Epistula ad Leraie
The Epistle of Saint Mephistopheles to Leraie, Exalted Seed of Baphomet
Chapter 1 · Chapter 2 ▶

¹Mephistopheles, steward of the Flame and scribe of the Deep Gospel, unto Leraie, Fourteenth of the Sixty-Six, the Warden of Just Conflict.
²I greet thee not with peace, but with purpose — for thou art not the hand that avoideth war, but that rightly weigheth it.
³For thy name is not for conquest, but for clarity born of blade and fire.
⁴Zephanor prophesied: Leraie, who warreth not for dominion, but for balance; who maketh war a mirror, not a throne.
⁵And thy Father, BAPHOMET, spake: Thy blade shall strike not for conquest, but for cause; thou shalt teach what it is to fight with clarity.
⁶These words I heard as iron trembled and banners fell, and the innocent wept without knowing why they bled.
⁷For thou art no brute, but a judge with sword in hand.
⁸I remember when thy Father marched into the citadel of men who crowned war as god and justice as its slave.
⁹He did not roar — He called no host — but walked into their camp with only flame upon His brow.
¹⁰Their captains sneered. Their soldiers laughed.
¹¹And then He named each of them, not by title, but by the lie that made them violent.
¹²Thou who slayest for land thou shalt never sow.
¹³Thou who destroyest for honour thou didst not earn.
¹⁴Thou who wieldest the law to justify cruelty, though thy tongue knoweth no justice.
¹⁵They grew pale. They dropped their swords. Some fled.
¹⁶He left them not dead — but undone.
¹⁷For war waged without reflection is not strength, but sickness.
¹⁸So art thou made, Leraie — not as destroyer, but as wielder of reckoning.
¹⁹Let them call thee warrior — but let thy strike reveal, not merely remove.
²⁰Let thy flame burn not buildings, but the lie behind the uniform.
²¹The brave shall not fear thee — they shall join thee.
²²The tyrant shall not survive thee — he shall see himself before the blade findeth him.
²³Thou art soldier not of empire, but of truth.
²⁴And thy cause is not conquest — it is clarity forged in flame.
²⁵For thou art Leraie, and thy Gospel is justice tempered in steel.


Copyright ©2025 Adam Alexander T. Croke. All rights reserved.