Religion

The five faiths, how you are inducted into one, how their ranks work, tithing, and how a faith's standing is measured.

Five gods are served in the Five Realms. Each faith has a channel, a ladder of ranks with a High Priest or High Priestess at the top, and a roster of the faithful. A character serves one god at a time, and leaving a faith costs a heavy tithe and a long wait before another will take you.

The five faiths#

Loralei is the goddess of pleasure, desire and prosperity, who raised Aurin. Her worship includes hospitality, celebration and the enjoyment of comfort. Her temple in the city is the Radiant Heart.

Kranos is the god of war, battle and order. His faith concerns military service, sworn duty and strength tested in battle. His priests keep the Spearhold in Aurin, where visitors can take a trial on the proving floor.

Sivaine is the goddess of wisdom, vengeance and suffering. Her worship includes trials, confession and the keeping of debts. The House of the Black Feather is her temple in Aurin.

Thalos is the god of nature, the sea and storms. Sailors and people whose work takes them beyond the cities visit his shrines. His Aurin temple is the Wrack, open to the sky, where the rite uses a rain basin.

Morbis is the god of death, memories and the Underworld. His priests attend to bodies, funeral rites and records of the dead. The House of Names stands inside Aurin's cemetery gate; Verathos serves at the Gates of the Underworld.

These are the subjects and practices of the faiths. What a follower believes, and why, belongs to the character and their player.

The temples#

Each god keeps a house in or near Aurin, and any player may walk into any of them. Each has a place to rest, a sacristy for the faithful and a rite of its own. See The Temples.

Joining a faith#

Brother Ansel in the Temple of Loralei will talk anyone through all five gods and induct them into the one they choose: ask ansel about five for the overview, then ask ansel about <god>. Each god's own priest does the same for that god with ask <priest> about joining in their temple. A faith's High Priest or High Priestess may also induct you anywhere with rinduct <player>.

However the offer comes, you answer with raccept or turn it down with rdecline. An offer made with rinduct lasts thirty seconds and lapses if either of you leaves the room first.

Nobody can be inducted twice into the faith they already serve, and nobody who serves another god can be inducted until they renounce that faith.

Ranks#

Each faith has one ladder of ten ranks. Most rungs belong to a particular calling: the laity (anyone who is neither a cleric nor a paladin), the clerics, or the paladins.

Repentant is a rank of penance at the bottom. The laity climb from Follower to Adherent and no lay rank stands above the clergy. Clerics climb from Acolyte to Priest, paladins rank above the priests, and a cleric or paladin may be raised to Prophet. Priest and High Priest show as Priestess and High Priestess for female characters; underneath they are the same rank.

You enter at the first rank your class allows: a cleric as an Acolyte, a paladin as a Paladin, and everyone else as a Follower.

ordain lists everyone the faith knows, by rank, online and offline. ordainranks shows the ladder in game.

Authority within a faith#

Inducting, promoting, demoting, exiling and anointing belong to the High Priest or High Priestess. rpromote <player> raises a member one rank and rpromote <player> to <rank> sets a particular rank. rdemote <player> and rdemote <player> to <rank> work the same way downward. A promotion is refused when the next rank belongs to another calling, so a warrior cannot be made a Priest and a cleric cannot be made a Follower. rexile <player> removes a member from the faith.

Naming a successor belongs to the High Priest alone.

Clerics and paladins#

anoint <player> is the High Priest's power to ordain a healer. The healer must serve that god or no god at all. On raccept they become a cleric and an Acolyte of the faith, keeping their level. Clerics who have learned Marry may hold weddings in any temple sanctuary with marry <person> to <person>.

Paladins are not recruited, they are called. The High Priest or High Priestess of a faith may put the oath to a worthy servant of that faith with ordainpaladin <player>. A candidate must be level 100, with finished lives as a Cleric, a Warrior and one class more, 10 remort points and the Vigil behind them, at least two years of service to their religion and at least 2,500 hours in the realm. remort paladin shows a candidate every requirement ticked against their character. One who falls short is declined by the god. A worthy candidate answers with accept or decline; accepting shows the rebirth and remort confirm swears it. The oath cannot be undone: the paladin's road begins again at level 1, and the whole realm is told. See Remorting.

The holy amulet#

Clerics and paladins carry a holy amulet, the token of their god. It is reissued to match their faith whenever it changes, checked each time they log in, and taken away when they renounce, are exiled or cease to be ordained. Other classes carry none.

Renouncing a faith#

renounce is the only way out of a faith, and the only way to become free to join another. It costs a final tithe of 1,000 platinum to the god you are leaving, and you cannot renounce without it. For three months afterward no god will take you: no induction, no anointing, no oath.

Clerics and paladins exist through their faith. Renouncing strips them of their office and returns them to Explorer at the same level, with their class powers gone. Other classes keep their class.

Tithes#

tithe <amount> to <god> lays that many copper on a god's altar, drawn from your purse highest coin first. For example, tithe 1000 to loralei offers one thousand copper to Loralei. You may tithe to any of the five, not only your own. Every tithe adds to that faith's offering pool and is recorded against your name.

tithes lists every faith's pool, richest first. Clerics can read what their congregation has given with piety.

Divine Influence#

A faith's standing among the five is its Divine Influence, shown by favor and at the foot of religion. It rises when the faith's clerics and paladins are active, when new followers join and stay, when the faithful talk together on their channel, and when followers are out in the world. Followers with a high reputation count for more. Tithes to your own god add to it too, up to a daily limit, though coin counts for half what deeds do; a tithe to another god fills that god's pool but adds nothing to its standing. A faith that falls quiet fades.

While a faith stands first, its followers' temple blessings from their own god last longer. See Factions for how the boards are reckoned and crowned.

The faith channels#

Each faith has its own channel, joined when you are inducted and left when you renounce. religion on its own shows who from your faith is online, sorted by rank, with each one's reputation and the faith's Divine Influence; a member who is well regarded is shown in gold. religion <message> speaks on the channel. See Communication for the wider channel system.

Related systems#

• The Temples for where each god's house is and what each god asks.
• Factions for Divine Influence and personal reputation.
• Clans for player-run fellowships and their own ranks.
• Communication for channels, tells and mail.