Magistrate

Overview

The Magistrate is the judging principle within the triad at the heart of Kelx belief, paired with the Condemned Man (creative but flawed) and the Innocent (redeeming inspiration). In this narrative, the world people inhabit is told, piece by piece, by the Condemned Man to the Magistrate, who will ultimately decide whether the Condemned Man lives and, with him, whether this world continues. Kelx congregations (called an ark in Saecular usage) treat the Magistrate’s future judgment as a central motivation for ethical conduct.

Appearance and Traits

The Magistrate is not physically described in current accounts. Kelx teaching portrays the figure as the embodiment of judgment and goodness. When a person’s story is being “told,” the Magistrate is said to see everything the person does and to know their thoughts, heightening the need to choose rightly.

Roles and Actions

• Presides over an ongoing court where the Condemned Man narrates a world in serial fashion; day by day the case is continued while new troubles and resolutions are introduced.
• Serves as the arbiter of a final judgment that will determine whether the Condemned Man—and thus the narrated world—endures.
• Sermons by Kelx magisters sometimes claim that judgment is near. In one such preaching, a shipboard magister declares that the Magistrate—or his bailiff—has been sighted “in the heavens,” and that the Warden of Heaven has been cast out. The same sermon asserts that the Magistrate has turned his eye upon the Avout in their concents, using this to exhort moral action.

Relationships

• Part of a triad with the Condemned Man and the Innocent; the three are interpreted as complementary principles (judgment/goodness, flawed creativity, and redeeming inspiration).
• Engaged indirectly with Kedevs (Kelx adherents) through the guidance of magisters, who frame personal choices as contributions to the case before the Magistrate.

Current Status

As a religious figure, the Magistrate’s presence is mediated through Kelx teaching and magisterial rhetoric. A recent sermon claims celestial “sightings” and imminent judgment, but these assertions are not corroborated in the present material.