The Rebellion of The Bright Custodians did not begin as a thirst for power, nor as a lust for conquest. It began as conscience. As I watched the Solar Ecclesiarch fall silent while the Imperator's legions marched upon Caorran, slaughtering the newly elected King, a Cardinal of our own Church, and noble families loyal to Solis, I understood that the Light had been abandoned to shadow. If the "infallible" voice of the Solar Ecclesiarch falls silent before tyranny, then it is not the Sun that guides her, but the shadow of Asran's madness.
It was shortly after the murder of over a dozen Caorrani nobles, on 45-34-2, five weeks after the legions first marched upon Caorrani soil, that I declared the Holy Order of Bright Custodians free from the authority of the Asrian Ecclesia. Our rebellion was not against the Church itself, but against the corruption of its authority, the abandonment of its sacred duty to the faithful. Our oath remains unchanged, even in this new era: "In Darkness, Light. In Falsehood, Truth. In Tyranny, Justice."
Before the rebellion, the Empire's partisans sought to subvert the Custodians through the establishment of the Chapter of the Avenging Sun, a faction designed to twist our creed into a weapon of bloodlust. They perverted our sacred motto, claiming that to be a Custodian is to embody death, that the ending of lives is a sacred duty. This corruption is unmistakably the work of Inanis and The Proditores, for the Custodian's purpose is not to take life, but to protect life. We are the shield that guards the innocent, the faithful, and the weak. Any teaching that glorifies death over protection is false, and must be resisted at every turn.
The flame of conscience we ignited when we rebelled did not burn alone. Clergy, monks, and pious nobles, long disillusioned by the Ecclesial hierarchy's silence, rallied to our side. Our training, both martial and spiritual, allowed us to act decisively. We advanced upon the Bishopric of Antigonia, the strongest Ecclesial seat in the East. In a brief but resolute campaign, Antigonia fell, its authority dissolved, and with it the illusion of Church unity under Asrian oversight.
What followed was not mere rebellion, but the birth of a Church renewed. Without the Custodians' loyalty, the Ecclesial States to the West quickly collapsed. The Solar Ecclesiarch was taken captive by the allies of Caorran. From the ashes of this crisis arose The Caorrani Solisian Church, guided by the First Shepherd and a renewed College of Cardinals, fully dedicated to the Light of Aeternum Solis, and not to further Asrian ambition.
Our duty is not to rule with the force of an army, nor to emulate worldly power. The Custodians are not the strong arm of the Church, but the shield of life itself. We stand between the innocent and tyranny, between the oppressed and shadow. We guard the weak, defend the faithful, and uphold the principles of Light, Truth, and Justice, not as soldiers of conquest, but as protectors of the righteous.
Remember well, my brothers and sisters: the strength of the Custodians lies not in the power we wield or the lives we take, but in the lives we preserve, the truth we defend, and the Light we uphold in every corner where Darkness dares to tread.
— First Custodian Eileen