The Healing Church

The Healing Church of Samvara is the world's largest Alchemical organization and producer of healing potions. It is not a religion, but neither is it irreligious - every district of the Healing Church has its own religious flavor, and Church's functions are heavily ritualized. The Church also has its own religious philosophy that mixes with the beliefs of its practitioners. Religious iconography is constantly mixed with Church functions, and one might even call it a monastic order that has transcended religious boundaries. Employees are held to certain monastic standards and the internal culture of the Church is somewhat cultish - Healing "Clergy" are expected to be disciplined, temperate, and isolated from the greater world. 
The secrets of Alchemy are kept from the greater world by this insular order, as the secular powers of the world are seen as too violent and profit-driven to avoid abusing this sacred gift. On a less-altruistic note, having a monopoly on healing potions is extremely profitable, and the Church enjoys the power and profits that come with that. The monopoly was broken long ago and many other individuals and organizations have since mastered alchemy, but the Church does its best to use buyouts and suppressive tactics to dominate the market wherever it touches. Church-made potions are also consistently higher-quality: their potions almost always work (so no chance of wasting money on a non-effective potion) and they are usefully graded into ranks of potency. Almost two millennia of Church researched has allowed them to produce some amazingly powerful potions fit for even Immortals, though these can cost a small fortune. 
Aside from alchemy, the Church has another social function - the training and ethical feeding of Dhampires. The Church considers Dhampires to be holy gifts that can become sacred hands of the Gods if given discipline, teaching, and support. They offer asylum and support for rogue dhampires, and make deals with local governments to rehabilitate dhampires that went feral or otherwise lashed out. The Church provides "ethical feeding opportunities" for dhampires, and sometimes these even are ethical - but ethical practices aren't always easy when feeding means some kind of violence by necessity. Generally, the Church prefers to pay willing subjects to be fed upon, either through Church-sponsored fighting arenas or just straight-up paying people to get wailed on. This can be ethical, but in areas with intense poverty it can take on an exploitative edge. When local polities try to put a stop to this, the alternative is usually using criminals to as feeding subjects - which definitely can be unethical and contribute to local systems of oppression.
Not all dhampires are entirely happy with this arrangement either, as the Church uses the bait of free and legal ethical feeding to trap dhampires in their organization. While using their services doesn't automatically make you one of them, the Church definitely puts pressures on its regulars to join them. And given the discipline of monastic life, the isolating culture of the Church, and the tendency of the Church to use its dhampires as a private military, Church life really isn't for everyone. 
This is all to say that the Healing Church can be many things, depending on one's perspective and the behavior of the local Healing clergy: it can be a temple, a guild, a charity, or an exploitative cult.

Structure

The Healing Church is divided into eleven self-operating Districts, each led by a Superior Master. Beneath the Superior Masters, there are the Regional Superiors who manage regional operations. Beneath them are the Abbots, which run local operations. 
Each of the Districts has its own personality, of sorts:

• The High Church runs central and Southern Samvara, and is the most traditional and important of the Districts. They are ruthless when it comes to threats to their authority over the Church, and they are no less cut-throat with competing alchemists
• The North District, which runs much of the Ayshan world's Church, is less ruthless and not particularly expansionist. They prefer to focus on research, and tend to comingle with chemists and wizards
• The East District runs most of Eastern Samvara and Northwest Desmia. They are heavily influenced by Lily of Red and are more involved in local Halikvar religious structures than protocol demands. The most druidic District.
• The West District runs West Samvara and is a very expansionist District that has a tendency to meddle in other District's affairs. The most closely aligned with the selkie Khilaia, and the most strictly commercial
• The Star District runs North Larazel, and is the most oriented towards non-magical medicine
• The Burning District runs South Larazel, and is known for its soft diplomacy, more gentle marketing, and association with the Exorcist's Guild 
• The Sutia-Hista District runs Sumaren and North Sonev, and is the most Sumoxan of the Districts. They are more militaristic and religious than most.
• The Dragon's District runs Garadel, and is extremely isolationist and insular. They prefer to avoid involving themselves in any local affairs or alliances, often at political cost - but they are quite stable and respected as a neutral space.
• The Far District runs Sonev, and is very closely allied with the local governments and religious structures. They are eager for political clout and often lobby in local country's governments
• The Gold District runs Lothay and Arvea, and is a very conservative, by-the-books District that very much likes to cuddle up to the High Church. Has a rivalry with the East District. 
• The Black District runs Izekra and is very closely allied with the Ishkibite Temple. They are known to teach only dryads their arts, to avoid potential cooperation with Orthodox Desmianism and to better support local dryad populations.
• The Ash District seeks to expand into Ekraht and Ukaram, and is the youngest and most expansionist of all the Districts. Zealous but interested in absorbing new cultural perspectives, the Ash District is the wild frontier of the Healing Church. 

History

Alchemy Before the Church

Before the Healing Church there were the Shekotan Healing Cults, religious groups in central Samvara founded by the first Dhampire Naram and his son, Eriv the first Alchemist. These Cults worked closely with the local Pratasam druids, who funded and expanded these groups wherever possible. Secular alchemical guilds slowly began to organize in certain Shekotan cities, but the local Pratasa druids kept these guilds contained in Shekota - these potions were making the druids and elites quite wealthy, and if they were able to be made in other countries the entire political-religious establishment would face a crisis. 
When the Empire of Shenerem rose with their Eastern Circle of Archdruids in 30 ME, they began projecting influence over Shekota and prying into the secrets of alchemy. The Western druids, from the Pratasa heartlands, quickly followed suit. The local Shekotan druids, accustomed to centuries of total autonomy, were divided on what to do and quickly turned on one another. Amidst this infighting and gridlock, the alchemist's guilds sought refuge with the old Cults and dhampire monks of Naram, who reorganized and centralized somewhat to meet this new responsibility.
From 40 ME to 243 ME, the monks and the guilds worked together to keep the balance and prevent outsiders from stealing the guild's secrets. But in 240 ME, a massive war erupted across Samvara, known as the War of Five Deserts. Pressure was put on the Cult to take a side, and demand for healing potions soared. The Cult of Naram had to rapidly expand and militarize to meet these new threats, and the guilds were locked down under their strict control. The guild's reach expanded and began opening new production facilities in Shenerem and Bilgaza, and scores of dhampire cultists moved in to protect them. By the end of the wars, in 305 ME, the Cults were a veritable dhampire army that held immense sway over the local Shekotan kingdoms. Many in the cult and in Shekotan leadership were uncomfortable with this militaristic direction, and the monks lacked the organization to sustain this. Across the 300s, the different guilds and monasteries waged a quiet series of shadow wars for control of the alchemists - and, in 410 ME, a powerful dhampire and alchemist by the name of Parsev was able to accumulate enough power to reforge the organization into something new: the Healing Church. 

The Early Church

From 410 ME to 970 ME, the Church expanded across Samvara and slowly worked out its methods and principles. During this first phase, the Church was essentially synonymous with the Sacred Kingdom of Shekota - when the kingdom's authority waned the Church took over, and visa versa. From the 400s to the early 700s, the Church was loosely associated with the Eastern Circle of Pratasa (proto-Areto). But when the religious wars of the 500s and 600s finally ended in 739, the Healing Church made a dramatic move towards being something truly cross-religious: with the help of the great mediator Ponder, the Church helped host the great peace talks and ultimately agreed to work with all faiths of Samvara equally. The Church became a symbol of religious neutrality, a safe space for negotiation and cooperation. And, as a neutral power that was beyond reproach, the Church was able to expand aggressively. In 970 ME, the Kingdom of Shekota collapsed and was divided between four major aristocratic families, cutting the Church loose from formal state rulership once and for all. 
The rapid expansion of the Church across the continent (and beyond!) meant that the administration had to make some changes. In 1090 ME, the Healing Church decentralized into regional bodies, or 'Districts', that operated with significant autonomy. Originally, this division was intended to be a one-time deal establishing the North, West, and East Districts, which would then manage all future expansion while the central heartlands of the church kept them in line. But, as the Church latched onto the the expanding Khilaia, these four districts were simply not enough. In 1290 ME, after a Starmetal meteor landed in the Shekotan desert, the Church administration took that as a divine sign that they needed to be more forward-thinking. The Church reformed further, and made a system for easily establishing new Districts. The Church was ready to expand beyond the continent, to become the healers of the world.

The Contemporary Church

New Districts emerged in Izekra, Garadel, and Sonev emerged from 1300 to 1550 ME. But this time of international success hit a major roadblock in the 1500s. The High Church of Shekota was distracted by civil war and new wars of religion at home and as the central command turned its attention away from the Districts, the District leaders fought for dominance. The High Church finally was able to stitch itself back together in 1644, but the Districts had been totally free from oversight for well over a century by then. And when the High Church tried to re-assert its authority, not every District was as thrilled. The Forge District in Southern Garadel, which had been founded in 1560 and had never known the High Church's authority, entered full rebellion in 1650. This rebellion was so far away that the Church was essentially unable to do anything, and it anointed itself the True Garadek Healing Church in 1661 (known by most as the 'Rogue Church'). 
The defection of the Rogue Church was only the first. In 1670, the Reef District of Southern Izekra defected as well, to join the Ishkibite Temple. And in 1700, a group of rogue Selkies and Alchemists joined together to make their own Sonevan splinter Church. And as the world grew more connected, other alchemical groups that had been founded by alchemists who fled Samvara long ago began to compete with the Church. Through the 1700s, the Church balanced on a knife's edge as many speculated whether the core Districts would go their own ways. But slowly, steadily, the core of the Church re-unified. And, in the 1800s, they began re-asserting their control over the outer Districts. 
In 1830, the Church founded its own order of assassins to help take down rogue alchemists, intimidate competition, and bring in the rogue Districts, known as the Order of Pratiasha. And with carrot and stick, the Church returned to its former glory. In 1900 ME, they even returned to Southern Izekra and began expanding into Ekraht and Ukaram. In the last century, the Church has set its eyes on another period of distant expansion, possibly into Nafena and Maradia. Whether that will actually come to pass is anyone's guess.

Cosmological Views

The Healing Church does not demand the worship of any God (though praise of Halcyon tends to creep into official paperwork quite a lot), but it is infused with its own worldview and philosophy.
The core of this worldview is captured in its motto, "Mend Flesh, Mend Soul". The health of one's spirit is dependent on the health and security of one's body. The Soul is shaped by the mind, and the mind relies on the body, so the spiritual cannot be fully divorced from the material. Physical temperance is therefore a moral good, regardless of the theology of one's religion. The greatest acts of good are also acts of material support, such as protecting people or providing food. The accumulation of material wealth and more by the virtuous is also a moral good, as it allows for greater acts of good and deprives evil of material power. 
This philosophy means different things for different members of the clergy. Some people interpret this materialism to mean that the world is full of spiritual power and potency, and are inspired towards deeper mysticism. Others interpret this philosophy to mean that the spiritual is less important and that material pragmatism is the essence of moral behavior.

"Mend Flesh, Mend Soul"

The Current Districts of the Healing Church

Founding Date

410/1720 ME

Type

Religious, Cult

Alternative Names

The Suistasha

Location

Samvara