Official Pentawardism Association (OPA)

## Official Pentawardism Association

Pentawardism Colored Icon of the OPA

The Official Pentawardism Association (OPA) is the central organization of orthodox Pentawardism. It was originally founded by Andrew Skypwell during the Bravosian year of 640 soon after Jon Bolton’s reclamation of the nation. Please note that all dates on this wiki page are based on the Bravosian calendar, with year 0 marking the founding of Bravos roughly 1000 years ago.

## History

The OPA traces its roots to the previous organization of the Scholar Sainthood Society. This previous organization was devoted to protecting history about national heroes but began to shift into a more faith-based society around the year 405 AB. The organization was forcibly disbanded in the year 607 after the execution of its current founder at the time, Edward Molynson of House Avacia. A few years later, Edony Flextroph attempted to restart the organization but was executed by Queen Sosanna V after being discovered.

The OPA itself was founded later in the year 640 AB after Jon Bolton reclaimed Bravos with his forces. The OPA was founded by Andrew Skypwell of Rayjoy with the primary goal to resurrect the teachings and practices of the Pentawardism faith. It now operates as the central organization for the faith, although not all practitioners of the faith follow its guidelines. It also uses religious language for its staffing, utilizing titles of ‘Minster,’ ‘Archbishop,’ and ‘Bishop.’ See ‘Religious Structure’ for more detail.

Other notable ministers that impact the current day include Hugo Loveryk, Barnaby Robynson of Rayjoy, and Elder Serena Clarke of Rayjoy.

Hugo Loveryk of Vance would be anointed as Minister in 757 AB. He temporarily stepped down to run for Lordship in the year 771 AB, but fails to win the election. Minister Hugo took the loss as a sign that no high staff member of Pentawardism is meant to be the leader of the nation. This caused the chain of events requiring archbishops to choose between the OPA and politics. The man would later die of old age in 779 AB.

Nowadays, Minister Barnaby is mainly known for his death in the year 955 AB, where he was pushed out of a window during a visit to Castle Black Rock. He died upon impact to the ground according to the autopsy. The following investigation found Leona Landry, one of his own attendants, responsible for the death. Her archbishop license was revoked and she joined the Dragon’s Watch.

Minister Serena Clarke of Rayjoy was elected as the next minister. In 998 AB, Leona would pass away from old age and this would make Serena think about the future of the OPA. She would begin searching for her successor and settle on Evelyn Wilder. Unfortunately, Rev. Wilder would be killed by a demon. The title of minister-in-training would fall to a man named Enzo Prichard, although he would later be killed by former Mother Janet Bradstone in Shepard's Siege.

Currently, the OPA is fighting to stay neutral as to not get themselves targeted by the Bravosian Council. The training for Warrior Path members are on hold, with those who escaped with Janet Bradstone after the battle being excommunicated by Elder Serena.

## Spiritualism

It is common knowledge that the Saints were real and human at one point. As time passed, tales began to make scholars suspect the Saints could be around to help Bravos even after death. This caused a debate that lasted for several decades, from the time of OPA's predecessor up until Lord Jon II was resurrected in 691 AB, about 309 years ago. This act, although performed by a non-follower, proved that souls exist beyond one's physical body. This new information concluded the debate, at least for the OPA’s head staff. It was declared that according to the official OPA doctrine that the Saints remained present in the world as spirits.

The doctrine also goes on to teach/state that all spirits must need some sort of tie to the physical plane in order to affect the world. This is why praying and honoring the saints is so important, as both are supposed to help the Saints bond to the material plane without losing their mind. Additionally, funerals are considered vital to one’s faith as it is supposed to help the spirits of ancestors to pass on. The reasons that they are considered past heroes, have proven themselves to be ‘positive spirits,’ and have no living descendants (that people know of) that can properly host a funeral.

As studies progressed, necromancy was ruled to be ‘too philosophically complicated’ and thus outlawed as a practice. To act as a psychic, one must need a license from the OPA in order to be respected else otherwise the individual is suspected to be a fraud. This could be either a civilian’s psychic license, an archbishop’s license, or a ministerial license.

## Religion Structure

The religious structure acts like a pyramid with one figurehead at the top with more members as it goes down. In order to go up the ladder, they must past tests, have experience, and be approved by those higher than them. Additionally, it should be noted that Pentawardism is composed of five major faith areas called ‘paths.’ They are described in better detail in the main Pentawardism pages.

At the top, there is the Minister. Also referred to as Elder [Name], the minister acts as the national religious leader and has the final call on how the association is run. Once sworn in to the position, they lead until one of three things happen: they step down, they die, or they are determined to be unfit to lead. The ‘unfit to lead’ is noted as being purely medical and requiring examination from an outside source. Currently, there has been no case of such a scenario, but it was written down in the rules just in case. Additionally, ministers have the power to name their successor both in their will and during life. This helps smooth the transition between one minister and the next.

But before ministers become ministers, they first have to be an archbishop. Archbishops are high priests that act as a council to the ministers, are able to run specific town charters of the OPA, and can even step up to fill the position as minister as needed. When a person becomes an archbishop, they revoke their right to become a politician and have to invalidate thier ‘archbishop license’ in order to run for office. This is due to the belief that the OPA is to help advise the people of Bravos and not lead them, although the rule does originate from one guy being frustrated that he lost an election. Their archbishop license can also be revoked by the Ministor or the country’s ruler for instances such as criminal activity or abuse of power. Archbishops are commonly addressed as Mother [Name], Father [Name], or Parent [Name].

Both Ministers and Archbishops have to complete a Salokena, or the equivalent of a series of service quests for their community. For ministers to become an official minister, they have to complete sixty-four quests according to each path. This creates a total of 320 quests. For bishops to gain their archbishop license, they have to complete thirty-two quests according to each path. This creates a total of 160 quests.

If a bishop passes the Salokena and gets their archbishop license, they may qualify to act as a ‘vice archbishop,’ although they will still hold the title of bishop. These vice archbishops act as assistance to the archbishop to their path. This position is prized for a number of reasons, one being that it gets a person on the ‘nomination list’ to become the next minister. A person stays on that list until they are over 32 years old, after which that individual will only be able to take over from the previous archbishop. This age requirement was decided upon when the OPA was first founded. This was done in hopes it would help prevent ministers from starting out too old and not being able to hold the position for very long before dying.

Bishops are naturally one step down from the archbishops and are the general priest/priestess/teachers of the faith. They take care of temples such as cleaning and offering prayers. They do have to pass an exam but the specifics of what kind of exam depends on the archbishop running the exam as well as the town’s own rules. It is common the bishops have to go through a background check but despite its widespread prevalence, this is not an official rule. They also have to have previously been a deacon. They are commonly addressed as Sister [Name], Brother [name], or Sibling [Name].

Apprentices are one step higher than regular citizens and referred to as students with titles remaining as Mr, Ms, Mx, etc. One can become an apprentice at any age, but it is more common to find teenagers and young adults as apprentices. This is due to them either using their studies as a jumping point for their passion under experts or to become a bishop themselves. Becoming an apprentice is the least extensive, as they just need to past a written test and an interview with a bishop. Apprentices study the faith, particularly their path, and help bishops with their daily duties.

Commonfolk are ranked under the apprentices and exist as anyone not apart of the official organization. But it is also separated into two separate categories. The first are citizens of Bravos, assumed to be humans and anyone else the state recognizes as a citizen. The other category are non-citizens, such as demons, criminals, and furfolk.

## Current Staff List

The following table is the list of current heads of staff and their basic information. This table also acts as the line of authority should a minister and/or archbishops be unable to perform their duties for any reason. Under normal circumstances, a minister or archbishop is simply selected based on a combination of interviews, references, past experience and exam scores.

## Former Staff Members

The table below shows previous named members of the OPA that have appeared in the Okan SMP storylines.

 Minister-In-Training / Reverand
 Archbishop / Mother

## Trivia

* Anyone a bishop or higher can be referred to as a reverend. It should be noted that  during ceremonies, archbishops should be called High Reverand and ministers should be called Grand Reverand in order to avoid disrespect via rank distinction.
* Sometimes those of different paths will use other familial terms to refer to others. For example, an archbishop might call a bishop from a different path than their own their ‘nibling.’ Two bishops studying different paths may refer to each other as cousin.