Gorethar Stuff for Approval

[Spell Singer]

Here is a bunch of stuff that has accumlated on The Church of Gorethar as I view, it can this get some sort of sanctioning? Any changes in it I would like to discuss though by PM.

EDIT: switched from female to male as per request. Hopefully I caught all the changes.

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Part I Gorethar & His Faith

[I am going to put my comments in brackets as sometimes I need to explain why I am saying something. It is also extremely important to keep in mind that the Avlis cosmology is well not so easy to understand. This was astoundingly clear when I sat down to set out domains. You often get a series of unrelated things associated with a diety. As far as Gorethar goes you will see how I blend them together but it is a fair amount of work to make them fit. Part of the discussion I had with deider was just on that.]

The key point to Gorethar is that he is not a dwarf. Yet when given a choice of his people he chose the Dwarves. This means clearly that the attributes for which Dwarves are known are the things which he himself values.

The key aspects of Dwarfdom that are important to the Faith of Gorethar are: loyalty, steadfastness, honor, hardwork, and martial skills.

The Faith of Gorethar breaks down into four somewhat seperate components:

He is worshiped as the patron and creator of Avlis Dwarves. Mainly of course by Dwarves, but this also translates into a common appreciation of halflings as well as they are the children of his child. It is also from this aspect that a great many of the traits which mark the faith originate. For it is his tie to dwarven thought or culture that makes for the deep loyalty and somewhat clannish nature that the faith exhibites. It is fairly common for a Goretharite to be fairly close to monotheistic or at least considerably more so than is common in Avlis. Depending on ones point of view the fact that the faith emphises stablility and a certain trend to conservatism is either positive or negative. But the faith emphises a tendancy to ensure that a problem is thought through, and once a decision is made it is followed through on. It is from the dwarven aspect of Him that the trend to order and law also comes from. Disorder, and chaos are generally repugnent to most of the faithful.

He is worshiped as the Battle Lord, the Lord of Rightous War. Gorethar has dedicated his faithful to a war to erraticate evil on Avlis. Perhaps also in the sense a certain dwarf-like stuborness exists as many would say this is an impossible task. Oddly enough that has never seemed to stop the faithful from trying. But because this is a war, the followers of gorethar are soldiers. This aspect of his worship produces the command structures in the church which are frankly not sizably different than those in an army. The faithful are always willing to fight for what they believe in, with words or weapons or actions. But such actions are never undertaken solely for the sake of combat, nor do most followers enter combat without some consideration for why they are fighting. It is critical that the faithful fight for what they believe to be "right causes." [It is fairly crucial to understand that heavy infantry dominates the battlefield pre gunpowder, and dwarven heavy infantry would be in a class of its own, this tends to give the church a fairly substantial amount of leverage, not to speak of Galdos itself.]

He is worshiped as the Lord of Justice. Though most seem to feel that the followers of gorethar are sticklers for following laws to the letter the truth is that is totaly false. Laws are viewed as tools whose job it is to create consditions where all can live together without harm. But the first act of a follower when confronted with what they feel is an unjust law is to attempt to change it from within [LG are conciencious objectors rather than rebels], only when it obvious (well in the eyes of the outsider world "Beyond obvious") that this has failed is the absolute final option of just ignoring the law used. Much theological debate occurs over the topic of "Is a law that harms but 1 person yet benifits 10,000 others unjust?" A certain dwarven pragmatism exists within the faith over actions which do not harm anyone but do not benifit all. In essence the good of the many will out weigh the good of the few or the one...but they will not allow harm to some to benifit others. Although the concept of sacrifice permates the faith few of the faithful will sacrifice others when they could instead sacrficie themselves. In a choice between saving some and saving none then at great pain the faithful would save some and mourn those they could not save. It is also worth pointing out at this point that in legal maters they have a saying: "First there is Justice then: reconcillation, restitution, or retribution." That is the order in which most of the faithful view a proper resolution to a legal problem...Forgiveness without cost, Forgiveness with cost and lastly revenge.

The final aspect is that of the Lord of Crafting. This is a very dwarven trait again, put a dwarf somewhere with time and materials and they tend to build something. The followers of gorethar are much the same. The build things. But this is also one of the most curious aspects of the faith. As a rule it promotes a tendancy towards not giving alms but of giving the means to work, something again outsiders view more as stingyness. It also means that most followers are creative but not all create physical objects. This part of the faith emphises leadership and diplomacy as much as it does smithing and the fabrication of magic items. It produces activity within the church as well as deeds in the outside world. It also influences how Gorethar looks on his followers (or at least how his followers think he looks on them). He is a mastercraftsman and they are alternately his tools and his product. There is a strong tendancy towards development in the chruch, almost no follower is unwilling to serve as an instructor. This is viewed as a great honor. There is another aspect of this. Due to the fact creation is revered in the faith...acts of destruction and forces of destruction are not tollerated by the faithful. As the undead are driven by forces which are anti-creation they are nearly universally detested by the faithful. Spells and prayers which focus on destruction are also not viewed with great favor. It is strange that a god of war, an activity which in itself is highly destructive is also a god of creation but it has a tendancy to produce military commanders who tend to win battles without much fighting. It is this aspect of the faith that tempers what otherwise would be a very martial faith into something else. Few are those who rise to supreme authority in the chruch who do not have this part of the faith in their make up.

The last is not so much an aspect of Gorethar as the above four are but a part of his faith that runs through them all. The key to the faith is choice. Gorethar did not give his faithfull detailed instructions as it is obvious you can not detail everything to cover every contigency. Instead he gave them broad guidelines [if we need these in detail I will probably grab a few of the 10 commandments that seem approriate] and then leaves it up to his faitful to interpret the situation and choose the correct path. This tends to make the faithful very careful when it comes to making decisions as few of them wish to make the wrong one and fail their god. But this emphisis on the freedom to choose, and the value of choice is pevelent in the faith. It makes slavery something that no member of the church would tolerate.

Part II: Structure of the Chruch of Gorethar

[just copying over KinX's translated terms]

Patriarch/Patriach - Vadechef/Madechef
Arch Priest - Bogenprecht
High Priest - Hogenprecht
Temple/Church - Temperk
Advisor - Raadegh
High Council - Hograderat
Priest/Cleric - Klercht
Deacon - Diakogh
Acolyte - Akolecht

[ok that should do it]

The Chruch of Gorethar is centered in Galdos. This is where the largest and most grand Temple to Gorethar is [anyone got a good name for it?] and here is where the current Patriarch or Patriach both resides and presides.

The Patriarch is the head of the Church and is elected for life from among the Arch-Priests by tradition. Although frankly there is no requirement that one must be an Arch-priest to become the Patriach. The Patriach is the head of the Council of the Faithful and while having no voting privilage can veto any action of the Council except for a motion to unseat the current Patriach. It is particularily rare for a Patriach to use this power but it is there. The Patriach sets the tone for the church in general and the church goes through periodic changes with each new Patriach.

The Patriach will form a small advisory council including the Lord Marshal of the Fighting Order, and a number of Arch-priests. He is supported by an adminstrative structure of priestesses who handle daily correspondance and other matters. He has a privy purse which comes from both private lands and a tithe of the faithful. Elevation to the rank of Arch-priestess requires the aproval of the Patriach. He can also ask the coucil of the faithful to vote on the inclusion or removal of an arch-priestess.

Primary duties of the Patriach involve keeping the Churches doctrine both pure and viable, moderating the Council of the Faithful, and leading the Church. He is also the only member of the Clergy to which the Lord Marshal reports. This means he controls the Fighting Order directly, but although he sets the strategic goals the Fighting Order is responsible for carrying them out.

The Council of the Faithful is made up of Arch-Priests either those serving as Arch-Priest for an area or those which have been advanced to the council itself. The council minor (Arch-priests only) is responsible for the day to day administration of the chruch through various working groups. It is largely a loose and flowing organisation with people serving where their talents lie. It does however serve as a court of law for members of the Church who have commited actions against the Church and as a place where policy is debated.

If a doctrinal change is contimplated then the Council Major is called in this case all high priests and a good number of the theologins of the Church are inducted into the council. These debates have been known to last up to 20 years (though of course not in one single sitting).

[The Order of Gorethar reports to the Council of the Faithful]

Membership in the Council requires that the Patriach agrees to sponsor the person and that the current members of the Council agree by 2/3+1 to allow the person in. Most serve in the council until they wish to retire from it, some few have served until death, and others have served, left for other duties and then come back to serve again. From the members of the Council will come the Patriach and the members of the Patriach's Privy Council. It is for most the culmination of their career in the Church. Their tends to be a fairly steady influx of new blood into the council, in terms of how a dwarf would view things anyway. [On the order of one new arrival and attendant departure every 5 years]

Arch Priest

Arch Priests are the highest rank in the Church below the Patriach. They are either the cleric in charge of a number of High Priests and their temples or else a serving member of the Council of the Faithful. There are also a relatively small number of Arch Priests who hold this title as specialists: Arch Priest of the College of Theology, Arch Priest of the Divine Word [keeper of the libraries and archives], Arch Priest of the Axe [in charge of the clergy more or less permantly assigned to support the Fighting Order...the person the Order Clerics would be responsible to] and some few others dealing with diplomacy, training monestaries and seminaries and other church related matters.

It is rare that a person achieves this rank below the end of middle age for a dwarf. Non-dwarves are passing rare unless they come from a long lived race. Within the Church Arch-priests have a substantail amount of authority over their area of control. They may appoint High Priests, may recommend them to the council for demotion or reward, they can set church taxes and control lands direct. Depending on the position they hold they would have a member of the Fighting Order assigned to them directly who would command all the forces in the area. They tend to have a staff of priests directly assigned to them and most of them form an unoffical council with the High Priests they are incharge of, but it is not a requirement and not all do. [Rough equivelent in our world is Cardinal or a powerful bishop]

High Priest

For the vast bulk of the Church this is the highest position they are likely to see. The rank comes with a posting. One is the high priest of the temple of Elysia or the High Priestess of the Divine Scriptorium of Deglos but in all cases one is a High Priest(ess) of something physical. Each High Priest is responsible for the day to day operation of their area of responsibilty be it temple, scriptorium, semanary, or whathave you. The ones in charge of a temple will be assigned a "Paladin" who leads the Fighting Order assigned to the temple and who answers to the High Priest alone. They also tend to form a temple council to aid them and from the local Deacons and Acoyletes they have a small staff. By and large they are the highest ranking church official in most areas and are thus responsible for legal matters, diplomacy, tithe collection, ministering to the faithful and supporting the actions of the Fighting Order. It is viewed as a position of considerable authority in the church. [modern equivelent is closer to a bishop but is also like a parish priest]

Priest

The bulk of the clergy in the Church fall into this catagory. But what they do is more dependant on the person. They may be incharge of a shrine, or a chapel serving a noble, they may be assigned to the staff of a superior in the church, they may be assigned to support the fighting Order, they may be a teacher in a church school, or they may wander the open road responsible to the High Priest of the area alone to name just a few options.

[the people of the Order fit into this catagory. Allanna for example helps Drendolyn (High Priestess of Elysia) as part of her staff (in effect she is the order liason with her) while Jorio is more focused on the Order. He is to some extent a bit caught between fish and fowl as staying with the Order is limiting any real advancement in the Church but it is also true that the responsiblity he has now he would not have gained in the Church. Both Allanna and Jorio are well placed to make political moves if they chose to do so but this is not something Kaelyn would even be aware of as the Fighting Order is largely isolated from the Churches political structure]

For the sake of arguement say this is around Lvl 6...not that level is terribly important as that is largely ooc.

Deacon

This is a rank just before being Ordained as member of the Clergy. The Deacon tends to be a part of a senior Priests staff (either Priest, High Priest or Arch Priest depending on location and other factors). The Deacon is on the verge of making a commitment to the Church and is treated as such, as they will often be in command of a small number of acolytes or lay members of the community.

For the sake of arguement Lvl 4-5.

Acolyte

This is someone learning the duties of the priesthood of Gorethar. They spend time serving with various members of the clergy and assisting the community. It is a time to explore their faith and learn the doctrines of the Church.

For the sake of arguement Lvl 1-3.

Part IIb: Theological Points of the Chruch of Gorethar

[what I am going to do here is give the IC justification for some of the rather odd things I stress when playing.]

1. Necromancy and other Spells or Prayers which use Negative Energy.

The Church has debated for many years on these topic and has set down the following guidelines.

Necromantic spells or prayers are considered evil. [The sole exception being Death Ward which should be an abjuration school spell anyway why it is in necromancy is beyond my understanding] The reasons for this are fairly simple when you look at them correctly. All of these spells draw on the energy of the negative material plane either directly or indirectly. The negative material plane is anti-life, it is anti-creation, it is the essence of destruction. Simple contact with that energy destroys a persons soul to a greater or lesser degree. [all level draining effects are actually destruction of one soul which is why it can kill you, most of the weakening effects from other negative energy based spells can be considered as a very minor soul draining effect which affect your body physically...they sap your energy effectively...ray of enfeeblement rather than draining your strength makes you feel exhausted...your muscles are still there but you have not the energy to use them] A mage must store inside them the energy to cast the spell, and hence over time will errode away their soul from simple close contact with the spell and when it is used. Strictly speaking a cleric praying will not experience this but Gorethar has never granted a prayer for the use of negative energy as a weapon. The destruction of the body is one thing, as a god of Battle there is obviously no restriction on this but the destruction of the soul is an act of evil. An object, creature or spell that can accomplish this is considered by the chruch evil.

2. Demonic Familiers

Mages have from the begining of time been targeted by the lesser deamons of the hells or the abyss. For both of these daemons can use the corrupted soul of a mage to gain power in their own society. The daemons make offers of power to a mage, trading their services and the services of sometimes other daemons to make the mage endebted to them. They then use the familier tie to corrupt the mages soul slowly over time. When the mage dies the daemon captures the soul and takes it to the abyss or the hells and barters it with other daemons for an increase in status and power. The Chruch views such as an abomination and urges all its followers to aid the afflicted mage in breaking with the daemon. The desturction of the familier will cause some pain to the mage but the Chruch does not consider this to great a price to pay given what is at stake.

3. Summoning Undead Servents and the undead in general

The undead [or unlife] is given its false semblance of life by a tie to the negative energy plane. This tie by definition makes the creatures evil in the eyes of the Church. The more powerful this tie is the more the creature tends to desire little more than the destruction of life and in general the more capable it is of accomplishing this. Incorporal undead are basically nothing more than a form of negative energy and their touch can be soul draining, where as the "higher undead" such as vampires, and liches have extremly strong ties to the plane.

As Gorethar has granted his clergy and holy warriors the ability to destroy the undead by his power he has never granted the ability to make them [no use of summon undead spells by gorethar clerics]. Because they are evil creatures and because they are interested in little but the destruction of life around them the chruch has little qualms about simply destroying them on sight. Regardless of the opinion of the person who summoned them. Truthfully there are few members of the chruch that can stand to be in the precesence of the undead for much time before the urge to destroy the abomination is all but overwelming. [consider this a part of the teaching and training the chruch would impart, destroying any undead near you would be nearly a conditioned reflex]


4. Demonic Summons

The act of opening a gate and calling forth a demon into avlis is an act of evil. They are the servents of the enemy, they are the enemies of any member of the Chruch of Gorethar. Their existance is not to be tollerated. [If we had "favored enemies" demons/devils followed by undead would top the list]

5. Compulsion (summoned creatures)

As the concept of choice is fundamental to the teachings of Gorethar any spell or prayer which removes from an individual the ability to choose is not to be used. This precludes some of the mind effecting enchantments (charm and dominate person or monster) and while most of the others were debated it was felt that holding a person, or confusing someone were not specifically violating the persons free will. The holding prayers were also useful in law enforcement and a way to capture a fleeing prisoner without harm was considered more important than any other consideration [a case of the good of the many outweighting the good of the one] Theological debat on the spell confusion is on going but most consider that confusion is a normal state of all creatures from time to time, and while it does make it hard for the creature to choose wisely it does not stop them from choosing.

The use of summoning spells and prayers to bring animals or elemental to serve a cleric are in violation of a basic tenant of the church. These creatures are enslaved to the summoner, they have no choice but to be there. It is also clear that the creatures often resent this and display this resentment by attacking bystanders, by using their abilities at the wrong time and by generally do as much as possible to cause the summoner problems. Although a great deal is made of the "absolute control" the summoner has it is clear that the creature can only be given a limited amount of direction and after that it does make up its own mind on how to carry out its limited orders. But regardless of its ability to choose its own actions inside of combat it still has no choice but to be there. As the sole reason for them to be there is serve the summoner this is a case of the summoner putting her welfare above that of another creature.

The bonds between a familier and mage, or an animal companion are not covered by this as in these cases a clear choice was made between both parties involved to enter into this. [in principle the familier or animal companion could leave the PC and the bond is voluntary] It is truely found that the strongest ties in these cases is that of love and affection.

Part III: The Fighting Order

[the basis to this is a rather odd ball mix of your standard paladin, the brother battle from Fading Suns and the knights templar. For those of you who have never read the following they are good books to read to get some different views of a paladin type character: Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson, The Deed of Paksinarion and Once a Hero by Elizabeth Moon, The Green Lion Trilogy by Terresa Edgerton. There are clearly others of course, even Rand Al'Thor in tWoT would or could be considered a paladin. It is worth stressing that Kaelyn when he was "younger" was a very different person then the Kaelyn most of you know. His experiences both good and bad have significantly changed his outlook on many things.]

Nature of the Fighting Order

The second part of the Church of Gorethar is the Figthing Order. It is led by [pretty much solely in game terms] those chosen by Gorethar to be his servents. It is composed of three types of individuals: those called by Gorethar, Clergy seconded to it, and lay members who feel a calling to serve in the militant arm of the Church.

The bulk of the fighting force is actually the lay members, mostly in this case dwarves, but contingents of other races do exist.

The leadership of the Fighting Order is composed of those individuals that Gorethar himself has called into his service [Paladins]. Unlike the other "Holy Warriors" of Avlis who are often lone individuals [although in game you do get the other impression] the ones called by Gorethar are fundamentally soldiers, individually their skills are probably not so spectacular [NWN practically ensures that as you need to spread points over 4 primary stats and cannot reallisticaly have anything below 10 in the other 2] but in a group they are far more effective.

Each person called by Gorethar is asked to give up some of her freewill, becoming a servent of the BattleLord. In exchange for that gift Gorethar grants them a tiny portion of his power. Training enables her to then call this power forth in a number of ways: to heal wounds, to strike evil creatures, to heal sickness, to sense the presence of evil. He also wards them against fear and disease. Finally he takes an interest in their well being and will (to the extent allowed by the rules of mikon) manipulate events in their favor. The gain the ability to ask Gorethar for certain prayers mainly dealing with defence and personal enhancement in combat. Finally they all learn how to tap that power within them to "turn" undead. It should be noted that this is a rather different procedure then what a member of the Clergy does which makes it somewhat less effective. In general when speaking of the active gifts their use is exhausting to the person and so they can be used only a limited time per day.

To ensure they do not missuse the gifts they are granted all swear a series of oaths to Gorethar, generally these oaths involve not doing things that are against the faith or teachings of the church. Many outsiders consider the oaths restrictive while most in the Fighting Order look on them as a way of ensuring they always act in a way that will please their Lord. What Gorethar looks for when he calls someone to his service is not something the church fully understands as the people called are not uniform in race, temperment or background. One of the traits that has almost always been seen in them is compassion. It is the trait that marks them and it is the trait that destroys those that cannot master their compassion in the face of their duty. They fight nothing without mercy or quarter or compassion, yet they often must fight, often they must fight even themselves as what they are is not what their nature is.

More than a few give up the call often when they are tested for the first time but sometimes it occurs slowly over a period of time as events become to much for them and they eventually will decide to stop being a weapon of the Battle Lord.

The Chruch as a whole is saddened by each loss though within the Fighting Order no stigma is attached to the decision to walk away. This is largely due to the fact that all understand the choice they made and the consiquences of it. Only in the case where the person becomes an apsotate and embraces the evil that the church is dedicated to fighting is their swift and deadly responce. The Church suffers not the apostate. It will hunt down and kill anyone of the Fighting Order or the Clergy which falls into evil.

The nature of the Fighting Order is to follow two dictates: the will of the Clergy of the Church, and the will of Gorethar. As Gorethar moves his chosen where he wills the structure of the Fighting Order is quite loose in a sense. The "officers" tend to move around while the lay troops remain more or less stable. It is also true that only around 10-15% of the Fighting Order is composed of the Chosen and a fair number of "Paladins" are lay members. Also Gorethar often calls those he wihes to lead a group and those who has more or less other plans for or so it seems to often turn out.


Structure of the Fighting Order:

There consists of but two ranks within the Order and these apply equally to either the Chosen of Gorethar or lay members:

Novice

This is a newcomer to the Order. During this period they learn what is expected of them in terms of their duties and enhance their training in fighting skills. [on the order of level 1-5]

Sister/Brother

This is the common rank within the Order itself. It should be realised that there is an internal unofficial structure which places the various people in a unit in command sequence but there is no equivelent of junior ranks.

Any rank confered above this is from the Chruch itself not the Fighting Order.

Paladin

The basic organisation of the Fighting Order is a unit led by a "Paladin" who reports to the senior member of the Clergy for that temple or region. Normally this would be the equivelent to 10-30 soldiers. [Depending largely on experience, and age this position can be considered anything from a Sgt. to a Lt. to a Col. in a modern military.]

High Paladin, Arch Paladin

Nomimally these are administrative ranks within the Church structure denoting a position of higher authority within the Fighting Order that does not come from leading a larger group of troops. The authority of these postions is very real just they are not tied to a particular body of troops.
[Both Kaelyn and Vian report directly to the Council of the Faithful and are sanctioned to make decisions which can affect the church itself. But the Order of Gorehtar and the associated temples of southern Avlis do not have any great a number of troops.]

Marshall

Responsible for all troops associated with an Arch-Cleric he will be a senior combat soldier. This is not an administrative posting although there is a fair amount of administration to it. The Marshall is the Fighting Order's General and is responsible mainly for strategic combat decisions.

Lord Marshall

Responsible for all members of the Fighting Order he reports to the Patriach alone. Her responsibility to ensure the Fighting Order as a whole is prepared at all times to carry out the will of the Patriach. he is responsible for ensuring that the Marshalls have proper support from the Church.

Currently all Marshalls and the Lord Marshall are dwarves. Again this is unlike to change in the forseeable future.

Fundamentally the actual units associated with a Marshall are broken down and assigned to various temples under Paladin's. A major temple will likely have several units associated with it, while a minor one will have a single contingent which is part of a larger unit.

EXAMPLE:

For the Arch-Cleric A who has Marshall B the following units of the Fighting Order Exist:

"Golden Axes" (300 Dwarves)
200 assigned to the temple of the Arch-Cleric
30 assigned to each of 3 lesser temples near it.

"Goblins Bane" (300 Dwarves)
100 assigned to each of 2 major temples
30 assigned to each of 2 lesser temples
10 assigned to each of 3 minor temples and shrines

"Justtryandstopus" (100 Gnome Pioneers)
all assigned to the temple of the Arch-Cleric

"Berryn's Bretheran" (50 Halfling Slingers)
25 assigned to each of 2 fortresses

"Steady Shields" (200 mixed Gnomes and Dwarves)
100 assigned to each of 2 fortresses