Agback said:
Ah! So there is a Church hierarchy, then. This presumably has a ordinary jurisdiction over the clergy of all sects on a territorial basis.
Well, sort of. The whole of the faith is called "The Universal Church of the Celestial Sun". But it gets a bit tricky where the various sects are concerned.
Urth Orthodox effectively
is the church hierarchy, and thus the most power, and in most cases an Orthodox bishop will have jurisdiction over the other sects. Especially the Avestities - they are still "in penance" and
have to obey any Orthodox priest who outranks them. And Sanctuary Aeon members will comply in most cases - though they might sometimes risk confrontation if they feel a pressing need (and then hope that the rest of their order and the populace backs them up).
Members of the Escatonic Order would theoretically also fall under the bishop's jurisdiction, but they have a nasty habit of ignoring any hierarchies that don't suit them. The Brother Battle, on the other hand, are only beholden to the Patriarch - a bishop might be able to accuse one of them of church crimes, and if he has the evidence might pull it off, but he cannot give them orders. Still, the order will rarely refuse reasonable requests by a bishop.
So did the Eskatonics require my licence to preach within my diocese?
Well, in theory the Eskatonics are "upstanding members of the church", and thus don't need anyone's permission to preach. In practice, a bishop shouldn't have any problems running them out of town at the slightest hint of trouble. Just have someone follow them around, take notes of their sermons, and nail them for anything smacking of deviating from church canon. With most Eskatonics this should be easy...
Did the Brother Battle adept require my offices to consecrate a chapel?
Probably not - they
are independent, as mentioned above.
Could I conduct a visitation to make sure that all theurges were confessing on a regular basis (as canon law requires them to do)?
Yes with Orthodox and Avestites, probably yes with Sanctuary Aeon, no with Brother Battle. Probably with the Eskatonics as well, though this might annoy them a lot.
If I excommunicated someone, were sects other than the Orthodoxy enjoined against performing services for them?
All of them - at least in theory. Members of other orders might support them secretly (especially Those Pesky Escatonics), but no one is allowed to help them unless they wish to be excommunicated themselves. Expect some of them to complain to
your superiors though, if they consider the issue important enough.
My assumption was that the answers to all these questions was 'yes'. Everyone else's (except those of the Temple Avesti, who was played by a Catholic) was 'no'.
(My GMs' responses to questions of this sort may be scanned at
http://www.goldweb.com.au/~fred/carbonek/carbonek_setting_church.html and
http://www.goldweb.com.au/~fred/carbonek/carbonek_setting_evill.html.)
The thing is that there is no point in saying that a character commands respect unless the players know how far that out to go.
Well, realistically, no one of a lower rank in
any sect - or most nobles, guilders, and all peasants, for that matter - will be very, very wary of crossing you. You
can excommunicate them, and that's a very powerful threat. You hold immense power over the hearts of the peasants in your area of influence, and no noble or guilder will ignore that. All the NPCs and PCs you act with should at least
appear to be courteous and firm believers in the faith if they know what is good for them.
And if someone tries to stand up to you... well, there are lots of people trying to curry your favor. Or at least, there ought to be.
(Sorry, gotta go - more answers will come later...)