The Brotherhood are a Divine worshipping order who've set out to learn, collect information, and iterate on what they have. These monks (which, despite the name include both men and women) are the proto-scientists of the day.
They are interested in the lives of people and communities
and can affect them
The gods are not omnipotent
but they are omnipresent, which gives them exceptional insight
Brotherhood Canon & Scripture
This video will help give you a rough overview of how the Brother's take on scripture and canon is different than what you might automatically assume.
Different monasteries have different canons.
Probably a third of the material is always included (these form the core beliefs and some of the details of the hierarchy & leadership that are noted below - note that the Brotherhood is not a monolith and even things that are widely accepted as the way things are done have areas where they are exceptions), a third of the material is included in canons that are ideologically adjacent, and a third are unique to the monastery.
The two main exceptions are the United Patriarchate of Al, which has a standard canon across the barony, and The Two-Fold Way, which has a wild canon as it incorporates a lot of Ancestor Cult teachings.
Holy Sites, Temples, & Rituals
Parishes
Parishes are centered around temples and places of worship in a specific geographic area. Usually, they're defined by how far a person can walk in the day but, in more populous areas, there could be multiple parishes. The temples and their clergy look after the Divine's happiness in an area. Note not the worshippers. Parish priests' primary goal is to make sure that the Divine's word is heard and that they're consulted on important matters,
In so far as the parish interacts with the greater community, it is for the purpose of the worshippers getting boons from the Divine. Worshippers come to the priests because they have better knowledge of rituals and the Divines' personalities so the worshipper is more likely to gain the Divine's favor, which could mean insight into a particular struggle their dealing with or survival on a dangerous journey.
In return, parish priests take donations which are used to run temples or passed on to the local monestaries.
Monestaries
Monestaries are the end goal for the Brotherhood; they're places where information can be collected, protected, examined, and expanded. Monestaries might have small wings open to the public, if they're in more remote areas, but, otherwise, they're completely cloistered from non-priests and -monks.
Holy Sites
If a holy site isn't developed into a proper temple - which is usually the case if it is in the wilderness or the community isn't large enough to support one - they tend to still attract worshippers, wishing to honor the Divine associated with the location.
It also attracts priests from the surrounding area who form a secret priesthood associated with the site. Members will be drawn from any parish nearby and they will often meet at the location and perform rituals on a regular basis. The Brotherhood tacitedly frowns on this behavior because these secret orders are largely uncontrollable and centers for doctrinal schisms, but, at the end of the day, most, if not all, of the upper level brethern are part of one or more of these types of orders.
Shrines
Where temples cannot be sustained, shrines are common with part-time priests maintaining them and doing rituals. If a Great Divine doesn't have a temple in a location, they will always have a shrine.
Common Motifs
The most common motif of the Brotherhood is the moon and north star: the moon for the changing of fates and the star for the heavens. Sun motifs aren't uncommon but, usually, the motifs the Brotherhood uses are specific to the area, which brings their own language to depicting the Divines. A subtle pattern is the use of 4, repeating elements, with another, different element, such as the 4 swans and scales of Prensuchdt. The 4 elements represent the Great Divines; the different element represents Damkina.
Each Great Divine also has their own symbols that are fairly widespread, which can be found in their individual entries.
Hierarchy & Leadership
The Brotherhood is separated into two hiarchies that are interlaced at certain points: the Parish and the Monastic. A theme that will run through out is the very relationship-based nature of the order.
Parish
As noted, the parish system is centered on the parish, which is one or more temples within an area that see that the Great Divines are listened to and that worshippers can gain blessings from the Divines to make the faithful's lives easier.
Membership & Promotion
The way you become a member of the Brotherhood is you become apprenticed to a parish priest. It works like any other apprenticeship but the only way to end your apprenticeship is to be promoted into a new or empty position.
Upward movement is very much based on who you know. When a position becomes open, the immediate vassals of that position reach out to other respected members of the clergy (and some times secular leaders) and have them vote for who gets the promotion. Typically each vassal gets to bring on one person but it's entirely possible that all the vassals agree for a single person to decide.
So the local priest of Morjana in Kystinlagir dies. He has six deacons. 3 call on the Bishop of Prensuchdt, 2 call on the Archbishop of Meedt, and 1 calls on the local priest of Siegen in Kystinlagir.
The electors can vote for almost anyone into the position, although, they cannot elect themselves or any of the other electors. After they have selcted their canidate, they augury each Divine: any 'nos' from them are a strict veto. That canidate is permenantly removed and voting starts all over again.
None of this is really codified and exceptions exist. Some places might even have assumed people who get to always cast their vote, even if none of the vassals specifically ask them to be an elector. So village near a monastery might always have an village near a monastery might always have the local abbot cast a vote even if he is not specifically asked by one of the vassals.
This also applies to the number of votes. Most commonly, 1 elector = 1 vote but it could be that one person gets one vote but is also the designated tiebreaker or they have votes based on the number of people who elected them.
There are, effectivelly, inherited parishes and monasteries, although they're uncommon in most places, except among the Knach.
Ranks
In the parish system, the lowest rank of the Brotherhood are the deacons - those apprenticed to the local priest.
Above that are the priests, although there are shades. While they're all called 'priests' and held in the same regard by the layfolk, within the Brother, there is a distinction between a priest who runs a shrine and one who runs a major temple.
A bishop above the priests and is in charge of multiple parishes. In rural areas, that could mean that they're over multiple villages, while, in largely cities, it could mean that they're over a few blocks. In smaller communities, it is not uncommon for the bishop to serve in secular roles, such as being a Master of a village.
It is also not uncommon for temples to have soldiers that are attached to them, especially because every god in the Brotherhood is some form of war god. Church soldiers are not uncommon when war breaks out. Very German.
An archbishop is over a diocese, or a collection of bishoprics. They normally have their own bishopric and their archbishopric duties are in additional to those. Their bishopric is usually in the nearest Stronghold.
A archbishop necessarily has more rights within the Brotherhood than a regular bishop; it's just that they have more wealth and power that they can throw around. They have more soft power. A Stronghold see is going to be wealthier and normally comes with secular duties - such as advisor to the local count/castellan - so they're more desired. If you get elected archbishop, it is also probably because you're very well connected to begin with.
Travelers
Travelers are independent priests. These are often deacons who, for whatever reason, have split off from the parish to find their own way. These are traveling preachers, wild prophets, and missionaries. Most likely, these are also the class of priest the players are going to be.
Legates
Legates are special members of the priesthood who are called to act as diplomats or agents for members of the clergy. A bishop might appoint a legate to retrieve a specific artifact or to be their voice in the local castellan's court or to be his voice in a trial he's been asked to weigh in on but doesn't have the time.
Cardinals
Cardinals are appointed by the local baron to serve as an intermidate between the church and the state. It is through the cardinals that the barons influence the going-ons of the faith. In some places it's common for the Cardinal to actually be somebody with from the baron's family who joined the priesthood. So a deacon might also be a Cardinal if he was the younger son of the Baron; He's technically apprenticed to a specific priest but serves the role as an intermediary.
Cardinals have soft power in the same way that archbishops do; they have connections and, often, wealth in a way most priest don't.
There isn't a super supportive relationship between secular leaders and the Brotherhood but they work together to keep the gods happy. it is important to remember that everybody really believes that the gods are real and that they can affect things and they will let their displeasure be known so keeping them happy is in everyone's best interest, even if the two powers are vying over the same plot of land.
That being said, despite being a well-developed order, the Brotherhood is ultimately a decentralized organization so it would be difficult to muster opposition to a baron who had support and wanted to throw his weight around.
Rectors
Rectors, while part of the monastic system, are called out here because they're representatives of a local monastary attached to the parish as their representative.
Monastic
The monastic said of the Brotherhood serves its ultimate aims: the collection, preservation, and expansion of knowledge. Both sides largely believe that the parish system exists specifically to support the monastary system. Indeed, monestaries are supported by local parishes, which pass along tithes, donations, and offerings to them.
Membership & Promotion
Monestaries pull their members from the local parishes. They can simply draft anybody from the parish system to become a monk and there's very little you can do about it.
Occasionally, great men and women will join a monastary directly, although that is rare. Usually this is someone who has a lot of knowledge in that monastary's specialization. You don't have nobles sending their unwanted offspring off to monasteries, even with a big sack of cash, because membership is closed in that regard.
Finally, the children of monks are often grandfathered into the system, with many not even bothering to touch the parish system before being invited in.
In terms of promotion they're much more enclosed than parishes but follow the same rules: a council of electors is created by vassal nomination. The electors than vote for a successor who is then given the thumbs up or down by the Great Divines.
Ranks
The majority of members of a monastary are monks, which are very close to their medieval equivalents. Their days are spent in the pursuit, renewal, and retrieval of information and knowledge, specifically about the Divines. So they're holy men but they're as close to scientists as you can get.
However, unlike their medieval brethern, there are no specific vows of chasity or celibacy, which makes life within the walls of a monastary much easier. Additionally, monasteries are co-ed, which means monks can, and do, have families, who's children are often automatically grandfathered into the monastic system.
Typically, monks will be given specific roles, like the lector, who is a teacher of subjects, or the sacrist, who is in charge of the books, but it is a remarkably flat organization.
The only two jobs that are set apart are the abbot, who is the head of the adminstration, and the prior, who serves as the abbot's deputy. Their jobs are to enable the other monks to do their work. They spend their days balancing accounts, procuring food and supplies, and interacting with local parishes to improve relations.
Founding & Specialization
Monasteries take a substantial amount of people and money to build and to keep running so the founding of one usually takes coordination from multiple parishes, and the local lord, to accomplish. In richer places, it is also not uncommon for a powerful family to sponsor the creation of a monatery as a way to get in the Divine's good graces.
Monasteries are founded with specializations. You can think about this in terms of colleges or trade schools but even more extreme. Some focus on crop management, some on woodworking, some on medicine, some, even, on warfare. In places were there are multiple monasteries close together with a good relationship, the specializations might be more specialized and symbiotic: one focusing on the refinement of raw ore and the other on metalworking with alloys.
Ideally, the local parishes and donations from the local powers are enough to keep monastaries running, but, when that's not the case, monasteries can sell the knowledge they have. Note that the dissemination of knowledge is not a priority for the Brotherhood: simply the collecting, preservation, and expansion of it. Powers might even try to financially starve monasteries so that the monks are forced to sell useful information. Most technological achievements are released this way.
Common Theological Questions
What are Invasions?
Invasions are Damkina and Vitharr bringing their children into being. Damkina is associated with non-intelligent monsters while Vitharr is associated with intelligent Invasions, like elves and orcs.
What is beyond the Mountains?
The Brotherhood believes that, beyond the mountains, there are simply fields of lava, as evienced by the volcanos. As such, they take a largely anti-tunneling view. That hasn't stopped powers from tunneling within the Middle Realm, which is frowned upon, but it has stopped powers from trying to tunnel out.
What are the Divines?
Who/what the Divines are is a mystery and largely irrelevant. All that matters is that they are.
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