From "Adventure Summary and Background:"
An oath to Sarish is binding, not only in life but also in death. Breaking such an oath is never done lightly, and sometimes an oath must be broken for the greater good to be served – but regardless of the reason, Sarish does not look kindly upon those who renounce the vows they made in His presence, and He exacts a terrible price from the oath-breaker until all debts are settled.
Felician val’Mehan, former Patriarch of the Mother Church and now dead by the hand of the Emperor and new Patriarch Calcestus val’Assante, once made such an oath. In his youth, before the calling of the church came upon him, he was in love with a young woman, Laleia val’Mehan. The two were deeply in love; however, she came from a more powerful and far more important family of val’Mehan’s than he did, and so they could not marry. Felician decided to set out to prove his worth to Laleia and her family, and before he left she gave to him her holy symbol as a token of her love. This holy symbol, a relic from the First Imperium, was particularly powerful and valuable.
Four years passed, and during this time the young woman’s family had grown tired of waiting, and so had found her a wealthy but uninteresting man to marry. Finally, Felician returned, and discovered that his love was married to another. He tried to return the holy symbol to her, but she told him to keep it as a memory of better times. Despite her wanting otherwise, Felician swore an oath upon Sarish that he would return the holy symbol to her one day.