Servants of Aradia

The Servants Faith is a sister faith to Aradianism, but their beliefs differ across one very important epistemological divide, what role do the Elves serve in the faith? To the Aradians, they serve to be one of the many children that Aradia bore, to the Servants they serve as the stewards and guardians of creation, and only humanity is considered under the umbrella as children of Aradia. This fundamental difference in doctrine was enough to destroy the relationship between the two Aradian faiths, and it was not until the Archcanon Eustace Blackthorne and High Priestess Ornia Dul-Sansiska signed the Proclamation of Mending in 1020AE that the healing between the two orders began, by 1086AE, while both are in major decline as secularism took hold under the Blackthorne Monarchy, they are now fairly hospitable to the other.
As an institution, the Servants Faith is on its last legs, only being held up in Surial by the fact its the headquarters of the religion, and falling into near extinction in the Northern Kingdom, Vadan, and the Republic. the only real thing that keeps the church in any sort of notable standing are its charitable works that remain even as most of the religious observances have been stripped and they have become all but secular outreach to the poorest of society.
==The Servants Faith==
=== The Five Reflections: ===
* The Book of Breaking Dawn- Within a compact one hundred verses, a poetic recollection of the period before all writing is summarized, in the time that Aradia walked the world and tended to her creation. It is flowery, with many metaphysical concepts wrapped up in symbolism and oral history, but is still understood to at the very least be one of few surviving recordings of the Dawn Era.
* The Authorities of Obscura- With one hundred twenty verses, the is the the most important documents to the drow as a race of Aradia are held within this book. The sum total of all proclamations of the ancestors on the duties and meanings of the Elves, with the Drow, Wrow, and Hrow, and all their deviations and countances, being made to be responsible for the caretaking of Aradia's creation in one shape or form, and the guardianship of her most prized children: Humanity.
* The Resolutions of Aegis- While only ninety verses, it is an oft quoted reflection. These are surviving sermons collected on the importance of guarding the least of those in society, and uplifting them into the service of Aradia. A message to the lowest in society their true worth in the eyes of Aradia.
* Our Divine Lamentations- The longest of all reflections, comprising one hundred and sixty verses. Contained within are allegories and commentaries on the nature of Demons, the Underking, and the Void and all that is represents from the perspective of the most holy. The abominable nature of the Vrow and the sacrilegious hypocrisies of the drow who spawned them rest within these pages, alongside the other great failures of the Drow.
* The Book of the Eternal Dusk- With only fifty verses, the shortest of the five reflections, but arguably, the most important of them all. It is a dark and trembling telling of the troubling revelations for the future, namely the destruction to come from a great and mighty power of the Void rising to dismantle all that Aradia had made, once and for all.
== Servants Structure ==
The make up of the faith can be divided into three branches: Ecclesiastic, Authoritative, and Utilitarian. The first governs the priestesses and monks who make up the inner workings of the church's faithful, the second contends with the church sanctioned armed forces that uphold the law and wage spiritual warfare, and the third pertains to the role of the public facing members of the organization who maintain the orphanages, the poor houses, and the hospices.
The Ecclesiastic Branch is the only branch that is still standing in its conventional purpose, but it's drastically diminished from its peak, with two-thirds of all the churches closed for good, and the shuttering of the program to train new acolytes, it is clear that this stability is only due to the fact that they can keep pulling from former church locations when they lose one of their faithful. The branch is only relevant in populations where enough elves feel a need for religious practice, and that continues to dwindle more and more as time goes one, with just about any churches still standing either in Surial, Bastion, or a few other scattered regions.
The Authoritative Branch is all but annihilated, after the Blackthorne Monarchy indirectly influenced a disarming of religious military by actively implementing such a stance against the Aradia Temple. What's left of them are ceremonial guards and those who engage in spiritual warfare, which in effect means that there is no longer any upholders of canon law within the Church. There is little change that most people have noticed, as this branch was in a constant state of preril due to the intensity of training and indoctrination and the expansive responsibilities of their authority.
The Utilitarian Branch has slowly but surely been losing it's religious ordination in order to better service the needy and acquire more funding through charity since the Church is going broke. Their orphanages are unpopular due to strict rules for children under their care, but they pride themselves on feeding them real and nourishing food and clean bedding in exchange for their strict observances. The poor houses, while usually cramped and only a few steps above being left tot he street, are at least not malicious in their intentions and keep the Blackjackets from harassing their occupants. Finally, though most hospices can no longer offer healers and higher end medicines, they still offer apothecary services, basic aid and nutrition, and somewhere to recover from sickness for those who have nowhere else to go in the countryside.