World under revision! This world was originally written purely as a Dugeons and Dragons® setting. It is (slowly) being rewritten to be system agnostic When things don't seem to work togewther, this is likely why.

Church of the Sun

The Golden God has the most visible and widespread worship in the world. Nearly every major settlement that experience daytime will have a temple — even a cathedral in larger cities. Celebrations such as weddings or parades are blessed by Sun Priests. Rulers will want the Church's support to show that they are just, and commoners seek the temples for inspiration and courage.

Agenda

Even when not bid to do so, the Church of the Sun positions itself as a judiciary. Priests invite the faithful to take their disputes to the temples for arbitration. In some places, partial jurisdiction is granted to the priests since most hold themselves to a very high standard of impartiality. Even in regions where the role is advisory to the parties involved, actual authorities listen to what the Golden Priests have to say.

Outwards, the Church is fiercely opposed to hiding anything or acting outside established structures. In reality, those higher up manage a complex game of compartmentalization. They don't hide information, control events from the shadows, or conduct covert operations. But it might slip their mind to mention something and they don't need to know how a team they hired got what was asked for. They don't puppet those in power — they advice. And make sure it's known that their advice is the only one.

Resources

[p}As a whole, the Church of the Sun is likely abundantly wealthy. They certainly have many beautifully decorated cathedrals and plenty of treasuries filled with valuables. Some branches and individual parishes that are quite poor indeed, however. The true power stems from the number of faithful. The public can be turned against a political enemy to the point of forming a militia, or they might uplift them to sainthood. When the Church as needed an army to achieve its goals, it has historically only spent a small amount on mercenaries — the rest are volunteers.

Branches

The Golden Church in the Sh'areen Caliphate

The Golden God is central to the Sh'areen Caliphate and the Caliph themselves is considered a representative of the god. That said, the Caliphate is actually structured more like a feudal nation than a theocracy and the Church exists completely outside the nation's political system. The exception to this are the Divine Guides who are venerated elders within the church who are assigned to maintain the office of the Caliph.

The Caliph is technically the head of the Church and head of the nation, but since they're typically quite busy with the latter, the functional head is the Cardinal Superior, who is also always one of the Divine Guides. It might seem like this makes them more powerful than the other Guides, but that their duties now take them away from the Caliph many times makes this a mixed blessing.

The Cardinal Superior is served by nine Cardinals. Seven of them represent different areas of the Caliphate, one leads the Order of the Soul, and one represents all those who travel or can't be part of the regions overseen by the others. Each Cardinal has several bishops that they have placed in important locations (often the cities from which influential noble houses rule). Each such Bishop then assigns one or more Priest to temples nearby. These priests can recruit laypeople who help run the location but who have no formal training and haven't been ordained.

Type
Religious, Organised Religion
Deities
Controlled Territories

Articles under Church of the Sun


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