Yliasen
The secret operative arm of the Yrialin. The Yrialin work in public. The Yliasen root out corruption in ways that are not publicized.
They share the Yrialin’s faith but not its visibility. They investigate corruption, expose lies, and get the truth out of people. They step in before a problem becomes a public disaster. If a person can be redeemed, they arrange the chance. If not, they end the threat quietly. Most people never know they exist, and the order wants it that way.
Those who do know call them the Quiet Hands. Members are warriors and spies who have chosen dark work so that others can stay in the light. They are no less faithful than the congregation. They do a different job: they do not heal the wound, they cut out the infection so it does not spread.
The Yrialin and the Yliasen are two faces of the same faith. For the beliefs behind it, see Cosmology.
Overview
Section titled “Overview”| Type | Covert religious order |
| Faith | Ylelaim (shared with the Yrialin and the Celestial Sword) |
| Reach | Continental, through chapter houses |
| Headquarters | None known |
| Entry | By invitation. Candidates are watched for a long time before they are asked |
The Yliasen keep no public roles and hold no territory. A chapter house is a place where a few members live and work under ordinary cover. Some regions have none. Shejara has no Yliasen chapter house.
Doctrine
Section titled “Doctrine”The Yliasen share the Yrialin’s central teaching: Corruption is the condition Redemption answers, and Damnation is what remains when the answer is refused. They draw a rule from it.
The Offer. Before the Yliasen end a person, they make one offer of a way back. It has to be plain and it has to come with something real, like a cleared debt, a protected witness, or a way out of the life. Someone sliding through Corruption has not refused the answer yet, so they are owed the Offer. Choosing Damnation refuses it for good, so nothing is left to offer.
Truth over appearance. The Yliasen judge what a person has done. A respected figure in the open church can be rotten, and a feared figure in the slums can be turning. A reputation shows what people believe, which can differ from what is true.
The cut. Redemption comes first. When it is refused, or was never possible, ending the threat is a duty and not a victory. A member who enjoys it is removed.
Entry favors polarities that suit the work, such as Truth for investigators and Shadow for those who must move unseen. A Faith polarity lets a member confirm whether a person carries the trace of either Dark Twin, as it does for the Celestial Sword.
How They Work
Section titled “How They Work”Watching first. A case starts with weeks or months of observation. Members hold ordinary lives where the case is: a clerk in a dock office, a tutor in a household, a healer in a ward. Congregation talk is a good source, and what the open church hears about corruption reaches the Yliasen through the Yrialin’s own network.
Outcomes. A case ends one of three ways. The target takes the Offer and enters sanctuary. The target is exposed, so the Yrialin can condemn them in public. Or the target is ended quietly.
Sanctuary. A person who takes the Offer is sheltered through the Yrialin’s tradition of protecting the repentant. The shelter is real and comes with watching. Redemption is a lifelong effort in their doctrine, and the Yliasen keep paying attention.
The long watch. The biggest threat the faith recognizes is a spirit descending into mortal flesh. The ritual runs for weeks or months, and while it runs it gives off a Ren signature that can be triangulated. The ritual window is fixed and known, and the Yrialin watch for it every year. When a signature appears, the Yliasen are the ones who go to the place it points to.
Members
Section titled “Members”Yliasen look like anyone else. They attend the open church, hold ordinary jobs, and are mostly noticeable for how little they say. A team on a case is a hand, usually three to five members. The order’s ranks and wider structure are not known outside it.
Most come from the Yrialin’s own laity. A few come from the Celestial Sword, whose members sometimes find that cutting is not the work they want. The order does not recruit from the Black Chalice or the Thousand Tongues, even when a former member has sincerely repented. They can be sheltered, but they are not trusted with the work.
Task: Find and stop corruption before it becomes a public disaster, and watch for the signature of a spirit’s descent.
Purpose: Redeeming God (Redemption, God). Restore people to the faith where the way back is open, and remove the threat where it is not.
Method: Observe a case under ordinary cover. Gather testimony through the Yrialin’s congregations. Make the Offer. Shelter those who accept. Expose what the open church can condemn publicly. End what remains, quietly. When the target is a Rennim, confirm the trace of Corruption or Damnation with a Faith polarity first.
Endstate: There is no completion. The order counts success as a world where no descent ritual finishes and no cult cell grows large enough to reach the surface. A threat that has not become public is a case still open.
Relations
Section titled “Relations”Yrialin: The open church shelters the repentant and speaks loudly against corruption. It hosts the Yliasen’s network without always knowing how far it goes. Senior clergy are read in. Most congregants are not.
Celestial Sword: The Sword ends confirmed corruption. The Yliasen make the Offer first where one exists, so the two work on slightly different clocks. They coordinate when divine matters go beyond ordinary corruption response, and the difference between the Offer and the cut causes friction.
Black Chalice: The main quarry. The Chalice’s cells rarely know the whole organization, which is the Yliasen’s biggest obstacle. A cell led by the Damned gets no Offer. Its lower members, who are still sliding, often do.
Thousand Tongues: The Thousand Tongues is the hardest cult for the Yrialin to fight directly, since it has no army, temple, or hierarchy to attack. The Yliasen are the closest thing the faith has to an answer. They look for the fingerprints of manufactured lies, and they work in truth.
House Ristila: In public, the Yrialin’s biggest backer among the Highborn. See the GM note below.
GM: Fault Lines
Nobody watches the Quiet Hands. The Offer is discretionary. A hand decides alone whether a target is sliding or Damned, whether the Offer was made honestly, and whether the cut is warranted. The order has procedures but no outside review, and a member who is wrong has no easy way to find out.
Ristila’s money. A small group of House Ristila elders pays for the order out of the house’s arbitration income, routed through gifts to the Yrialin. Most open clergy do not know. If it came out, the Yrialin would lose credibility and Ristila would lose every contract it ever bound. The same funding gives the order a patron with enemies.
Shelter and watching. Sanctuary is what makes the Offer believable. It also makes the Yliasen a standing threat to anyone who accepted it. A person redeemed under watch has a record the order can use if they relapse, or if the order decides they have.
The Gersan chapter house. Gersan’s chapter house is hidden among the neighborhood chapels of the Yrialin Hall District and the hostels Ristila funds.
Ithasen lore © Daniel Eynon, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.