Koraks Prayers,Holy days and Saints

Koraketh Prayers

The most common prayer to Korak is said daily by nearly all his worshipers upon waking, and is simply called the Morning Prayer.

“Master Korak, guide my Hand, Give me strength to lift, Precision to join, Fortitude to labor. “Master Korak, guide my Eye, Grant me insight to plan, Knowledge to understand, Wisdom to teach. “Master Korak, guide my Heart, Lend me courage to fail, Patience to continue, Hope to succeed.”

Another common prayer is said by an apprentice when binding himself to a master:

“King of the Crucible, smile on me! The first master among us was your apprentice; I follow now, as my master did before me. I swear to obey, I swear to work, I swear to serve, I swear to learn, And when I am a master, I swear to teach. I bind myself to this oath in your name, Master Korak. May your blessings be upon me.”

Masters take oaths to fairly teach and compensate apprentices until they’re ready to become a journeyman, or until cannot meet the required standards of the trade despite the master’s earnest efforts to teach them

Holy Days

Most Koraketh holy days land when communities set aside to celebrate the work of laborers. Guildhalls organize such labor festivals, and sponsor the revels. The high holiday of the Great Festival occurs once every ten years. The event always involves a grand competition, in which artisans from all traditions show off their wares and display their skill. Since the Grand Festival attracts skilled artisans from all across the land, the heads of the three orders choose the location two years in advance, to allow artisans time to plan and embark upon their journeys.
The Grand Festival awards three main prizes, called Golden Laurels, for Making, Building, and Masonry. While makers, and usually builders, bring their entries to the Great Festival, those whose entries are magnificent castles, monuments, or other great structures must often provide magical means to present their creations to the panel of judges, who will not travel more than an afternoon’s journey to assess any masterwork. This is normally accomplished through scrying, but sometimes uses magical means of travel.
Eleven elders of the faith judge the contestants. The panel members cannot compete, to remain impartial. But the heads of the three orders must compete, because the winner of each competition becomes to the head of its corresponding order.
Thus, one must compete or retire from consideration for leadership. Theoretically anyone could be vaulted into a high position, but winners have always been powerful members of the Koraketh faith. This likely a comment on the judges’ “impartiality,” but many Koraketh are unsurpassed artisans, so it might not be a matter of bias alone. In truth, the Golden Laurels usually pit the head of each order against another member of great skill. Even losing works of craftsmanship may be among the finest examples of their kind ever wrought, however, and losers could still find clients clamoring for their wares.
The Great Festival offers several lesser awards, meant to praise less accomplished artisans who have achieved great things with limited resources, but in the end, all eyes gaze upon the contest for the Golden Laurels. If the head of an order dies, falls from grace, or otherwise leaves his duties before a Great Festival, the remaining leaders hold an election They select candidates to fill the vacant seat based on their past Grand Festival performance. In each guildhall, the candidates’ order casts ballots. The candidate that receives the most votes in each guildhall contributes one vote for that candidate from the guildhall as a whole, submitted by its reigning guildmaster.
The winner of the election holds their position until the next Great Festival, where they must defend it or resign.

Saints

Koraketh saints are remembered at the Great Festival, when the heads of the orders bring out the faith’s ornate Roll of the Saints, and read the names inscribed on it. (They say Saint Dorrik Threehelms once worked through the night on his piece for the Grand Festival and missed his own beatification the following morning, by sleeping through it.) They add members of the faith, living or dead, by unanimous vote, just before the Festival. The three decide on the names of those to be beatified before the festival, add their names, and read them to public before the Grand Festival closes.
The heads of the orders look for truly exceptional deeds, not craft-skill alone, when they consider candidates for sainthood. Saints might be remembered for cleansing particularly splendid ancient elf or dwarf homes of evil sorcery, for recovering magnificent artifacts, or for saving important, beautiful locations from destruction. When the faithful die defending such creations, people remember them as local martyrs, but martyrdom is never acknowledged by the whole faith; Korak wants his followers to live and work, not just die defending what’s already been made.

Type

Religious, Organised Religion