The Priesthood of Hextor

This priesthood has a special place for several reasons. First, it is the single most powerful in the land. Second, it played a major role in the creation of the animuses. In addition, it is the only priesthood left which Ivid deals with day-to-day. However, its power is hardly unconstrained.

The House of Naelax was strongly supported by Hextor's priests during the Turmoil between Crowns. They knew an evil cause when they saw it, and they put their own church armies firmly behind Ivid I.

In return, when the civil war was over, Ivid made a number of ceremonial appointments elevating the priest hood and made Patriarch-General Izvestian his court priest. He also made sure the priesthood didn't get too big for its boots.

Ivid enthusiastically promoted the priesthood to command of major imperial armies such as the Black Legion, the Glorioles Army, and others. But he did this very cunningly. In some cases he appointed priests to command armies where the large majority of officers had no liking for them, as in the case of the Glorioles Army. This kept the priests insecure about their authority. Second, he integrated Hextor's own church armies into imperial units; nominally as elite troops or special troops, but always in a small minority, again making the priests feel insecure.

Since this often involved sending large imperial troop units to "ally with" church armies on the few landhold ings the church of Hextor owned, he made sure that his armies occupied their lands.

Then again, Ivid decreed that the church armies should be supported by the royal purse. It might appear that this was a generous provision. What it meant in effect was that Ivid became their paymaster. Especially in the case of humanoid troops, it often seemed to happen that couriers bearing wages suffered unfortunate accidents along the way so that the troops were paid only very late. Or, the couriers bearing letters of instruction to local rulers to hand over some of the imperial tithe and tax monies to the priests were badly delayed.

On the other hand, the priests were always paid using magical teleportation devices for sending small sums of gold. Thus, the troops learned that they didn't always get paid, but the priests did.

In a particularly cunning twist to make sure the troops learned this, Ivid I kept the initial minting of the new Gold Ivid at a low level for some years—and the priests were always paid with these new coins, as anyone could readily see when the priests spent any of it. So the troops knew well that the priests had got paid by the overking!

Naturally enough, the troops rarely blamed the overk ing (since, after all, the priests got his money). But they blamed their priestly leaders, often believing the priests were stealing the army wages. Ivid knew how to make sure that the priesthood never got the whole-hearted support of their men. Thus, the priests of Hextor found it difficult to maintain control and discipline.

To make matters worse, spies and agents of the overk ing kept careful watch on the actions of this priesthood. The priests, lacking detection and subtler magic, were not well-equipped to uncover such agents.

The crafty Naelax overkings kept this situation in existence for many decades, with one twist and turn after another keeping the Hextor priesthood firmly under their thumbs. When the Greyhawk wars came, however, the overking truly needed the support of the priests.

Ivid neglected his usual intriguing for the purpose of giving with one hand and craftily undermining with the other. And under Patriarch-General Pyrannden the priest hood waxed powerful. Ivid must have felt utterly betrayed when he called upon Medegia for aid during the Greyhawk wars and found that the chief censor refused him—with the backing of the Krennden, Patriarch of Hextor in Rel Astra, the nominal capital city of Medegia. Ivid has had his revenge on the Censor, of course, but the patriarch fled to the safety of the north-east coast.

What has happened subsequently is almost without precedent within this priesthood. Pyrannden has stood by Ivid. However, Krennden has pronounced the overk ing insane and renounced his sacred guardianship of the malachite throne on account of that.

There is an Iron Schism within the priesthood of Hextor. Krennden is charismatic and senior enough, and has the backing of sufficient animus rulers who hate the overking and will support almost anyone opposing him. Because of that, he has the following of many of Hextor's priests outside of the Naelax lands. Krennden keeps on the move, to avoid the assassins and death squads Ivid sends to deal with him. And he has enough local rulers willing to keep him secure for a short time to be a genuine menace.

Currently he is in Delaric, where he has shown signs of settling down and establishing a power base to challenge the current Patriarch-General; Delaric's ruler Montand had best beware lest this should invite angry reprisal from Ivid.

Finally, while there are no other priesthoods of political importance, some are important in special areas—such as the faith of Obad-hai in the forests, and Trithereon's angry faith in the Lone Heath and Grandwood. Gazetteer chapters, especially those covering the Adri, Grandwood, and Lone Heath, give more details about this. The only remaining priesthood which has a general following among the ordinary people (other than Beory) is that of St. Cuthbert. However, this priesthood—very much a rustic, rural faith here—has been badly affected by assas sins and evil rulers, and it survives only in a few lands.