Brotherhood of the Waves (/bɹʌðɚhʊd ʌv ðə weɪvz/)

The Brotherhood of the Waves is a longtime religious cult operating out of Valecina. The Brotherhood was formerly a quite secretive about its operations, appearing in public primarily to recruit new followers into the cult rather than carry out its rituals. In recent years however the Brotherhood is infamous for its cruelty, as it has begun openly sacrificing sentient beings now that it has some amount of power. The Brotherhood of the Waves is well known for its connections to the infamous pirate organization, the Talons, and many Talons are Brotherhood members. Outside of the Talons, the Brotherhood has few friends, and many enemies with what passes for authorities trying to crack down on the organization, to little effect, and the Black Fleet banning its own members from joining the Cult.
The exact beliefs of the Brotherhood are hard to pin down as their organization has maintained an air of secrecy even has it has become more public in its operations. However, it is broadly known that the Brotherhood worships an entity known by many names, the most famous of which is "The Watcher in the Deep". This entity is said to speak directly to the High Confessor of the Brotherhood, and the word of the Confessor is said to be the absolute law of the organization. The Watcher, if the directives of the High Confessor are at all informative, is a bloodthirsty god, demanding the frequent sacrifice of sentients in a cruel and unusual manner as those being sacrificed are exsanguinated into the waves. This is done to placate the Watcher to spare members of the Brotherhood from the wrath of the vicious or ever thirsting seas. Indeed, recruiters for the cult frequently sell the Brotherhood as a "Sailor's faith" worshipping the sea itself as a divine entity free of attachments to other established religions, and even in more indoctrinated echelons of the cult the Watcher is generally deemed to be an extension of the Ocean itself, its anger made manifest.

Tenets of Faith

There are three core tenets in the Brotherhood of the Waves:
Relentlessness: Just as the sea itself is a callous and unrelenting so too should members of the Brotherhood be. Members of the cult are expected to never stop pursuing their goals, and to never ever show mercy.
Violence of Action: Often tempered by recruiters as "decisiveness of action", the Tenet of Violence of action is a hotly debated one. Just as the sea is a violent place so too must members of the brotherhood be willing to destroy obstacles to their goals.
Competition: As the sea is a vast expanse filled with endless competition, Brothers of the Waves are expected too to compete not only with outsides, but among themselves in order to prove themselves the strongest in the face of the Watcher.
Silence: Just as the seas keep their secrets soo too must members of the Brotherhood. This is seen largely as a defensive measure to keep the activities of the  Brotherhood secret and secure.

Ethics

The ethics of the Brotherhood are rather chaotic, and highly dependent on who happens to be serving as High Confessor at any given time. As the High Confessor is seen, by the Brotherhood as the infallible voice of the Watcher in the Deep, their directives have a massive impact on the tenets of the faith. The Brotherhood has traditionally and consistently however favored a code of ethics that minimizes the value of sentient life, places a high value on strength and ruthlessness. Under these general tenets, ethical actions include power seizures, especially outside the Brotherhood itself, recruiting more followers, and gathering sacrifices for the regular rituals undertaken by the Brotherhood's priesthood. Generally unethical actions include displaying weakness, cowardice, and overly merciful actions. Opinions have been divided on certain issues such as slavery, obedience to the priesthood and other matters, and varies significantly depending on the makeup the clergy. Under the leadership of Garios Stryxis, the Brotherhood has become far more militant, far less tolerant of dissension, and crueler even than the norm for the organization.

Worship

Members of the brotherhood have a relatively lax social code, and few daily rituals, with most religious activity taking place in the larger ceremonies in the temple at Valecina. Over time, some practitioners of the faith have taken up a few smaller practices beyond doing their duty of collecting tithes and sacrifices and proving their strength. These members will often dump the guts of fish and animals they have killed for food into the sea, or a few drops of their own blood in the sea in order to ward themselves against bad luck. Bigger ceremonies are where most religious activity occurs, and it takes the form of elaborate rituals in or near the Temple in Valecina, where Confessors will engage in mass sentient sacrifice, slicing open prisoners and draining the blood of their victims into the water. These rituals, when conducted outdoors are very public, and bring great concern to many non-members, leading to attacks on the Temple. As a result such ceremonies encourage members of the Brotherhood to come armed for bear, ready to protect the faith from outsiders.

Priesthood

The priesthood of the brotherhood of is fairly small and simply organized. As most lay followers are allowed, and encouraged even, to bring in prospective converts, the priesthood has largely been absolved of that responsibility. Priests, known as confessors are responsible for performing most of the ritual sacrifices, as well as selecting, and in rare cases, securing the sacrifices themselves. The priesthood is led by a High Confessor, who is said to be a prophet directly revealing the directives of the Watcher in the Deep, and as such is said, effectively to be the mouthpiece of the cult's god. Members of the priesthood are almost all magically empowered, though the powers they exhibit are atypical for divinely empowered casters.

Granted Divine Powers

The Brotherhood of the Waves does have a magically empowered caste of people leading the religion. Curiously however, they seem to lack the traditional blessings associated with the clergy of other, more organized faiths. Rather, by all available reports, Confessors of the Brotherhood make pacts with the Watcher in Waves exchanging loyal service, and often something else, in exchange for their powers. Such pacts are not entirely dissimilar from those made by people called 'Warlocks' by others. Regardless, members of the Cult have been demonstrated to have all levels of magical empowerment, from the lowest circles, to the rare few who are capable of casting spells of the highest orders available to mortals.

Political Influence & Intrigue

The Brotherhood of the Waves has been growing steadily in political influence throughout its decades of existence. It has a symbiotic relationship with the pirate band known as the Talons, who represent a considerable portion of the Brotherhood's membership. The Brotherhood and Talons both have a large political presence in the Town of Valecina, the largest free pirate port in the known world. This results in them having outsize political sway over those engaging piracy particularly in the Northern Yulan Ocean. Non-Brotherhood leaders in Valecina have been locked in struggle with the organization for control of the town, and such conflicts have broken out into open combat in the streets of the town on occasion. Were Valecina to fall into the hands of the Brotherhood, many believe disaster would follow.

Founding Date

ER 465

Type

Religious, Cult

Alternative Names

The Brotherhood

Demonym

Brotherhood

Leader

Garios Stryxis

Location

Valecina