Clerics

Cleric was a general term used to describe those who dedicated themselves to the worship and teachings of a deity. Individual clerics used a variety of titles such as clergy, priestess, cardinal, holy one, acolyte etc.

Most clerics on Tal broadly fall into seven categories:

## Clerics of Darkness

The worship of Darkness is frquently done in secret. The churches of Darkness are definitely independet and ununified but all have something close to a room of utter blackness as a sanctum. This allows those who understand the high art of shadow walking to move between them using the Plance of Darkness.

The Banished Brotherhood a group of clerics of Justice who became so obsessed with punishing evil they fell to darkness who now empowers them. They still claim to be worships of Justice but admit they are excommunicated.

Dark Brothers – Mobile priests of the shadow, roaming far and wide spreading his word.
Acolyte an unranked cleric
Priest of Darkness (A ranked cleric)
Master priest (A high rank)

The Shadowfane – The currently recognised leader of all Ca'venkol Mastier Priests and clerics of Darkness.

The Twelve Twilight Elders – a quorum of twelve high priests of Darkness who are recognised as having superior authority over all his other clerics. They do not work with the Shadowfane and rarely even with each other. Only those initiated in the Unseen Church would even be able to recognise one for what they were.

## Clerics of Death

Much of the open worship of Death is to his aspects as God of War or guardian of the dead. His truest followers though are soulcrafters and necromancers who understand his truely nhilistic approach.

As such their titales are very varied.

In a temple of Death:
Acolyte is still preferred in most temples and churches as the first rank of cleric.
Deacon most clerics of death take this title rather than Priest as the Clerics of Darkenss do.
Abbot - a high cleric rank
Archdeacon normally the highest rank in a city leading a temple or city of worshipers.

In a shrine of war
Shaman
Warlock
Warseer
Warspeaker
Warlord is a special rank given to the leader of an entire warhost dedicated to death.

It is notable that many of Death's clerics are promised immortality if they serve so many of the more powerful are Liches.
Some Obliterators are clerics and they are then known by that title. Obliterator Vance for example.

## Clerics of Justice

The church of Justice has be divine madate and interference become a single monolithic religion. it's clerics are split between three different purposes
Legislation - Creating laws
Executive Orders - Enacting and enforcing the law
Judgements - Judgeing and interpreting the law

In many countries these clerics form a core part of all of these roles.

Acolytes are the lowest rank before a cleric specialises.

Legis is a low law making rank
Legate is a high law manking rank
Senior Legate is the highest law making rank

Assessor is an executive rank
Warden is a higher exective rank
Marshal is the highest exectuvive rank

Arbiter is a low Judging rank
Ajudicator is a high judging rank
Ajudicator Magis is the the highest Judging rank

Chancellor of the Law is the leader of the Church of Justice at this time

## Clerics of Knowledge

Most formally worshiped in the Church of Celer

Novice - lowest rank
Scribe- Priests of Knowledge (A full cleric)
Scribes of the Eye - travelling clerics gathering knowledge from around the world or with specific tasks.
Candle Chaplains - A higher rank than Scribe. Typically these clerics have been given assignment to support external agencies.
Bishops of the Book - A high rank usually presiding over a group of priests.
Theonists - The greatest rank of the Bishops.
The Cardinal - the highest authority on Karandia.

Hermits are also considered to be clerics of Knowledge by many but they shun the official trappings of religion.

## Clerics of Light

The clerics of light are a disparate bunch as there are many gods who were worshiped as Light. So the clerics of light though allied are not as of current day reformed into a single moniolithic religion. There is an effort to do this focused on primarily by the Temple of Light in Dusken where an elven cleric has held primacy for several centuries as high brilliance.

High Brilliance – The currently recognised leader of all the church of the Light in a single country.
Golden Cardianals – The leader in one of Light's temples.
Luminaries – Holy priests leading a congregation or in charge of a holy shrine, church or site.
Bright Brothers -Travelling priests.

## Clerics of Nature/Wild

Very disparate no real church as such rather they are shaman and druids and organisaed as such.

Initiate is what many will call a new man or woman who is learning the ways of the Wild.

Shaman - a typical title for a cleric of Wild.

Springwalker - a cleric title held/granted by the fey
Grove Walker - a higher cleric title held/granted by the fey
Grove Keeper - a very powerful druid given a specific sacred area to protect and empower.

In Karritan the great elven wood Wild is worshiped in maybe the most organised way anywhere on Karandia.

Druids here are called:

Initiates
Druids
Grove Druids
Druid Lords
Great Druid

The Druidlore meet in the Linden Grove which is probably the mot sacred and powerful location for any cleric of Wild on Tal.
There are also druids here called the Shrouded these druids lead the Shadeborn but many would not consider these to be true clerics of the Wild but maybe a mix of the Wild and Darkness or even Death. Animals shun the Shoruded and they are unable to appraoch the Linden Grove. Ents however serve them and they display great powers.

## Unalligned

People who claim to be holy men but eschew any particular deity to worship. These people are often considered foolish as in a world where lregion grant the magical powers of Divinia the reality of the Avatars is not really in question even if their nature is. The concept of just good people preaching a powerful concept is therefore still of interest but not really associated with clerics. When they insist they are holy men/women it therefore tries the patience most mortals. However there is a specific sub group that are worthy of mention.

The Crystal Missionaries

This is a name that has come into use to describe clerics who claim to worship all the Avatars rather than one or another. their claim is that divity is singlular not plural and all the Avatars are just faces of the same divine god. They believe that if people would accept this it could bring about a new era of enlightenment where concepts like good/evil would be redefinied and people would be able to achieve new powers, new understanding, new balance and there would be greater challenges that could then be unveiled.

They like terms like unifiers or the undivided. Often their lore is based on the idea that all the Avatars originated from the Platinum Crystal.