The Myth of the God Incarnate

The House of the Eye
Copyright (c) Simon Brooke 1992-1995
describing the most arrogant, and the most ambitious, of the cults of the great place
Worships the God in the aspect of Sky or Sun God. The Eye is all seeing and quick to judge. It can be an angry Eye, and lightning is seen as being in the domain of the Eye. Dragons are a cult animal of the House, which claims to be able to control them. In keeping with other sky cults, the Eye believes in an afterlife - achieved by the renouncing in this world of all things which tie the individual to the flesh, especially sexuality.

The House of the Eye was once - and for millenia - overwhelmingly the most powerful of the houses. This is represented by the situation of the House of the Eye (the physical building, that is) in the very centre of the City, unlike the other houses, which are lined up along the river.

The Eye effectively ran the state, through a system of spies and assassins, during its period of power. However, as the cult became more austere and puritanical, it was becoming less and less in sympathy with the populace. Then, quite suddenly, it fell from grace with the God. It was at this time that the Barbarian Guard was established (q.v.). Since then, the House of the Eye has been impoverished and marginalised. Its remaining functions are astronomy, the calendar, and weather forecasting.

The House is still mistrusted, and still embittered. It continues to run its spy network, but unofficially. It generates revenue from blackmail, in addition to levies for its official functions. Its priests are exclusively male. Unlike the other Houses, priests of the Eye are celibate.

Practice
Priests of the Eye wear simple white robes. Their observance consists of unaccompanied chants, at dawn, noon and sunset, and at the rising and setting of the moon and major planets. These observances take place in the open air, usually on the roof of a building or other high place. It is essential to the Rite that the celebrants are screened from view. The cult is elitist, and only the priests may take part in the observance; wide popular following is not sought or encouraged. Only men may enter a House owned by the Eye.
Death and Funerary Rites
Euthenasia is never practiced by followers of the Eye. The dead of the house are cremated in the open at sunset.

The Building

The House of the Eye is the largest single building in the Great Place, and forms the focus of the master plan of the City at Her Gates. Like all of the major buildings of the city, it is built of a honey coloured stone, and in keeping with an architectural tradition based on mud brick, the walls taper from base to top; this taper is rather exagerated in the major buildings.

The House of the Eye forms the whole of the eastern side of the Place of Justice, the central square of the City. It backs on to Moon Street, and the streets of Wisdom and Justice respectively define its North and South sides. It stands on a terrace, raised eight steps above the surrounding streets, and the main block has windows only on its western side. It's seven great doors also face west. In the centre of the building is a massive tower, undivided by floors for its whole height. The interior of the tower is known as the Chamber of the Sands, and is the primary ceremonial space used by the House. A window in the south wall of the upper part of the tower casts a beam of light onto a series of coloured flags and thus provides the City's primary timekeeping mechanism. Sun worship is normally carried on on the roof.

The House of the Eye is no longer as powerful, wealthy or numerous as once it was, and these days much of the great building is largely empty.

Taynuic visits the House of the Eye.

Copyright (c) Simon Brooke 1992-1995

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