Not to be confused with the royal sanctuary, the current royal chapel is a small room off the reception chamber. Visitors are more than welcome to enter here while awaiting the Jackal or his High Lord, but they are asked to maintain a reverent atmosphere.
Quite deliberately, the royal chapel is not dedicated to any one god or goddess. Instead, it is intended as a place where visitors may revere whoever or whatever they hold highest.
To aid in this reverence, the small chapel - barely big enough for four people to stand in - is crammed with sacred objects from around the world.
Directly above the tiny altar are the masks of the Seven Gods and Goddesses of Koretia. These are used as an aid to prayer by Koretians, who touch the masks during their worship. Visitors are asked not to touch the masks unless they wish to pray to the Koretian gods and goddesses. In particular, one of the masks belongs to the Jackal himself. Parents may wish to distract their children at this point, for some young children find the Jackal's mask especially frightening.
A nearby fipple flute is a gift of the lately deceased Royal Bard of Daxis. Although the harps played by bards are Daxis's most sacred instrument, ordinary Koretians play simpler instruments to their goddess the Song Spirit, such as the fipple flute.
At the other end of the chapel, sitting on a table, is an open copy of The International Law, whose roots lie in the Chara's law. The purpose of the International Law is to keep harmony between the Three Lands. The book was given as a present by the late Chara of Emor; this particular volume is specially scribed, with many beautiful illustrations of scenery in the Three Lands.
A tapestry hanging on the wall is a recent donation from the Duke of the Hunting Federation on the eastern mainland. It shows the blood-lineage of the Duke, all the way back to the earliest years of the eastern mainland. As I need not tell any visitor from the eastern mainland, eastern mainlanders regard blood-lineages as even more hallowed than Koretians and Daxions do. This deeply sacred object is intended as a gift of friendship between the Hunting Federation and the Three Lands.
Finally, on a small ledge you will find a tiny set of northern animal sculptures, carved by Arpeshian artists. The carvings are intended to represent the faiths of the people of Emor's Dominion of Arpesh, as well as the the people of the northern mainland nations. Like northern mainlanders, Arpeshians venerate animals, but unlike the northern mainlanders, Arpeshians direct their veneration toward works of art such as this.
Visitors who have studied the political divisions of the Great Peninsula often ask why the chapel contains no objects from Emor's Dominion of Marcadia. The absence is deliberate. Until very recently, Marcadians were forbidden by Emorian law from worshipping their own gods. Although that prohibition has been lifted in the most recent Emorian edition of the Chara's laws, it is likely to be many years before the Marcadians are able to re-establish contact with their gods. Until that time, their wretched state of spiritual emptiness is represented by the lack of Marcadian sacred objects in this chapel.
[Translator's note: The Marcadians' quest for their gods can be found as a subplot in Empty Dagger Hand.]
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laurel
