from the High Fane" - Tallifer, House of Open Wounds, ch 10
- "flatulent sod" - Lochiver to Tallifer, House of Open Wounds, ch 10
- "epilogue" - Tallifer, House of Open Wounds, ch 45
- "We're getting out of here." - Tallifer, House of Open Wounds, ch 46
- "for the simple reason that Mazdek has nobody else" - Tallifer, House of Open Wounds, ch 46
Tags
- temple · #mazdek · #sacred-relic · #destroyed