The Sun-in-Splendour

"The Sun will be divided that it might not sire children. Still its children shall be Four in number and its children shall be Seven in number and its children shall also be Numberless. The Numberless shall open the way for the Seven, and the Seven shall consume the Four..."

- Amira Zahra, The Time of Division

The Sun-in-Splendour, also called The True Sun, was one of the Hours. Together with The Forge of Days, it was one of the original Gods-from-Light, those Hours who descended directly from The Glory, and once ruled the Mansus as the highest of the Hours. The Sun-in-Splendour was worshipped by the Church of the Unconquered Sun in the Third and Fourth Histories.

According to The Vinzant Inscriptions, The Sun-in-Splendour was prophesied by The Red Grail and her priestesses to be united with The Forge of Days, who loved him. Lazali predicted in The Book of the Extinguished Heart that The Sun would be divided in The Malleary by The Forge, "armed with the love in her heart." At some point, probably after the War of the Roads, this division came to pass in an event called the Intercalate, during which The Sun-in-Splendour was killed by The Forge. This resulted in the creation of the Solar Hours, each of which had originally been one of its Names: The Sun-in-Rags, The Meniscate, and The Madrugad. The wound of the Division also produced the Wolf Divided. Thus dead, the Sun-in-Splendour was banished to Nowhere, where monstrous parasites called Worms bred in its corpse. The Intercalate was an epochal event in the occult history of the world.

In The Time of Division, Amira Zahra foretells that The Sun-in-Splendour will rise once more in the Second Dawn, which will follow four great wars and the completion of a certain rite. A faction of Long calling themselves the "Birds of a Feather" seek to bring about the Sun-in-Splendor's return, believing that it will usher in a new golden age for the world.

Books

 * The Vinzant Inscriptions
 * The Book of the Extinguished Heart
 * The Time of Division
 * The High Mysteries of the Innermost Chamber of our Church Solar