Kae'Yoss
First Post
Roman said:What I need the most, though, are ideas on duties of and faith-based restrictions on clerics of these gods. Something like:
Clerics of the god of time must render the personal beginning of time (birth) and the personal end of time (funeral) ceremonies on the faithful.
Clerics of the god of time cannot partake in actions that may damage the natural flow of time.
Clerics of the god of time have to recite a prayer at every dawn and every dusk.
...
The second one can prove interesting: Say a time priest divines something Bad. Will he be allowed to change it? This could be the cause of a schism within the church (an ancient one): There's the Observers, who only write down what they saw, with two dates: When they saw it and when it will have happened. They're like the Dispassionate Watchers of Chronepsis. The others, the Shapers, will act on the knowledge gained by their deity - after all, Chronos (or however the god of time's called) gave them this knowledge for a reason. Some of the Shapers will merely guide events - maybe even to make sure they happen how they've seen it! - but others will use the knowledge gained to their own advantage.
I wouldn't put any emphasis on birth or death - They will write down the dates very punctually (resorting to divinations if the date, including time correct to the nearest minute, is not known) and will hold some service for this - but much more important are fixed moments in time! Birthdays, which mark the passing of a well-defined time period for this individual (they will hold a service on their own birthdays, at the moment they were born!). Other Anniversaries, not only of personal things like marriages but about all kinds of important events and all that, will be remembered and celebrated - and exactly on time!
A similar thing goes for dusk/dawn - these aren't fixed moments in time, but merely something of significance to gods of sun and darkness. Rather, they'll pray at midnight, when the new day officially begins, and at noon, when half the time unit is over.
So, I'll suggest something like this:
- Time Priests will celebrate important anniversaries with prayer and other services to the Deity. These include the changing of the calendar day, their own aging of another year, important anniversaries like the inauguration of the high priest and the current wordly ruler. The Time Priests will celebrate those occasions on the exact time - correct to the minute.
- Time Priests will carefully note the exact dates and times of important events they witness or experience: Birth and Death of the faithful, slaying of mortal enemies, attaining a new level of spiritual understanding.
- Time Priests will always give the time to those who ask him. They will always have the means to divine the exact time.
- Time Priests will defend the Timeline from any violations, and will strive to heal any wounds dealt to it.
Some ideas for priests of space:
- Spatial Adepts will never pray at the same place twice in a row.
- At least once a month, the Spatial Adept will visit a place he never saw before
- Spatial Adepts will always assist petitioners to get where they are meant to be.
- Spatial Adepts will not serve in the same House of the Goddess for more than one month at a time
- At least once a year, the Spatial Adept will go to a place that is generally considered unexplored
- The Spatial Adept will tend and expand the Archive of Maps to the best of his ability
- The Spatial Adept will always be able to recognise, point out and interpret his personal Zodiac (every cleric of the deity of space shall have his very own Star Sign, a pattern of stars that, with the right lines drawn between the stars, will produce a stylised symbol with a special meaning to the cleric)