Cults of the Eightfold Church

The Church of the Eightfold Way worships a pantheon of eight deities, each with their own cult within the larger organisation of the Church. Four of these were an intrinsic part of the original Union which overthrew the Mage Sovereigns and retain a powerful role in the governance of the Church and the Sacred Republic, and are considered the Greater Cults. The other four are the Lesser Cults. These were at best a peripheral part of the Union, but did not oppose it, and were given a part in the Church after the War of Hubris.
An oft occluded truth is that the Greater Cults were not monolithic during the War, but rather that each was itself a union of similar cults which, in the closing years of the conflict and its immediate aftermath, conducted an aggressive process of internal attrition. Traditionally characterised as a series of debates and trials, but tacitly understood to have also included a fair number of assassinations, this process resulted in the codification of four cults, worshipping four gods, each of whom combined the names and attributes of several deities. It was during this period of adjustment that the structural, civilising philosophies of the High Elves and the unique spiritual plasticity of the Humans established these two races' position as the controlling influence on the burdgeoning Republic.
The Lesser Cults were formed by a, largely, less brutal process, as the early Church established four areas which they felt needed to be covered and persuaded local folk faiths and minor cults to adopt the practices they laid down for those areas. Non-conformists were persecuted - including a long and fractious history of interaction between the Church and various non-deist druidic groups - but for the most part this process was one of concilliation and consolidation.

Greater Cults

The Cult of Magic

Domains: Arcana, Order, Tempest, Light.
The cult centre of Iuva is the Grand Temple of the Divine Union in Aethrea, which is also the capital temple of the Church Octaval. Much of the cult organisation is dedictated to maintaining the probity and authority of the Church within the Republic, and of the cult of Iuva within the Church.
The cult is larger and more influential than any other, and in particular has a very large contingent of lay members deeply involved with cult activity. Around half of the cult’s priests, almost all of its paladins, and many of its lay members serve within one of the Prime Offices of the Church.

The Cult of Knowledge

Domains: Knowledge, Moon, Order, Trickery.
The cult centre of Tinevra is in the Great Library in Damas. The clash between the wizards and the cult of knowledge over the maintenance of libraries was a cassus bellum of the War. and the cult now manage the Church’s intelligence and propaganda apparatus, as well as protecting its archives.
Some 30-40% of the cult’s priests, and around three-quarters of the exemplar contingent, are members of one of the Prime Offices.

The Cult of War

Domains: War, Light, Order, Life
The cult of Tanit began in Donara – now Malahma – and the cult centre is the Citadel of Wings in Agradine, a towering fortress which watches over the Dustlands. The cults now under the aegis of Tanit were responsible for much of the union’s armed strength during the War.
Most of the cult’s exemplars and deltors – of which it has naturally the largest number of any cult – and perhaps 30% of its priests belong to the Prime Offices, as do a large number of lay members.

The Cult of Crafts

Domains: Forge, Tempest, Nature, Life
The cult of the crafter god is still based at the Divine Forge in Kavala. They were decisive in the war, because as well as occupying the Poet-King for years, they brought the Artificers onto the side of the Union. worship of Ilmar is stronger among the merchant class and the common people than the Estates, for he is a god of trade and the worker.
Only around 20% of the cult’s members are part of the Prime Offices, which mostly serve influential, but specialised, administrative roles.

Lesser Cults

Cults of Agriculture

Domains: Life, Nature, Moon
Representing ‘tamed’ nature, the cults of agriculture have incorporated the many village and farming cults, as well as covering many of the duties once undertaken by local druids, and nature and wilderness cults.
Only about 5% of the cult's members serve with the Prime Offices.

Cults of Love

Domains: Trickery, Order, Life
The cults of love are troublesome. The cults of love are linked to marriage, family and loyalty, but also have aspects of passion and rebellion which often set them at odds with the wider hierarchy. The aspect of fellowship makes Morha popular with the Guilds, and also with organised crime.
Perhaps 10-15% of the cult are associated with its Prime Offices.

Cults of Joy

Domains: Trickery, Tempest, Riot
The celebrant gods provide the people with bread and circuses, distracting them from their troubles, but maintain unavoidable aspects of rebellion and the overturning of the ‘natural’ order in their rites.
Less than 2% of the cult’s members are formally associated with any of the Prime Offices.

Cults of Death

Domains: Grave, Life, Death
The clerics of the border gods have always been considered indispensible and unavoidable, and not even the Church would try to dispense with them; someone will always have to lay out the bodies.
Almost 70% of the cult’s members belong to one of the Prime Offices, mostly the Office of the Beginning and the End. This includes many of the lay members who act as midwives and undertakers.

Type

Religious, Holy Order