The Faithful Gamblers

All life is a game of chance, such is the way of the world. We are the soldiers of fortune, the dancers of fate, the players of luck. Wealth and power are not to be hoarded, but to be used, to be gambled, to put to work. To hoard and to covet are poor form, for what is life if not the greatest game? So ante up, face the darkness, overcome your own failings and play the game the way it is meant to be played. If you aren't going to play the game, then you are already dead.

Psalm of the Gambler, from the pages of the Holy Text, The Greatest Game

Structure

The power structures and organizational set up of the faith of Varis Tomain is a strange and spiderweb like construction. You naturally have the thieves guilds, the open secret, criminal organizations with plenty of mythos but very little concrete fact or understanding of their actual setup to be had. You will find these all across Valerick, if you know where to look. Many whom work in the intelligence business may also venerate Varis Tomain given the high stakes gambling nature of that industry and business.

Outside these shadowy structures, there is an official church, an official organized religious institute, with the same sort of setup as the other faiths, the loose but organized structure with two arms, the more militant holdover, and the cloth;

The Dicemen:
The Templar Order of the Faithful Gamblers, they are another more modern imagining of a templar order, generally well dressed, well spoken, lightly armed individuals with as much skill in the dance of silver tongues and shadowy dealings as they have with the skill at arms. They are deeply imbedded in the ideal of internal work of the faith, and have a nose for sniffing out cults of the Ruined Gods within civilized and settled regions, less holy crusader templar, and far more the sharp eyed and sharper wit inquisitor type. Currently the 'head' such as it may be, of the power structure is First Duelist Voltan Gregor the III, a human of Renarii heritage in his mid thirties.

The Cardsharks
This....unique name for the Cloth of the faith comes from the fact that the temples and churchs dedicated to Varis Tomain in the primary are often also fully legal and registered gambling dens. It is an interesting dichotomy that this fact creates, and as one may expect, this also means you would encounter an interesting cross section of individuals in such a church. The head of the faith, such as it is, the highest ranking official of the cloth, is Cardshark Angelo Vilhan, a Halfman priest of about sixty years.

Public Agenda

The Faithful Gamblers generally oppose greed and gluttony, seeking to cleanse society of those attachments, to remind people that life is not permanent, and we can't bring anything with us at the end, so may as well enjoy it. They oppose the concept of hoarding wealth or power, believing such things should be used, expended, built back into the communities around you. Rolling the dice or spinning the coin, life without risk isn't a life and all of that. Because of their ties to fate and luck, to those ideals, they particularly despise anyone seeking to cheat the system, also having a deep disgust for the undead and for those whom would take no forward actions, whom give in to sloth. They stand to oppose those corruptions in people and society, believing with all their zeal and fervor that these three traits above all others are what break societies and end civilizations if left unchecked and unopposed.

Assets

Those of the faith of the Wild Gambler do not individually ever hold on to much wealth in the way of coin. There houses of worship are notable for also being an active business, and they pay their taxes wherever they are in full. They are a popular faith in any urban setting, and any city you visit likely has at least one active temple or church. Their center of power, such as it is, is known as the House of Chances, a rather massive cathedral that is a many halled and floored building housing a variety of delights and gambling halls. It is found in Tiate, the capital of the nation of Susma, as Varis Tomain is the Ascended Champion of the desert lands.

Tenets of Faith

Those whom worship Varis Tomain, the Great Gambler, follow their own ethical codes with a wide variety of rules and codes within the different small groups, 'guilds' and power structures. However over top of that, there is an umbrella of sorts, an overarching base set of ideals, as there is with all faiths. These are known as the Diceman's Demands, and are as follows;

1. All life is a gamble, do not fear the risk



2. Wealth and Power are meant to be anted, not hoarded. Play the damn game



3. Fairness is a matter of perspective. Be that perspective.



4. A duel is not a fight. A fight has no rules but win.

Roll the Dice, Spin the Coin

Founding Date

0001 SuD

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Worship and Divinely Inspired Powers

Honoring the Diceman's Demands are naturally key facet of honoring Varis Tomain, but are far from the only method. Generally key duties include vigilance for the corruptions of excess greed and gluttony, along with doing battle with the agents of Sloth wherever one finds them. Insuring the risks stay in life, opposing the idea of undeath or immortality, for what is life without the ever present gamble? Embodying not just the tenets of the Demands, but the ideals behind them, in all facets of life, are exceedingly important to the faithful of Varis Tomain.

A Gambler's Prayers

The prayers and little chants and superstitious bits of scripture that allows Varis' most faithful to call upon his offerings of Divine Power.