The exact number of each kind of clergy the Leiran church consists of, be they clerics, specialty priests, and illusionists, is unknown and not kept track of, which is uncommon for a church, particularly one of such size. The members cheerfully lie about the tenets, organization, numbers, and powers. It is still known that the largest number of Leiran followers reside and are educated in any of the hundreds of temples on Skuok Strax. Relations between the various members of the Leiran clergy is generally good, mainly because no one fully knows what is going on.
The clergy can be called with whatever official title they might wish, and vary from day to day and person to person. They might use misleading or pompous titles, and today's high chancellor might be tomorrows venerated acolyte. Not only does this serve as a spot of fun and confusion, it inflates the numbers to those trying to pinpoint exactly how many worshipers Leira might have. Specialty priests, such as Mistcallers or Secret Keepers, are given their rank to distinguish their capabilities from regular clerics and illusionists, but they also use the same odd and ever-changing titles as the rest of the clergy.
Faith History
The written tongue of illusory magic, the language of
Ruathlek, credited to be Leira's invention, arrived centuries earlier to Ivaenni than the worship of Leira herself did. While on her home continent of Ocrios, she was seen as mainly a goddess to avoid, after she was introduced to Ivaenni by foreign merchants arriving in
Skuok Strax, the
skuokans quickly adapted her as a patron deity to protect against bad faith actors within the mercantile world. The merchants saw the good in worshiping a goddess of deception, because they hope that she will aid them in knowing when somebody is lying when they make deals. As such, Skuok Strax has a vast amount of temples dedicated to her, making the nation a hub for Leiran faith.
Hierarchy
Ranks
Acolyte. A trainee, not yet formally a member of the church the same way as the rest are. Acolytes has yet to be inducted at the Mumbling Shores, given a mask, or undergone their pilgrimage.
Initiate. An initiate is a newly inducted member of the Leiran clergy, sent into the world to undergo a pilgrimage during which they will seek to deepen their bond with Leira and understand, with their own eyes and experience, why Leira is about a balance, to do tricks both for others and oneself. Many decide to stay an initiate, and not pursue any particular position or rank within the church.
Preacher. A preacher is a person who teaches Leira's dogma and tricks. Most often they primarily teach acolytes and initiates, though some prefer to set out in the world and continue their initiate lifestyle as preachers.
High Priest/ess. A high priest/Ess is the leader of a temple, who oversees the temple, its members, and its business. They lead other Leiran's in prayer in the day-to-day life .
Presbyter/ess. A bishop the leader of the region's temples. Depending on the size of the region and the number of temples within it, they have either a small amount or a large amount of temples to manage. The High priest/esses report to them.
Arch Priest/ess. The arch priest/ess is the top-most ranking Leiran, who leads the congregation in the most prominent ceremonies, oversees who works where, and handles the affairs of the church as a whole on the continent.
Sub-ranks
These sub-ranks fall under any other rank, and is independent of the clergyperson's rank within the church.
Cleric. A cleric is a clergyperson given mystical powers from Leira.
Paladin. A clergyperson who has gained their mystical powers through an oath sworn in front of Leira.
Specialty Priest. A specialty priest can be a range of things, and belong to any particular affiliated order.
Chosen. A clergymember particularly favoured by Leira. Often given a high rank within the church, though not always.
Dogma
Novices in the faith are taught by the whispering mists of the goddess that "The Lady is never quite what you think she is. Truth is a worthless thing to know and worth even less to speak aloud. Never speak truth when falsehood will suffice. Cherish and further illusions and rumours, for distortion and legend are what make folk happy and life alluring. Hiding a thing gives it value by the very act of cloaking."
The priests of Leira are taught to deceive and mislead people as a way to worship their Lady. They believe that she can be anything, anywhere. They are to give, as well as take, to both raise and dash the hope of others. It is important to the church that someone that a Leiran rob also must later be aided by Leiran hands to make up for the loss.
Many often don't reveal their true faith to outsiders, and would explain their priestly powers to come from another deity, particularly outside of Skuok Strax. This is a custom retained from the faith's home continent, where worship of Leira is looked at with a far less kind eye.
A Leiran ought not to let a bribe sway their tongue; though accepting offerings can be done as donations to the temples, they are in no way meant to make a Leiran say or not say something in particular. Bribery is one of the secrets that spreads within the Leiran community the fastest, and it's not uncommon for people who have tried to bribe a Leiran to be hassled by Leiran's in some way. Indirectly, of course.
Certain titles and names that are used to refer to Leira are kept solely within the clergy, and only they use them. The most used of these secret names is the Mistshadow, as it is used as a code between the Leiran's. Other names include Mother of All Illusions (non-followers may use the Mother of Illusions to refer to her, but only followers add the All to the title), and Lady of Mist.
Though many of the Leiran clergy mostly speak lies, they have terms that lets other more involved followers know when they are speaking the truth, or when they are speaking in opposites. By invoking the term "By the Mistshadow", they let others know that they are speaking only truth. By speaking the term "In the Mistshadow's name", they tell other worshipers that they mean the exact opposite of what they are saying.
Day-to-Day Activities
The clergy of Leira spread false rumours, create illusions, and discern falsehoods, in return for fees. They are tasked with making folk everywhere doubt truths by encouraging and revealing false beliefs, setting up and tearing down hoaxes, and the like. They are masters of disguise and rent or sell costumes, and apply makeup for anyone who desires it, for a fee. They might be hired to act as wives, husbands, collection agents, brigands, paramours, escorts, thieves, or even clergy members of rival faiths. They often have alternative personas or roles that they can work on when not actively doing their work as Leiran's.
Holy Days & Important Ceremonies
Every morning and moonlit night, Leiran's lay face-down on the ground and pray to the Lady. When they encounter fogs or mists they walk into them to chant praises to or speak with Leira, who is said to sometimes answer as an echoing whisper out of the surrounding mists. They also hold brief ceremonies at altars of Leira where nonbelievers might make offerings for protection and to guide the prayers of lay worshipers. Formal worship of Leira consists of kneeling prayers and standing hymns and chants directed toward her horned altars.
The Unmasking
The Unmasking is one of the most holy of the Leiran rituals, and is performed as a purification rite by novices entering the priesthood, priests rising in rank, or priests doing penance for slighting their faith. During this ceremony, the bare-faced supplicant walks down ranks of priests holding tall lit candles and reflective surfaces between reflecting pools of water and mirrors.
The Invocation
The second of Leira's most holy rituals, which is held when the Lady is directly called upon for guidance. During this ceremony, chanting priests swing censers to make thick smoke so that She may appear in the heart of its concealment and speak to them.
Liar's Night
Liar's Night is a holy day and festive night for both followers of Leira and of
Mask. It is celebrated with fests, jack-o-lantersns, tricks and pranks, and illusionists and stage magicians putting on performances to the joy of all. Adults swap the money in their pochets for candy and other treats for a tenday before, and children attempt to pickpocket the candy and replace it with trinkets and scraps of paper. If they are caught, the adults can demand a silly dance, a scary face, or another playful trick in exchange for the treats.
On Liar's Night itself, Marpenoth 30, adults in costumes emulating the deities Mask and Leira roam the streets, feasts are held in town squares, and the illusionists shows are the most elaborate. This is a night where all lies told or embarrassing acts performed won't harm a person's reputation, and kings mingle with commoners in the streets.
Meeting of the Mists
The Meeting of the Mists, is the convergence of the Leiran Conclave held six times a year. It is held around the same time of the year, though the exact dates varies with a few days differences. It is held at various locations in the Mumbling Shores. Time and place is spread quietly by word of mouth throughout the priesthood, not to be revealed to outsiders. These meetings are held to allow Leiran's to exchange information, secrets, and other news, as well as induct new members of the faith or transfer from temple to temple, for elders to vote on the most important missions the faith should undertake, and formalise rank shifts within the church. These meetings are the only time a Leiran is expected to tell the full and honest truth, without any obfuscation.
Mist Interment
After a member of the Leiran faith passes away, their body lays in a dry chamber within the temple for ten days, as the rest of the temple is filled with covering mist. The Leiran's wears long mourning veils in sheer white fabric, in combination with their robes and a long hood that drapes over their shoulders and hands. During these ten days, the body is sapped of its fluids, drying it out. This makes it easy to cremate it, after which the ashes are put in an urn, which is then brought to the local burial ground and Mist Pool, where the ashes are spread during prayers. The attendees of the interment watch as the ashes seem to liquify and the pond clear once more.
Major Centres of Worship
The Mumbling Shores
A location within the nation of Aasners, the Mumbling Shores is marshland island filled with mist year around, where few tread most days.
To travel to the Mumbling Shores, the Leiran's can either travel the long way, by foot, horse, cart, or the like, though some from locations more densely populated with Leiran worshipers may possess amulets of teleportation, which allows them to travel to teleportation circles only accessible on and around the days of the Meeting of the Mists.
Yauntuae
The capital of Skuok Strax is also the capital of Leiran religion on Ivaenni. While most Skuok settlements have at least one, many times multiple, sites of worship, this city has over a hundred Leiran temples within its city limits.
Mist Pools
There are a number of springs of clear cool water across the continent that the Leiran clergy have claimed for their worship. After all, they have to be connected to Leira as there is mist gently floating over the water surface. In these Mist Pools, they spread the ashes of their deceased fellows, after cremation.
Affiliated Orders
Mistwalker's Guardians
The Mistwalker's Guardians are a sub-sect of the Leiran order, tasked with maintaining the Mistwalker's Waypoints and crafting the Mistwalker's Amulets. One section of the sect thus lives in and around the marshlands of the Mumbling Shores, while most of them live in various Leiran temples.
Mistcallers
These members of the clergy are specialty priests of Leira with limited powers of illusion. The Mistcallers were the clerical order most commonly associated with the church, though no one could be sure how many there were. Most clergy members that have risen from acolyte to clergy are part of the Mistcallers.
Secret Keepers
The Secret Keepers is a branch of the Leiran clergy that specialise in keeping secrets for others. They are sounding boards for any person, allowing them to speak their minds safely, and the Secret Keeper will listen without prejudice. While it is known that Leiran's trade in secret, it's also known that they will not speak the truth when they don't have to. And Secret Keepers in particular are faithful to that fact.
Truth Tellers
A Truth Teller within the Leiran faith is a hired watchful eye, meant to guard against nefarious secrets directed at their client by others. They serve to suss out lies that are harmful, and warn about them, so that the employer doesn't walk into an avoidable bad deal.
Whispering Mists
These specialty clerics channel their power to create the web of mist that coats the ground of the Leiran temples. They spend their days in seclusion, mentally in touch with the temples that they blanket, and their thoughts whisper in the mists the core tenets of Leira. There is a sub-group of the Whispering Mists, who live in the Mumbling Shores where they bottle mist for the Mist Orbs.
Priestly Vestments
Within the confines of the Leiran sanctuaries, all clergy members dress alike: in long, cowled, bottom-fringed robes of russet to ochre, tied with sashes of green, and worn with gloves and distinctive silver masks.
Masks
Leiran's wear masks as part of their vestments. The everyday masks are made out of pale silver, making them appear almost white in colour, with a special technique when crafting the masks that creates a very faint shape of swirling mist on the face of the mask. During ceremonies that don't require their face to be bare, they wear silver masks tinted green in the same hue as their sashes, which pass down beneath their chin and lack any features. Though it does not have any holes for the eyes, the wearer is able to see normally (if dimly). These silver masks reflect gaze attacks, and allows the wearer an advantage when resisting gazing attacks or effects. The ceremonial masks are made by the Leiran themself, a skill taught to them as part of their acolyte education; it is a difficult task requiring much dexterity and patience. A priest without a silver mask will wear a gauze headsack. Every robe has one sewn into the cowl and they also carry at least one loose headsack, to ensure a supply is always at hand.
Veils
Another part of the Leiran vestments are pale grey veils, which they cover their faces with when a lesser degree of anonymity is asked for in a situation.
Ceremonial Robes
During various important ceremonies, the clergy wears robes of faded colours; they can be any pale colour, with a white, greyish hue to them. This allows the Leiran's to show their individuality, while also showing their belonging.
Mourning Robes
When in mourning, a Leiran wears a white hood over their robes, with a swathe of fabric that drape over their shoulders and ends below the reach of their fingertips. Together with this hood, they wear a long white veil in a sheer fabric.
Adventuring Garb
While traveling, Leiran's sometimes adopt alternate identities and dress as these types of people would, but most often they wear their ceremonial robes and pale silver mask. The robes are covered with russet cloaks with green gemstone-adorned clasps. Many of these cloaks are cloaks of displacement, and the gemstones are tinted glass, which can be opened to reveal a small hiding place where small things can be stored.
Items
Altars & Temples
The altars dedicated to Leira hold no image of her, instead containing art pieces with depictions of swirling mists in the centre. Sometimes these mists hold a vaguely humanoid form, but most often they are simply showing the mist itself. Her altars carry horns or metal horn imitations, and sometimes vaguely humanoid, featureless forms carved into these low, flat, rectangular altars.
Temples risen in Leira's honour are small, partially open structures built in a classical construction with large columns and porticos, and a wide inner sanctum where services are held. No images or statues of Leira can be found in the sanctuary. Leira's temples are constantly filled with a light white mist that normally remains at ankle height, but can rise to fill the room and thicken to obscure vision if the high priest or priestess of the temple desires.
Mistwalker's Amulet
These amulets allows the user to teleport to the Waypoints. The amulet is attuned to by smearing a bit of ones blood to it, which allows the amulet to bind to the user. The user may, if they wish to, to leave the amulet's Shard, a piece of the gem the amulet is made out of, in a safe location or with a trusted person, so that they may use the amulet to return to where they were with the help of the Waypoints and the Shard. These amulets are made by members of the Mistwalker's Guardians, in Leiran temples most often found in the island nation of Skuok Strax, where they also have connections within the gem merchant and crafting guild. The amulets can be made out of any gemstone, as long as they seem to contain a mist within. Not all amulets contain a Shard; if they do depends on the size of the stone, making the round-trip amulets, the so-called Sharded Amulets, rarer than the one-direction amulets, the Shard-less Amulets.
Mistwalker's Waypoint
These stones are scattered around the area of the Mumbling Shores, usually covered by debris, plant life, or other such things, made to look natural and untouched by worshipers of Leira. These stones, carved with special teleportation seals, nearly as old as the Leiran faith on the continent, allows anyone with the knowledge of what the seal look like to travel to them. They are maintained by the Leiran Mistwalker's Guardians.
Mist Orb
A mist orb is a bauble within a Leiran temple used by the Whispering Mists to send the mists into the temple. A single Whispering Mist cleric can send their mist through several orbs at once. It is also the orb that lets the High Priest of the temple control the levels of the mist. The orbs are made by arcane craftsmen part of the Whispering Mists in the Mumbling Shores, who bottle some of the constant mist in the Shores to create the orbs.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Leira's main symbol is a downward pointing triangle filled with swirling mist.
Additionally, she is symbolized by statues, masks, and images of entirely blank faces.
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