Organizations · Religious · World Wide
Religious Orders of Hewdamia
The priest's ability of prayer as well as their divine spells comes not from themselves, but from their Deity. Because of this, very few abilities are personal to the priest as all others who have chosen this path or had it chosen for them. Even so, while most of their prayers and divine spells will be the same, there will be a few differences or a few different abilities depending on the deity that the priest worships. This is the codex of the religious followers of Hewdamia.
Codex
Codex introduction
The religious higherarchy is all broken down into seven distinct titles. These are as follows.
Deacon
Priest
Pastor
Bishop
Primate
Prelate
Pontiff
For each new rank achieved, the priest receives a new title in certain circumstances. When they reach a certain level of knowledge and skill however, they will continue to hold the title of Pastor until raised to that of a Bishop by their superiors. The same is done with the title of Archbishop (Primate) Prelate, and the Pontiff. Only one Pontiff will be named at a time and only ten Prelates may be named at one time. There are only five Archbishops (Primates) holding title at any given time as well. Bishops have no set number of available slots.
Deacons are still young and fresh into their studies and are always still students. Priests have completed their initial studies of the church and are now allowed to hold service in small temples as well as assist Pastors in their clerical duties at larger churches. Pastors are usually a few years into their time spent with the church and have duties in charge over the larger churches in the larger cities. Bishops have been given the sole duties of teaching others in their time spent within the church. They also are known to teach in the academies various studies of expertise. They are also known as the law enforcement group of the church, dealing out justice relating to the church. The Primates are in charge of larger areas of the church and have broken them down into zones of influence; there are only five of these in office at one time. The Prelates are only ten in service in the main church in the central church. They are advisers to the Pontiff and the administrators to the church. They are the only group who elect the Pontiff. The Pontiff is the main religious leader in full charge of the church. They are elected for ten years and are rarely elected for another term. They have full voice in the church and create the laws that are followed.
Each religion is a seperate entity to itself. However they are ruled and therefore agreed to be governed by a single high priests, the High Pontiff. They rotate throughout the other religions between their Pontiffs to rule for a period of two years, this gives every religion the possibility to set decrees for the churches.
In which they have agreed to set standards, even though they do not see eye to eye on religious beliefs they do agree that should they result in a religious war and allow choas to ensue, much to the followers of Sethalis delight, that they gods may turn their backs. So in the interest of self preservation they agree to disagree yet to do so in an organized manner on the outside.
On the inside however, the churches dislike each other and will rarely show it publically. Privately however, many small battles between churches has happened right under the eyes of many kings and rulers without them knowing.
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Like all things Hewdamia, they are useful and complete. A couple of things though.
Is this one large religion with various sects focusing on the given god?
If not, why do they all have the same structures?
Is there a central heirachy (if one) or Council of Priests (if seperate) made up of prelates or a single prelate from each sect?
Why do they have three coven with the same names? It consists of three Covens; Apostles, Devoted, and the Watchers. Would not each faith or each coven have a variation that diferentiates it? What about schisms inside these covens?
A little history of religion for Hewdamia would be a good submission.
The history here is a tough subject to talk about with the other religions. I have added a little more information regarding the difference and structure.
We have this text:
Most of the followers of Sethalis are the creatures that he has spawned and do not fall into any of the Three Covens. If they do, they would be considered to fall under the Devoted Coven, as they are all fanatics and loyal beyond anything any normal mortal could imagine.
yet we have two coven listings: His followers only have two of the Three Covens. There are no Watchers, only the Apostles and the Devoted.
Edit please.
There is no watcher coven for his religion. The spawn, and other fanatics, fall under the devoted. Where his true followers fall under the Apostle Coven.
Way too short and I agree with Moonhunter, what, EVERY religion has an IDENTICAL structure? Makes no sense.
1st) This was written nine years ago, the early fleshing days of what Hewdamia is today. There are no longer simply eight Gods, it just simply hasn't been revisited.
2nd) This is a codex header to bring all of the religious posts together in one place for easier formatting and ease of function. It makes more sense once all of the posts are read as a whole.
Thank you for taking the time to read it however. I do need to revisit these and update them all, but with all of the new informations it is such a daunting task. Mathom Help me!
Eh, I hear you: worldbuilding is a thankless task that's never over.
It has expanded far beyond what I have even put up here for people to view.
Codex headers are always tough to judge. I think they should stand alone, and I think this one does. It gives us a barebones outline of how religion works (or worked in this setting). I would not say that this makes no sense, but rather is just very different than our own conceptions/experiences with organized religion. It is an interesting idea that all the different sects got together and decided to 'share power'. This places the religions firmly in the political realm ahead of the theological realm. I think that is reasonable. I also think this system has an internal logic to it. Speculative fiction is at it's best when it explores these novel ideas.