The Temple of Heaven on Earth was established in the Year 2000 by a Joint Conference of the Gods of Heaven held in Valdran. The aims of the project were the promotion of the Alliance of Good, Law and Neutrality in the fields of religion and politics, so strengthening the military alliance and ensuring a good, ordered and peaceful life for all the free peoples in the Overworld. Therefore a joint Temple of BUDIF, ESCUS, FIDAR, KOROS, PAREL, SARAN and SHELDA was to be set up. Although the Temple of MIRIMI was represented at the Conference, it was excluded from the Temple project by (it is now generally accepted) the Temple of SARAN and the Valdrean authorities. For the Temple of Heaven on Earth, as it was to be known, would be built in Valdran.
However it was decided that the aims of the project would be better served by the periodic relocation of the Temple to a different site in the World, rather than having one permanent site, and the period agreed upon was 100 years. The Emperor donated a site on the North-Western perimeter of the City, on an island close to the shore in Lake Zarak.
Over the next few years Temple buildings were constructed, land Consecrated, and the Seven Statues of the Gods of Heaven on Earth sculpted, emplaced and Consecrated. These Statues were to be the essence of the Temple: for they would be the part moved on relocation, along with the Temple staffs. The Temple was finished by the Year 2003, although pilgrims had been flocking to it even before work began. The Opening Ceremony was stupendous.
In the Year 2096 the political infighting started. A Second Joint Conference was held in Valdran, at the Temple itself, to decide upon a site for the relocation. Contending for the honour were Hapral, for the Valdrean Empire, Gabilkhazâd-Dûm, for the Dwarves, a joint bid by Kuntax and the Free Cities, Bjarmigen, under Svegn V, and Gorreth on Kyr. The Dwarves won, and a site was readied atop a high peak of the Khazâd-Valga. The Temple of MIRIMI was again excluded. It was also decided to make a big thing of the Relocation. The whole procession from old site to new site would be one big celebration, with ceremonies at each major stop, and the Temples continuing to function throughout. The Temples would be brought to the pilgrims, with the focal point being the Statues.
All went just about as planned, and in the Year 2100 the Procession took the Temple of heaven on Earth from Valdran down river to Hapral, and thence aboard a vast and splendid fleet to Barrakizdîn via Fort Venture and Gathol-Dválin, and so up the Dwarf Road to Taramkhazâd- Dûm, and on up to Gabilkhazâd-Dûm and the new site by 26 Yarom.
In the Year 2196 it was thought that Bjarmigen would win the honour, but the Temple of ESCUS received little support from King Bjørn II, and the town of Gorreth, on Kyr, won as the ESCUS candidate, with the backing of the Temple of MIRIMI, which was promised a member Temple. The Procession went from Gabilkhazâd-Dûm to Taramkhazâd-Dûm, to Tumunzahar, past the Volcanic Lands into the Vale of Lystin, down to Kenyal on the Desolate Coast, and across the sea to Gorreth and a site high above the famous cliffs of the Kyr plateau, where a Statue of MIRIMI was waiting to join the others. It was the year 2200.
The success of the project had won over the Elves - or at least the Wood-Elves, who were supporters of MIRIMI, and were pressing for the acceptance of ORIL and RAYLIT. Taur Galen was chosen as the Relocation site in 2296, but ORIL and RAYLIT rejected as not being Gods in Heaven. The Relocation Procession sailed to Hapral following the Valdrean coast, then down the Alma and South Roads via Valdran to Taur Galen by the end of 2300.
At the Fifth Joint Conference a Southern City at last won, although they were all four now competing against each other as well. Iklaron was the victor, as the Procession could pass through Tehmor and Vavistor to reach it, but Kuntax would be missed. For the first time the Temples of ORIL and RAYLIT participated in the Joint Conference and Relocation Procession, although they were still not made members of the Temple. This was the Year 2400. The Procession was marred by an attack from the Forces of Hell between Tehmor and Vavistor, which was driven off and the survivors hunted down and killed.
The Sixth Joint Conference was held in 2496. Contenders for the honour this time were Hapral, Taramkhazâd-Dûm, Kuntax, Bjarmigen, and Magil-Hubor for the Hobbits. The Temple of ESCUS again received no support, financial or political, from the House of Bjørn. Magil-Hubor won, but because difficulties of access to the Hobbit lands were foreseen Bjarmigen was chosen as reserve site.
Work began on a site at Magil-Hubor, and negotiations over access began with the Bandit King at Rockholme and the High Elves of Minduinath. King Ardfast categorically refused permission, stating he would oppose the Procession and pilgrims with force if they trespassed into his territory. The Calaquendi were wary, and unwilling to have their fair lands marred by such a large procession and a possible battle. But they gave permission for a route skirting the northern boundary of their lands, just outside Bandit country. So work commenced on a new road following this route, called Relocation Road by the Hobbits. At first all went smoothly, but soon the troubles began: Bandit raids from the North and complaints from Elves to the South and along the route of disturbance and maltreatment. Also the Temples of ORIL and RAYLIT amongst the Calaquendi were aggrieved that their membership of the Temple had not been made a condition of permission for the Road, and they started negotiations and protests to that end.
A Seventh Joint Conference was convened in 2499 to consider whether, in the worsening situation, the Magil-Hubor site should be abandoned for Bjarmigen. The Calaquendi sent a formal apology which, inter alia, blamed both extremists from the Kingdom of the North and Hellish agitators. The Conference decided work should begin on the alternative site, thanked the City of Valdran for its kind offer of the original Temple site as an emergency location, saying it would bear it in mind, again refused membership to the Temples of ORIL and RAYLIT, and adjourned to await a closer date to the Relocation (which would have to begin 1 Estender 2500 at the latest if Bjarmigen were the destination).
It reconvened 1 Jerem 2500, the situation worsening and the Relocation Road far from completed. On 1 Oscow, the final deadline for a decision, it announced the abandonment of the Magil-Hubor site for Bjarmigen. This (said the official announcement) was because the relocation Road would not be finished in time, and because Conference could not guarantee the safety of pilgrims for the next 100 years. Submission to the demands of so-called "terrorist groups" did not enter into the picture, and it was hoped all would remember, and strive for, the original aims of the project. The Procession would leave Iklaron 1 Estender, arriving at Bjarmigen 26 Yarom.
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