The Harkeners of the Voice
Harkeners follow "The Voice," an internally heard command to human unity. Harkeners believe that humans are generally ignorant of the divine spark within them, and behave as animals and ignore the call of The Voice. This ignorance is fostered in human nature by the influence of the selfish, the monstrous, and the outsiders, who together intend to keep men and women ignorant of their true nature, potential and destiny. Working together in unity, towards a good life, contemplating the oneness of the mortal and natural world are key features of the Harkener faith.
Harkeners also believe it is their solemn commitment to protect mankind from the influence of outsiders, abominations, and other forces that would seek to control the hearts and minds of men. When such forces slaughter helpless villagers, steal the hearts of mortals with glamours, or when a lycanthrope stalks the night spreading its curse, the Harkeners are there to offer support, structure, and often a pogrom against those forces.
Structure
The Harkener faith is highly communual in nature and there is not much in the way of a over-arching organizational structure, however the faith is structured around several high priests known as Arbiters, the highest priests known as the Audients, and the Kith.
Audients are priests who spend most of their time in contemplation of the Voice, the codecs and treatises of previous Audients, and directing the lower priests of the Arbiter rank in the initiation to the greater mysteries. Below them, those that serve the spiritual needs of the faithful directly are known as Kith. While Audients and Arbiters are dedicated priests focused on study of religious matters, the Kith are laypriests and commonfolk who's understanding of the faith are drawn from lessons imparted by the Audients and Arbiters above. Kith is a rotating position, in which many community members may be considered Kith and lead ceremonies or masses.
All clergy are self-sustaining, not receiving a salary from the church, and are forbidden from receiving tithes. Priesthood training is progressive, with individuals being ordained to and serving in each order in succession. Formation of Audients is generally over seven or more years. Priesthood is open to both male and female, married, divorced, unmarried, gay and straight candidates.
Public Agenda
The Harkeners seek to obtain a somewhat pastoral earthly paradise of human safety, community, and unity without rulership.
Divine Origins
The Harkener faith's origin is shrouded in history, though many scholars believe it has its origin in The Old Faith of Men from the time before their coming to Thamrysis- a form of animism that worshiped the sun as a prime creator deity associated with enlightenment and wisdom. Additionally, this faith believed in the idea of a prime creator of humanity, an entity that gave its life to spark men’s creation. Finally, the faith of early men was ill-defined and contained many spirits, entities, godlings and powerful spirits. This colored the idea of a spiritual hierarchy and need for spiritual and mental clarity and purity.
The meeting of Men and Faen in the early years of recorded history shows a sharp turn away from folk-magic and animistic belief systems in human history and codification of the spiritual world into a pantheon of forces. In this way, the Old Faith appears to have slipped from men's practices with exceptions in some rare places.
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Cosmological Views
Seeing the world with clarity and peace is the highest calling of Harkeners. The religious tenets of the faith are less concerned with ideas like “sin” and more concerned with the mystic force known as the Voice, which they claim speaks to Harkeners directly and illuminates their consciousness. The deific figure of the Harkeners, the Voice is without form and undetectable to human senses. It is with meditation and conscious living that the Voice speaks loudest to its followers.
Harkeners believe the other gods of the world serve as the Voice’s intermediaries. It was the Voice that is the spark of humankind, a mixture of spirit and matter. The Voice is the author of everything spiritual, but the passions, appetites, diseases, and other physical manifestations of human life are in part bestowed by the gods.
Tenets of Faith
Central to Harkener philosophy is individual attainment of spiritual understanding and experience rather than one based on dogma. The Voice asks of each person something different, but the unified message is one of unity, knowledge, and striving to create a world better and safer for men than the current one.
Knowledge to Harkeners is not an intellectual exercise. It is not a passive understanding of the external world. To Harkeners, knowledge in of itself has a redeeming and liberating function that helps the individual break free of bondage to the world and external forces.
Ethics
Most Harkeners live in communes with little to no private property, and their ceremonies are led mostly by temporary leaders. Priests are often wandering ascetics, or maintain temples near towns and cities where traveling Harkeners can take refuge and find sanctuary.
Worship
Harkener temples are simple places, primarily existing as pristine and quiet place for services to be conducted. Harkener masses are quiet affairs, with brief sermons issued by priests that are handed down from the high priests known as Arbiters, and the highest priests known as the Audients. While these priests are entrusted with passing on interpretations of the Voice’s will, they are primarily focused on interpreting the way the known tenets of the faith interact with the world around them.
The ceremonial Harkener marriage rite, called the Rite of Union, is a ceremony performed for couples who wish to be seen as one in mind and purpose in the light of the Voice. It is often a simple affair, and can be officiated by any initiate in the faith, though larger ceremonies or community affairs may be presided over by a priest or other initiated member of the faiths twin pillars.
Priesthood
Symbols: A gold/red gradient circle, a conch shell
Granted Divine Powers
Domains: Light, War
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