Next up: Sidae, a stealer of holy tracts who wants information to be free from the Church's iron grip. He's a Human Archivist.
A bit about The New Era's Athar: They're more militant and more zealous about the Great Unknown now. The current leader, a Githyanki Paladin of Freedom, has taken the faction in a decidedly crusader-like direction, specifically openly waging conflict on various Evil (especially Lawful Evil) churches throughout the more Neutral planes. They're working to get the Temple of Hextor thrown out of Sigil, for instance. They're not doing it by resorting to outlawing religion, merely trying to systematically dismantle the churches that prop it up: people are free to worship Hextor, but the Church is on the verge of becoming illegal for "a hideout for wicked and illegal activities." Specifically, they're in trouble for protecting the known terrorist Claude Randelle, a member of the Sodkillers faction who bombed the House of Hope and Mercy hospital in the Lady's ward. The Athar seem to have the upper hand in this particular battle, and they're pouring all their resources into it, but other churches fear that they will come for them next. Evil is in a position of trying to get along with each other for survival, to unite against the Athar. Good has remained mostly silent on the issue: many view it as they view the Blood War in that as long as their enemies aren't hurting innocents, they're free to hurt each other as much as they want. Still, some are very suspicious: the Athar's ultimate goal certainly doesn't stop at the evil churches. This could just be a distraction from something else, too, an attempt to gain attention while they strike a truly painful blow to worshippers accross the planes...
I'm looking forward to future "installments".
