Sister of the Weaver
The sisters, more rarely brothers, of the Weaver are the priesthood of Áfawarsal, serving the god in the Áçäwal temples of the highlands of the Serme Mountains.
Career
Qualifications
Most initiates are young women, who have shown some general skill and obedience in the household work. No formal training is required for the initiates. Most initiates are send to the temples for learning for between five to ten years in their young adulthood.
Boys and men can be trained in the temples too, although more rarely. Rather than being send there in their youth, most join as adults if they show the will and talent of becoming part of the priesthood. More commonly men spend shorter times, up to some months, studying as a pilgrim.
Boys and men can be trained in the temples too, although more rarely. Rather than being send there in their youth, most join as adults if they show the will and talent of becoming part of the priesthood. More commonly men spend shorter times, up to some months, studying as a pilgrim.
Career Progression
The most skillfull and inquisitive sisters can become pastors, part of the permanent priesthood who oversee the other sisters. The priesthood is lead by the archpastor of the monastery. Most others leave the monastery in their your adulthood, to take up secular work and raising a family.
Payment & Reimbursement
Most of the expencies of the sisters are payed by the church, although donations are expected. The pastors recieve a portion of the income of the church, that they can use for supporting their families back home.
Perception
Social Status
Sisters and former sisters enjoy high status in the society, often being the most educated member of the community. Their wisdom is used to solve both spiritual and secular problems.
Operations
Workplace
Temples are found all over the Highlands, but the most prestigious institutes are the Áçäwal monasteries, that are usually located in remote locations, close to the highest mountain peaks. These remote locations are places for calmness and thinking undisturbed by the troubles of the world. The monasteries are usually walled fortresses, partially self-suffient, partially provided for by the local villages. In addition to the sisters, visiting pilgrims are living in the monasteries, sometimes fot months at a time.
The pastors are distinguished by a horned headdress, that symbolises their position as the leaders of the spiritual flock.
Dress code
The monasteries produce the highest quality of fabrics, and the sisters get to enjoy the benefits too. Their clothes are usually practical, but high quality. The most common colour is bright red. The colour is produced with a mineral dye that is found plentifully in the mines in the mountains. Thus while bright colours are expensive elsewhere on Salan, the Ara have a good suppy of them.The pastors are distinguished by a horned headdress, that symbolises their position as the leaders of the spiritual flock.
Provided Services
The sister reveal the will of the Goddess, providing divinations and other religious services. Áfawarsal is the goddess of fates, and the sisters' work is to gather and preserve the historical knowledge, using the sacred Memory Songs. They also weave the finest textiles of the kingdom, that are used to clothe the priests and the kings, and that are sold as sacred objects to pilgrims. They are also the scientists of their lands, who have developed a high skill in astronomy, medicine, and other natural sciences, and even pilgrims from the far away lands come to learn from them.
The sisters don't do most of the manual labour in the temples, but are helped by payed workers.
Type
Religious
Famous in the Field
Related Locations
Used By
Related Materials
Core beliefs
Áfawarsal is the goddess of fate, who weaves a great tapestry of history from the individual threads of each person. Afawarsal is a non-interventionist divine, who rarely grants wishes or talks to her followers directly. The faithful can receive the guidance of the goddess in sleep or through revelation. The Sisters dedicate their life into seeking union with the Divine Presence, to understand the will of the goddess. They also seek understanding of the natural world, because they believe it leads to the understanding of the divine will. They have a deterministic understanding of the world, and seek to find their own predetermined thread of life, rather than struggling against it.Áfawarsal's followers are generally pacifistic, prefering to exclude themselves from the powerstruggles of society. However, for long the monasteries have been one of the most powerful organisations in the mountains. They have gathered significant wealth, and sometimes raised their own armies to fight for their interests.
Edit: ( Core beliefs): Individual THREADS Interesting. I like the image. Is there significance in the colors and antlers? So lore is recorded as songs and poems verbally rather than written? I really like the details of the societies.
Thanks for the feedback, I'll definitely add a section about the dress code in the article too ^^ The details of the dress are probably going to change a lot once I have time to do some art, but the antlers symbolise the religious leaders' position as the leaders of the pack that is the common people. They are mostly a pastoralist culture, so their religious language includes a lot of metaphores relating to that. The Ara people like dressing up colourfully, especially in red. They have a special mineral red dye that they get a lot from mining, so they can have brighter red fabrics than any other nation around them. And yes, they have not traditionally written, although the skill has spread to them from their neighbours. The monasteries probably teach writing, but mostly for dealing with the surrounding peoples. The common people in the Mountain Kingdom are illiterate for sure.