Church of Azu

Patrons of artists and craftsmen, and worshippers of Azu, the church seeks to spread his good works and influence to all the corners of the land.

Public Agenda

Azurites seek to promote the arts throughout all lands, especially the civilized lands. They also seek to spread the word of Azu, and share his healing powers to promote his word.

Assets

Almost ever civilized community of more than one thousand beings has a temple to Azu, and smaller ones usually have a shrine. Because of the way they spread healing the church of Azu is very popular and always has more money than it needs. Most of this excess money is reinvested into the community in order to support artists and craftsmen, especially talented ones just starting out.

History

The church of Azu started in Thinis and spread throughout the Old Kingdoms. His religion was never very popular in the Old Kingdoms, but clerics of Azu travelled with the first colonists to the New Kingdoms, and the church became very popular. Naturally when settlers began migrating to the Frontier Lands, Azurite priests travelled with them.

Mythology & Lore

Azu was a priest-king of one of the first human kingdoms. He rules wisely for many years and introduced many innovations. At one point a great threat appeared and he set forth to deal with it. It’s unknown the exact nature of this threat, though some believe it was the Tarrasque while others claim it was a plague of some sort. Regardless of the true nature of the threat, Azu succeeded in averting it, and saved not only his own kingdom, but the other primal kingdoms. He was never seen again on the mortal world.
It was shortly after the locust wars that miracles attributed to Azu were first manifested. The first was the spontaneous healing of Menes who claimed to have seen Azu while lying on his deathbed. However, it wasn’t until the settling of the New Kingdoms that the worship of Azu really caught on.

Cosmological Views

In Arda the cosmos is divided into the inner planes and the outer planes. The inner planes consist of the prime material plane, which coexists with the First World and the Plane of Shadow. They are surrounded by the four elemental planes or air, earth, fire, and water, as well as the positive and negative material planes. All these planes “float” within the ethereal plane, the plane of ghosts and other incorporeal beings.

Surrounding and encompassing the inner planes is the astral plane which connects the inner planes with the outer planes. There are seventeen outer planes, nine each aligned with the cardinal alignments as well as eight that sit on the borders between alignments. Sixteen sit in a sort of metaphysical “ring” round the seventeenth. These planes are Mechanus the plane of Law, next is Arcadia, then Mount Celestia the plane of Law and Good, followed by Bytopia then Elysium the plane of Good, then comes The Beastlands and Olympus the plane of Good and Chaos after which is Ysgard then Limbo the plane of Chaos, after which comes Pandemonium then the bottomless Abyss plane of Evil and Chaos, followed by Carceri then Hades the plane of Evil, next is Gehenna followed by the Nine Hells plane of Evil and Law, then Acheron which brings things back to Mechanus. In the center of the ring lies the Outlands plane of Neutrality.

Tenets of Faith

Azu believes that a healer should heal whomever needs healing to the best of their ability. He believes that artists and craftsmen should be free to create. He acknowledges the need for them to earn their keep but believes that their creativity shouldn’t be fettered by political concerns. To Azu a strong individual should always try to resolve disputes through nonviolent means first, and that the wisest should lead.

Priesthood

Clergy of Azu usually dress in clean white robes. Most at least dabble in an art or craft and make a study of healing.
Temples of Azu are generally located in population centers, and every city and town in both the New Kingdoms and Frontier Lands has at least a shrine to Azu. The temples usually double as hospitals where the sick and injured are cared for. Healing is usually accomplished through nonmagical means reserving magic for the most serious cases. Healing is not usually charged for especially if the individual is unable to pay, but donations are expected from those who can pay. Temples and shrines to Azu tend to be centers of learning, where lessons on arts and crafts are freely given.

Sects

The White Hand is a monastic order of itinerant healers, that travel the civilized lands healing those who need it. They charge no fee for their services, though most good folks will offer them room and board even if they don’t need healing themselves.
The Brush and Chisel is an organization that provides loans of money and material to poor artists. They re based out of various temples and shrines of Azu where they keep an eye out for aspiring artists.

Founding Date

-1271

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Demonym

Azurite

Deities

• Azu

Divines

• Azu