Lunari

The Lunari are a moon-worshipping order of Mount Targon and the ancient counterpart to the sun-venerating Solari. Theirs is a faith of mystery, reflection, and discovery, its followers guided by the moon's light along paths they call orbits and wielding crescent moonblades that blaze at their holy words. Long ago the Solari who ruled Targon branded them heretics and erased them from history so thoroughly that most forgot the order had ever been, driving the survivors into temples and caves far from Solari sight. Even in hiding the Lunari are not safe. The Solari's Burning Ones scorch out suspected moon-worshippers by night while their priests deny the moon by day. When the ancient temple of the Marus Omegnum phased back from the spirit realm and Lunari gathered to witness the celestial cycles turn in their favor, a Solari army descended and purged the assembly with fire and steel. Among the order's devoted are the twins Aphelios and Alune, born during a rare lunar convergence and celebrated as children of destiny. Aphelios serves as the Lunari's weapon, drinking the poison of the noctum flower to open himself to the moon's power and to a spiritual tether with his sister, who channels an arsenal of moonstone weapons to him from a fortress in the spirit realm. The order's fortunes shifted when Diana, raised among the Solari, uncovered the truth of the erased Lunari and was chosen as host of the Aspect of the Moon. Denounced and driven to slaughter the elders who had suppressed the Lunari's history, she now fights to restore the balance between sun and moon that Targon was meant to hold. The order itself remains scattered, so diminished that when the Marai merfolk sent their Tidecaller to trade for their sacred moonstone, she found the order broken and the stone beyond reach. With the moon's Aspect in the world once more, the Solari know the faith still endures.