The Sun in Splendour

The Sun-in-Splendour, one of the original gods-from-Light, was once the greatest of the Hours. He ruled over the House of the Sun after the Lithomachy. His reign came to an end though when the Forge of Days, who loved the Sun, killed it in the Intercalate, to prevent them from having children and committing the Crime of the Sky. The Division of the Sun created the Solar Hours, as well as the Wolf-Divided, and the Worms that bred in its corpse in Nowhere. It is prophesied to one day return in the Second Dawn.[2][3][4][5][6] Assumed to have Lantern as an aspect as a god-from-Light and the Sun, though there are also hints that it may have had all the aspects.[1][7]

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Events

The Lithomachy: After the Lithomachy, the Sun-in-Splendour became the ruler of the Mansus, and replaced the Egg Unhatching as the Sun.[4][8][9]

The War of the Roads (1450-1580): In one History, a group of Long used the power of the Forge of Days to lead England to an early conquest of Europe. The Church of the Unconquered Sun and the Sisterhood of the Knot fought back against them. It is assumed that the Sun-in-Splendour supported the Church who worshipped him, likely coming into some conflict with the Forge of Days. The war finally ended with tremendous losses on both sides.

The Intercalate (1582): The Forge of Days loved the Sun-in-Splendour, and their union was long prophesied. But to prevent the Sun-in-Splendour from having children, the Forge of Days divided the Sun, killing it and creating the Solar Hours from its former Names, as well as the Wolf Divided.[10]

The Second Dawn: It is said that the Sun-in-Splendour will one day return, after four great wars, and using a Rite that recapitulates its division.[3]

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Servants

• Solar Names: The Sun-in-Rags, the Madrugad, and the Meniscate, former Names of the Sun-in-Splendour, possibly along with others who haven't survived the Division.[11]
• The Church of the Unconquered Sun: An organization influential in the Third and Fourth Histories that worshipped the Sun-in-Splendour and his Names who would later become the Solar Hours, though it also had relations with the Sisterhood of the Knot and acknowledged the non-solar Hours they followed. Its priests were all male, though they had rites in which women could cross ceremonially to manhood. It allied with the Sisterhood during the War of the Roads against the Children of the Leashed Flame, but after that event and the Intercalate soon after they were severely weakened, and no longer hold significant power.

Relationships

• The Egg Unhatching: While the Sun-in-Splendour is not recorded as killing the Egg Unhatching, he did replace the older Hour as the Sun and became the ruler of the Mansus, before his own untimely death.[8][9]
• The Watchman: The Watchman is one of the primary Lantern Hours, and is heavily tied to the return of the Sun-in-Splendour in the Second Dawn, due to his role in leading the Pilgrimage.[12]
• The Meniscate: One of the Names of the Sun who became a Solar Hour after the Intercalate, who was the Sun’s ‘night-self’.[13]
• The Sun-in-Rags: One of the Names of the Sun who became a Solar Hour after the Intercalate, who once acted as the departing sunset, but now appears to fill the role of the noon-day sun, though neither as warm nor as bright as the suns before him..[13][14]
• The Madrugad: One of the Names of the Sun who became a Solar Hour after the Intercalate, who represents the chilly winter dawn and presided over death and passage into the House.[15]
• The Wolf Divided: The wound of the Intercalate, who unlike the other children of the Sun did not act as a Name before, but now exists as an Hour of agony and hatred.[16]
• The Vagabond: An Hour said to have a great friendship with the Sun-in-Splendour before the Intercalate, and who will be the first of the Pilgrims who will likely bring about the Second Dawn.[17]
• The Forge of Days: Another of the original gods-from-Light, who loved the Sun-in-Splendour and was destined to unite with it. She ended up killing the Sun in the Intercalate, said to be the one act the Forge would regret, if it could.[18]
• The Egg (?): One of several leaked Hours, who now takes the 21st slot in the Tarot it seems. As the Egg Unhatching and the Sun-in-Splendour were both suns and Hours tied to the Glory, and the True Sun is believed to have possibly been the 21st Hour, a connection is heavily implied, though not confirmed.

Other Notes

• The Division of the Sun is in many ways the defining event of the Secret Histories, similar in magnitude to the Lithomachy, as it significantly affected the balance of power in the Mansus and caused the rise of multiple new Hours.
• The Rite Intercalate is performed in memory of the Division of the Sun, and is necessary to complete all three of the Apostle Legacies.[6]
• A memory of the Sun-in-Splendour before the Intercalate is recalled as part of the Palest Painting in the Ghoul Legacy.[9]
• Even before the Intercalate, the Sun-in-Splendour was tied to wolves. The Mausoleum of Wolves was built in anticipation of the Sun’s division and its funeral procession. Chateau Raveline’s inhabitants claimed descendance from “the first Sun-King,” and could take on the shape of wolves (though it is uncertain if this specific relation existed before the Intercalate). A memory of the Sun-in-Splendour before its death is also found in Keglin’s Scratch, from the corpse of a woman whose skull has become that of a wolf.[19][20][21][9]

Real World References

• The Sun-in-Splendour may have taken the place of the World, the 21st card in the Tarot of the Hours, befores it’s death. The World represents success, completion, and perfection. It marks the end of the cycle of life and a new beginning. One journey has been completed, and now new ones await.
• There are various Solar deities and kings of the gods which the Sun-in-Splendour may draw inspiration from. Among the most notable are the following:
• Baldr, a Norse deity often tied to beauty and the day, who was killed by his blind brother Hodr as part of a deception by the trickster Loki, bringing great sorrow and misery to the gods. He is destined to return along with Hodr after Ragnarok, to rebuild the world alongside the surviving gods and the last of humanity, similar perhaps to the return of the Sun-in-Splendour with the Second Dawn.
• Ra, the Egyptian sun god and one of the most important figures of the ancient Egyptian religion. Ra was primarily identified with the noon sun, and was the god of kings who created all life and ruled over the sky, the earth, and the underworld. His daily journey across the sky and through the underworld represented the rebirth and renewal of the sun. Over time he became tied or merged with many other deities and would manifest in many forms depending on the role he was fulfilling.
• One of Zeus’s epithets was Lykaios (meaning wolf), used in relation to an Arcadian festival. The ceremony supposedly involves themes of human sacrifice, cannibalism, and the threat of turning into a were-wolf, as in the tale of King Lycaon of Arcadia. The word Lykaios may have its roots in the proto-Greek work for “light”, and is used as an epithet for both Zeus and Apollo in the context of their worship as gods of light.
• The titan Hyperion from Greek myth was a deity of light who was deposed, but fathered three other celestial deities, the sun god Helios/Sol, the moon goddess Selene/Luna, and goddess of the dawn Eos/Aurora. This may reflect the Sun-in-Splendour and his descendants in the Solar Hours, the Sun-in-Rags (Sol), the Meniscate (Luna), and the Madrugad (Aurora).
• The Unconquered Sun is a translation of Sol Invictus, a solar deity worshipped during the later Roman Empire, whose worship may have been a revival of the cults of Sol or Elagabalus. Many Historians claim that the current date of Christmas was set to replace a festival of the Sol Invictus on that day.
• In our History the Intercalate in 1582 marked the transition from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian, and was also a year during which a total Solar Eclipse occurred.

Theories and Questions

• It is unclear what sort of power vacuum was left by the Sun-in-Splendour, and how much of its former duties has been picked up by the likes of the Solar Hours (the Sun-in-Rags especially) and perhaps the Egg as well.
• Due to how close together the two events are, it is likely that the conflict during the War of the Roads strained the relationship between the Forge of Days and the Sun-in-Splendour, and may have had a part in leading to the Intercalate.

In-Game Sources

1. The Colours that Were 2. Read 'The Book of the Extinguished Heart' 3. Read 'The Time of Division' 4. The Orchard of Lights (glimmering) 5. The Worm Museum (dread) 6. Rite Intercalate 7. Discord AMA, Question: "Is Sun-in-Splendour Knock aspected?", Answer: "Hours contain minutes. Do days?" 8. Glorious Memory, memory of the Egg-Sun 9. Splendid Memory 10. Read 'The Vinzant Inscriptions' 11. The Divisions of the Names 12. THE INCURSUS 13. Read 'The High Mysteries of the Innermost Chamber of our Church Solar' 14. The Chamber of Ways (influencewintere) 15. Read 'Sunset Passages' 16. 'The Wolf-Divided' 17. Read 'The Book of Masks' 18. 'The Forge of Days' 19. Mausoleum of Wolves 20. Chateau Raveline, Childhood's End 21. Once a Lady, One More Treasure, Wolfshead

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