The Cathedral of Light - The sole temple within Makaian lands

The Cathedral of Light is a vast and grand cathedral that is located within Hearthglen; the capital of the Order of Makai.

The Cathedral of Light is perhaps the single largest and most expansive building within the entirety of the Order of Makai, even dwarfing the acquisitions of foreign palaces within conquered territories; even many years later, although high-rising buildings have long managed to eclipse the Cathedral's towering height, no other building in the territory of the Order has managed to both sprawl over more land AND be taller. The size of the Cathedral is such that one cannot walk the entirety of its length within a single day, even if you restricted yourself to the ground floor and in a single direction!

The Cathedral of Light's design truly lives up to its name, for almost nowhere in the above-surface levels is one unable to see the light of the Sun or Moon, as the vast majority of the structure of the Cathedral consists of beautifully designed stained-glass windows, even the roofs of the Cathedral are mostly glass rather than metal and stone. The designs of the various stained-glass windows of course extol the Makaian faith of Kirisutokyō; but special mention goes towards the stained-glass designs at the central pulpit and altar of the Cathedral, which chronicle the founding of both Kirisutokyō and the formation of the Order of Makai. Radiating outwards from this central location are unique panes which depict important historical events after the Order of Makai secured its present-day home territories, and interspersed with these are panes that depict various martyrs and heroes of Kirisutokyō and the Order of Makai. Victims of various tragedies, wars, and disasters are also often honored with commemorative panes as well. Even with this incredible amount of unique and personal dedications, the majority of stained-glass panes within the Cathedral have not been subsumed by these commemorative panes. Indeed, the Cathedral often auctions off the "generic" windows that they are going to replace with a memorial pane; as long as these window's designs are repeated elsewhere within the Cathedral; and these auctioned windows are highly valued by the nobles and rich of the Order for use as home pieces.
The non-glass surfaces and foundations within the Cathedral are rather few due to this overwhelming amount of panes, but they are generally white stonework. Various banners and carpentry of course abound within the Cathedral, with their coloration generally tending towards the colors of the national flag; being yellow, red, and blue.

The Cathedral of Light is practically the center of organized Kirisutokyō within the Order of Makai, for not only does the Pontiff of the Makaian Church resides within the Cathedral; who not only personally leads the religious services that are held on every day of rest, but also hosts sermons and lessons throughout the week; but the land the Cathedral of Light stands upon is also considered to be holy ground, as Kirisutokyō is said to have been formally organized into the religion that it is today. Thus, although it is never required to be so, it is frequently a target of pilgrimage by Makaian faithful. Underneath the Cathedral itself lies an extensive network of tombs and catacombs, and virtually all noble houses and the well-off populace of Hearthglen have a resting place within. Outside of these religious services and teachings, the Cathedral is also a center of learning and higher education, although with an obvious slant towards professional destinations in either the Makaian Church or the government. Also keeping in line with the Mamano-centric culture of the Order of Makai, the Cathedral has a great many cloisters and concealed gardens which are specifically designed to host couples and lovers looking for a "different kind of religious experience".

The Cathedral of Light however, is the ONLY building within Makaian lands that is religious in function. No other buildings or lesser churches are erected to solely serve as places of worship for Kirisutokyō. This cultural quirk of the Order of Makai has its origins within the founding of the Order and the formulation of Kirisutokyō. As before Kirisutokyō, the various religious practices of the world were; if not outright false; all considered to be "compromised" in some way by The Enemy, with the most obviously false and compromised practices being the various dark cults that directly worship The Enemy and the Pantheon of the Order of the Chief God. What these two "religions" had in common however was the practice of constructing large buildings solely dedicated to the worship of their false gods, with the practices they employed in either form of worship being essentially functionally the same in the end. The Order of the Chief God would use these buildings as the center of their rule and as courts of law, with violators of their laws being executed upon the same altars used for worship, whereas the Shadow Cult and and other dark cults of The Enemy would sacrifice whatever infidels that they could find upon their blood-soaked altars. This tradition of blood-sacrifice within buildings dedicated to religious observances would spread itself through the lesser traditions of the false beliefs of the world, and even in those lesser creeds that stopped short of outright human sacrifice, they would still profane the land with the blood of animals that were cruelly and painfully ritually slaughtered upon their altars.
For this reason, man-made structures devoted to the worship of any so-called deity have strong connotations of evil to the faithful of Kirisutokyō. As such, the faithful only carry out their religious worship in either their homes, the home of their local priest, or in an outdoor and open-air area such as a town square or a beautifully-kept grove or garden; such locations would at the very most have a flat-topped and minimally-hewn stone altar which doubles as a pulpit, and possibly a statue of a local martyr or hero.

These connotations of evil were fully present within the original building that would become the Cathedral of Light, as it was the center of a "holy" city of the Order of the Chief God, which thanks to the sprawl of the original building, had effectively become a "temple city", with a grand many looming spires, imposing arches, and shadowed coves. During these days, the nascent Order of Makai was in full-rebellion against the Order of the Chief God, and Makaian infiltrators had discovered a dark secret of the temple. The center of the temple-complex took the form of a circular spire, with the width of the base five hundred feet across the center, and the walls of the tower rose five hundred feet from the ground and was crowned with a mighty dome that may have been silver once, but was now stained black, and reflected darkly from a distance. As there was an altar of fire in the midst of this spire, and in the topmost of the dome there was a louver, from which occasionally a great smoke arose, an occasion which became constant as the Order of Makai's rebellion grew more and more successful. For the source of this smoke were captives and dissidents that were sacrificed upon this altar, not by the executioners of the Order of the Chief God, but by a dark cabal of the Shadow Cult which was comprised of the upper-level Order of the Chief God priesthood of the temple city. This cabal was deceiving their lower level adherents of the Order of the Chief God into delivering sacrifices to them ostensibly for execution, but was in fact using them to plead for assistance from The Enemy and appease the hunger of the Dark.
The penultimate battle of the Order of Makai's rebellion would see them fall upon this blasphemous temple city in full force, such was their fury that the Men and Mamano of the Order unroofed the entirety of the temple complex with the force of their blows, and much of the temple city itself was laid to waste. The blackened tower was felled and pulverized into less than rubble, the outskirts of the temple city were razed to the ground until only the temple complex itself was standing, it was only when the Order of Makai had begun to destroy the foundations of the temple complex itself that the leaders of these forces; the soon-to-be-Pontiff Tirion and his son Taelan; both received a divine revelation. They claimed that they were told that this temple city was in fact the central locus of the organized worship of The Enemy, founded solely for the secret worship of it, and that the mere purgation and consecration of the land would not be enough to cleanse it of the lingering unholy taint which had so permanently stained it because of the frequency of evil acts committed there. To properly cleanse it, they would need to enact long-term purification of this tainted place by performing acts which directly opposed the aspirations and themes of the evil acts which were committed on the land. To cleanse it of the hatred which permeated it, they would need to fight it with acts of love. To cleanse it of the lies of The Enemy, they would need to teach truths on its grounds. To cleanse it of its wicked nature, they would need to make it into a place of holiness. To dispel the hold of the Dark upon the land, they would need to shine the light of the Sun and Moon upon it.

Thus, the foundations of the temple were not destroyed, but were instead consecrated by the faithful Men and Mamano of the Order of Makai, who laid the groundwork for the creation of the Cathedral of Light as it stands today, a monument to Light, Holiness, Learning, and Love.