There can be only one...goddess
Church sects were an integral part of the Theocracy of Mystra. Although there were few of them, some were more feared than others. In my earlier post, I showed there were two kinds of priests, mainly: The fighter/priest and the wizard/priest.
The original reason behind these multi-classed characters was much more innocent: I wanted them to appeal more to players, but at a price. Historically (before 3rd. ed) players generally didn't play many clerics in my games (or in many others according to several posts on the net and Dragon articles) because their offensive capabilities were limited in both melee and magic. Even though players knew they would be up sh*t creek without one, nobody wanted to be the loser stuck with the medic. Personally, my favorite class has been cleric since 1st ed, but I digress. I wanted to tempt the players with additional power, but I recognized that making them multi-classed gave them more power (especially than fighters or wizards) so I bumped up their xp tables a little (custom xp tables) and made each of them understand that the biggest challenge was playing a character with political power not just game mechanics power, and the role-playing challenge would be the most significant judge of their xp gain, not their spell or fighting prowess. Everyone took me up on my offer once. Sometimes they succeeded and played a priest(ess) again later.
The two sects immediately sprang up as a result: Wizard/Priests were superior to Fighter/Priests. Taking role-playing cues from the players, I expanded this immediate bias to include the rest of the campaign. Soon it was discovered that none of the Fighter/Priests ever rose above Bishop rank in the Church. Wizard/Priests were the key players in power within and without the church, while the Fighter/Priests were typically seen supporting the common people and winning the hearts of fellow warriors on the battlefield.
During year four of the campaign, the party stumbled across an island far west of their native coast, about 2300 miles away. This island was populated by a noble race of minotaur. Not the savage race of the Monster Manual, but proud and highly intelligent. Their civilization had the majesty of Rome.
Unfortunately, it also had their military might.
Curious by the presence of humans on their island, their council thought it the best strategm to escort the humans back to their homeland and see what military capabilities these humans had. They spoke to the party on the way and soon discovered they worshipped a different god, and these minotaur knew of the Goddess, but worshpped a false god. His name was Raiden, god of war and nature. When the party returned with these guests, the Church elders (elves) were in dismay. They knew exactly who these minotaur were and which faith they represented.
A new sect was born: The Hand of Mystra. Or as you would call it, the Inquisition.
By the time the church's slow moving cogs assembled and trained members of this sect, the knowledge of Raiden was already spreading throughout the land. Needless to say, the players were a BIT frightened the Hand would find out.
Members of The Hand of Mystra were easily recognized. Typically, priestesses wore red primarily (the holy color) and silver, with hints of black. Naturally these raiments varied according to profession and rank, but I won't go further with that. The Hand, however, wore primarily black robes with silver. Their training combined the best of both prior sects (Fi/Wi/Cl) and they were outfitted with deadly "holy" items to find heretics wherever they went. Curiously, I made about 80% of them Lawful Neutral role-playing wise. The other 20% were evenly divided between good and evil (yes, I know the alignment thing, but it's my campaign, by thunder).
Unfortunately the Church, in their forming of these elite priests, made one mistake: quality over quantity. The Church was primarily run by elves, who like to take things slow. There were too few priests to go around, and few knights were willing to travel with such "heartless ministers". I had several knighthoods from various kingdoms with various philosophies and purposes, but nobody liked The Hand... personally. More people were needed to protect the Church's inquisitors. Thus the Order of the Crimson Heart was born. Culled from the most fanatical youth (can you say 1984?) these "paladins" were trained in the use of minor magical ability and given the divine powers of the paladin. Their fanatic devotion was tattoed on their faces, litarally. Upon entering the order, the holy symbol (a hand surrounded by silver flame) was tattoed on their faces or throat, and proudly displayed. Their mission was to root out evil and heretics at any cost.
The cost was insurmountable. Even as the Church fought to grasp even more military control from the nobility, their own efforts started to destroy them from the inside with political in-fighting. Priestesses turned against each other, Elves and humans no longer trusted each other; elves posessed the dangerous knowledge of this "Raiden" and feared to share it with their human counterparts. Kingdoms warred with each other without the united Church to prevent it. Priests abandoned the divine hierarchy of the Eye seeking to ally themselves with nobles who quietly built up their might and drove out the Hand's vicious inquisitors.
Then the armies of minotaur came. After an extremely short war, the minotaur claimed a large chunk of geography, and the Church was back in power. Unfortunately for her ememies, she did not forget the unfaithful that turned their backs to the Goddess.
The Church made an offer to members of the Guild, short for the Assassin's guild. If any of their members would leave their ranks and join the crusade against the unfaithful and the pagans, their sins would be absolved by the Eye of Mystra herself (sound familiar?). Since the beginning of the campaign, the only force the Church could not extinguish was the mighty Guild, whose members never were captured and died minutes afterwards if that inevitability did come. They represented everything the Goddess was not. The church was amazed to see several actual assassins repent and join. Soon another sect was born: the Crusaders.
Unfortunately these new heroes of the Goddess had little time to show their mettle before another force attacked from a previously impassable mountain range thousands of miles north (damn adventurers!). This black army, comprised of humanoids, and much worse tore through the frontier of the holy land, ten times as merciless and fierce as the minotaur. The words of their unspeakable atrocities reached the ears of the Church's authority too late. These worshippers of "Myrkhul" had claimed all the lands north of Wolfwood as their own. They were said to be ruled by a few powerful men, humans, but... not human. The Church soon decided to send their Crusaders to assassinate these leaders in hopes of breaking up their ranks.
The Drow, who were behind the Guild since its birth, couldn't be more pleased. But that's another political story.