She is the priestess charged with giving personal spiritual guidance to the Emperor and she runs and performs the rites of Zera in the Imperial Chapel.
Lilian Mote of the High Born Family called Church is a presence both ethereal and imposing within the marbled halls of the Imperial Court at Songborne. Her voice, soft yet unwavering, carries the lilt of ancient prayers, and her robes, embroidered with the silver-threaded sigils of Zera, the Dawn Bringer, move like whispered flame through the cloisters of the Imperial Chapel. Though not of royal blood, Lilian holds the Emperor’s ear in private chambers more often than any general or councillor, and her counsel is sought not only in matters of the spirit but of state, for she is said to see through veils both earthly and divine.
Her rituals are not mere theatre but living acts of divine petition, performed beneath the sun-dappled dome of the Chapel where light itself seems to bend in reverence. On feast days, she leads the Seven Fold Procession barefoot, bearing the relics of Zera before the Court and the common faithful alike. Yet it is in private, candlelit rites held at midnight, when only the Emperor and the god are said to be present, that her influence grows most quietly profound. Those closest to the throne know her voice is often the last the Emperor hears before sleep—and the first at dawn.
The Mother of the Crown, once the Emperor’s most trusted companion, now watches these rites with a gaze too still to be placid. Though she speaks no word against Lilian, her ladies have grown careful in their etiquette, and her son, the Crown Prince, has begun visiting the Chapel with veiled reluctance. Yet Lilian remains above reproach, her sanctity ironclad, her loyalty unblemished.