Among the weeds flowers the pure of heart
From the foreword of The Great House of the Isles: from parchment to potions and politics beyond
It was Cantankerous Nott who first made the observation. He was of course, not the first to notice, and likely not the first to put these musings to parchment. He was however, the first to do so on such a scale and with such lasting fame. Nott, for all his dogmatism and brutish suaveness, was a keen natural philosopher, and thus rather more detailed in his accounting than his predecessors. As such, it was to his name authorship of The Sacred 28 and its grounding philosophy is attributed to.
—
Excerpt from The Sacred 28, Chapter 1: duty, devotion & due rewards
“Magic is, as proper Wixen enlightened in their family histories and traditions are bound to appreciate, sentient. She is alive, in our woodlands and rivers and the creatures which inhabit them, some moreso than others, and in none so much so as in Wixen. Her will is our craft and Her wishes our traditions.
Like all great treasures however, there are those who seek to cherish, and those who seek to corrupt, greedy to taint Her purity with misfortune. Think, if you will, of a garden, in full bloom. Weeds, insidious in their youthful appearance of harmlessness and similarity to the young flowers they infiltrate, slowly suck the lifeblood of those, kind or blind, who take them in. These filthy, perverse undesirables then mature, now flagrantly different to those who nurtured them. Now multiple and strong, they oppress, casting the beautiful flowers that welcomed them into the shadows, stealing the glorious sun once so generously shared with them and cloaking the entire garden in their foul ways, so unnatural and unhealthy, slowly killing all around.
The only remedy is to prune early and earnestly.
However, for all evils there is good - those dedicated families who have been true and selfless in their defence of Lady Magic herself. Such valiant courage of course, is to be rewarded. Indeed, in those old and most deserving of families, those fabled knights pure of heart and craft, determined in their defence of our Lady, it is clear to see Her gifts and gratitude. Upon each of these devout families who have held Her gifts sacred, Lady Magic bestowed an everlasting token of her favour. Indelible and unique, each of her champions would forever be known to all Wixen at a single glance, and in such recognition are to be bestowed all tangible trappings to be given in Her stead.”