The Bright and Shadow Hosts are served in their ways by Clerics, people who have chosen or been chosen to serve the Powers in assorted ways. This is a key point, as well, since the clerical orders for each are typically overseen locally and not always in agreement with each other.
The interesting thing to keep in mind is the difference between them: for many that serve the Powers, it is a job, no different from being a banker or a baker, a farmer or a stall worker. But for some of them, it is something they cannot escape, cannot avoid, and the hands of Powers are always in their lives.
Of note is that there are no limitations on Priests in regard to family, marriage, or children – there is no chaste requirement, for love is sought by all the Powers for all people – though it is rumored that those who serve Dread Powers may indeed be required to forego such unless directly ordered. I am fairly certain the current Ikon for Belial is celibate. He whines enough about it. “Involuntary celibate” my hind end.
There is a unique quality to the different kinds of priests – each has been charged with a certain role in combatting the impact and power of a certain Plane.
There are three general kinds of Clerics.
Priests
First and foremost, there are those who choose to serve the Powers or those the Powers have chosen. Those who choose are the vast majority of those who do so, and they are ones who enable and make possible the particular work that doesn’t involve direct intervention or some great and grand and terrifying magical ability or ritual spell – and yet they are often able to do such things to a degree themselves once they have shown aptitude for it.
These are the priests, though the term is a generalized one for all of them as each of the assorted Powers has a term for them that is specific to that Power. The Powers recognize the importance and the commitment that comes from leaving one’s home and apprenticing to the service of a power – even if you will never be granted the incredible abilities that many will speak of.
Priests can be found at Temples or Shrines, but they generally will stay with a given one for the entirety of their lives – they are the backbone of the place, and what they may lack in individual power, they make up in ritual power through the collective of them all. In many ways, Priests are the balance to the Paladins and the Shrinewards, much as how even the mightiest Wizard can be taken down by the collective power of everyday people.
A Priest will always start out as a Novitiate, or Apprentice, to a given Shrine or Temple. In times of difficulty or trouble, they may be asked – never commanded – to move or to take up a role with a different Temple or Shrine, but always under the same Power. Once one is in service to Paria or Mansa, you will forever be in service to them unless you leave the priesthood.
They will begin instruction and learning, first of the earliest tenets and ideals and history of the Power they come to serve and begin to be initiated into the differing mysteries as they move forward and prove their commitment. Baptism is the first and most important of the many rituals, as without it they cannot set foot upon any consecrated ground for that Power. The largest such locations for this are usually attached to a given temple of the particular power, and the large buildings are very much common areas for sleeping, classrooms, and workshops. They will work in the gardens, the kitchens, the stables and assist higher ranking Priests with their duties as needed.
As they become more experienced, they will do more, but most find that advancement can be slowed by time and stubbornness. At the head of each Temple is a Curate, Domina, or Vicar – this is the head Priest, whose power is significant, often both locally as well as within the Temple proper. Shrines are headed by Shrinewarden – who, unlike the Shrinewards, is bound to that shrine – and have a similar role in overseeing all the work and functions of the Shrine in the same way the Curate, Domina, or Vicar does for a Temple. In practical terms, they are the head of all religious activity for the power within their region – and for Temples that is usually an area equal to the borders of the Realm, whereas for Shrines it is far less centralized. There will never be a Shrine within 100 miles of another shrine or temple to the same power.
A Curate is a masculine Cleric, a Domina is a feminine Cleric, a Vicar is a nonbinary Cleric. All are Priests, but some of those priests may also be Paladins or Shrinewards.
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Bishop |
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Abbot |
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Deacon |
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Friar |
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Chaplain |
The heads of each order under a Power are called Bishops. A Bishop can be a Curate or Domina or Vicar. Each of them is the head of their particular following – though in some cases, there may be one of each, or two, who have to share power, depending on the Power they serve. Beneath them will be Abbots who will often serve as the local heads – an Abbot could be a Paladin or Shrinewarden as well – such is the power of a Bishop that they have oversight over all the Shrinewardens in terms of rank within a given realm. Abbots are usually Masters in terms of experience. Beneath them are Deacons, followed by Friars, then Chaplains.
Thus, within the religious orders there are still similar degrees of competence and skill equal to the world outside the cloisters. Bishops, Abbots, Deacons, Friars, Chaplains, Novitiates are all equivalent to the Grand Masters, Masters, Adepts, Professionals, Novices, and Apprentices of the wider word. This means Friars and other positions all serve some function within the faith, and whose work will include supervision of those below them, from Masters to Yeomen or Doyen to Adepts and down to the novitiates. In a given life, it can take several decades to move up from an apprentice into differing degrees of experience.
Priests wear robes of office, with sashes that denote rank. These robes are always in the primary color of the Power, with Sashes in secondary and decorations in third colors that highlight the power’s particular pleasures and symbols.
Priests serving a temple may live within small, utilitarian, and sparse rooms inside the Temple proper, where there is also a Working room (behind the altar), and a mess hall where all eat without regard to rank or station. Those who have families may live outside the Temple, and priests earn their wages through the sales of the goods offered from the Temples, through the nominals for the rituals performed, and through donations.
The Bishop is always housed separately on the Grounds of the Temple, in a place where dignitaries and related functionaries can meet. Bishops are also able to communicate over great distances with each other – rumor has it they possess sacred devices that enable such. Bishops have a staff that may include both Novices and lay persons.
The principal work done is rituals for the followers, ceremonies, and care for the sacred space.
Shrinewardens
Those who serve in Shrines are often collectively just called Shrinewardens, though that particular term is actually meant to apply to the Shrineward who has been bound to that Shrine – and it is important to note that once bound, a Shrinewarden rarely leaves the consecrated ground. It is where they will remain, and when they pass on, it is where their remains will be placed. Not all Shrinewardens are bound, however, as they must be a Grand Master.
Some Shrines will have one, others will have three, but all Shrines will have an actual Shrinewarden, and within the grounds of the Shrine, they are inviolate in person. While a Temple’s Bishop may decide they dislike a particular Shrinewarden – who may be equal to or greater in experience than the Bishop – they will never be able to unseat them directly. Nor can they seek the Deconsecrating of a shrine without combating the Shrinewarden directly. Those who are candidates for the role of a Shrinewarden are called Shrinewards, and some of them may never find a Shrine – but the distinction of a Shrineward is that they are always called directly to service, and they are always granted unique abilities to defend and protect those of the faithful and the Shrine itself.
A Shrinewarden will often be accompanied by many Shrinewards who will be learning from them as Apprentices, as well as those who are in line to take over and those who seek to assist in the task of preserving the remarkable space they have been given.
Along with them will be Priests – sometimes trained locally, sometimes trained by the Temple if there is one (for not all realms have a temple), who will engage in much the same general work – but it is the Shrinewarden who is central to the Shrine itself.
While Priests can be identified by their robes and sashes, Shrinewards are identified by the distinctive uniform they wear. It consists of a tight-fitting, mid-waisted white jacket with long, bell sleeves that drape dramatically and are set to be one finger longer than the length of their arms. This jacket is always trimmed in ribbons with the second color of the power and seems to never get dirty – it is always a bright white. Beneath it they will wear a wrap shirt of the third color of the Power, and then they will always wear a pair of very loose, skirt like trousers – dance is a frequent act for them, and range of motion is important. They normally wear sandals, but some will wear boots, especially when traveling. The trousers ae always the first color of that power. White is what stands out, and each is a solid color. It is said that the garments are gifted by the powers directly, as no one has ever been found to make them, and duplicating the dyes is seemingly all but impossible, and never for such clothing. They are potent and persistent reminder that these are people that have been specifically chosen by a power.
Shrinewards are also always able to seek shelter and community within any temple or other shrine of their Power – and there are always two or three well-appointed rooms for them in any of these locations should they pass through. The same does not apply, however, to Priests, including the Bishop.
Shrinewards are chosen and have unique gifts, but they are not the only ones so chosen. The role of a Shrinewarden, however, is to assist in the task of turning back the denizens of the Necrotic – often thought to mean that the role of a Shrineward is to turn the undead, though it is both narrower and broader than that thought. Shrinewards are often members of the Adventurer’s guild, as well, and they are the rare but still found folks who will travel, for they do not get to take time off – they are the representatives of their Power, and they have a mission to bring more people to follow that Power. Shrinewards are charged to oppose the corruptions of the Necrotic.
Shrinewards start their apprenticeship early. It is said that they begin training as early as 9, and that the vast majority of them are feminine in nature, though this is not an absolute nor a requirement. There are both masculine and nonbinary Shrinewardens – and notable ones, as well, but the majority of the Shrinewards are indeed women. They begin to seek out their own Shrines and go wandering, they are often 14 to 16 years of age, far younger than any others, and this often raises serious concerns by the wider communities, for the work they do is dangerous and deadly and often traumatic.
Most Shrinewards will “settle down”, whether becoming a Shrinewarden or turning to the aid and assistance of a Shrinewarden, by the time they turn 25. Again, not absolute, merely the most common outcome. The youngest grand master Shrineward ever was 23 – and to have a lifetime of knowledge in one so young is a mark that shows when you look to their eyes.
There is one final thing about a Shrineward to note: it takes significant long-term contact to be able to identify them. They tend to fade from memory and thought and identifying them after a brief encounter is very difficult – it is as if the work they do and the people they save ae meant to be only whispers and vague hints. A Shrineward out of uniform is pretty much not able to be recalled at all.
One of Antelle’s former Shrinewards says that She only called her to serve for a while, and that it is a blessing, a part of the gifts they are giving, so that they can enjoy a normal life after their calling. I need to point out that I am an Ikon of Antelle, her living embodiment on the world, and I cannot recall her name or what she looked like after talking with her to learn more about it.
Paladins
One of the things that folks often try hard not to remember is that we are always but a thin tear in the veil away from a disaster in many ways, for there are many different dimensions that are attached and attracted to our own Mortal Realm, stacked in interwoven, interleaving, interconnected layers that are held back only by the warp and weft of the Veil and Pale.
What works against one of those dimensions does not always work as well against another one – and there is no more critical a point to draw than that there is malice and malevolence in those dimensions we call the Infernal. Hell, The Abyss, the Dread Domain, and even, yes, the Mortal Realm of The Bleak.
Incursions from them are seemingly eternal, and it is not helped that there are those here who would listen to the seductive calls to power and domain if they would just let a bit of evil into their life…
And this is where the paladins come in. Paladins are charged with the task of overcoming the corruptions of the Infernal.
To many, there is no need to have Paladins and Shrinewards, and given that some of the Shrinewards almost seem to be paladins in and of themselves, this might make sense to those who are not well informed, who have not studied the intricacies and the nature of these extradimensional enemies. No amount of effort to turn the undead will ever affect a Wight or a Wraith. Nor would they stand against a demonic presence or be able to defy with skill and the necessary heart a bit of deviltry in a downtown.
Not that any Shrineward would ever turn away from the fight, mind you – that simply isn’t what they are about. To fight Hags and Demons and Devils, you need a tool and a power and force of personality that is unyielding and unclouded. You need someone that the Celestial powers would support and guide and aid, and that means you need someone who is good in a way that few others are.
Not perfect, not incorruptible, but decent, fair, and able to stand against the wickedness of the evil that has brought many a man to ruin and misfortune.
Paladins start out as candidates and are tried through their apprenticeship in way that would harrow even the most noble of us. I am an Ikon, and I could never endure what they do just to become what they must. Antelle has seventeen Paladins and seeks to have 25 – but that is a struggle that she has been having for over 200 years.
Demons are among us. Devils are twisting and corrupting. Hags are ensnaring the unwary and all are causing dissent and fomenting rebellion and discord.
Mansa’s Ikon estimates that there are 30,000 denizens of the Internal Plane among us, all striving to widen the breach and trick others into summoning more of them, and I can say that even with the power I have been granted, a higher order devil is no small task, nor one assured of completion should I join against one.
That is what Paladins are for. You may have heard the stories – of Jonathan, of Paxarria, of the Knightly orders that were lost in those ages’ past during incursions such as we hope never to see again, of the battles that just recently took place in the far west.
Paladins are trained in Temples, and it is the role of older Paladins to do that harrowing of them, that strengthening of mind and heart, that binding of soul to self, to put them through ordeals the like of which most never emerge unscathed, and many emerge no longer whole.
And even then, there is no certainty that they will become paladins. Many who do not will become vanguards or warriors, turn to the priesthood – and some may even be called to become Shrinewardens, though that is thankfully rare.
They are called only when they have endured and proven themselves – and sometimes it is not even when they have gone through those orchestrated trials and tests – the Powers sometimes choose those whose own personal ordeals have been just as harrowing. Paladins are strong people, but not cruel. They may not be nice, but they are always kind. They seek to serve and seek to bring others into the followings. Paladins are always found where disaster strikes – often appearing simply because they felt like it was a direction they had to go in, a place they had to see, an unknowable urge to be in that place.
There are legends and tales and songs sung of many who have been heroic, but it is paladins who can be nothing but, for that is part of their purpose: to be the light in the darkness, to be the balm of the wounded, to rally the troops and to stand in defiance of the greatest of evils.
One sage once suggested that Paladins are the opposite of Vampires. I find no fault with that, for there are few things as utterly unredeemable as Vampires or their kin the Lich.
Paladins who are in the whole of their power are annoyingly great. Their mail and weapons gleam and glitter, polished and shiny, and around them no one can feel fear or be turned to despair. And while many of the typical people will say that such things are “silly” or without real value, they have never faced down a demon in the fullness of its power and in the midst of its grand design.
If Shrinewards are the ones who help the needy, Paladins are the ones that work to make it so that there are ever fewer needy.
After the long training, a paladin will become an Errant, and hence forth they will go where they are bid, according to the Power of Powers that called and granted them their blessings. Paladins may be chosen by as many as five different Powers, who will then always work in concert for that given Paladin – and there is no way to tell who will choose them or why they are chosen until that moment when they are.
I have witnessed the empowering of five Paladins in the last couple hundred years, and I would much rather go to battle with them than not – but should it be not, let it be a battle they would have approved of. That is how these traveling clerics of steel and sword are. Also, they do a bang-up job of healing, and you will always find plague stopped by one.
Clerical Duties
All of them are Clerics, though. Paladins, Shrinewards, Priests – each of them has a task, a role, a way and a place, and yet, all of them share the duties of all Clerics: to further the following, to be what a Power cannot in the moment, to prove that the Powers are worthy of worship again, and to make the world a more fit place for the people who live upon it, while performing the ceremonies and rituals of worship wherever they may be called upon to do so.
Ceremonies
Worship itself is a simple affair. You go when you feel a need, make tithe and offering, kneel before the altar, perform a sacrament of the appropriate type (Tamasin likes people to clap three times), light some incense, have your one-sided conversation, and leave. No one is limited by time. For the Bright Host, the usual prayer is for some sort of Boon that will ultimately help them. For Shadow Host, it is a payer to avoid their affections. For the Dread Host, it is a prayer for selfish actions and personal needs.
Most people only visit a place of worship when there is something important happening, or for holidays and celebrations of key events. The reason for the many small Daises in the entrance is to perform Rituals of Worship.
There are eleven basic types of sacred rituals that are performed. Each one will have at least three (1 for Shrines, four for Manses) Clerics, with one a Focal, much like a coven. For these rituals, unlike those performed by a Cleric, the Clerics draw from the faith of the adherents, the lay folk.
Atonement
Making up for some past transgression, and proving that one has repented of that heresy, which restores the blessings.
Witness
One Clerical Duty is the magical Witnessing of something. One of the simplest Ceremonies, any Cleric can perform it, and in doing so they gain an absolute memory of seeing it. It can only be done when they are present, and they must actually witness it for the ceremony to take.
Oath taking
Another common ceremony and duty of the Clerical sorts is the sworn oath. These become binding agreements, and one of the most common of oaths is that of Allegiance, from a Liege to his underling and from an underling to her Liege. These oaths are binding, and enforced through pain, usually, though other things have been known to happen. One of the gravest of acts is breaking an oath – such can be done through the intercession of a different Cleric of a different Power. This is not unlike a marriage ceremony.
Birth
Births are celebrated, and it begins as soon as the pregnancy is known. A blessing for a smooth birth and healthy child is normal and common.
Baptism
Baptism happens once a person is old enough to choose to follow or pledge to a given Power.
Coming Of Age
The ritual of adulthood is a varied and notable ritual.
Courting
Permission to court is of critical importance in many homelands, and not seeking it has consequences.
Marriage
Marriage is a finality, but not a singularity. This creates a sacred bond that allows the parties to share their feelings for each other. Knowing the emotional state, concerns, and vague desires of one’s spouse is what this grants.
Divorce
Should a marriage dissolve, there is a way to break the sacred bonds. As with Marriage, a Divorce can be done, severing the vows.
Mastery
This ritual, covered elsewhere, is necessary each time you gain a new degree of mastery – and it applies to everyone.
Seniority
Once a person reaches an age about 25 years short of expected natural lifetime, they are granted Seniority through a ritual that ultimately seeks to preserve their health and wellbeing.
Death
Death is honored and last rites are an important aspect of being empowered to move on after death. Last rites should be done as soon as possible after death to prevent returning as a ghost.
Burial
Different Homelands have different customs, but they are always accompanied by a ritual of passing.
Sibola, Durango, and Dorado place their dead in House Tombs, mausoleums, and crypts. These are above ground buildings, often ornate and carrying scenes from the history of the House.
Qivira, Aztlan, and Lyonese build pyres for their dead.
Antilia cremates their dead in special ovens, collecting the ashes.
Hyboria and Kahokia leave their dead to the elements, with Kahokia raising them on tall platforms, and Hyboria laying them in a bower of flowers.
Keris and Islandia bury them at sea. Coral is used to conduct them on.
Exilian embalm, wrap, and seal their dead in stone and wood crypts buried standing up.
Consecration
The most common rite any Cleric will do, consecration is one of the greatest and most potent powers that they have. Consecration can destroy undead, can ward against evil, can create a safe place against the dangers.
Consecration cannot happen on places that have been Desecrated for the use of Dread Powers or consecrated to the Old Ones. It is a first come, first served thing. It appears that only Chicory and certain of her ilk can change this.
Reincarnation
In the normal order of the Universe, people are reincarnated into a new life on one of the other Seven Mortal Realms in a cycle that persists indefinitely. It is possible for this to be forced to happen on a particular plane, but the spell caster doing it must be of the plane wanted to reincarnate on.
Resurrection
All of us, when born, are allotted five spans. A Span is usually 25 years. Many things can take away that full allotment, but it is still ours. Those who have not used all their spans can be returned to life, their body healed of illness and harm, but it comes with a price: they lose a Span each time. Resurrection costs 2500 quid and can only be done on those who have not yet lived out their allotment on the plane of resurrection.
Ordeals
Ordeals are covered elsewhere but are overseen by at least an Adept Cleric.
Tithes
Tithes are usually simple and involve some form of sacrifice.
For the Bright Powers, the tithe is often coin for the temples.
For the Shadow Powers, a tithe is often a form of offering of value to the local Shrine. Figures, art, food, clothing, needed tools all count.
For the Dread Powers, it is always the blood tithe, and it is best done on site, bleeding a living thing over the altar.
