Church of Pharasma (fah-RAZ-mah)
Pharasma’s church is a somber and structured organization, and staunchly neutral in matters unrelated to its tripartite roles—as stewards of life and death, most priests see nationalism and other petty concerns as beneath them.
Traditions passed down by the goddess and her prophets are followed stringently, though the various branches of the church differ with respect to which rituals and practices they assign the most weight. These differences are never severe enough to force different factions to open conflict, but may make it easy for worshipers to distinguish between members of their sect and other adherents.
Most members of Pharasma’s priesthood are clerics, though a significant number are diviners, oracles, and adepts. Roughly two-thirds of her clergy are women, though the gender mix varies regionally, and worldly details like gender and species matter little to most Pharasmins. Pharasma’s followers are expectant mothers, midwives, morticians, and so-called “white necromancers” who study other applications of the magic than undead creation. Harrowers, palmists, oneiromancers, cloudreaders, and others who use nonmagical forms of divination also call upon her, although their allegiance has dropped off dramatically since Aroden’s death and the end of reliable prophecy. In smaller communities, a Pharasmin priest may assume several of these roles, or a team of spouses might split the duties between them. Prophets often go mad in this age of conflicting omens, and the church has taken it upon itself to care for these poor souls, devoting portions of major temples to be sanitariums, which are operated by the goddess’s clerics. Of course, as the goddess of birth and death, Pharasma has many lay followers as well, and even in lands where her faith is not large or organized, commoners pray to her for guidance or protection, much as farmers everywhere pray to Erastil for good crops.
Pharasma encourages her followers to procreate, whether they’re married or in less formalized partnerships; she also supports childless couples adopting and orphanages taking care of those who have no living parents. Church weddings may be simple or ornate, depending on the social status and wealth of the participants. Though she is the goddess of birth, she does not oppose contraception. Her temples are known to provide assistance to women dealing with pregnancies that would inevitably end in the death of both mother and child, or to end the torment of a mother whose child is already dead in the womb, but on the whole she believes killing the unborn is an abomination, for it sends the infant soul to the afterlife before it has a chance to fulfill its destiny. The goddess’s midwives take all the precautions they can to reduce the risk of pregnancy and childbirth; some church midwives, called casarmetzes, are so skilled in a combination of medicine, magic, and surgery that in dire circumstances they can cut a living child from its mother’s womb and save both.
On the third day after a child’s birth, families devoted to Pharasma call a gathering to welcome its soul the world. The child must be given a name before this gathering, else superstition holds that it will be unlucky. Visitors bring small cakes, seeds, salted peas, and watered beer to share with the family and other guests. A priest or family elder lists the names of a girl’s maternal ancestors or a boy’s paternal forefathers, calling for the child to be named publicly and grow up with good health, and for the parents to live to see grandchildren born.
Worshipers of Pharasma—as well as commoners in many regions—trace the goddess’s spiral symbol on their chests, typically as a form of prayer when hearing ill news or witnessing blasphemy, and before or during dangerous events or events with uncertain outcomes. Different landsperform this gesture differently—in Ustalav, it is often done with a closed fist, while in Osirion it is with the first two fingers extended. Especially devout folk repeat this gesture in everyday activities, such as stirring soup or scrubbing a floor.
Prayer services to Pharasma are a mixture of somber chants, stirring ritualized sermons, and joyous song, often based upon regional music, and usually end on an uplifting note—for while death comes to all, new generations stride forth in its wake. During celebrations, the goddess’s followers often eat kolash, bread braided into a tight spiral and topped or filled with diced fruit or sweet cheese. During the winter feast, the center portion of the spiral is left open and a wax candle is placed within; the candle is lit at the start of the meal and extinguished when the bread is to be eaten. Each temple keeps a record of births and deaths of its members, and on the anniversaries of death dates, priests speak the names of the departed while those close to the deceased honor them by lighting votive candles that burn for an entire day and night. Many tombstones have niches to protect soul candles from the wind.
When a member of the faith dies, the body is cleaned, immersed in water, and dressed in a special multi-part shroud consisting of five pieces for a male or nine for a female. A prayer written on parchment, bark, cloth, or stone is tucked into the shroud, and the corpse is sealed in a casket if local custom calls for one. A guardian sits with the body the night before the burial—to honor the deceased, to guard against body thieves, and to watch that the body does not rise as an undead. Mourners (typically the immediate family) traditionally mark their eyelids with black ash or an herbal paste for 5 days after the burial. Curiously, the church does not frown upon suicide, though individual priests may debate whether taking one’s own life is the natural fate of some souls or a means to return to the goddess for a chance at a different life.
Those who can afford it usually pay to have their remains interred on holy ground by priests. Wealthy merchants and nobles are laid to rest in room-sized private tombs, while those with fewer resources restin shared burial cells in catacombs or ossuaries. The church allows the dead to be cremated, though burial in earth is preferred; disposing of a corpse at sea, sky burial, and funerary cannibalism are generally considered disrespectful. Exhuming a buried corpse is considered a violation of the dead, and the church normally refuses to do this—even when a city government seeks to break ground for a sewer, aqueduct, or other vital construction. However, if a priest discovers a worshiper’s corpse that has been buried improperly or accidentally exposed, he or she usually arranges for a proper burial in accordance with church teachings. The church does not mourn apostates, and while priests do not withhold services from those of other faiths, they flatly refuse to give rites to former Pharasmins who turn their back on the church.
Traditions passed down by the goddess and her prophets are followed stringently, though the various branches of the church differ with respect to which rituals and practices they assign the most weight. These differences are never severe enough to force different factions to open conflict, but may make it easy for worshipers to distinguish between members of their sect and other adherents.
Most members of Pharasma’s priesthood are clerics, though a significant number are diviners, oracles, and adepts. Roughly two-thirds of her clergy are women, though the gender mix varies regionally, and worldly details like gender and species matter little to most Pharasmins. Pharasma’s followers are expectant mothers, midwives, morticians, and so-called “white necromancers” who study other applications of the magic than undead creation. Harrowers, palmists, oneiromancers, cloudreaders, and others who use nonmagical forms of divination also call upon her, although their allegiance has dropped off dramatically since Aroden’s death and the end of reliable prophecy. In smaller communities, a Pharasmin priest may assume several of these roles, or a team of spouses might split the duties between them. Prophets often go mad in this age of conflicting omens, and the church has taken it upon itself to care for these poor souls, devoting portions of major temples to be sanitariums, which are operated by the goddess’s clerics. Of course, as the goddess of birth and death, Pharasma has many lay followers as well, and even in lands where her faith is not large or organized, commoners pray to her for guidance or protection, much as farmers everywhere pray to Erastil for good crops.
Pharasma encourages her followers to procreate, whether they’re married or in less formalized partnerships; she also supports childless couples adopting and orphanages taking care of those who have no living parents. Church weddings may be simple or ornate, depending on the social status and wealth of the participants. Though she is the goddess of birth, she does not oppose contraception. Her temples are known to provide assistance to women dealing with pregnancies that would inevitably end in the death of both mother and child, or to end the torment of a mother whose child is already dead in the womb, but on the whole she believes killing the unborn is an abomination, for it sends the infant soul to the afterlife before it has a chance to fulfill its destiny. The goddess’s midwives take all the precautions they can to reduce the risk of pregnancy and childbirth; some church midwives, called casarmetzes, are so skilled in a combination of medicine, magic, and surgery that in dire circumstances they can cut a living child from its mother’s womb and save both.
On the third day after a child’s birth, families devoted to Pharasma call a gathering to welcome its soul the world. The child must be given a name before this gathering, else superstition holds that it will be unlucky. Visitors bring small cakes, seeds, salted peas, and watered beer to share with the family and other guests. A priest or family elder lists the names of a girl’s maternal ancestors or a boy’s paternal forefathers, calling for the child to be named publicly and grow up with good health, and for the parents to live to see grandchildren born.
Worshipers of Pharasma—as well as commoners in many regions—trace the goddess’s spiral symbol on their chests, typically as a form of prayer when hearing ill news or witnessing blasphemy, and before or during dangerous events or events with uncertain outcomes. Different landsperform this gesture differently—in Ustalav, it is often done with a closed fist, while in Osirion it is with the first two fingers extended. Especially devout folk repeat this gesture in everyday activities, such as stirring soup or scrubbing a floor.
Prayer services to Pharasma are a mixture of somber chants, stirring ritualized sermons, and joyous song, often based upon regional music, and usually end on an uplifting note—for while death comes to all, new generations stride forth in its wake. During celebrations, the goddess’s followers often eat kolash, bread braided into a tight spiral and topped or filled with diced fruit or sweet cheese. During the winter feast, the center portion of the spiral is left open and a wax candle is placed within; the candle is lit at the start of the meal and extinguished when the bread is to be eaten. Each temple keeps a record of births and deaths of its members, and on the anniversaries of death dates, priests speak the names of the departed while those close to the deceased honor them by lighting votive candles that burn for an entire day and night. Many tombstones have niches to protect soul candles from the wind.
When a member of the faith dies, the body is cleaned, immersed in water, and dressed in a special multi-part shroud consisting of five pieces for a male or nine for a female. A prayer written on parchment, bark, cloth, or stone is tucked into the shroud, and the corpse is sealed in a casket if local custom calls for one. A guardian sits with the body the night before the burial—to honor the deceased, to guard against body thieves, and to watch that the body does not rise as an undead. Mourners (typically the immediate family) traditionally mark their eyelids with black ash or an herbal paste for 5 days after the burial. Curiously, the church does not frown upon suicide, though individual priests may debate whether taking one’s own life is the natural fate of some souls or a means to return to the goddess for a chance at a different life.
Those who can afford it usually pay to have their remains interred on holy ground by priests. Wealthy merchants and nobles are laid to rest in room-sized private tombs, while those with fewer resources restin shared burial cells in catacombs or ossuaries. The church allows the dead to be cremated, though burial in earth is preferred; disposing of a corpse at sea, sky burial, and funerary cannibalism are generally considered disrespectful. Exhuming a buried corpse is considered a violation of the dead, and the church normally refuses to do this—even when a city government seeks to break ground for a sewer, aqueduct, or other vital construction. However, if a priest discovers a worshiper’s corpse that has been buried improperly or accidentally exposed, he or she usually arranges for a proper burial in accordance with church teachings. The church does not mourn apostates, and while priests do not withhold services from those of other faiths, they flatly refuse to give rites to former Pharasmins who turn their back on the church.
Birth and death are written in the bones, but bones can be broken.
Type
Religious, Organised Religion
Controlled Territories
Notable Members
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