Church of Thalassa Organization in Scourged Lands of Valenor | World Anvil
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Church of Thalassa

Thalassa, the Queen of the Seas is mainly feared by Sailors, as her change of humor are seen as the tempest or the becalmed sea. The rain is also her domain, so the temples of Thalassa receive huge offers to end droughts. She is also the goddess of elemental Water and so is invoked by mages to control Water Elemental.

Dogma

The sea is a wild place, and those who cross it will do well to pay the price of entering the domains of Thalassa.
Adequate offerings bring good winds to sea travelers, but those who don't pay will find to their regret that the sea is as cold as the heart of Thalassa.
Spread the news of Thalassa's power and let no service be done in his name without a fair price. It makes people fear the wind and the wave if a Thalassa cleric is not there to protect them.
Kill anyone who claims that the tides and sea storms belong to Leida.

 

Scriptures

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Worshippers

Like the church of Gharuk, the church of Thalassa is almost universally despised and propitiated only out of fear. Nevertheless, despite the promise offered by the church of Leida, nearly every sailor makes an offering to the Sea Queen before heading into her domain and Thalassan clerics can walk unmolested in dockside wards in most ports. They are even welcomed aboard most ships, in hopes that their presence will help appease the Sea Queen.

 
Clergy

Thalassan clergy are charged to spread respect for Thalassa by preaching of the doom she has wrought in the past and the storms to come in all coastal cities and settlements. Along the way, they seek to build up favor enough to be washed ashore by the deity if they are ever in danger on the seas and to enrich themselves by accepting offerings, selling the safety of their own presence on shipboard, or by casting certain spells.

 
Paladins
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Monks
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Clothing and Symbols

The ceremonial garb of the Thalassan clerics consists of a skintight blue or green body stocking worn with a voluminous cape of blue or green trimmed with white fur (to represent foaming breakers). A tall collar, similarly trimmed, rises from the back of the cape’s neck.  

Rituals & Traditions

Thalassan clerics pray for spells at high tide (in the morning or evening), making offerings and self-anointing on the brow, hands, and feet with sea water.

The two public rituals of the Thalassan faith are the First Tide and the Stormcall. The former is celebrated when the ice breaks up in a harbor and involves a parade through town with a caged animal, which is then tied to a rock and hurled into the sea. If it reaches shore alive, it is treated as a sacred animal for the rest of its days.

Stormcall is a mass prayer to send a storm to devastate a specific harbor or ship or to turn away an approaching storm or one that has already broken upon the worshipers. Its participants pray around pools upon which float candles on driftwood planks, and throw sacrifices into the pools. A doused candle is a sure sign of the Sea Queen’s anger. Thalassa’s clerics tend to multiclass as druids, fighters, rogues, divine disciples, or waveservants.

The Drowning is a private ritual, and only clergy members may witness it or take part. In the Drowning, a supplicant lies before an altar and is surrounded by candles lit to the deity, each placed with an intoned prayer by a different Thalassan cleric. The attending clergy then withdraw and release a wave of sea water to flood the room in a huge breaking wave and then flow away. Supplicants who survive are confirmed in the service of Thalassa and warned that if they should ever betray the Queen of the Deeps, drowning is the fate that awaits them. They were spared during the Drowning and so can be taken by the Sea Queen at any time to come. (Clergy whom the Sea Queen feels have failed her go to sleep one night never to awaken, dying under the night of drowning, their lungs mysteriously filled with sea water.)

 

Places of Worship

The church of Thalassa is disorganized and run differently in different locales. The only organized hierarchy is that imposed by a particularly favored and powerful cleric, and such regimes are inevitably washed away in time by the ever-fickle Sea Queen. Clerics of the faith are even given to dueling each other to settle disputes of rank or ability, although such combats are rarely fatal. Instead, the loser is usually thrown aboard the next ship to leave port, regardless of the destination. Temples of Thalassa are always located along the coast or underwater. Many lie within sea caves, while free-standing structures are usually are constructed from flotsam, surf-pounded rocks, and the shells of great sea beasts. Thalassan temples are mainly vehicles for sailors and merchants to make offerings of candles, flowers, candies, or coin to appease the Sea Queen’s wrath.  

Holy days

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Relics

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Myths and legends

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Clerics of Thalassa
Symbol A Raging wave
Favored weapon Spears, Harpoon, Trident
Deity Domain Water Domain
Travel Domain
Destruction Domain
Rituals When a Ships or Caravan leave.
When a Ships or Caravan get at destination.
Granted Powers
Holy Items

Dogma
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Holy Days
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Church Organization
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Temples
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Type
Religious, Organised Religion
Parent Organization
Subsidiary Organizations
Notable Members

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Character flag image: Church of Thalassa

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