Church of Mudutu

Mudutu is the god of crafts, knowledge, literature, secrets, and travel, and as one might expect members of his church value knowledge, covet secrets and love to travel.

Structure

At the bottoming are the lay brethren, the everyday worshipers. The lowest rung are the wanderers, those who have proclaimed their dedication to the church. Above the wanderers are the itinerants, these are wanderers who have over the course of several years proven their dedication to the church. Next up are the travelers, these are the priests of the church who run the temples and shrines. Above the travelers are the wayfarers, a wayfarer oversees all the temples and shrines in a city and usually serves as traveler in one. A community too small to have more than one temple or shrine will generally not have a wayfarer. Above wayfarers are the vagrants who oversee multiple communities. In more civilized lands this is generally a city and its surrounding towns and villages. Above vagrants are the trekkers who oversee an entire region, usually consisting of multiple cities and their surrounding towns and villages. Above the trekkers are the nomads who oversee all the churches within a single kingdom. At the top of the hierarchy is the journeyer who is head of the church. The current Journeyer is headquartered in Miwdoh in the kingdom of Innethtay.

Public Agenda

The church of Mudutu seeks to spread education throughout all lands and offers free classes on reading, writing, and arithmetic. Many temples also offer more advanced classes on history, philosophy and other topics. They also seek to preserve knowledge and collect and copy books, Even the smallest shrine will have a collection of books and scrolls while larger temples will have extensive libraries, which are open to the public (for a small donation) though they do not lend out books. They also seek to encourage craftsmen and will often serve as patrons to promising young craftsmen who are just starting out. They also seek to encourage travel as travel spreads knowledge and will often organize caravans of travelers through more dangerous territory, allowing individual travelers to journey in the relative safety of a group.

Assets

Mudutu is a popular deity with the common folk booth for the schools the church runs and for the travelers they assist. Consequently, many donate to the church, especially adventurers who often have quite a bit of money. As a result, most temples are well funded and even the shrines do not want for resources. In addition, the church has the largest collection of books, scrolls and tomes in all the known lands. Texts are routinely copied and shared with other temples to ensure that the loss of one temple or shrine will not result in the loss of a rare book. Also, many wizards and others seek to peruse the libraries maintained by the church and donate generously for the privilege.

History

Mudutu has always been a popular deity and was worshipped extensively in the Old Kingdoms. When humans and halflings traveled to the New Kingdoms, they brought the church with them to find that many of the elves and dwarves were already worshippers. Naturally as people began to colonize the Frontier Lands the church went as well.

Tenets of Faith

The hand of a craftsman is sacred to Mudutu, who believes that craftsmen should be respected and protected. He holds the same opinion regarding books and other repositories of knowledge. Teachers are very important to him, held in much the same esteem as craftsmen. He holds that knowledge should be freely available to all. However, he also holds that those entrusted with a secret are honor bound to keep it. A paradox that his clerics spend endless hours debating.

Worship

Worship of Mudutu consists of singing songs of praise followed by members of the congregation sharing new bits of knowledge they’ve discovered or tales of trips they’ve undertaken recently. This is usually followed by a sermon from the local traveler who oversees the shrine or temple. Such sermons encourage people to learn and expand their mind and skills. The service ends with more singing and is followed by a craft fair where local craftsmen show off their latest wares for sale.

Priesthood

All clergy of Mudutu double as teachers and work to educate children in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Some also teach more advanced classes of history, philosophy and other topics. However, unlike the basic courses the advanced course require payment. Most of his clergy also at least dabble in a craft of some sort. Some also study arcane magic and these clergy often become mystic theurges.