Church of Rohkea

Dedicated to the worship of the Fearless Shieldmaiden and to the spreading of her word, the Church of Rohkea is a powerful force in the New Kingdoms and the Frontier Lands.

Structure

Not actually members of the church hierarchy, but worthy of note are the members titled armorbearers or sometimes shieldbearers. These Are especially devoted lay members who perform small services for the church, such as cleaning up after services or organizing the scriptorium. While not part of the church hierarchy they perform an invaluable service by freeing up the hierarchy to deal with more spiritual concerns.
Above the armorbearers are the conscripts, generally younger members of the church who hope through study and displays of devotion to be elevated to full-fledged members of the church. They do the more menial tasks that aren’t entrusted to the armorbearers, such as copying the holy texts, and assisting with services.
Conscripts who have proven their faith and ability may eventually be promoted to the next rank that of myrmidons. Myrmidons are seen as warriors in training. They oversee the training of the conscripts beneath them and take on expanded roles in the church. Some minor services may be under the supervision of a myrmidon entirely.
Warriors are the priests of the church and earn the title. All are expected to be knowledgeable about Rohkea and her doctrine and to be skilled at arms. A warrior is usually charged with the overseeing of a single temple or shrine. They are responsible for organizing the temple and supervising the worship services, as well as the further training of the myrmidons assigned to them.
Recognized as the head of the church for a given town or city are the protectors. These higher-ranking members generally are charged with running multiple churches, though day to day affairs are left to the warriors. Protectors are generally chosen from the ranks of warriors and have a single temple or shrine they headquarter at.
Above the protectors sit the defenders. Usually charged with the churches in multiple communities, protectors are allowed and expected to make important decisions in the absence of their superiors. While many will attempt to consult the Rohkea directly others will simply utilize their best judgement in the absence of clear direction from their superiors.
Second in power to the guardians are the warders. These, usually older, members of the church have devoted a good portion of their lives to service to Rohkea. They oversee all the churches in a given region and will have multiple protectors answering to them. Most are not tied to a single temple or shrine, instead making the rounds of all the houses of worship in their region.
Overseeing all the churches in a given kingdom is the guardian. The warders answer to the guardian, who usually has a specific (and opulent) temple he presides in, often a mini palace with offices and monastery space. Warders tend to be old, and popular, though it is not unheard of for an unpopular but extremely competent warder to be promoted to guardian.
At the top of the church hierarchy is the champion. The champion is charged with overseeing the church of Rohkea as a whole. Usually based in the temple they used as headquarters as a guardian, they seldom travel anymore being well in their years. Still their minds are sharp, and they make decisions that affect the church as a whole, though not too often. The current champion of the church is Anselm of Taknod who is headquartered in Inanutchih, Nelat.

Public Agenda

The church’s agenda is to fulfill the will of Rohkea, which is that all beings should be free to choose good or evil. While the church would prefer that beings choose good, over evil, they recognize that some being will gravitate towards evil. They accept that beings must be free to choose evil, though they work against those that do in as much as they often interfere with the freedom of others to choose. They also seek to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and often offer free weapons training to those who are regular worshipers.

Assets

A popular deity the church of Rohkea is quite wealthy, however its members strive to live simple lives themselves setting an example for others. Most of what the church takes in by way of offerings is used to relieve the suffering of the poor in their community, or to beautify the local temple or shrine. Temples in richer areas will often share their wealth with poorer areas seeing poverty as a gateway to evil, but recognizing it is a part of the natural order. The church also stockpiles weapons and armor which they freely distribute to the community should it face attack. Most temples have sizable armories as well as sizable libraries as the church collects written works of all kinds, though they lend them out just as freely.

History

The church of Rohkea begin in the old kingdoms where she was a popular deity though her popularity is waning there especially amongst the aristocracy. The church flourished for many years and often served as mediators to prevent wars between kingdoms.

When the first human explorers to the New Kingdoms travelled across the sea, priests of Rohkea went with them to defend and to chronicle. They met their counterparts amongst the elves with joy and breaking of bread. It was the church of Rohkea that largely prevented all out war between the elven natives and the human settlers of the New Kingdom again serving as mediators between the two races. As the human communities were established the temples of ROhkea were some of the first buildings erected.

Naturally when exploration and settling of the Frontier Lands began the church travelled with the explorers and settlers. Some sought to spread the worship of Rohkea amongst the humanoid tribes of the land, while others merely wished to chronicle and protect the explorers and settlers. The former has little success as most orcs preferred the worship of Rohkea’s twin Ukkonen, while the hobgoblins often worshipped Asmodeus and were reluctant to switch.

Mythology & Lore

The third child of Utu and Eresu, Rohkea is twin sibling to Ukkonen, having emerged first from the womb of their mother. A slight Ukkonen has never forgotten. Rohkea was a precocious child who quickly absorbed weapon craft, strategy and tactics. As an adolescent she is said to have found the game of draughts too simple for her tastes and invented the game of chess as a more complex test of strategic thinking.
br] As a teenager she is said to have created the alphabet so that information could be easily stored and transmitted. Up to that time the only form of writing was crude pictograms which could have different meaning depending on the author. Rohkea created a writing system that could be understood by all easily and set about teaching it to the mortals. This is said to be the straw that triggered the Godswar.

Rohkea was tasked by her grandfather Utu with leading the forces of good, who wished mortals to have freedom of choice, in the Godswar. She proved a more then able commander often winning victories against superior forces through cunning use of strategy and tactics. Ukkonen who initially led the forces of evil still resent the many victories her twin won against her, and nurses grudges for that amongst many other things.

In the wake of the Godswar Rohkea initially wanted to set aside her role as marshal of the forces of good. However Utu wished her to continue in the role, and after some time to contemplate the decision she accepted, and continues to this day as the leader of the armies of good. In her free time, she has taken up weaving and has become quite adept at it to the point where she will sometimes disguise herself as a mortal and challenge other weavers to contests.

Tenets of Faith

Do not hesitate to stand against those who oppress or attack the innocent.
Never fail to help a friend in need.
Defend children in particular from abuse and evil, so their unwritten future can remain bright.
Ignorance is not malice. The misguided deserve mercy. They should be shown the error of their ways and given a fair chance to make amends.
No law, price or justification can legitimize slavery. Work to free slaves where you find them and never enslave another being to act against its own will.
Defend liberty, even when it challenges established community and family standards. Those who are true to themselves forge the strongest relationships with others and must be protected so long as they do no harm and do not infringe on others’ liberty in turn.
Your weapon and your skill with that weapon have been entrusted to you by those who have mastered their craft, and both deserve to be wielded by a skilled hand. Your training should be consistent and in time imparted to others as it was passed down to you.
Your personal conduct reflects on your family and your goddess; conscientiously maintain your reputation for their sake even on the battlefield.
The strategy of war involves deception by nature, but the flag of peace is sacrosanct. Accept no negotiations from those who have attacked a foe under the pretense of arbitration or truce for their own gain; they have destroyed the trust that reconciliation requires.

Ethics

The duty of the followers of Rohkea is to defend the innocent from those who would oppress or attack them. They believe that all beings deserve the freedom to choose good or evil, and that oppressing or attacking (a form of oppression) takes that freedom away. They particularly seek to defend children from abuse and evil, as children still have futures in which they can choose good over evil, so the church punishes severely those who would harm children. This passion for freedom extends to slavery as well. The church of Rohkea does not tolerate slavery in the lands where it has influence and seeks to free any slaves they find. They also work to see that slavers face the most severe penalties possible. The church does tolerate indentured servitude recognizing it as necessary and freely entered into, however they strive to make certain that no one abuses they system.

While the church stands against evil, it recognizes that ignorance is not malice and that beings can commit evil acts out of malice. To this end they work with temples of Emku and Mudutu to educate the populace. They believe that the misguided who commit evil in ignorance deserve mercy and to be shown the error of their ways and seek that justice in such cases is tempered with mercy.

They believe that liberty and freedom of choice is more important than any law of standard set by the community and will defend those who break with such standards to be true to themselves. This is not to say they eschew laws they recognize that laws serve a purpose so long as it is to protect individual freedom, and not suppress it. To this end they will almost always take the side of the individual over the community so long as said individual’s actions do not infringe on the liberty of others.

The bonds of friendship are of particular importance to the church. As one saying goes, “Friends are family one chooses for himself.” To this end faithful are expected to always help a friend in need by ending whatever aid they can. TO turn away a friend in need is considered one of the worst sins, second in seriousness to denying another their liberty.

Because they are seen as defenders of the innocent the church encourages its members to learn the use of weapons and armor for times of need. To this end the church offers free training to members and encourages all members to learn at least one weapon. It also encourages those who have had more thorough training to pass on what they have learned. To this end experienced adventuring clerics are frequently drafted into leading weapon training classes when they are in town. This also extend to the necessity of continually honing one’s skill. Followers are encouraged to set aside some time each day if possible, to practice with their weapons.

Followers of Rohkea are instructed to be above reproach in all their dealings both off the battlefield and on it. Since their behavior reflects on both their family as well as the church and ultimately Rohkea herself, bad behavior is not tolerated amongst the faithful. That is not to say that an occasional slip is not tolerated, so long as they are unintentional and not made a habit. Those who routinely flout Rohkea’s forgiveness will be first chastised publicly and if that does not produce a change in behavior excommunicated from the church.

The church recognizes that deception can be an important aspect of strategy on the battlefield. However, they see the flag of truce as sacrosanct and will always respect it. The sol e exception to this rule is those who have attacked under the pretense of truce. Those who have done so have proven they cannot be trusted to honor the flag of truce. To these foes the flag of truce is simply not accepted. As a rule orcs and other followers of Ukkonen have betrayed the flag of truce too often to be trusted, and for them it is either surrender or death.

Worship

Worship services are generally held once a tenday. Though weapon training which they consider a form of worship is usually more frequent. Gatherings take place in the evenings when the day's work is done. The congregation gathers and sings several songs in praise to Rohkea. Afterwards there is a reading from A Manual of Tactics and Strategy which the worship leader will expound upon. Afterwards there is the crossing of blades where the faithful take part in short duels. These duels are just to first touch and the cleric running the service is careful to match contestants of equal skill. Once a month a bull or goat is sacrificed to Rohkea with the meat eaten by the congregation while the remains are burned on the alter. Once a year, in a special ceremony a bear is sacrificed in a similar ceremony.

Priesthood

Priests, or warriors as they are titled, are chosen from the ranks of the myrmidons who have proven both their wisdom, knowledge, martial skill and devotion to Rohkea. When performing their ceremonial duties, they wear robes of sky blue trimmed with gold. When not performing their duties they dress in everyday clothes, but usually have an item such as a sash or cape of sky blue.

Political Influence & Intrigue

Owing to their ethos, the church of Rohkea is popular in mist kingdoms where good holds sway. The warriors and up are often trusted advisors to rulers, especially on matters of tactics, strategy and when to not go to war at all. As such the church wields a lot of temporal power as the advice of its clergy is not lightly ignored. The church is very careful not to abuse this power, instead seeking merely to guide the rulers in protecting the freedom of their citizens. The church does not involve itself mush in intrigue except where the church of Asmodeus has power. Their the two faiths will play a complicated game of chess each seeking to achieve its ends.