Faiths of Space (CSH)

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As mentioned in Chapter 3 of the Lorebook of the Void, many spacefaring humans follow one of the sects that proclaim dominion over the spheres.While followers may accept the religion's general goals, only the priests and the initiated lay members are true members of these organizations.
==The Temple of Ptah==
The priests of Ptah are among the most forceful proponents of religion in the Known Spheres. In their gray robes trimmed with scarlet, they are found throughout the SPELLJAMMER® universe preaching the superiority of their god.
Symbol: The spacefaring priests of Ptah use the traditional symbol of a mummified hand.
Headquarters: The priests of Ptah claim their god created all of the crystal spheres, therefore they have chosen no one spot as a supreme headquarters.
Purpose: In spheres where the Egyptian pantheon is worshipped, Ptah is revered as the god of artisans. However, most spelljamming priests of Ptah are spaceborn and look down on their groundling cousins as having lost sight of Ptah's true glory as the creator of the universe.
Priests of Ptah are fanatical in their zeal to convert people to the way of Ptah. They use the fact that they can receive their clerical spells in all the spheres to prove the superiority of Ptah over other gods. Others, more cynically, point out that as the priesthood of Ptah has been in space for a long time, they have simply been able to establish bodies of worshippers in all of the spheres, which allows them the same access as followers of any other god.
Ptah priests tend to equate Ptah with whatever ruling god they happen to encounter to show that Ptah is the true ruler of the pantheon. In Realmspace, for example, the priests of Ptah proclaim Ao, the high god of the pantheon of the Realms, as an avatar of their god, and in Krynnspace Ptah is known (according to his priests) as Paladine.
These proclamations are usually disturbing news to the followers of these gods within their spheres. Thus, while the worshippers of Ptah are pandemic, they are not popular with the established local churches in any of the spheres.
Allies: The faith of Ptah has few steady allies. The Seekers are in frequent contact with Ptah's priests as their wide access to many spheres makes them a prime source of general knowledge, but the Seekers are justifiably suspicious of the priests' information when it turns to theological matters.
The Shapers have supported the priests of Ptah in the past, and there are a number of spaceports where a Shaper monopoly on wizardry is paralleled by a Ptah monopoly on priestly magic. Both groups see themselves as bringing order to the cosmos, and taking the "wild" out of wildspace.
When the priests of Ptah turn to force as a way of converting recalcitrant peoples, they often employ the Trading Company, as its businesslike attitudes mitigate any conflict with the priests.
Enemies: Many people find the priests of Ptah irritating, but few truly hate them. The Pragmatic Order of Thought finds the monochromatic theology of the priests of Ptah stifling, and this has caused some friction over the years, even spilling over into the Pots' relationship with the Trading Company. The Xenos hate the priests of Ptah (of course, they hate just about anyone) because Ptah accepts demihumans into his priesthood. While the priests of Ptah have verbally attacked the Celestians on theological grounds, the Celestians have only ignored these protestations.
Joining: To become an avowed follower of Ptah is extremely easy. Nearly every sphere contains a flock of priests eager to help you convert. There is traditionally a small donation (10-20 gp) for the conversion, although the petitioner may substitute a small hand-crafted item made by his own hands.
The Temple of Ptah is open to beings of any race, although Ptah's worshippers are predominately human. Most members of other races who join are viewed as pragmatists taking advantage of the special magical benefits that accrue to the followers of so wide-ranging a god. So long as they make regular donations, however, they are treated as well as any human member.
Benefits: Followers of Ptah can count on the assistance of its clerics, much the same way that members of other religions can. However, as the faith of Ptah is so widespread, this benefit is highly valuable to spelljamming characters who wander frequently from sphere to sphere.
Obligations: For all their dogmatism, the priests of Ptah are surprisingly easy to get along with once you have converted. Members of the temple must donate a small work of art (purchased for 5-10 gp, but works made by the member's own hand are preferred) to the temple upon leaving or entering a sphere. This is usually done during brief ceremonies in which the member says good-bye to his old priest and introduces himself to the new ones. Further donations of 1-2 gp per standard month are also required, but these may be waived if the member is not able to pay.
Members are also encouraged to find others who wish to join the temple, and they can establish themselves as intermediaries between these new converts and the priests. They collect the temple donations from the members they introduced, and keep 10% of the new members' donations for themselves. Nonmembers, mindful of Ptah's origins, refer to this as a pyramid scheme.
==The Path and the Way==
Referred to either as a single grouping or by either of its parts, the Path and the Way is a terrestrial gathering of faiths that made the leap full blown into the stars from the Shou empire on Toril in Realmspace. The Path and the Way postulates a celestial bureaucracy, well managed and organized, with various Powers taking on particular duties within the organization rather than venerating any specific deity.
While the Path and the Way has spread throughout the Known Spheres and to many different races, it is fragmented into hundreds of tiny subsects, each proposing specific deities to occupy the various positions within the celestial bureaucracy. Religious scholars disagree (often violently) about the true nature of the Path and the inner nuances of the Way.
Oddly enough, the priests of the Path and the Way are able to recover spells in any sphere where the Path and the Way is worshipped, regardless of any doctrinal differences between the priest and that sphere's established worshippers. Thus, a cleric of the Path and the Way from Realmspace who believes that Ao holds the supreme position within the celestial bureaucracy has the same powers in Greyspace as a native priest who believes that role is occupied by Boccob. Moreover, two priests of the same pantheon may disagree in assigning Powers to celestial roles. None of this debate has any effect on their clerical powers.
Symbol: Followers of the Path use a yin-yang symbol in the colors of the chief of their personal pantheon. Believers in the Way use the sign of a low, rounded stone bridge.
Headquarters: The Path and the Way began centuries ago in Realmspace. However, it is so fragmented now that any claim of a headquarters would be worthless.
Purpose: Followers of the Path and the Way seek to find the true meaning and structure of the celestial bureaucracy. As such, they tend to be insular and confusing to nonmembers. Worse, their internal conflicts rival those of the various beholder nations.
If the Path and the Way can be said to have a single purpose, it would be the improvement of the individual through contemplation of spiritual issues.
Allies: The Path and the Way is very powerful, and most members are quite reasonable so long as you do not challenge their beliefs. Thus, practically everyone is on good terms with some fragment of the sect.
Enemies: Only the followers of Ptah (who once had the temerity to state that their god was obviously the head of the celestial bureaucracy) are viewed with suspicion and hostility. The priests of Ptah, on the other hand, view the followers of the Path and the Way as misguided souls, just as they view everyone else.
Joining: The followers of the Path and the Way believe in the individual quest for the nature of the celestial bureaucracy. Thus, any priest of the Path or the Way can accept a new member with little fanfare. However, most will not permit someone to join the religion without first studying the fundamental texts on the celestial bureaucracy, as well as the priest's own version of its exact structure and the Powers that fill it. This study takes 2–3 months, after which time the student's questions will drive the priest to confirm him as a practitioner of the Path and the Way.
The Path and the Way is theoretically open to any race. However, there is a strong human bias among the priestly heirarchy, and a specific bias toward humans from Oriental cultures. This bias has been strengthened by the flood of new members from the Shou Empire on Toril. These members are rapidly dominating the political structure of the faith and are making entry by demihumans (much less nonhumans) even more difficult. Nevertheless, there are a sizable number of dwarves, elves, and even hurwaeti who follow the tenets of this faith.
Benefits: The primary benefit of belonging to the Path and the Way is similar to that of the temple of Ptah. Priests of the Path and the Way may cast their spells in any inhabited sphere in the Known Spheres; this makes them valuable to a far-traveling adventurer.
Obligations: Rather than fiscal obligations, the Path and the Way thrives on open discussion of the nature of the celestial bureaucracy. Anyone professing to follow this faith will be beset by other worshippers who wish to debate the merits of their various opinions. In the case of some more fervent believers, these debates may accelerate from words to violence. Mew members—be warned.
==The Celestians==
Symbol: Seven stars on a black circular field.
Headquarters: The wandering clerics of Celestian have little in the way of organization. Their home temple can be found in the Griff Mountains on the world of Oerth in Greyspace.
Purpose: The Celestians are a loosely knit organization of wanderers. Emulating their deity, Celestian of Greyspace, they travel the endless reaches of the stars. Their shrines are always in space, outside of planetary influence.
Celestians believe in travel. They rarely settle in one place, prefering to visit as many spheres as possible. (Some claim Celestian ranks his followers in the afterlife by the number of spheres they visited when they were alive. This is not considered official doctrine by the Church.)
Celestian, The Star Wanderer, is a lesser deity originally worshipped in Greyspace. Celestian is the brother of Fharlanghn, Dweller on the Far Horizon, God of Travel, a deity much more popular on Greyhawk than Celestian himself. While Fharlanghn chose to wander the roads and lands of Greyhawk, Celestian took to the stars and the Astral Plane. Celestian's followers seek to emulate their deity through spelljamming.
Allies: Celestians are considered useful, if a bit strange, by many spelljamming groups. Since they seek to wander the many spheres, Celestian's priests (and mages who follow this deity) are always willing to pilot long journeys through the Flow. The goodaligned trading companies and mercenary companies thus see Celestians as a convenient resource, and the sight of their starry black robes is a welcome one.
However, Celestian's priests will not pilot warships or slaveships. They do not seek conquest and will not aid an unjust conqeror to invade wildspace. They will pilot mercenary ships but only to transport defenders and never into a direct conflict.
The Celestians and the Seekers are on good terms. Many of Celestian's followers are also Seekers, as the two organizations hold similar goals. Many Celestians who are not Seekers will still report their discoveries to that organization. In return, the Seekers act as a communications network for the widely scattered priesthood. A sender can leave a message for a priest of Ceiestian at any Seeker office, and it will be transferred through the information network and presented to the recipient the next time he checks in at any other Seeker office.
Enemies: The followers of Ptah dislike the Celestians, in part because their special abilities (see Benefits), and they try to discredit the Celestians whenever possible. The Tenth Pit and the Chainmen are hostile to the Celestians because the Celestians have refused to transport Tenth Pit troops or pilot Chainmen slaveships. As usual, the Xenos are as hostile to the Celestians as they are to any group that accepts nonhumans, but since the Celestians are few, they receive little attention from the Xenos.
Joining: For nonpriests, joining the Celestians is easy. A supplicant must convert to worship of Ceiestian, pledge to wander the stars as Ceiestian himself does, and vow to aid any person in need. (Celestian's tenets do not forbid charging for such aid, however.) These oaths are not taken too seriously, however. A "wandering" worshipper of Ceiestian can stop for 20 or 30 years in one place without receiving more than a gentle chiding from a priest.
Any human, demihuman, or nonhuman may join the Celestians, although the membership is predominately human and half-elven. Dwarves, halflings, and gnomes appreciate their communities too much to view wandering as desirable, although there is a small but growing contingent of kender in the Celestians' ranks. Of the nonhumans, the hadozee and the xixchil are the most likely to join the Celestians, but there are very few nonhuman Celestians of any race.
Benefits: Aside from being a congenial society of wanderers, the Celestians offer a number of minor benefits. Although most Celestians wander, there are Ceiestian hospices in many space settlements. These are run by members of the organization who have decided to settle for a time, and provide safe food and lodging to Celestians (donations are appreciated but not required).
The Celestians also act to aid good-aligned travelers who are not members of the sect, but who have fallen on hard times. They assist newcomers to a sphere with advice about the local customs and laws, and will even help them find work should the need arise. It is customary to leave a donation (or, if destitute, to provide one when one is more wealthy) for these services, but there is no set schedule of fees. Ceiestian hospices in poorly traveled areas may appreciate tales of travel more than a token donation of gold.
Celestians priests seek to visit as much of the Known Spheres as they can in their lifetimes. They are aided in this by the fact that they can recover their spells in the wildspace of any crystal sphere. Like Ptah, Ceiestian appears to have the ability to communicate with his priests in all spheres (but not, of course, in the phlogiston). Some theologists speculate that this is because Ceiestian makes his home in the Astral Plane; others contend that space is his natural sphere of influence.
In any case, Celestian's priests cannot recover their spells on the surface of a world in a sphere where Ceiestian is not worshipped. Even some large asteroids are too large to allow the priest to recover his spells. Of course, once the priests of Ceiestian have established a focus in the sphere (see Chapter 8), they have the same access to spells as the priests of any other deity.
Celestian's priests may be standard clerics or specialty priests. Specialty priests may use spears (a required proficiency), short swords, or staffs, and may wear any kind of armor. They have major access to the spheres of All, Astral, Creation, Healing, and Sun, and minor access to the Guarding and Necromantic spheres. In addition, they may choose the spells of create water, endure cold/heat, resist fire/ resist cold, create food and water, flame walk, quest, and wind walk.
Specialty priests of Ceiestian receive the following special abilities, each of which can be used once per day. The ability and the level at which the ability is received is shown on the following table:
 Table 16: Celestian Special Abilities
Level	Ability
1 	Feather fall
3 	Jump
5 	Levitate
7 	Spider climb
9 	Fly
11 	Dimension door
16 	Teleport
In return for these abilities, specialty priests of Ceiestian pay an extra 10% in experience to rise in level (see GREYHAWK® Adventures). They must also take the nonweapon proficiencies of astronomy and navigation (wildspace).
Obligations: Lay members of Ceiestian have few obligations, except the general admonition to travel and help others. Priests of Ceiestian (either standard clerics or specialty priests) must pledge the same oaths as lay members. However, their oaths are taken more seriously. A spelljamming priest must travel from one sphere to another at least once each year, and must visit a sphere new to the priest at least once every five years. Planetbound worshippers of Celestian are not under these obligations, although they are encouraged to make similar journeys through astral travel.
For example, Chelzeban, a young priest of Celestian, has just begun his spelljamming career. He begins in Greyspace and spends four months piloting a hammership of the Smith's Coster to Realmspace. When he arrives, he has met his obligation to travel between spheres for the year, and in addition has also met his obligation to visit a new sphere, as Chelzeban has never been to Realmspace before.