> [!infobox|wikipedia] > # High Sept > [![[High_Sept_small.webp|cover hsmall]]](High_Sept.webp) > ###### Location Information > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Type | Point of Interest | > Location | [[Val Miriel]] | > Defining Feature | Great cathedral of the Seven Divines; the religious centre of the continent | > Overseen By | [[High Priest Oldir]] | > ###### Status > Attribute | Details | > ---|---| > Status | Active | The High Sept is the great cathedral of the [[The Pantheon|Seven Divines]] in [[Val Miriel]] — the most senior temple of the realm's dominant faith and the religious centre of the entire continent. A vast circular structure crowning the Divine Way on the city's eastern bank, it stands at the apex of the official religious hierarchy, where the Seven are venerated together and their rites maintained, and it draws clergy and pilgrims from across the realm. It is overseen by [[High Priest Oldir]], the most senior religious authority in the city. ## Location & Geography The High Sept crowns the upper end of the Divine Way, the quarter of faith and learning that falls down [[Val Miriel]]'s eastern bank toward the cleaner waterfront of the Green Docks. From the avenue below, the cathedral reads as an immense ring of pale weathered stone — a single circular building rather than the long nave of a lesser temple. At its heart is one massive central chamber. A raised dais and altar stand at the very middle, and around them seven sections of seating rise in tiers away from the centre, each section given over to the worshippers of one of the Seven Divines, so that the whole congregation faces inward upon the same sacred ground. Wrapping the entire central chamber is a circular outer hall that runs the full way around it; altars are set into its walls and tended by candlelight, quiet shrines for private prayer and offering set apart from the great gatherings within. ## History The High Sept is the oldest temple of the Seven, raised in the early days of [[Val Miriel]] when the city itself was young — and Val Miriel is one of the six ancient human Kingdoms of Old, standing for well over a thousand years. As the city grew into the greatest port on the continent and the gateway to the Imperial capital upriver, its cathedral grew with it into the seat of the faith, until no temple of the Seven anywhere stood above it. ## Significance Val Miriel is the religious heart of the realm, and the High Sept is the heart of that heart. The worship of the Seven radiates outward from here — through the great septs of every city down to the roadside shrines of the smallest village — and the Sept stands at the top of the whole official hierarchy of the faith. Even under the [[Valtorran Empire]]'s occupation of the city, the cathedral keeps its own religious authority, its clergy and rites continuing under Oldir's hand. ## [[The Bloody Nails|Campaign: The Bloody Nails]] #### [[Session 20 - The Streets of Val Miriel]] Directed to the cathedral by the barmaid [[Lila Spring]], [[Kai]] sought a private audience with [[High Priest Oldir]] at the High Sept. When Kai revealed the starry markings on his arms, the old priest drew him aside into a private chamber — and what he disclosed shook Kai to the core, naming him as touched by [[Selûne]]. #### [[Session 26 - A Midnight Romp]] With the city locked down under curfew after the unrest, [[Kai]] and [[Dondar]] made a reckless night-crossing to reach the Sept — a chase down the Military Way and a headlong leap from [[Valena's Bridge]] into the [[Luminor River]] to shake their pursuers — before slipping inside under cover of a Fog Cloud. Within, Oldir revealed the prophecy of Selûne's Chosen and the three moonstones, his scepticism breaking only when Kai produced a moonstone of his own. ## Trivia - A "sept" is a temple of the Seven; the High Sept earns its name as the highest and most senior of them all — the one cathedral the whole faith looks up to.