Tarsica (Reformed Stripping Path)

Tarsica is often depicted seated in a throne made of stone, holding a lamp or a lantern which represents the moon's light.

Tarsica, the Lady Divine of Illumination and Wisdom, is a celestial figure born of the cosmic union between Atos and Micras. Embodying the moon’s gentle radiance and the infinite wisdom of the stars, Tarsica inspires seekers to pursue knowledge and enlightenment. Her luminous presence offers guidance through the darkness, illuminating paths of understanding and spiritual growth.

Tarsica in the Reformed Stripping Path

In the Reformed Stripping Path, Tarsica is revered as a beacon of clarity and wisdom. She represents the pursuit of truth and the harmony found in the celestial cycles. Worshipers see her as a guiding light in times of uncertainty, calling upon her to illuminate their spiritual journeys and reveal the hidden truths of the cosmos. Her teachings emphasize self-reflection, intellectual curiosity, and balance in thought and action.

Tarsica in the Bassaridian Zodiac

Although not directly represented in the Bassaridian Zodiac, Tarsica’s influence in the Bassaridian Zodiac is loosely tied to the Host Star Danaß, associated with guidance through transitions, acceptance, and inner peace. Her presence is celebrated during lunar events and celestial alignments, which are seen as opportunities for profound spiritual reflection and renewal. The cycles of the moon are integral to her worship, symbolizing the ebb and flow of life and the pursuit of cosmic harmony.

Conclace Illuminara

Moon Founts - highly ornate fountains constructed out of devotion to Tarsica - are a common sight in public spaces throughout Luminaria, the holy city of Tarsica.

The Conclave Illuminara, based in the holy city of Luminaria, is the principal cult devoted to the worship of Tarsica, Lady Divine of Illumination and Wisdom. Its members, known as Illuminariants, are scholars, astronomers, jurists, and mystics who treat the moon’s reflected light as both symbol and instrument of clarity. Within the Reformed Stripping Path, the Conclave is regarded as Tarsica’s own “lunar senate”: an order charged with guiding Bassaridia Vaeringheim through transitions, crises, and periods of uncertainty by aligning civic life with the measured cycles of the moon.

The Conclave’s physical presence in Luminaria is woven into the city’s distinctive urban design. Moon Founts—highly ornate fountains constructed in devotion to Tarsica—anchor plazas, canal junctions, and shrine complexes, their basins designed to catch and mirror moonlight on still nights. Beneath the streets, a network of tunnels and observation chambers allows Illuminariants to watch Tarsica’s phases and the shifting constellations through carefully sited oculi and mirrored shafts. Surface architecture favors pale stone, polished plaster, and reflective tiles that respond subtly to lunar light, so that the entire city functions as a kind of vast instrument for measuring illumination and shadow. The Eye of Tarsica—formed by the Asteroid Impact of 50 PSSC and visible from Micras—is treated as the Conclave’s chief celestial emblem, inspiring architectural motifs that echo its circular, glass-bright crater in paving, fountains, and shrine portals.

Internally, the Conclave Illuminara is structured as a scholastic-mystical order. Novices, called Lamp-Bearers, begin in the scriptoria and observatories, copying the Homeric Hymn to Tarsica, learning the basics of lunar mechanics, and maintaining Moon Founts and rooftop altars. Those who advance are admitted as full Illuminariants, empowered to teach in shrine schools, interpret omens drawn from the moon’s cycles, and participate in advisory councils convened by the Temple Bank of the Reformed Stripping Path and the Council of Kings. Senior ranks include Moonwardens, who oversee district houses and coordinate the Conclave’s involvement in city planning, festivals, and doctrine councils. At the summit stands the High Illuminant of Luminaria, supported by a small council of elder astrologers and jurists who issue formal Opinions (Lunalia) on matters of law, calendar, and spiritual policy.

The Conclave’s theology emphasizes Tarsica as mediator of change, rather than as mere ornament of the night sky. Drawing on the Hymn’s account of Altheris and his people’s deliverance from endless shadow, Illuminariants teach that the moon’s cycles model a healthy relationship to uncertainty: regular, predictable changes in light invite communities to pause, reflect, and adjust before crises become catastrophic. The Conclave ties this doctrine to the Host Star Danaß, whose associations with guidance through transitions, acceptance, and inner peace are treated as a stellar resonance of Tarsica’s role. Where solar cults such as the Ordo Solis Invicti focus on direct illumination, the Conclave stresses “oblique clarity”: truths glimpsed indirectly—through reflection, analogy, and patient re-reading of events in light of recurring patterns.

Ritual life in the Conclave Illuminara revolves around lunar phases, eclipses, and key dates in the Bassaridian calendar. Monthly “Saros Vigils” are held on rooftops and at major Moon Founts, where Illuminariants lead lay worshipers in hymnody, guided silence, and interpretive readings of recent events against current lunar conditions. The order plays a central role in the festival of Taşrakah (Reverence of the Stone), celebrated on the last day of Thalassiel in Luminaria. Shared with the Order of Aurora Mystica as a joint devotion to Eos and Tarsica, Taşrakah combines stone-carving rites, anointing with fragrant oils, and nighttime lantern processions that culminate in public contemplation of the Eye of Tarsica and its impact scar. Illuminariants frame the festival as a lesson in resilience and cosmic balance: even violent celestial disruptions can become anchors of wisdom when interpreted and remembered correctly. Lesser observances include “Mirror Nights” during full moons, when the city’s fountains and canals are deliberately stilled or darkened to maximize the visible reflection of Tarsica, and “Veiling Rites” during new moons, when shrines emphasize rest, review of past decisions, and cautious planning.

In civic life, the Conclave Illuminara acts as Luminaria’s primary advisory body on matters of timekeeping, public symbolism, and long-horizon policy. Shrine schools run by the Conclave teach literacy, astronomy, and ethical reasoning framed through lunar cycles, encouraging students to see themselves as participants in ongoing patterns rather than isolated moments. Illuminariants work closely with municipal planners to site lanterns, plazas, and Moon Founts so that major public spaces receive meaningful beams of moonlight at important dates; in this way, the city itself becomes a calendar, quietly reminding residents of anniversaries, reforms, and obligations. At the national level, the Conclave provides technical and spiritual input to the compilers of the Bassaridian festival calendar and the Tarsican Saros tables, ensuring that civic and cultic observances remain harmonized with actual celestial events.

The Conclave’s role in Bassaridian campaigns is primarily interpretive and diplomatic rather than martial. During Operation Somniant, as the appearance of the Somniant Eidolan and the stress of protracted operations destabilized public confidence, the Conclave issued Lunalia emphasizing that even apparent plunges into darkness must be understood as segments of a longer cycle. In coordination with the Ordo Solis Invicti and Reverie Nebulous, Illuminariants in Luminaria and Vaeringheim developed public rites and teaching materials that framed Somniant and the subsequent Valley of Keltia Campaign as a passage through “lunar nights” toward eventual renewal, helping to moderate apocalyptic rhetoric and fatalism in shrine schools and markets. In the New South Jangsong Campaign, where Bassaridian forces and missionaries moved through cities such as Skýrophos, Conclave-trained calendar-readers advised on the timing of major declarations, shrine re-openings, and festival introductions so that disruptive political acts coincided with lunar phases symbolizing reflection and new beginnings rather than with culturally inauspicious nights.

Economically and institutionally, the Conclave Illuminara is fully integrated into the ritual-economic architecture of the General Port of Lake Morovia. In the Port’s market tables, “Missionaries of Conclace Illuminara” are listed as a Temple Bank service category, with a modest base valuation reflecting their specialized but non-industrial role: teams of Illuminariants are dispatched where their skills in timekeeping, dispute mediation, and symbolic design can stabilize developing markets and shrine networks, particularly in and around Luminaria. Their missionary detachments often work alongside cadres from the Harmony Sanctum, Order of Aurora Mystica, and Celestial Harmony Sect, providing lunar framing and calendar expertise for joint festivals, reconciliation councils, and diaspora education programs. Within the Port’s civic-equilibrium modeling, fluctuations in Conclave festival participation and Moon Fount upkeep serve as subtle indicators of how well communities are absorbing doctrinal and political changes over multi-year cycles.

The Conclave’s response to the Baratar Scandal of 52 PSSC and subsequent Bassaridian involvement in Corum highlights its concern with temporal and symbolic integrity. As revelations emerged that Baratar-linked documentation chains had been used to route prohibited arms toward the Corum War, Illuminariants preached in Luminaria and Vaeringheim against “false calendars”—records and manifests that told comforting stories about trade while hiding lethal realities. They compared the scandal to a community that ignores the phases of Tarsica: pretending that night will not come until disaster forces acknowledgment. When the Council of Kings and the Haifa Compliance Exchange pivoted toward a corridor-based, observer-verifiable humanitarian posture under the Straits Conventions of 52.06 PSSC, the Conclave cast this shift as a deliberate re-alignment of Bassaridia’s external engagements to the true sky: a decision to let light and shadow fall honestly on each movement rather than relying on doctored schedules and hidden flows.

Although the Conclave Illuminara did not field its own Kleisthenes units in the Corum humanitarian mission—those roles falling instead to orders such as the Celestial Harmony Sect, Reverie Nebulous, Sanctum Vitalis, Temple Alabaster, Sanctum Delphica, and the Order of the Umbral Oracle—its influence was strongly felt in the training and reporting practices of deployed cadres. Missionary curriculum modules prepared in Luminaria stressed the importance of publicly visible schedules, advance notice of convoy movements, and honest after-action logs, all framed in terms of lunar symbolism. For Illuminariants, a convoy that arrives at an agreed hour, under documented conditions, is a small imitation of Tarsica’s reliable rising; a shipment that appears unannounced, with unclear contents, is an “eclipse of trust” regardless of its immediate payload. This framing helped missionary units in Corum to understand strict kit exclusions, observer requirements, and White-Lane geofences not as bureaucratic burdens, but as forms of ritual alignment with the Lady of Illumination and Wisdom.

Within the broader theology of the Reformed Stripping Path, the Conclave Illuminara stands as the archetypal “lunar cult”: an order that insists clarity is not the same as constant daylight, and that some truths can only be seen by learning to live attentively with change, reflection, and partial light. Whether tending Moon Founts in Luminaria, advising shrine-planners and calendar-keepers across Bassaridia Vaeringheim, interpreting Somniant-era crises as passages in a longer cycle, or urging a corridor-based, time-conscious engagement with Corum after the Baratar scandal, the Conclave presents its work as continuous service to Tarsica. In its teaching, a people who agree to mark their nights as carefully as their days—accepting both illumination and shadow as parts of the same pattern—become capable of lasting wisdom, and of navigating even violent impacts without losing their course.

Mythology

Mythology: The Homeric Hymn to Tarsica The Homeric Hymn to Tarsica, composed by the Bassaridian playwright Eliyahu al-Bashir, recounts the tale of Altheris, a mortal whose community suffered from endless shadow after neglecting the moon’s cycles. Praying for salvation, Altheris ascended the highest peak to plead with Tarsica.

Moved by his devotion, Tarsica descended, her lantern illuminating the world below. She guided Altheris to restore harmony by teaching his people the sacred rituals of the moon. Through their renewed reverence, the community prospered, and Tarsica’s wisdom became a cornerstone of their culture.

The hymn celebrates Tarsica as a teacher and guide, emphasizing the transformative power of light and enlightenment. It is central to her worship, recited during lunar festivals and rituals at Moon Founts, inspiring devotion to her celestial grace.

Worship and Festivals in Bassaridia Vaeringheim

Taşrakah (Reverence of the Stone)

On the 61st day of Thalassiel in Luminaria, this festival - which commemorates the Asteroid Impact of 50 PSSC - includes stone-carving rites and the anointing of participants with fragrant oils. It celebrates Tarsica’s enduring wisdom, emphasizing the permanence of knowledge and the legacy of enlightenment.

Epithets

Tarsica is revered through a variety of epithets that reflect her celestial influence and guiding presence. Known as the Torchbearer, she is celebrated as the illuminator of the night and the divine guide who brings enlightenment to mortals. As the Guardian of Enchantress, she is seen as the protector of those who seek knowledge and the mysteries of the cosmos. Her title as the Guidess signifies her role as a navigator, helping mortals traverse the complexities of spiritual and intellectual pursuits with clarity and grace.

Iconography and Depictions

In art and iconography, Tarsica is frequently portrayed as a luminous figure seated on a throne carved from stone, holding a celestial lantern or torch that represents the moon’s radiant light. Her form is adorned with symbols of the heavens, such as glowing stars and crescent moons, emphasizing her connection to the lunar cycles. Often, she is depicted amidst a serene backdrop of a star-filled sky, her expression serene and wise. Associated with her are the Wisp Queens, ethereal creatures that appear during waxing and full moons, symbolizing her guidance and divine influence. Artistic depictions highlight her role as a source of calm and inspiration, inviting worshipers to seek clarity and wisdom under her celestial light.