Confession and Spiritual Growth

Father Marius, as always, makes himself available for Confession and for discussion of faith as it ties to Vampiric roads. He has particular interest in discussions of the rumored Cainite state of Golconda. Which he claims to be capable of guiding Cainites to.

Tell me, Father Marius, are you likened to Moses with Canaan, able to lead your brethren to a promised land that you yourself have not seen, or are you able to guiding Cainites to this promised land because you have yourself traveled the path?

I have long had a keen interest in the stories surrounding Golconda, but my interest in the matter is purely theoretical.

I travel the path as we speak, my friend. While I have not yet attained full balance with the beast, I have been shown signs by God that I follow the right path. My constant penance has earned me a lessening of the curse. I may eat ashes, rather than blood. My beast has been lulled into a slumber and I have not felt it's urges in quite some time.

While I have not yet attained the full forgiveness of the Lord, He has seen fit to guide me along the path. Soon I will face suspire, the ultimate test of faith. While I may not be capable of guiding others beyond the suspire as I have not yet traveled that far, I am more than capable of leading them to it.

And how did you learn what you know of this path? Do you have books or scrolls on it? Were you mentored in kind? Was it divine revelation?

Truthfully, a combination of all of the above. When I was a slave to my master Gaius Marcellus in Rome, I was a pagan. Captured in Thrace, my family's lands, I worshipped the ancestral spirits of my homeland. During my time in Rome my master and I watched as the Christian religion grew in power. My master, a Ventrue, was one of the first of his line to convert to the faith of the One True God, and even then I did not initially follow. Good Gaius Marcellus was a Noddist of great renown, and had great interest in the study of Golconda. He found in the Christian religion the holes his studies had left in his knowledge. He started me on the path then, and after much debate convinced me of the Truth of the Word of God. He helped me to enter the priesthood, and taught me the basics of the lore surrounding Golconda. He showed me how to learn more.

From there, I was released as a slave and eventually chose to travel to Gaul to serve as a missionary among the pagan residents of this land. I sent friends and allies far and wide seeking knowledge, scrolls and fragments of the teachings of Saulot and others who sought Golconda. I even sent word to my homeland and gathered the remnants of ancient libraries of my erstwhile Clan. My efforts to collect this knowledge took many years, but eventually I found enough fragments of the Book of Nod and other such treatises that I was able to piece together enough knowledge to advance, slowly, along the path.

I quickly outgrew the meager written knowledge I was able to acquire, however, and from there have relied on faith. I have been shown visions from time to time, guidance, I believe, from God. After a certain point, however, I discovered that the path differs wildly for each traveler and only through personal conviction and faith can one persevere. After that revelation, I set out seeking my own path and over the years it has paid off. Or so I believe.