Priest

*"I am but a vessel for the will and wont of the gods. All I do, I do at their behest."*

## Advanced

(Core) Priests are ordained men and women who administer to the needs of the faithful throughout the Old World. Their Gods gift them with the ability to channel small amounts of divine energy, to aid in their works. Many Priests will be assigned to a specific region or church, others are wanderers who go where they feel they can do the most good. The receptions they get are directly linked to their deity. A Priestess of Shallya is likely to be received warmly no matter where she goes, whereas a Priest of Ulric is likely to only be heartily welcomed when a great battle is in the offing.

### Secondary Profile

**Skills:** Academic Knowledge (any one), Academic Knowledge (Theology), Channelling, Charm, Common Knowledge (any two), Gossip, Heal, Magical Sense, Perception, Read/Write, Ride or Swim, Speak Arcane Language (Magick), Speak Language (any two)

**Talents:** Armoured Caster or Master Orator, Petty Magic (Divine), Strike to Injure or Strike to Stun

**Trappings:** Prayer Book, Writing Kit

### **Career Entries**

Flagellant, Friar, Initiate, Lay Priest, Prelate

### **Career Exits**

Anointed Priest, Flagellant, Lay Priest, Prelate, Scholar, Steward

## Sacred Work

From morning prayer to evensong, a priest’s day is long and laborious. After all, work is worship and idleness a mortal sin. After matins, a hundred chores await the priest, from tending the altar fires to toiling in the temple’s fields or gardens.

The worst of the drudgery can be passed down to the initiates, allowing time for important tasks, such as writing sermons or preparing lessons (the education of the initiates is another responsibility). Prayer and ritual infuse everything a priest does, and he must drop everything when the temple bell summons him to worship. The the only relaxation he receives is during a few hours snatched for private study before evening devotions.

Sometimes a priest is allowed to escape the rigours of temple life to wander among his parishioners, offering prayers, guidance, and arbitrating their disputes. Bringing the god’s blessing to the community is an important function.

On feast days, worshippers flock to the temple to partake in the sacred rites and sermons, and the priests must tend to their spiritual needs. A priest should always remember that he is a servant not only of his god, but also of his congregation.

## Father Reiser’s Grave Vow

Some priests take the wandering vow, inspired to leave their temple and spread their faith abroad. A celebrated wandering priest is Father Tancred Reiser who, from the day of his Initiation into the Order of the Shroud, vowed he would never rest until he had bestowed Morr’s grace on every lost corpse and forgotten grave in the Empire.

This black-robed devotee of the Lord of Death travels ceaselessly, shovel on shoulder, searching for the burial places of lost souls untouched by Morr’s final blessing.

Some say that the crow accompanying him can see the shades of the restless dead weeping above their graves, wailing for Morr’s solace, and leads Father Reiser to them. Indeed, wherever the priest stops to spade the ground, he unearths old bones. These he reburies with the ritual they deserve.

It is Reiser’s belief that a corpse thus blessed will never rise again, and his lonely wanderings are a one-man crusade against the evils of necromancy. However, so many forgotten dead are buried beneath the Empire’s soil that, in ten years of wandering, the priest has not yet ventured beyond thirty miles of his home temple.