Church of Nethys
The worship of Nethys attracts those who wish to explore the limits of reality and move beyond the mundane patterns of everyday life. The only common characteristic of Nethys’s followers is an absolute love of magic, and to join his church is to unite with fellow practitioners—if not in an alliance, then at least in a shared goal. Though some of his worshippers seek rewards through magic, for most, magic itself is the reward, and the power and wealth that it could bring are only a means to increase their understanding of the arcane arts. Some love the physical act of using magic; others appreciate it as a tool of the highest quality. Some are generous and willing to teach what they know; others are jealous and paranoid practitioners who seclude themselves and guard their secrets from potential rivals. Nethys’s followers are likely to experiment with their knowledge, and brandish it like a banner of faith, since Nethys teaches that using magic is a sign of refinement, and that conserving it is foolish. A true worshipper revels at the opportunity to use magic and show others its glory.
Worship services vary from temple to temple, but usually include a weekly meeting involving chanting and spellcasting demonstrations. In many cases, the hymns are phonetic transcriptions of verbal components of spells favored by that temple, allowing the faithful to chant a representation of the magical words, but with a few key syllables removed so that someone who actually knows that spell or has it prepared doesn’t risk accidentally casting it. Musical instruments are rarely part of services unless the temple has a bardic priest, though limited percussion involving the tapping of wands or staves is not unusual.
Crossbreeding and mutating animals and magical creatures is a common practice at many churches, reinforcing the “mad wizard” stereotype and often scaring nonmagical folk away from the temples. From time to time this experimentation creates a useful creature with magical powers that breeds true to create more of its kind, and the temple shares this information or the offspring with other allied temples or spellcasters. Once a year, the church demands that each priest tithe a minor magic item—such as a scroll or potion—to the temple for use or sale. Many adventuring priests use this as an opportunity to get rid of lower-powered items that have been superseded by other magic. Other priests have the option—in hierarchical order—to purchase them before the sale is opened to the public. Though temple leaders are usually willing to take money from outsiders to fund their research, few want their holy places to become marketplaces sullied by the feet of the unworthy.
Those without magical ability may work for the church, but are treated as second-class citizens at best and expendable guardians or experimental subjects at worst. In the church of Nethys, even a lowly apprentice who has mastered nothing beyond a few cantrips has higher status than a master rogue or talented fighter. Most senior temple guards have at least one level in a magical class or have acquired (via a feat or special ritual) the ability to cast a few spells in order to gain some respect in the eyes of the priests and establish a firm seniority over the common guards. The newest recruits are first trained in Spellcraft so they recognize and do not needlessly fear magic. Though the church does not go out of its way to teach magic to laypeople, neither does it attempt to prevent them from learning or hold their former mundane status against them if they do manage to learn. After all, few people are born knowing how to cast spells, and those who manage to persevere and learn the magical arts are to be commended and respected above non-casters, regardless of how long it takes them to unlock that first flicker of ability.
Worshippers of Nethys can be found almost anywhere. The best-known temples are those in places of strong magic, such as Nex, Geb, Absalom, Kyonin, Thuvia, and Osirion, for the most powerful spellcasters converge on major cities in these regions to demonstrate their skills or display their knowledge. As Nethys himself is believed to have been Osirian in life, his worship is most prominent there, and many of his most ardent believers have been lost to the sands while seeking the site where vision transformed him into a god.
Each temple usually has its own colors, which tend to be a range of similar hues, such as scarlet, deep red, and dark wine. Every one has at least one wall containing some or all of the text of The Book of Magic, and daily prayers usually take place near this wall. Significant or long-established temples set aside at least one chamber for the practice of the branch of magic favored by their inhabitants: a temple focusing on conjuration usually has a summoning circle, a temple of healing keeps an infirmary, and so on. Sometimes the true nature of a temple is a secret kept from the public, and this special chamber is hidden away so that no outsiders see it. A few temples, primarily those focused on healing, are specifically built to serve the public interest, but most are not open to layfolk or casual visitors, and function more like exclusive private clubs than places for commoners to pray and seek solace.
Shrines to Nethys are uncommon, because the faithful are more inclined to build grand structures at noteworthy sites—almost always with the help of magic—in order to make comfortable quarters for long-term study, rather than simply mark a place and move on. Actual shrines tend to be unusual, and guarded with dangerous curses to encourage the unworthy to stay away. For example, a wizard who wins a duel by turning her enemy to stone might declare his shattered remains to be a shrine to Nethys, casting spells that explain what happened and warn of the rotting curse that will befall anyone who disturbs the site.
Temple-trained clergy are polite to adherents of other faiths as long as they have either magical ability of their own or proper deference toward those who possess it. Such priests are used to magical folk being in charge, and have difficulty hiding their contempt for the benighted non-spellcasters who lack such deference. They often make the mistake of barking orders in more egalitarian groups such as adventuring parties, making their companions wary of their god’s mercurial nature and the priests’ disdain for those without magical aptitude. Independent priests tend to be a bit more accommodating in their dealings with non-Nethysians, although they still consider themselves superior to nonmagical folk and comport themselves with pride often seen as arrogance.
Nethys doesn’t care what his priests do with their magic any more than he cares about their souls. Many of his followers take pride in the fact that their god mostly ignores them, believing that any power they achieve is thus fundamentally their own. Most take a mercenary attitude toward those benefiting from their services: priests craft and sell magical goods, advise nobles and merchants on how magic can improve their stations, hire themselves as bodyguards for ships or caravans, or act as battle-casters for armies or adventuring companies. Some tithe service to a lord in exchange for property and a retinue of servants so that they can focus on research. Others use their magic to entertain or swindle others.
Priests evangelize as the mood strikes them, or remain within their towers seeking knowledge divorced from the outside world. As long as the direction they choose points toward greater magical knowledge and power, they may worship however they choose. For those priests and temples that do decide to evangelize, this generally takes the form of displaying the obvious benefits of magical power and then waiting for those who wish to learn magic to prove their worthiness, either by passing arbitrary and arduous tests or by fronting significant sums of money, before they are allowed to apprentice to a priest or be tutored by the temple. Often, the best way to convince the temple you’re worthy of magical training is to take the first (and most laborious) steps on your own, thus proving your dedication. Most magical training consists of helping the Nethysian tutors with their own researches and learning what one can in the process, as few Nethysians are interested in teaching except as it advances their own goals.
Rank in the church is based on magical knowledge and power. Benign temples tend to weight the former more heavily, while malevolent ones value the latter. As masters of magic, priests are trained to recognize spell levels and caster levels and use them to assess where someone fits in the pecking order. Individuals of higher rank often acquire apprentices—these may be neophyte members of the faith or individuals who have no status in the church whatsoever until their masters declare them sufficiently trained. Visitors from other Nethysian temples are welcome to participate in temple ceremonies unannounced, and many young spellcasters who show up are recently graduated apprentices— or those whose masters died or cast them out—hoping to gain a place in a new temple where the clergy neither knows nor cares about their history, and where they can attain rank based purely on their power.
Nethysian priests have a limited role in most rural communities, unless they focus on animals, crops, healing, or some other area that gives them reason to interact with common folk. Urban priests have stronger ties to locals, particularly those connected to construction, trade, and the exotic interests of nobles. Temple priests are addressed as “disciple, “priest,” “brother,” or “sister,” depending on the speaker’s familiarity with the priest. The head of a temple is usually just called “high priest,” though individual temples may use unique titles. Members of the faith who are not associated with a temple are usually called “acolyte,” “disciple,” or “master,” depending on their apparent skill with magic. While it’s not considered an insult to mistake a stranger’s rank if she doesn’t give any indication of her magical prowess, persisting in this error after a correction is made is considered rude, and is often taken as a challenge.
Nethys’s worshippers have no built-in moral compass of any sort. He doesn’t care what his faithful do with magic, just that they seek out power with full intent to use it. Small wonder, then, that many power-hungry adventurers would turn to his calling. One might worship the All-Seeing Eye so that she can dominate your village or raze a city with a word. Another might worship him so that she can save her dear friends’ souls from torment at the hands of demons in the Abyss. Still more simply desire knowledge, the more esoteric the better. Nethys cares about deeds and motivations as little as he cares about his followers’ soul, and many in Nethys’s flock take pride in the fact that their god generally ignores them, for it means the power they achieve is fundamentally their own.
Worship services vary from temple to temple, but usually include a weekly meeting involving chanting and spellcasting demonstrations. In many cases, the hymns are phonetic transcriptions of verbal components of spells favored by that temple, allowing the faithful to chant a representation of the magical words, but with a few key syllables removed so that someone who actually knows that spell or has it prepared doesn’t risk accidentally casting it. Musical instruments are rarely part of services unless the temple has a bardic priest, though limited percussion involving the tapping of wands or staves is not unusual.
Crossbreeding and mutating animals and magical creatures is a common practice at many churches, reinforcing the “mad wizard” stereotype and often scaring nonmagical folk away from the temples. From time to time this experimentation creates a useful creature with magical powers that breeds true to create more of its kind, and the temple shares this information or the offspring with other allied temples or spellcasters. Once a year, the church demands that each priest tithe a minor magic item—such as a scroll or potion—to the temple for use or sale. Many adventuring priests use this as an opportunity to get rid of lower-powered items that have been superseded by other magic. Other priests have the option—in hierarchical order—to purchase them before the sale is opened to the public. Though temple leaders are usually willing to take money from outsiders to fund their research, few want their holy places to become marketplaces sullied by the feet of the unworthy.
Those without magical ability may work for the church, but are treated as second-class citizens at best and expendable guardians or experimental subjects at worst. In the church of Nethys, even a lowly apprentice who has mastered nothing beyond a few cantrips has higher status than a master rogue or talented fighter. Most senior temple guards have at least one level in a magical class or have acquired (via a feat or special ritual) the ability to cast a few spells in order to gain some respect in the eyes of the priests and establish a firm seniority over the common guards. The newest recruits are first trained in Spellcraft so they recognize and do not needlessly fear magic. Though the church does not go out of its way to teach magic to laypeople, neither does it attempt to prevent them from learning or hold their former mundane status against them if they do manage to learn. After all, few people are born knowing how to cast spells, and those who manage to persevere and learn the magical arts are to be commended and respected above non-casters, regardless of how long it takes them to unlock that first flicker of ability.
Worshippers of Nethys can be found almost anywhere. The best-known temples are those in places of strong magic, such as Nex, Geb, Absalom, Kyonin, Thuvia, and Osirion, for the most powerful spellcasters converge on major cities in these regions to demonstrate their skills or display their knowledge. As Nethys himself is believed to have been Osirian in life, his worship is most prominent there, and many of his most ardent believers have been lost to the sands while seeking the site where vision transformed him into a god.
Temples & Shrines
Nethys is both guardian and destroyer, and overall his church tries to balance his two aspects. Individual temples, however, often focus on one type of magical study, philosophy, or application in order to draw worshippers similarly inclined. A few temples alternate between the god’s aspects or directly oppose the actions of other temples purely to keep the balance. Opposing temples might even war against each other for supremacy, while good temples might work together to siphon magic from evil items, lock the items away, or convert the items to a more benign use. Specialized temples are usually named in an identifying way so visitors are fully aware of their natures. For example, a Numerian temple devoted to deciphering the magical properties of skymetals might be called the Church of Skysteel, whereas a Gebbite temple studying necromancy might be called the Bone Cathedral.Each temple usually has its own colors, which tend to be a range of similar hues, such as scarlet, deep red, and dark wine. Every one has at least one wall containing some or all of the text of The Book of Magic, and daily prayers usually take place near this wall. Significant or long-established temples set aside at least one chamber for the practice of the branch of magic favored by their inhabitants: a temple focusing on conjuration usually has a summoning circle, a temple of healing keeps an infirmary, and so on. Sometimes the true nature of a temple is a secret kept from the public, and this special chamber is hidden away so that no outsiders see it. A few temples, primarily those focused on healing, are specifically built to serve the public interest, but most are not open to layfolk or casual visitors, and function more like exclusive private clubs than places for commoners to pray and seek solace.
Shrines to Nethys are uncommon, because the faithful are more inclined to build grand structures at noteworthy sites—almost always with the help of magic—in order to make comfortable quarters for long-term study, rather than simply mark a place and move on. Actual shrines tend to be unusual, and guarded with dangerous curses to encourage the unworthy to stay away. For example, a wizard who wins a duel by turning her enemy to stone might declare his shattered remains to be a shrine to Nethys, casting spells that explain what happened and warn of the rotting curse that will befall anyone who disturbs the site.
Clothing
Individual temples of Nethys have great latitude both in terms of members’ behavior and dress code, though formal ceremonies require an elaborate robe, skullcap, mozzetta, and hood in the temple’s colors. A two-colored face may be included as an insignia, or the mozzetta itself may be dark on one side and light on the other. Priests of the All-Seeing Eye tend to focus their energies on the pursuit of knowledge rather than fashion, and are just as likely to don their ceremonial robes to honor the god as they are to use it as daily wear because they’re too distracted to find other appropriate clothing or otherwise oblivious to “insignificant social mores.” Many priests tattoo their faces and hands on one side to match their god’s image; darker-skinned priests rub white ash or other irritants into their fresh tattoos or cuts to create white scars.A Priest’s Role
Any spellcaster can join Nethys’s priesthood: whether divine or arcane, academy-trained wizard or wild shaman, all who call upon magical power are welcome. Divine casters are valued, but must be able to defend their positions with magical knowledge or brute power. Even alchemists, champions, and rangers can become priests, although advancement within the church is based on magical ability and knowledge, which means that most practitioners of simpler magic never ascend past the church’s lower ranks.Temple-trained clergy are polite to adherents of other faiths as long as they have either magical ability of their own or proper deference toward those who possess it. Such priests are used to magical folk being in charge, and have difficulty hiding their contempt for the benighted non-spellcasters who lack such deference. They often make the mistake of barking orders in more egalitarian groups such as adventuring parties, making their companions wary of their god’s mercurial nature and the priests’ disdain for those without magical aptitude. Independent priests tend to be a bit more accommodating in their dealings with non-Nethysians, although they still consider themselves superior to nonmagical folk and comport themselves with pride often seen as arrogance.
Nethys doesn’t care what his priests do with their magic any more than he cares about their souls. Many of his followers take pride in the fact that their god mostly ignores them, believing that any power they achieve is thus fundamentally their own. Most take a mercenary attitude toward those benefiting from their services: priests craft and sell magical goods, advise nobles and merchants on how magic can improve their stations, hire themselves as bodyguards for ships or caravans, or act as battle-casters for armies or adventuring companies. Some tithe service to a lord in exchange for property and a retinue of servants so that they can focus on research. Others use their magic to entertain or swindle others.
Priests evangelize as the mood strikes them, or remain within their towers seeking knowledge divorced from the outside world. As long as the direction they choose points toward greater magical knowledge and power, they may worship however they choose. For those priests and temples that do decide to evangelize, this generally takes the form of displaying the obvious benefits of magical power and then waiting for those who wish to learn magic to prove their worthiness, either by passing arbitrary and arduous tests or by fronting significant sums of money, before they are allowed to apprentice to a priest or be tutored by the temple. Often, the best way to convince the temple you’re worthy of magical training is to take the first (and most laborious) steps on your own, thus proving your dedication. Most magical training consists of helping the Nethysian tutors with their own researches and learning what one can in the process, as few Nethysians are interested in teaching except as it advances their own goals.
Rank in the church is based on magical knowledge and power. Benign temples tend to weight the former more heavily, while malevolent ones value the latter. As masters of magic, priests are trained to recognize spell levels and caster levels and use them to assess where someone fits in the pecking order. Individuals of higher rank often acquire apprentices—these may be neophyte members of the faith or individuals who have no status in the church whatsoever until their masters declare them sufficiently trained. Visitors from other Nethysian temples are welcome to participate in temple ceremonies unannounced, and many young spellcasters who show up are recently graduated apprentices— or those whose masters died or cast them out—hoping to gain a place in a new temple where the clergy neither knows nor cares about their history, and where they can attain rank based purely on their power.
Nethysian priests have a limited role in most rural communities, unless they focus on animals, crops, healing, or some other area that gives them reason to interact with common folk. Urban priests have stronger ties to locals, particularly those connected to construction, trade, and the exotic interests of nobles. Temple priests are addressed as “disciple, “priest,” “brother,” or “sister,” depending on the speaker’s familiarity with the priest. The head of a temple is usually just called “high priest,” though individual temples may use unique titles. Members of the faith who are not associated with a temple are usually called “acolyte,” “disciple,” or “master,” depending on their apparent skill with magic. While it’s not considered an insult to mistake a stranger’s rank if she doesn’t give any indication of her magical prowess, persisting in this error after a correction is made is considered rude, and is often taken as a challenge.
Adventurers
Anyone with a passion for magic is welcome to worship Nethys. Though he is believed to have once been human, his worship is strong among all races that employ magic. Though Nethys’s teachings appeal to those who seek to manipulate reality, to enter his church is to join a community of fellow practitioners—at least in a shared goal and passion if not a true alliance.Nethys’s worshippers have no built-in moral compass of any sort. He doesn’t care what his faithful do with magic, just that they seek out power with full intent to use it. Small wonder, then, that many power-hungry adventurers would turn to his calling. One might worship the All-Seeing Eye so that she can dominate your village or raze a city with a word. Another might worship him so that she can save her dear friends’ souls from torment at the hands of demons in the Abyss. Still more simply desire knowledge, the more esoteric the better. Nethys cares about deeds and motivations as little as he cares about his followers’ soul, and many in Nethys’s flock take pride in the fact that their god generally ignores them, for it means the power they achieve is fundamentally their own.
Type
Religious, Organised Religion
Demonym
Nethysian
Deities
Divines
Controlled Territories
Notable Members
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