Keepers of the Deep
The Keepers of the Deep have no enemy quite as monumental as themselves. While it was once a united church, not dissimilar to the Templum Nekrutan, it ultimately ripped itself apart, and fell to countless warring factions. The Church of Shaold has now fallen to infighting. If one faction is ever able to gain a leg up on the competition, the others unite, briefly, to end the threat. Sometimes a once powerful faction is able to survive the onslaught, but more often than not, that faction is destroyed, its resources and surviving personel subsumed by those that crushed them.
Each different faction has its own ideas on how the next great church of Shaold should function. They each have their own doctrines and dogmas that they want the other factions to follow. Some follow simple rules, while others hold to ancient ceremonies and traditions. Each has its own hierarchies and officers, resources and locations, strengths and weaknesses. None of them have been endorsed by the Triton's central government. Some of them have come close, only to be nearly or totally destroyed by the others.
The Keepers of the Deep exist now only as an ideal of how the church once was, and how it may once again be. For now, the different factions war against each other in hopes of instituting their own visions of the church and installing their own versions of stability.
New factions live and die with the waves. There have been as many as forty seven recorded as active at the same time, and as few as fourteen. Their sizes have ranged from the tens to the tens of thousands. One of the only things that they hold in common is that they all bow to the queen of the Tritons.
Many factions focus on one of Shaold's teachings or aspects, but the most successful and longest lasting of the factions have always been those that have been able to consolodate several. Unfortunately, many of these fall to infighting themselves. The rise and fall of these larger factions almost seems to emulate the rising and crashing of waves on the surface of the oceans.
Due to the nature of the factions' wars, none of them have leave from the Queen or her council to have facilities in Sinara, the Triton Capital. Instead, the churches and temples there are maintained by priests, paladins, and clerics that have recused themselves from factions are allowed to preach.
Culture
The culture of the Keepers is one of constant political, militaristic, and economic combat. There is nothing that seems to be able to unite them aside from one of them getting too powerful and threatening hegemony. Within each faction, things are more varied, but they tend to have highly heirarchical structures, be led by councils, and have fanatical fervor for their beliefs.
Tenets of Faith
While there are many factions, and few beliefs held in common, these are generally held by at least a majority of them at any given time:
Only strength will unite the church once more.
Our faction's ways are the true way to worship Shaold, and must be protected.
The others must be destroyed for their heretical beliefs.
The strongest will rise.
Type
Religious, Organised Religion
Deities
