I couldn't sleep so I decided to play with Aurish theology a little and iron out some details, get some things written down and share these ideas with some friends. This may not be the final draft and may be revised or edited by myself at a later date.

The Entire document will be pasted below incase for any reason you as the reader cannot open OpenOffice.Org files. I do not, nor do I want to use Microsoft Office. Shit's expensive.

A Solar People

For as long as far back as time began, the Aurish people have been a philosophical culture, one inherently predisposed to spirituality, gods and worship. It is a natural inclination of theirs so ingrained that children raised in secular cultures will invent the concept of spirits that govern the natural process of the world on their own without any influence from society. Within this all but inevitable outcome, one thing has reigned supreme in their spirituality, a concept so universal every child acknowledges it at some point, even in the modern era after the 'gods have died,' and the concept of a spirit is foreign, they still find the time to make analogies and wise sayings based on the concept. This simple concept, is Light.
Chief among Light is that of the Sun, named Aurora by ancient Aurish shamans in an age long gone. The sun itself represents life, from birth at dawn to a ripe age across the day, then to sunset and death but with pleasant memory. The Aurish believe all life is derived from Light and to this end in days of old their magics were focused primarily on healing. Nothing of it's caliber was seen in the entire world, and when the old Aurish Empire fell, so too did their secret of healing magic. Even in the dark ages where their power waned thru a taboo on spell usage, this innate desire to channel the life giving light of the sun gave way to the tribal healers to use enchantments upon their herbal medicines, keeping with them a fragment of their arcane power thru spiritual practices of ancestor worship, intense prayer and a kind of mutual familial love for all living things.
In simplistic terms the Sun of old Aurish culture was the source of all light and thus the source of all life. Without understanding the complexity of Photosynthesis, they still understood that sunlight gave the plants life. Plants fed the animals, and various other animals fed upon those animals, and Aurish themselves, fed on those animals and plants. Thus they reasoned in the physical sense Light feeds all life. In the spiritual sense, equating their elemental power of light with the spiritual life, their display of light magics was proof of the enduring spiritual life within them, though many also interpreted it as a divine right to rule, thus the Aurish Empire came to be. Not cruel and with tame elitism, the world enjoyed a golden era under their rule, where everyone from Sovreign Stormcaller lords to humble wyvern serfs did not know the misery of hunger, or homelessness. However in a moment of arrogance, the final ruling Empress and 12 of the priests of the solar alignment of their spirituality sought to make the Aurish people immortal with manipulation of their artifact, King's Blade, rumored to be forged by angels for the explicit purpose of carving away darkness. King's Blade resisted however, and a corrupted light spewed forth from the artifact that engulfed the Aurish capital, turning everything caught within it's devastating wave of temporal energy into shades, succumbing to madness from the agony of being a living immortal soul without a body, exposed to the searing energies of the spiritual world without the natural protection nor affinity of spirits themselves. This cataclysm all but destroyed the Aurish civilization, for most of their leaders and clergy had been gathered there at the time.
King's Blade faded into myth and much like Excalibur was forgotten, sheathed in stone in a forgotten temple at the base of a mountain in a haunted, walled city of decaying marble, slowly being reclaimed by vines and thorns like the twin roses themselves worked into the artifact's design.
After the calamity the survivors understood that Light was too sacred to control, too pure, and that attempts to manipulate and control it could only lead to disaster when abused. Rather than risk total extinction, the Aurish banned all use of Magic. The healers continued a rudimentary practice of Healing magic by converting old enchantment processes into prayers. Not an intentional deception, this lack of arcane use caused their abilities within the field of magic to atrophy and ultimately die, and while their kind lived on the lightbearers were no more.
In the modern Era, poems and literature about Light are still studied and written to provide insight, a moral compass, unity and self-worth among the people. Still understood as the source of all life, they've since amended the philosophy to also include Enlightenment, education, discovery, and knowledge within it's circle of influence. To this end the Aurish of the modern era embrace Manifest Destiny, to spread their kind among the stars and live among them not as conquerors, but pupils. It is in this era characters like Leviticus live.

Some simple things to consider is that Aurish of a devoted solar alignment pursue peace, positive relations and have a respect for all life. Individuals only involved casually in the theology may agree these things are good but not practice it very well themselves, while the most devout of these refuse to lift a finger in self defense, but will viciously fight for the defense of their fellow people. Warrior-Monks of the dark ages in the feudal society, post magical collapse, often used staffs and maces to beat their opponents into submission rather than kill them outright. The common soldier of solar alignment is taught where to strike for the cleanest kill so as to not prolong suffering and hasten the passage of a soul to the next world rather than make them linger in a state of death in the current one thru sloppy combat.