Clerics of the Great Church
The clergy stands at the center of the Great Church’s five holy orders. From them arise bishops, archbishops, and The Supreme Patriarch or Matriarch. Members of the order focus on missions for the church, spread the faith wherever they go, perform doing great deeds in the name of the gods. The clergy of the Great Church is vast, and accommodates a range of different beliefs. The Supreme Patriarch however, determines the order’s official attitude, missions, goals, and actions.
Therefore, the role of the Church in any world varies based on the heart of its highest-ranking cleric. Most clerics of the Great Church are lawful good, as is the Church. However, there are strong contingents of neutral good and lawful neutral clergy. The lawful good clerics are dedicated to the furthering of the Church’s goals for the spiritual salvation of every common person, and strongly believe this can be best accomplished by doing the Church’s work and spreading its teachings and laws. Lawful neutral clerics of the Church care for little but the Church itself. Most involve themselves in Church politics and secular affairs, seeking to expand the influence of the faith. Because they are so dedicated to their work, lawful neutral clerics are among some of the most powerful in the Great Church. They are also the most closely tied with the deaconry.
Neutral good clerics are usually politically unskilled, but are particularly good at fulfilling Church doctrine. It is from the neutral good group that most of the adventuring clerics come, with many of them gone from their home Church for years on end, performing the gods’ works abroad. For this reason, among others, they make terrible deans, and almost never receive the opportunity to rise further in Church hierarchy.
Joining the Clergy
Anyone of faith might find a place in the clergy by spending several years as an acolyte, working and studying in a church to learn all the prayers and how to perform the various services. Those who complete the training become clerics and are assigned to a church determined by the dean of the church where they trained. Since the Great Church encompasses all the gods, clerics can take almost any domain for the Divine Domain class feature, though domains of an obvious evil bent such as the Corruption Domain, Death Domain, or Tyranny are not permitted. Clerics use their church as a base of operations, and undertake missions determined by their deans. After some time and experience, clerics are free to do the gods’ work in whatever manner they choose. Adventuring clerics favor weapons that resemble the tree of their faith, so most use clubs and maces. Particularly powerful or important clerics carry massive maces made to look like trees, with green heads and studs that look like golden fruit.
Type
Religious
Famous in the Field
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