Order of Priests

"We must all have Faith."
 The Order of Priests are the shepherds of the flock, the guardians of religious institutions and the keepers of the old ways. The members of the Priestly Order are considered by most to be the premiere members of the Ecclesiastical Orders, and their influence on society is considerable. Priests draw power from Faith itself, and they can call out to the heroes of Faith, the Saints, to give them aid and succor in times of distress. 
Aspect of God: Founder of the Tribe
AKA: The Priestly Order, the Ecclesiastical Order, the Keepers of Faith, the Altar Boys. 
Paradigm: The Church (Saints). 
Priest Degrees
== Facts: ==
-Priests know God as the Founder of the Tribe and their essence is derived from a particular Tribe, it's history, tradition and theology.
-While the Priests in our world come from many backgrounds, they are most strongly associated with the Abrahamic faiths which have dominated Western Civilization.
-The Priests pretty much have a presence among the leadership of all the major Tribes. Certainly all the organized ones at least. Rectors, ministers, rabbis, imams, whatever title they have, there's more than a few Priests who share that title with them.
-When a Priest is born from a Tribe, it is in his nature to preserve that faith community. The benefit of such a mentality is that Priests tend to be disciplined or at least more orderly than most people (and more connected as well). The downside is that to preserve usually translates as rejecting anything new or innovative since change is the ideological opposite of preservation.
-Within a group of Adepts, Priests tend to be the glue that holds everyone together, playing both advocate and confidant. Priests pride themselves on being at the center of their social circle. 
-The Order of Priests is the premier member of the Ecclesiastical Orders and the others often look to them for decisions on important topics. Of course, this position is contested by the Order of Infinity, but the Priests believe, since they were designed to be carriers of Faith, that it is His intention they should be the premiere Ecclesiastical Order. 
-Because of their origins, Priest Adepts gain Church Lore more quickly and more easily than other Adepts. 
== The Power of Faith: ==
The source and essence for the entire Order of Priests is held up in the concept of Faith. Priest Adepts in ages past were able to stop disasters, heal disease, restore crippled limbs, and banish the Infernal with but their mere presence; all of this done thanks to that unfathomable power known as Faith. 
If you choose to use Priest Adepts in your stories, remember to play this up. Most Orders are quite straight-forward in how they are portrayed, but not so with the Priests. Even in our modern, secular age, the presence of religion still rings with an ancient mystique that pulls people towards it. 
== Keeping the Old Ways: ==
The Ecclesiastical Order is the preserver of the Old Ways, both for their faith community specifically and for society at large. After the fall of the Roman Empire, when Europe was plunged into the darkness of the early medieval age, it was often the monks and priests who worked tirelessly to locate and preserve works of antiquity. 
This keeping of knowledge comes naturally to Priests because so much of their nature is geared towards conservatism. However, Priests exist to preserve the religious knowledge of their Tribe first and foremost, so anything preserved by them will probably show a little bias because of it. 
Because of the Priestly Order's penchant for conservation and the generations of built up knowledge within the Order, Priest Adepts can gain the Old Ways Lore more easily than most Adepts. This is especially true of knowledge of religion, theology, spiritualism, superstition, or local urban legends. 
== Shield of Faith: ==
It's no small thing to say that the Order of Priests draw their power from the concept of Faith itself. The Priestly Order wields Faith like a weapon, or a tool, defeating the enemies of their faith and building up their own community in the process. 
Faith as a source of power is particularly well-suited to defense. Great saints and heroes down through time have harnessed their Faith as a bulwark against the forces of Darkness, repelling demonic attacks and witch's hexes with nothing but their steadfast belief in God. 
Remember to play this up if you're role-playing as a Priestly Adept. Their powers of Faith will often mitigate the supernatural powers of their foes, and it can turn even their spindly little churches or temples into strongholds against the supernatural. 
== Suffering & Perfection: ==
The trials of the Saints have taught the Priests that part of having Faith means weathering suffering and sacrifice. Depending on the particular theology of the Tribe in which they reside, a Priest may simply see a period of suffering as a chance to demonstrate their Faith for all to see. Or they could read way too much into it and see it as a sign of God's anger, or a blessing, or a test of faith for greater Providence later, etc. 
The point here is this, that Priests tend to accept suffering more readily and with more vigor than others would. This is because Priests tend to view the issue of suffering entirely within the context of their Tribe's teachings. This isn't to say that Priests actually enjoy suffering (although some of the far-out ones might) but they do, as a whole, accept the pain of life with much more rigor than normal. 
== Spreading the Faith: ==
Priests are designed to be social animals. They operate at the center of a faith community, and through this the wider community of the world itself. The urge to evangelize varies from one religion to another, but suffice it to say that Priests 
== Hagiography: ==
Hagiography is the preservation and study of the writings of the Saints. Be it letters and other works made by holy men and women, or it could be accounts, histories or other works made about them. Whatever form it takes, Hagiography's ultimate concern is to preserve the life and teachings of the Saints for posterity. 
Priests concern themselves greatly with Hagiography because their Order is so invested in the concept of Faith itself. Priests rely on the Saints extensively, and hope to one day join their ranks in Heaven. 
== Institutes of Religion: ==
The Order of Priests recruits from organized religion and its members thoroughly infuse all major institutions in the world. Priests often develop abilities centered around the concept of Faith itself and so are at an advantage when in places of worship and reverence. 
As such, this gives the Priests more than a little lee-way in social power. Major leaders of religion often have great influence on social and political events and those that possess large flocks can call upon their people to enforce their will in times of conflict. Be it for good or bad, that probably depends on the individual Priest in question. 
== Guardians of Sanctuary: ==
There are many practices within religion that seem to hold true even across the span of cultures. One of those is the practice of utilizing sacred spaces as places of political and even military neutrality. Sanctuary, as it is often called, is a practice that is very near and dear to the Order of Priests. 
Indeed, Priest Adepts are uniquely qualified to facilitate the continuation of this practice and within Adept Society it is still quite common for conflicting parties to seek out a known and trusted Priest to serve as a neutral arbiter during a parley. Such meetings are almost always held in some sacred place, where the Priest's supernatural abilities will be even stronger owing to the ambient Faith present there. 
== Corruption Within: Church Scandals: ==
Ecclesiastical scandals are a hard-reality for the faithful, and they often serve as periods of tribulation for the Order of Priests. Regardless of the exact cause of the scandal, any incident that triggers a major questioning of leadership within a faith community will be doubly dangerous to the Priests because it strikes at the very source of their existence - the concept of Faith itself. 
== Saints & Miracles: ==
The Order of Priests exists in symbiotic relationship with the Saints and Angels in Heaven, particularly the Saints. Priests develop many powers based around Faith but chief among these is the ability to call down powerful Saints to earth in times of great need. 
Be it in the form of miracles, visions or healings, or outright visitations, the act of a Saint coming down from Heaven should be treated as an appropriately significant supernatural event. 
== Patron Saints: ==
Saints comes in many shapes and sizes, and for a variety of reasons one or more individual Saints may become associated with a person, place or thing. While this is best known in the Catholic tradition of choosing a patron saint, the practice itself seems widespread across many different Tribes. 
Priests who dedicate themselves to one or more individual Saints may find it easier to call out to them for aid. 
== Everyday Saints: ==
It's easy to stereotype every Priest Adept as a cleric of some popular religion, but while religious leaders do predominant among the Order they are by no means uniform across it. Imagine a New York taxi driver, probably an immigrant, who prays often to a popular ethnic Saint during his travels. If he were inducted into the Order, what kind of Priest would he look like!?
Sometimes, the best Priests in stories are the odd-ball, unexpected ones. Just as Patron Saints are often highly individualistic and colorful, so are the individuals within the Order itself. 
== God Or The Church?: ==
Let's be honest - most people who go to church tend to have a closer relationship with the Church itself rather than with the Supreme-Being. While this need not nullify the ultimate need for a faith community, it is a fact, and a real weakness for organized religion in general. And it is one that plays out in the very existence of the Order of Priests. 
Other Adepts have derisively referred to the Order of Priests as the Theists Lite, or those who weren't good enough to join the Infinite Order. Where else Theists had a close connection with God, and nothing else, the Priests were more about the Church and so that is how their Order comes into existence. 
Obviously, the Priests don't like this theology and argue that their's is a necessary existence, since people don't start out in life by having a strong faith system to work with. Everyone requires community to some extent in order to develop to the point where they learn to have God on their own. 
Which position is the correct one? Probably both, at least to some degree. 
== Veneration of Saints: ==
Priests are a Petitioner Order and can call out to the souls of former men and women of faith. Dubbed Saints by mainstream Monotheism, Priest Adepts can gain new powers and favors by associating with particular Saints. 
Veneration of Saints is looked down upon by other Adepts, usually those of a Protestant or Atheist persuasion. Many see it as a form of idolatry. However, the Priests respond that they do not worship but simply venerate the Saints the way someone could show respect to a living soul for their accomplishments in life. Saints are not made equal to God, only seen as brothers and sisters in the faith who have crossed over to the other side. 
*Gaining new powers will require repeated acts of devotion, prayer, and meditation on the life and works of a particular Saint. 
=== A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z ===
== Factions: ==
Factions within the Order of Priests tend to be based on specific Tribes (ie, Roman Catholicism, Suffi Islam, Hasidic Judaism, etc.). While there exist some Factions that transcend Tribal lines, they are often temporary alliances between these groups to combat a common foe or social problem. 
It's no small iron that the Priestly Order, renowned for its social activism and calls for harmony, is itself often bitterly divided along lines of dogmatic belief. Ca
== References: ==
-https://www.pinterest.com/benjaminstyles7/order-of-priests/
-http://powerlisting.wikia.com/wiki/Supernatural_Priest_Training
-https://bible.org/seriespage/priests
-http://www.openbible.info/topics/priest
-http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12406a.htm
-http://www.eldritchpress.orCategory:Church
Category:Ghosts Of Catholicism
Category:New World Order