The Firebird Church
The Firebird Church is the organisational arm of the Shahru religion. Its purpose is to oversee the recruitment, training, and upkeep of priests, as well as the creation and maintenance of all religious facilities; with the ultimate purpose of spreading the gospel of Shahru far and wide across Pretheya.
The church holds a monopoly over religion; with no individual within Rukhmarite lands being allowed to train as a priest or preach from the Tome of Flames unless they are part of the church. Any unordained person who attempts to place themselves in a position of religious authority will be declared a heretic by the church; the punishment for which is almost always death. The church also dictates the way in which its priests should go about their duty; setting policy on all religious and doctrinal matters, which priests are not allowed to stray from under pain of similar punishments.
Organisational Structure
There are five main ranks within the Church's priesthood, which represent an individual's seniority within the organisation. The rank of an individual is what determines their responsibilities within the Church, and also decides the level of authority they are endowed with in matters to do with the faith. All ordained priests are given the authority to decide matters on a day-to-day basis when ministering to their flock; but only the most senior can make decisions on matters of doctrine or liturgical policy. The five ranks of priests are as follows:Part of a series on
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- Shahru
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- Doctrine of Shahru
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- Rukhmarite Mythology
- History of Shahru
- Fledgeling: An apprentice who has only just entered into the Firebird Church and is not yet a fully qualified priest. In order to even become a Fledgeling in the first place, it is necessary for an individual to be able to speak Vortheht in order to read the Tome of Flames. Additionally, they will need to find a member of the Firebird Church who is at least a Nestkeeper who is willing to take them in and train them in the ways of the holy scripture. Assuming they are successful in doing so, they will then spend several years training under their mentor before they graduate to the role of Nestkeeper.
- Nestkeeper: The majority of priests within the Firebird Church occupy this role. Nestkeepers are in charge of running the local church in a town or village, and each settlement within a Rukhmarite country will have at least one of them. They are also responsible for the spiritual wellbeing of the townspeople in their settlement, and are the official representative of the Firebird Church for their local parish. Their duties involve performing rites, leading their flock in prayer, assisting with the arrangement of festivals and other celebrations, and rarely communicating with the greater Firebird Church in the event that they require assistance.
- Flockbearer: A step up from the role of Nestkeeper, each Flockbearer is assigned to a cathedral rather than a church. This means that they are exclusively stationed within cities, as the requirement for a town to be designated as a city is having a cathedral. Flockbearer is the first rank within the Firebird Church at which one starts to possess a meaningful level of political influence, and Nestekeepers are considered accountable to the closest city's Flockbearer. The Flockbearer also has a reasonable amount of influence that comes simply from the fact that they are the senior religious official in their city, which means they interact frequently with the elite of that city.
- Parotia: Unlike Flockbearers, which are simply the next rank up from Nestkeepers, the title of Parotia is an honorary one given to a Flockbearer who has been chosen to become a member of the Simurgh. Appointments as a Parotia are for life, and there are always exactly 30 Parotias a part of the Simurgh at any given time, with a replacement being chosen immediately after one of the members passes away. Parotias are technically equal in authority to Flockbearers, merely having additional responsibilities as part of the Simurgh, but this tends to grant them more influence than their non-participating contemporaries. A Parotia is considered the representative of the Alight within their realm, and may be expected to meet with and consult the king or queen of their country on various matters concerning faith, such as giving advice on a new law.
- The Alight: The Alight is the head of the Firebird Church. Considered within the Shahru faith to be Rukhmar's chosen representative upon earth, they exercise supreme power in all matters of the faith, including the ability to excommunicate rulers who they deem to be heretical. In practise, the Alight rules from the Vestaltir and rarely ventures out into the rest of Pretheya, instead exercising their power through decrees and messages. The Alight is allowed to choose their own successor, who assumes the mantle after they have passed away. In the rare event that the Alight dies without an heir, a council of Parotias will be assembled to choose a successor from among themselves.
Clothing & Aesthetics
Members of the Rukhmarite clergy wear particularly distinctive clothing clad in the feathers of particular types of birds. Generally, the right to wear bird feathers on one's clothes is heavily restricted in Rukhmarite countries, being a privilege reserved only for members of the clergy, nobility, or the monarch, depending on what kind of feathers they are. Members of the clergy primarily adorn their garments with orange feathers, with the amount and position of these on their garments differing by rank. Fledgelings will receive their first feathers upon graduating to the rank of Nestkeeper, at which point they will be allowed to wear one orange feather on each shoulder. Flockbearers usually wear four feathers in total, one orange and one red, with the orange ones being in the same position as a Nestkeeper's, and the red ones positioned on their upper arms. Parotias wear the same red and orange feathers as Flockbearers, but also adorn themselves with a single yellow feather to indicate their role within the Simurgh, which they may wear anywhere upon their body. The Alight does not wear feathers upon their clothes in the same way that other members of the priesthood do, instead wearing a special mantle that has been passed down since the founding of the Vestaltir which is said to have been made from discarded phoenix feathers. One of the most prominent themes of Shahru within iconography and artwork is that of flames. This derives from Rukhmar's full title as The Firebird, a name which she garnered from the legends of her leaving a trail of fire behind her wherever she travelled. It is common for pillars to be carved with patterns resembling flickering columns of fire arcing around them, with the same being done on temple walls. Braziers and other open flames are a particularly common decoration at religious sites and palaces. Additionally, the clothes worn by members of the Rukhmarite clergy are intended to evoke the imagery of fire, represented by their primary colours being yellow, orange, and red.Infrastructure
The Shahru faith makes use of a number of different buildings for aspects of their worship. The most common of these are the Perrche and the Eyre, the two centres of ceremony and ritual. Almost every Rukhmarite village will have at least one of these. When possible however, many rites are often preferred to be performed outdoors, ideally in a natural area and preferably one with a high concentration of birds in the region; as these are considered to be holy places. The primary role of buildings is to provide locations to pray when the weather is not suitable for outdoor activities.Perrche
The smallest and most widespread of Rukhmarite gathering places, the Perrche is the primary indoor place of worship for members of the faith. All but the smallest of villages will have one, and each is staffed by a Nestkeeper, who is usually dispatched by the Vestaltir to the settlement when it grows large enough. A perrche within a village will usually be constructed at the highest point of the village, potentially on a nearby hill if there is one close enough, giving it the appearance of standing vigil over the rest of the town. Architecturally, they are usually constructed from stone if possible - often the only building in a village to be so - but will be made of wood if not. The design of a perrche is often intended to evoke the imagery of either a tree or a nest; it will often consist of a square or rectangular central building, the roof and walls of which will be adorned with various twigs, branches, or planks of wood which jut outwards at random angles. A perrche is considered more prestigious the more of these adornments it has, and villagers will often use their spare time to gather sticks or other bits of wood to attach to the building. Some perrches in particularly wealthy settlements will be built with a circular main building, to better resemble the nest shape, although this is uncommon owing to the comparative difficulty of constructing it in such a shape.Eyre
A city within most Shahru countries is defined as any town or village which has an eyre built within it. An eyre is always run by a Flockbearer, the next rank of priest after a Nestkeeper, and there can only ever be one of them in a city; unlike perrches, which there can be more than one of in a settlement. Eyres are always constructed out of stone, and are usually circular; often constructed in a bowl-like shape with a round base that slowly slopes upwards and outwards at the edges. Some eyres then have traditional walls and a roof, while others will be ringed with pillars and may or may not have a roof at all, leaving them in differing degrees of being open to the elements. Eyres do away with the haphazard addition of wood and branches to the design, instead setting aside an area around the perimeter of the building where the ground will be replaced with loose pebbles and small stones, then covered in hay and dried grass. The stone used for the main building is usually painted with black charcoal, giving it the appearance of having been charred in a fire. In contrast to this, sections of the pillars are often painted with flames in red, orange, and yellow, which rise from the base of the pillars to spiral around to their tips. Certain eyres also have stained glass portions of walls and/or roofing, which frequently depict significant religious figures such as Lihwen or Rukhmar or one of the Sanktulo. Rather than an eyre, some cities that were once the seat of Fyrstbairn within the Grannrormrlen instead opt to convert old Wyrm-made buildings into places of worship. There is no one word for these structures, and they can vary wildly in both size and design based on how the building was originally constructed. Many are frequently significantly larger than even the biggest of eyres, and in the case of holds that have been repurposed as centres of worship, can sometimes resemble temple-cities more than individual buildings.Talvighs
The first talvighs were constructed during the Empire of Karvinasstrad to serve as fortified places of worship, from which Rukhmarite missionaries could operate within conquered lands such as Sassania and Asutoa. Essentially part-perrche and part-castle, the intent was to provide members of the clergy with a space to live and perform their duties, but also one which could be defended in the event of a heathen uprising. In addition to the priests that made their home there, each was also garrissoned by a force of soldiers; though usually fewer in number than those of a proper fortification.
Talvighs rarely saw use as military outposts within Asutoa and south-west Belyria, where the population were largely accepting of both their new occupiers and the Shahru faith. In these regions, they eventually ceased being garrissoned by soldiers, and instead became converted into full religious establishments dedicated to the clergy. Rather than becoming places of public worship and prayer as perrches or eyres are, they instead came to be used as centres of religious education and study for the priesthood. They commonly came to host libraries, and books and scrolls would both be read and produced there by the priests. More than this, the fact that most talvighs were situated a distance away from any towns or villages allowed the priests to live without distraction by earthly matters, so that they could dedicate their lives to the search for enlightenment in the hopes of one day being blessed
