Triadic Church

The **Triadic Church** is a religious organization dedicated to the worship of three familial deities: Lathander, the father, Selune, the mother, and Stellas Tryst, the son. It is arguably the most followed religion in Elderland, with most worshipers spread around Faerope.

## History

### Human origins

Lathander was depicted first as a great hawk, and this tradition continues to modern worship with Lathander often depicted with a hawk familiar.

Their beliefs centered on fire and water being purifiers of life, and these were also connected to the sun and moon.

### Dyadism and the Primangels

While Lathander and Selune assumed the highest godhood in the early faith, they oversaw a group of seven primangels, evolved from the early idolatry of elemental gods.

Fire Zorond

Water Nubis

Earth Kshatra

Air Yahura

Life Jezbeel

Death Azmael

Time/Truth/Love Asha

## Organization

### Clergy

The Equil is the head of the worldwide church and executor of the office of the equacy.

Ordinals (Ord.) are the arch in Volcone and members of the Triangulate of Ordinals.

Trigons (Tri.) oversee a trigonate. They are usually appellated with the title the Luminous.

Pharons (Phar.) manage beacons and pilgrimage routes

Lumisters (Lum./Rad.) are the most common order of priests who usually manage a single church, and they are also commonly called Radiants. The Radiant is an honorific given to priests in the order, but because Sacramites are the most common priests, the title is classically attributed to them.

Consecrants (Con.) are clerics in training

Augurs (Aug.) are diviners of prophecy, interpreting things like the Writing on the Wall, Lathander's sunny hand coming down to write a prophecy.

Revenators (Rev.) are priests specially trained to perform exorcisms and dispelling ghosts from haunted places.

Priests typically wear a tricorn hat to distinguish themselves.

Newly converted people to the faith are called Awakened.

### Holy sites

The Dome of the Rose is the high church in Volcone.

St. Clover's Cathedral is in Connaire.

The Golden Pyramid is the tallest pyramid in Jezebelem and the temple within is a site of holy pilgrimage for Triadics.

## Sects

Some sects hold that the three gods actually exist as a hypostasis of one being.

### Heliac Sect

Heliacs are an aggressive, traditionalist sect that places men above women in the faith and disallows women from certain prayers and entering the clergy.

### Cyclican Sect

The Cyclican sect is a recognized orthodox branch of the Church that focuses mainly on Selune and the lunar phases and cycles. Most Cyclicans are women, though men are not barred from practicing phasal devotions. Cyclicanism is most heavily practiced in Sylva by the elves. Sibyls, or dreamweavers, are among the few elves who actively sleep, in order to experience dreams instead of trances, and they interpret things for other elves. Cyclican sibyls manage the Moonlight Mirror in Lutèce, thought to be the most powerful dream-weaving and oracular altar in the church. The Moonlight Mirror is most powerful on a Winter Solstice, when the moon shines directly through the stained glass onto the altar.

### Constellationist Sect

Constellationists insist that all star-saints should be worshiped. They also believe heavily in augury and reading star signs. Toroña is a largely Constellationist country. They believe in the Twelve Heralds, the original apostles of Stellas and the most important constellations in the galaxy, and they often read tarot.

### Order of the Penitent Flesh

A radical sect that focuses mainly on Stellas Lambent and practices self-flagellation for sins past, present, and future.

## Doctrine

The holy scripture of the Triadic Church is the Holy Treble, a book written by followers, priests, and prophets of the original Dyad and now Triad of gods. Because Lathander famously does not do work himself (he simply delegates), he did not write any of the book.

### Prayer

Triadics are highly encouraged to pray three times per day, at noon, at midnight, and either at sunrise or sunset. During noon prayer, worshipers raise their hands to the sun and form their fingers into three sections kind of like Vulcan handsigns. During midnight prayer, worshipers are instructed to submerge their hands in a bowl of water if there is one at hand, and make the same hand signal. At sunrise and sunset, worshipers touch both hands to their shoulders and make a triangle with both elbows stacked on top of each other. At sunrise, the right elbow should be on top and at sunset, the left elbow should be on top. The hand signal is called the Holy Tribune and the arm signal is called the Early or Late Transit.

On nights when the moon is not visible in the sky, worshipers pray to Magus directly to call his mother back into the sky.

### Holy words

Excelsior is the Triadic declaration of affirmation, equivalent to amen. It is said at the close of prayer and ritual benediction.

### Churches

Triadics worship in churches, which are by doctrine shaped like triangles, as well as at holy beacons, both of sunlight, moonlight, and starlight. Beacons are built to collect light from heavenly bodies at certain times of day. Pilgrimages usually feature daily stops at beacons for rest and replenishment. The Ligature Pilgrimage to Jezebelem features the most prominent beacons.

Churches often feature art such as triptychs and stained glass.

### Afterlife

The faith asserts that true believers will all someday ascend to the Seven Heavens, but that since the Partition all souls have been suspended in Purgatory until the prophesied event called the Ordained Arrival, in which Stellas will ride down from heaven astride a holy pegasus blowing a trumpet and accompanied by a host of angels and other celestials. Lathander, of course, will not come down because he does not do work. At this point a great battle will ensue between the Celestial Plane and the Infernal Plane and after much trial and tribulation, the gods will emerge victorious and all souls in Purgatory will be invited into the Seven Heavens. Unworthy souls will be banished to the Nine Hells.

The faith holds undeath as abhorrent and calling the dead as a means for excommunication. Undead are viewed as breaks in the natural cycle of life, death, and rebirth, and an obstacle for a soul's ascension into heaven. Places haunted by ghosts are qualified for exorcism.

### Sainthood

The Church assigns saints to different stars in the sky, with Stellas lording over all saints.

### Penance

Penance is a ritual in which a congregant confesses their sins and misdeeds to a priest. It costs money to pay penance.

### Ablution

Ablution is a ritual performed at birth, death, and at a worshiper's desire. It is a ritual cleansing of sin performed in a hot, sometimes boiling, vessel of holy water containing stardust called an ablutional. To perform the ritual in full, one must submerge in the hot holy water while nude and rub the exfoliating stardust, a kind of crystalline salt mined in certain mountain ranges and said to be derived from comets and meteors, over one's skin completely before exiting the vessel. The water represents Selune's control of the tides of life, while the heat represents Lathander's warm embrace over everyone, and the stardust represents Stellas' sometimes painful but enduring healing of all people. Places such as Acqua Vecchia became known for ritual ablution treatments.

Natal and funeral ablutions differ because they are performed by priests and must meet certain criteria for completion.

### Matrimony

Worshipers are highly encouraged to marry and have at least one child to complete the trinity of life.

## Sacraments

### Edification

The edification is a holy rite taken by Triadics to represent Stellas' preaching to his disciples at the Final Feast in Jezebelem. Stellas took a cup of wine and set it on fire, then took a crescent bread and broke it in half. Drinking from the flaming cup of wine represents Lathander's divine fire within Stellas' blood. Breaking the crescent bread represents the broken body of Stellas, which was molded by his mother's womb.

Eclipse pilgrimage, going somewhere on Tor where an eclipse is occurring to worship in a special way.

## Holidays

Summer Solstice

Winter Solstice

Resurrection Day (New Year), not long after winter solstice

Hierogamy celebrates the infamous marriage of Lathander and Selune in Heaven and the raucous party that ensued from it. The holiday celebrates fertility.

## Theology

### Eschatology

The end times are extensively written about in the Treble and among prophets of the faith.

The Behemoth is a great monstrosity that will rise to challenge the returning Stellas, but will ultimately be defeated.