The Church believe in a single god composed of three fused beings, Torquemada, Holbein, and a god of magic. They hold that all other gods are merely evil spirits indent on diverting men from the true path, and in fact even the component gods of their triumvirate are false gods when worshiped separately. They hold that this merged three part god was the result of an inevitable divine justice merging the three most worthy evil spirits in the age before man. It was this triple god that then created humanity, and thus is the only god worthy of worship.
The central tenants of the Church of the Triumvirate all revolve around three concepts: death, suffering, and exclusion. Death is seen as the only true certainty as even immortals will die in time through violence. Suffering is seen as the only way by which one can earn favor with the divine and as necessary retribution for each and every sin. Exclusion is to say that the three part god only rarely grants his favor, and it is only for the elect. As such the faithful are taught to endure oppression handed down by their superiors, seek retribution for all slights from their equals, and actively harm their lessers.
The faithful are expected to attend a community religious service at least twice a week. During this time they are expected to kneel or lie prostrate on bare stone floors and confess their sins to the priest before their entire community. Following each service public punishments are carried out for the confessed sins.
The Church trains its priests in specialized schools from childhood. These schools isolate them from the sinful outside world with windowless high-walls and tight drawn cowls for the times when they are forced to travel outside. It is considered imperative to isolate the priests from the lesser faithful in order to insure the proper distance in enforcing religious morality. Upon graduation priests are assigned to a parish determined by their supervisor. They are not allowed to choose their assignment location and are generally assigned to locations far from their birthplace, to prevent familial favoritism causing the priest to show undue mercy.
Once assigned young priests are tasked with instructing the local citizens in the ways of the faith and act as a form of morality police. They are given authority to judge the morality of any member of their parish and determine appropriate punishments for any discovered sin.
Priests are identified by brightly colored robes and hats which indicate their rank.
The priests of the Triumvirate are given the power to heal the sick and wounded, delay the effects of aging, and command demons. Their healing powers are given out for free to all their supplicants, but any instance of healing is also used as a time to check up on the morality and debts of the patient. Which frequently results in a wounded peasant being imprisoned following his treatment.
Their ability to halt aging is more complicated and controversial. The inevitability of death is one of the Church's core tenants, but their god quite deliberately and specifically gave them the ability to remove reminders of this from the body. The eventual answer to this dilemma was that the priesthood would avoid using anti-aging magic on themselves for it would impede their teachings on death if the speaker appeared as adolescent into his sixth decade. The nobility however had no such obligation and have leveraged the Church to ensure that all but the most conservative noble appears to be a youth up until the moment they pass.
Last of the priesthood's power is to command demons. As demons are rarely capable of holding physical form this was initially seen as an ability intended only to banish possessing spirits. However it was quickly found that a possessed individual could be commanded by proxy through the demon in their body. Thus the tradition of demonhost slaves made from the bodies of sinners was born.
The Church's primary goal is the preservation of its own power and reinforcing the power of the monarchy. This involves suppressing foreign ideas and controlling innovation wherever possible. All new developments in technology and culture are heavily scrutinized and suppressed until the Church can find a way to control them, insuring that the people can only obtain information through the priesthood.
Comments