Not long after Orphist and Durin left, Galen also departed from the newly named port of Khazad-dȗm.
Yes, Khazad-dȗm, now belonging to the Black Iron Dwarf Durin, including the Thunder Legion stationed at the port, which Galen also placed under Durin's command.
After Durin left, Galen put the town on defensive alert, while also emphasizing concealment, with patrol teams not exceeding the mountain range to prevent the town's discovery.
The journey to the Burning Steppes had taken over ten days, and the Northern Lands were now in the sweltering August heat, but Galen felt a slight coolness upon arriving in Minas Tirith, apparently having been over-baked by the high temperatures of the Burning Steppes.
The reason for returning to Minas Tirith was that Galen had received a report that the High Priest had departed from the Kingdom of Lordaeron ten days ago, and the ship had now reached Andorhal, five days away from Southshore, which was three days from the Bay of Faldir.
Galen needed to return in advance to arrange the Minas Tirith's cathedral and summon back the priests who were spreading the faith throughout the kingdom.
The arrangements with the Thorium Brotherhood had all been made, and what was needed was time to accumulate strength so that when the Alliance army counterattacked the orcs in the future, the decisive battle would take place in the Burning Steppes.
In the original timeline, the Alliance's Grand Marshal, Anduin Lothar, dueled the Horde's Warchief Orgrim there, but was defeated by a narrow margin and fell in the Burning Steppes. Anduin had the high ground one could say.
Galen's plan was to concentrate superior forces in the Burning Steppes at that time and directly eliminate the Black Dragon, Black Iron Dwarves, Orcish Horde, and Fire Elemental Lord, then seize this mineral-rich treasure land.
Just imagine, the entire region is full of rich mineral deposits, and the energy contained in the mined ore is much higher than that of the Arathi Highlands. Even if he didn't occupy it all, sharing it with the other member states of the Alliance would be enough for him to get rich.
The battle with Emperor Thaurissan in Blackrock Depths, which activated the King's Summoning, had become somewhat addictive to Galen. Not only could he experience the use of high-level energy, but he could also gain insights into energy from his consciousness, a definite cheating device.
Unlocking the summoning candidates cost 10,000 gold coins, and continuing to use the power of the summoned entities would require ongoing fees. Galen could barely afford the Legendary tier now, but if he were to summon the power of a demigod, wouldn't his resource bar be emptied in minutes?
The conquest of the Burning Steppes could not bypass the Fire Lord. If the Alliance high command wanted to fight a decisive battle here, they had to first solve the energy clone of this Fire Elemental Lord. Otherwise, if the Fire Lord unleashed a cataclysmic event and volcanic eruption during the battle, the Alliance soldiers would suffer heavy casualties.
If he didn't want to spend a lot of time arranging things and grinding the reputation with the Water Elemental Lord, using the power of the water element to contain the Fire Lord, he would need to pave the way with gold, directly bypassing Neptulon the Tidehunter, the Water Elemental Lord, and summon his power to deal with the Fire Lord's clone. However, Galen didn't have to pay for this himself; he could have the various countries share the cost and profit from it.
The construction of Minas Tirith had been mostly completed, and it was now a five-ring city, but there was still a large area of open space between the fourth and fifth ring walls, and a large number of residences were still being planned and had not yet begun construction.
The fourth ring area had a large number of ordinary residences built for the farmers of the base to live in. Galen had already discovered that the farmers would combine on their own, with male and female farmers attracting each other and forming families.
Galen was curious whether newborns would be born after they married and whether the newborns would belong to the base's unit. Impressed by the magical power of the Heart of Origin, Galen gave these married farmer couples new residences instead of continuing to live in the farm's collective dormitory.
Although building houses was expensive, it was all worthwhile. Currently, Minas Tirith had about 15,000 farmers and more than 7,000 soldiers living there. After the cathedral's inauguration ceremony, Galen planned to publicly attract people to come and worship and reside.
The cathedral was originally planned to be built in the center of the third-ring farm area, but later, after Galen discovered the situation of farmers forming families in Minas Tirith, he directly re-planned the fourth-ring area, and the cathedral was also built in the central area of the fourth ring.
The cathedral is a magnificent building, entirely built of white megaliths, full of Gothic style, covering an area of more than 20,000 square meters, with a total of five floors, solemn and awe-inspiring.
A large number of red flags and draperies representing Stromgarde were purchased and produced by Hamon and placed on the church and main roads, grand and festive.
Half a month later, as autumn arrived, the harvest season in the Arathi Highlands, Archbishop Alonsus Faol finally arrived in Minas Tirith.
Alonsus Faol was a robust old man. At this time, Faol looked only in his fifties. The humans of Azeroth were generally strong and tall, and the High Priest was no exception, with a height of two meters, wearing a white priest's robe, and holding a white priest's staff.
"Good day, Archbishop!"
"Good day, Galen, my child."
Galen and the Archbishop were old acquaintances. Back then, when Galen's biological mother, Queen Thoraas, was assassinated, Alonsus traveled thousands of miles through a mage's portal to the Stromgarde Palace to treat her, but although he was pure and incomparably holy, he was powerless to save her.
Thoraas, to thank Alonsus for his help, renovated the country's churches and donated a lot of wealth to the church.
"My child, I sense the aura of the Holy Light on you. Have you switched from the path of the warrior to the path of the Holy Light?" Alonsus asked Galen after holding his arm for support and carefully sensing it.
"Yes, High Priest. This year, I met a believer in the Holy Light, and he taught me some of the ways of the Holy Light," Galen said, entering his acting mode.
"That's really rare, my child. Back then, you said that priests were healers who needed to be in the rear, and your goal was to go into battle and kill enemies, not to be protected in the rear and heal the wounded," Alonsus said. Alonsus devoted his life to spreading the way of the Holy Light. What could be more promotional than accepting a prince as a disciple?
"High Priest, my goal has not changed. I practice the way of the Holy Light only because my teacher combined the way of the Holy Light with the way of the warrior and researched a new profession!" Galen did not beat around the bush and directly threw out the information about the paladin.
Gandalf and Aragorn were quite speechless. They only had the title of teacher, but they were doing the work of subordinates. We are so difficult!
Alonsus was stunned by Galen's words and stopped in his tracks.
As early as ten years ago, when Galen told him that a priest was someone who needed to be protected in the rear in order to exert his abilities, he was thinking about whether he could combine the power of the Holy Light with elite warriors to create a new profession.
Although the human world was now at peace, Alonsus was worried about the future and hoped that the church would have its own power to protect the spread of the Holy Light.
He didn't expect that the idea he had generated in his early years, which he had been conceiving for many years but only had some clues about, was today being told by Galen that there was already a pioneer.
How could this not shock Alonsus? But in addition to the shock, he was more excited. His idea was still in the process of being conceived and had not been put into practice. Now that someone had succeeded, wouldn't it mean that his idea was correct?
"Galen, my child, who is your Holy Light mentor? Where is he? I want to see him!"
In the human history books of Azeroth, this day was filled with commemorative significance. Archbishop Alonsus Faol, the most outstanding figure in the history of the Holy Light Church, and Lord Aragorn, the newly emerged leader of the Holy Light Church's sect, met.
Yesterday, Galen proposed that the new order be called the Armed Priest faction, almost causing everyone to revolt and drive him out. In fact, he just wanted to mess around, because Aragorn's class was Paladin, and the new order would only be named Paladin.
Galen introduced Aragorn to Alonsus Faol, and the two met inside the cathedral.
"This is the Archbishop of the Holy Light Church, Lord Faol!"
"Lord Faol, this is my mentor, Paladin Aragorn!"
"Good day, Archbishop!" Aragorn gave the Archbishop a church salute.
"Good day, Paladin!" Faol carefully examined the strong man in front of him. The white plate armor was heavy and solemn, his face was firm, and his eyes were bright, like a ray of light.
"Your body contains deep Holy Light, my child. You are a devout practitioner. Can you tell me how you established this new practice method?"
Alonsus was full of curiosity. How did this man in front of him do it?
He had been conceiving it for nearly ten years, had some ideas in his mind, and had made some preparations, but the last step was still clueless, and the progress was stagnant.
Alonsus heard from Lothar after the Orc invasion that the Northshire Abbey in the south was breached by the Orcs, and the civilians inside, as well as a large number of Holy Light priests, were killed. This great tragedy allowed the Archbishop to complete his conception of the Paladin.
"I used to be a wandering practitioner, traveling north and south of the continent. Camping in the wild was full of dangers."
"In the constant battles with bandits, gnolls, and trolls in the wild, I integrated the priest's healing spells with the warrior's martial arts. And the birth of the new class of Paladin seems to be the guidance of the Holy Light, an enlightenment given to me in the process of fighting alongside the Holy Light!"
"The Holy Light tells me that the warriors of the Holy Light can fight side by side with the Holy Light, and can use both the gifts of the Holy Light and their martial arts, instead of acting as healers in the rear. This method must follow the code of righteous conduct, otherwise, it will eventually be abandoned by the Holy Light!"
Aragorn himself was a stern character. For today's meeting with Faol, Galen specially taught him a lot of rhetoric and made him memorize it.
For Aragorn himself, Galen was not worried that Faol would not approve of him. After all, Galen guessed that Aragorn's predecessor was a Holy Light warrior from a certain world, and his devotion to the Holy Light might not be inferior to Faol. But if you don't say a word, how can Galen fool the Archbishop?
He also hoped to build Minas Tirith into a new holy land, similar to the Chapel of the Holy Light's Hope in the Eastern Plaguelands in the future, attracting the Holy Light warriors on Azeroth, whether it was the Tauren's Sunwalkers or the future Blood Knight Order, he wanted to win them over. This is a powerful force to deal with demons!
Therefore, Galen, based on his understanding of Faol, fabricated a reasonable explanation, so that Aragorn's experience resonated with Faol. As the leader of the Holy Light Church, as long as Faol nodded, Minas Tirith could replace Stratholme in the future and become the only Paladin training base!
Hahaha my genius scares me!
"So you found a way? Successfully made Galen also become a Paladin of the new order?" Faol asked.
"Yes." Aragorn seemed to be recalling, but was actually recalling, recalling the model essay that Galen had asked him to memorize. "Galen has outstanding talent in the way of the warrior. He has reached the ninth rank at a young age, and I can feel his devotion to the way of the Holy Light."
"I taught him to use his powerful mental power to comprehend the Holy Light, so that he could receive the blessing of the Holy Light. From then on, he could summon the Holy Light to bless himself and others, and at the same time, he was equipped with powerful martial power. This is the Paladin!"
Galen could feel the slight tremor in the hand supporting the Archbishop. It seemed that Galen's guess was correct. Faol was concerned about the lack of martial protection for the priests of the church, which had become his knot.
"Aragorn, besides Galen, are there other people who can become Paladins?" Faol was more concerned about whether Paladins could be mass-produced. If there were only one or two and the transformation conditions were harsh, then it would be meaningless to the Holy Light Church.
"By guiding the power of the Holy Light to the person being transformed, as long as they can withstand the test of the Holy Light and pass the test of the soul, they can successfully transform into a Paladin!" Aragorn directly stated the transformation method of the Paladin.
Aragorn's statement made the Archbishop overjoyed. In this way, the success rate of transformation was still possible. The Holy Light Church had a large number of priests. Even if the transformation rate was low, they could still gather a certain number.
"I have some candidates that I would like to recommend to you, but I need to wait until I return to Stratholme to sort out the list. Perhaps the next time we meet, the members of our new order will be expanded!"
Faol smiled happily, and his steps were much lighter. Galen supported him and quickly entered the inner hall. Galen felt a lot of emotion.
This old man has really contributed a lot to mankind. Listening to his meaning, he is going to bring the most likely candidates for transformation to Minas Tirith. Galen can imagine who will come at that time.
It is none other than the future Lightbringer Uther, Turalyon, Saidan Dathrohan, and Tirion Fordring, the four first-generation Paladins.
With the enlightenment period of the first phase of Paladins set before the New Year, the subsequent events will be much smoother, and everything is proceeding according to Galen's ideas.
After resting for one night, Alonsus held a grand inauguration ceremony for the cathedral in Minas Tirith the next day. The attendees included residents of Minas Tirith, as well as a large number of priests from churches in the Hillsbrad region and local priests from Stromgarde, including thousands of priests trained at the Arcane Sanctum.
The ceremony was presided over by the Archbishop, who appointed Aragorn as the Bishop of the Arathi Diocese, responsible for all missionary affairs in the diocese. At the same time, he announced the establishment of the new order, designating the Minas Tirith Cathedral as the third holy land after Stratholme Cathedral and Northshire Abbey!
Several thousand priests, led by the Archbishop, bestowed blessings on the Silver Hand emblem hanging in the center of the cathedral. The rich power of the Holy Light allowed this mithril emblem to continuously emit a soft light, and the cathedral did not need to be lit at night.
After the ceremony ended that day, the Archbishop left Minas Tirith with the rest of the priests through the portal. He was full of expectations for the new class of Paladin and couldn't wait to return to Stratholme. The old Archbishop was even willing to use the portal.
As the priests who participated in the ceremony dispersed, Galen was extremely happy. He did not expect that the appearance of the Paladin would be so valued by the Archbishop. He not only made the Archbishop recognize Aragorn's bishop status, but also designated the cathedral as a holy land for Paladin trainees, which exceeded Galen's expectations.
This grand gathering of the Holy Light Church will spread throughout human society over time, and even the priests of the High Elf Kingdom will know about it.
Perhaps the future Sanctum of Light, the Paladin's class hall, will be built in Minas Tirith. This reputation, this appeal, Galen has already woken up laughing in his dreams.
There are still more than three months before the Archbishop's next visit to Minas Tirith. Galen decided to follow the previous plan and go to the Kalimdor for some fun!