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Religion in Your Campaign – Priests and Congregations
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<blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 8584157" data-attributes="member: 92511"><p><strong>Are Priests Divine?</strong></p><p>No. Priests are devout. They serve and perform the functions of their religions (which for most good, law/order, or neutral aligned ones includes serving their communities).</p><p></p><p>Not all priests in a given religion, in my world/setting, are automatically spell-slinging positive/divine energy channelling "clerics." In fact, the idea of being/becoming a cleric is what may lead a good number of devoted to pursue a life in a religious organization. Blessings all priests dream of receiving [outside of the stringent performance of rites where you invoke the deity for whatever purpose] and causing some internal politics/consternation for those who never receive those "explicit/direct" blessings/attention from the deity. Naturally, among the good deities at least, covetting such power is an excellent way to ensure you won't receive it.</p><p></p><p>Contrarily, not all clerics are "priests," per se. They may have been only a novice or initiate when they received their first display of divine power. They could be an aged scrivener in the archives, dutifully pouring over your latest manuscript copy of the holy story of "St. Goodlady's defeat over Demonspider" before you receive a vision of the evil you must personally be empowered to thwart! They could be a "Joan of Arc" figure, farm kid just minding their own business and are directly "touched" by the deity or destined through fate to receive divine powers. Poof! You're a magic-granted cleric now, like it or not.</p><p></p><p>For some religions, anyone can enter the service of the deity, and attempt the study and training to become part of a priesthood, eventually. For some religions, the intent is all you need and, "Poof! You're now a priest of such-and-such, go forth and be awesome!" For some, only some bloodline or other direct connection to a holy ancestor or even simply born in a certain place permits you to pursue the role of priesthood for a given religion/deity/order or hierarchy.</p><p></p><p>It really just depends how one "becomes" a priest. But, no, they are not innately or automatically "divine" in their own right.</p><p></p><p><strong>What are Priests for?</strong></p><p>The only definitive answer for this is "The Priests serve the deity." They are, for my world/setting, intended to be the Will of the deity expressed in the mortal realm. More often than not, this includes "speaks for [the deity's will] in the world." This nearly universally includes, but is not limited to, the conducting of the rites, rituals, and spreading the teachings/dogma of the organization built around the deity's will/faith.</p><p></p><p>Beyond that, is a complete matter of "depends"... on the deity, primarily, their alignment, and their portfolio...and the alignment of the religion/religious organzation within the world. The priests of the Chaotic Evil deity of war and bloodlust are not going "serve" their god in the same ways as the Neutral Good priests of the agricultural goddess.</p><p></p><p>Also on the order/branch of a given religion...if you go that deep into your world-/religion-building. I don't always, but there are multiple deities with various orders of different types.</p><p></p><p>My goddess of life & healing, "the Merciful Mother, Gilea, the White Rose," has a general following and reverence among many (especially commoner) peoples. She has a general "priesthood" (fairly standard RPG "temple" organization) who conduct rites, go into the community, serve as midwives, healers, conduct marriages and dole out blessings for families/births, promoting kindness and compassion, and all of that. They, generally, have vows against causing harm to other living beings and would die before taking up arms for any reason but self-defense.</p><p></p><p>There is also an all-female order, "the Revered Daughters [of Gilea]," who are the premiere healers, in both medical practice and curative magics, in the world. They are complete pacifists and are forbidden from taking up arms or consciously doing harm to another for any reason. They are focal functioning of Gilea's temple and many consider the 'priesthood" of GIlea to basically all be Revered Daughters, but their primary function is not to be "priests."</p><p></p><p>There is another branch/organization of Gilea's temple, again all female, who are granted special dispensation to use arms and armor, using their divinely granted power for the defense and protection of Gilea's faithful. One of these servants of the Merciful Mother is called a Whitethorn Protectrix. The Whitethorns are all clerics and more than capable of conducting themselves as priests...but their role in the organization is definitely NOT the general function and conducting of rites of the general priesthood...but any who look upon them would consider them the goddess' "priests." </p><p></p><p>The priests of the goddess of the seas and waterways, almost universally, are assigned to travelling and serving ocean-faring ships or the tending of sacred waters or waterways (fonts, springs, keeping particular river crossings safe, etc...). She also has an order -kept well hidden- of virginal seers/oracles. The latter are entirely magical/psychic "directly chosen ones." The former are not and may be cleric or simple devout sea-faring priests who know about the functioning of ships/sailing and marine life as much as the rites and prayers for good-winds, smooth seas, and putting the souls lost to "Her Blessed Depths" to their final rest.</p><p></p><p>Other priesthoods only concern themselves with the perfecting of battleskill or the pursuit and recording of history or engaging in feats of unquestioned honor and courage.</p><p></p><p>What priests are "for" is up to what their deity's will (revealed by teachings, mythology, portfolio, alignment) has "told them" - and thus the religion/organzation built up around- they are.</p><p></p><p><strong>How Accessible are Priests?</strong></p><p>Again, sorry to become a broken record, this is a "depends on the deity" and the specific order of the priesthood.</p><p></p><p>The above mentioned goddess of the sea/water, Tyris. Her general priests, that most people are going to encounter, are going to be very accessible in ports, coastal villages, and on ships. Less so in, say, a desert area. Her virginal seer-priests sequestered high in some intraversable mountain vale at a sacred -untouched by mortals- mountain lake...not so much accessible.</p><p></p><p>Deities that espouse things like benefiting or serving communities are going to, probably, by fairly easy to find and engage with directly.</p><p></p><p>NOW, there are also hierarchies for various religion organizations. SO there are the priests that you can easily access...and then the upper eschellons of high priests and/or supreme leader of an entire continent-wide religion/church/temple...who have more important things to do (i.e. communing with/being/getting closer to the divine realms and direct divinity, as much as possible) and, so, are probably not going to show up to give you advice or conduct your wedding ceremony.</p><p></p><p><strong>Can the Priests Command?</strong></p><p>Their faithful? Absolutely. Their subordinates in their given temple/organization? Oh yes. The uneducated or inexperienced of other (or no) faiths, who know damned well that there are gods..."somewhere up [and down] there"...and magic is real in this world? Yeah, an unscrupulous or particularly militant priest could probably elicit compliance from commoners -out of fear, if nothing else.</p><p></p><p>Does anyone kow-tow to a self-proclaimed "priest of so-and-so?" Absolutely not.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 8584157, member: 92511"] [B]Are Priests Divine?[/B] No. Priests are devout. They serve and perform the functions of their religions (which for most good, law/order, or neutral aligned ones includes serving their communities). Not all priests in a given religion, in my world/setting, are automatically spell-slinging positive/divine energy channelling "clerics." In fact, the idea of being/becoming a cleric is what may lead a good number of devoted to pursue a life in a religious organization. Blessings all priests dream of receiving [outside of the stringent performance of rites where you invoke the deity for whatever purpose] and causing some internal politics/consternation for those who never receive those "explicit/direct" blessings/attention from the deity. Naturally, among the good deities at least, covetting such power is an excellent way to ensure you won't receive it. Contrarily, not all clerics are "priests," per se. They may have been only a novice or initiate when they received their first display of divine power. They could be an aged scrivener in the archives, dutifully pouring over your latest manuscript copy of the holy story of "St. Goodlady's defeat over Demonspider" before you receive a vision of the evil you must personally be empowered to thwart! They could be a "Joan of Arc" figure, farm kid just minding their own business and are directly "touched" by the deity or destined through fate to receive divine powers. Poof! You're a magic-granted cleric now, like it or not. For some religions, anyone can enter the service of the deity, and attempt the study and training to become part of a priesthood, eventually. For some religions, the intent is all you need and, "Poof! You're now a priest of such-and-such, go forth and be awesome!" For some, only some bloodline or other direct connection to a holy ancestor or even simply born in a certain place permits you to pursue the role of priesthood for a given religion/deity/order or hierarchy. It really just depends how one "becomes" a priest. But, no, they are not innately or automatically "divine" in their own right. [B]What are Priests for?[/B] The only definitive answer for this is "The Priests serve the deity." They are, for my world/setting, intended to be the Will of the deity expressed in the mortal realm. More often than not, this includes "speaks for [the deity's will] in the world." This nearly universally includes, but is not limited to, the conducting of the rites, rituals, and spreading the teachings/dogma of the organization built around the deity's will/faith. Beyond that, is a complete matter of "depends"... on the deity, primarily, their alignment, and their portfolio...and the alignment of the religion/religious organzation within the world. The priests of the Chaotic Evil deity of war and bloodlust are not going "serve" their god in the same ways as the Neutral Good priests of the agricultural goddess. Also on the order/branch of a given religion...if you go that deep into your world-/religion-building. I don't always, but there are multiple deities with various orders of different types. My goddess of life & healing, "the Merciful Mother, Gilea, the White Rose," has a general following and reverence among many (especially commoner) peoples. She has a general "priesthood" (fairly standard RPG "temple" organization) who conduct rites, go into the community, serve as midwives, healers, conduct marriages and dole out blessings for families/births, promoting kindness and compassion, and all of that. They, generally, have vows against causing harm to other living beings and would die before taking up arms for any reason but self-defense. There is also an all-female order, "the Revered Daughters [of Gilea]," who are the premiere healers, in both medical practice and curative magics, in the world. They are complete pacifists and are forbidden from taking up arms or consciously doing harm to another for any reason. They are focal functioning of Gilea's temple and many consider the 'priesthood" of GIlea to basically all be Revered Daughters, but their primary function is not to be "priests." There is another branch/organization of Gilea's temple, again all female, who are granted special dispensation to use arms and armor, using their divinely granted power for the defense and protection of Gilea's faithful. One of these servants of the Merciful Mother is called a Whitethorn Protectrix. The Whitethorns are all clerics and more than capable of conducting themselves as priests...but their role in the organization is definitely NOT the general function and conducting of rites of the general priesthood...but any who look upon them would consider them the goddess' "priests." The priests of the goddess of the seas and waterways, almost universally, are assigned to travelling and serving ocean-faring ships or the tending of sacred waters or waterways (fonts, springs, keeping particular river crossings safe, etc...). She also has an order -kept well hidden- of virginal seers/oracles. The latter are entirely magical/psychic "directly chosen ones." The former are not and may be cleric or simple devout sea-faring priests who know about the functioning of ships/sailing and marine life as much as the rites and prayers for good-winds, smooth seas, and putting the souls lost to "Her Blessed Depths" to their final rest. Other priesthoods only concern themselves with the perfecting of battleskill or the pursuit and recording of history or engaging in feats of unquestioned honor and courage. What priests are "for" is up to what their deity's will (revealed by teachings, mythology, portfolio, alignment) has "told them" - and thus the religion/organzation built up around- they are. [B]How Accessible are Priests?[/B] Again, sorry to become a broken record, this is a "depends on the deity" and the specific order of the priesthood. The above mentioned goddess of the sea/water, Tyris. Her general priests, that most people are going to encounter, are going to be very accessible in ports, coastal villages, and on ships. Less so in, say, a desert area. Her virginal seer-priests sequestered high in some intraversable mountain vale at a sacred -untouched by mortals- mountain lake...not so much accessible. Deities that espouse things like benefiting or serving communities are going to, probably, by fairly easy to find and engage with directly. NOW, there are also hierarchies for various religion organizations. SO there are the priests that you can easily access...and then the upper eschellons of high priests and/or supreme leader of an entire continent-wide religion/church/temple...who have more important things to do (i.e. communing with/being/getting closer to the divine realms and direct divinity, as much as possible) and, so, are probably not going to show up to give you advice or conduct your wedding ceremony. [B]Can the Priests Command?[/B] Their faithful? Absolutely. Their subordinates in their given temple/organization? Oh yes. The uneducated or inexperienced of other (or no) faiths, who know damned well that there are gods..."somewhere up [and down] there"...and magic is real in this world? Yeah, an unscrupulous or particularly militant priest could probably elicit compliance from commoners -out of fear, if nothing else. Does anyone kow-tow to a self-proclaimed "priest of so-and-so?" Absolutely not. [/QUOTE]
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