The Lark

A god of theft who sings in flight, at dawn, without cover. No clergy, no scripture, one commandment.

Overview

The Lark is worshipped by thieves, and the worship is not a metaphor. There is no scripture, no clergy, no seminary and no hierarchy — only a practice, and the practice is that you sing while you work. The Lark enjoys the company of mortals, keeps none of the distance a god is supposed to keep, and asks for nothing that could be called devotion.

There is exactly one commandment, and it is reputation. Larks have no morals and they do have standards, which is a professional criminal's honour rather than an ethical one: a crew that will do anything still has to be the crew people hire, and that means the work lands. Failure is the only sin the faith recognises, and it recognises it thoroughly.

The bird is the whole theology. A lark sings in flight, at first light, making no attempt to hide — which is a predator's position and a predator's confidence. Larks who sing on a job are not celebrating. They are announcing, and the announcement is the point.

Doctrine

• Be heard. The song arrives before you do
• Take the thing. Not a symbol of the thing, and not a concession. The stuff
• Do not hurry. Haste is what people do when they expect to be stopped
• The reputation is the faith. There is nothing else to keep

What the name costs

They call themselves Larks. Everyone else calls them grifters — which began as an insult and has largely stuck, in the way Quaker and Methodist stuck. Larks do not object to it. Being called a grifter by someone who has never met one is, doctrinally, a kind of success.

The Dawn Chorus

The Sworn Song's phrase for a job done right — the real term for birds singing at first light, borrowed without irony. A crew that arrives at dawn, singing, and leaves with the thing has had a dawn chorus. It is the closest the faith comes to a sacrament, and it is a compliment paid after the fact rather than a rite performed during.

Relationships

• The Sworn Song — the crew sworn to the Lark, and the most visible adherents
• The Harbingers of the Guide — a rival god they do not know is a rival. The Harbingers have not looked

Status

Alive and unregulated. No clergy, no buildings, no accounts, and a following that grows wherever nobody is paying to prevent it.