Church of the Night
Church of Sela
The Church of the Night was the organization dedicated to spreading the dogma and carrying out the wishes of the deity Sela.
The faith was now forbidden in all the Elven Kingdom of Arborea, Moonwood and many areas of Valenor which led to the church going underground, practicing in hiding much of the time. An element of fear was associated with the worship of Sela since many of her followers were willing to give their lives in her service.
Dogma
Do not reveal your secrets to strangers other than your brothers or faithful.
Boycott Arva's agents and items wherever you encounter them, and hide from them when you can't prevail.
When darkness falls, act, do not wait any longer.
Unless under the watchful eye of the Moon Goddess' servants, it is forbidden to fight to improve one's position or make plans for the future.
Marrying faithful to other deities is a sin, do it only if it is an attempt to remove them from their beliefs or corrupt them.
Obey the clerical hierarchy, on pain of your death.
Scriptures
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The colors blue and black are widely used in the church of Sela and among its faithful: most of the Sela's clergy wear black cloaks or dark, placid and silent robes with blue ornaments, borders or accessories during the rites; the high ceremonial robe for those of rank or who have a particular role in a rite is a long-sleeved, deep blue robe worn over black tights or a black velvet shirt. A black skullcap covers the head except for women with raven hair: such hair is seen as a symbol of the Night Lady's favor and is allowed to flow free and long.
Less common versions of the Sela symbols are a shimmering blue eye outlined in black with a black pupil or an unadorned, uniformly spread black hunting cloak (with hood).
The Selaite clergy wear practical garments according to the fashion of the place they are in while pursuing the everyday. They are passionate about jewelry modeled in materials such as obsidian, black onyx, sapphire and night blue jade, but they are not obliged to wear it. When they engage in a situation where they might encounter hostility they wear armor and take appropriate protective measures.
Rituals & Traditions
Rise of Darkness: Main and only holiday recognized by the Selaites, it coincides with the day of the Moon Festival. This rite involves a blood sacrifice, and the clergy unveil some of their plans for the year ahead.
Fall of the Night: Rite held every night by the priests of Sela, which includes a short prayer and a dance. All faithful who are not priests must actively participate in a Fall of the Night at least once a decade. During this ceremony, raven-haired worshipers can have assignments from the goddess and assign them to other worshipers. During the moonless nights this ceremony takes the name of the Coming of the Lady.
Kiss of the Lady: This ceremony is decreed by the priests. The ritual lasts all night and is characterized by crazy revelries and unspeakable acts in the name of the Goddess until the sun rises.
Places of Worship
The Temple of the Ancient Night (well hidden in the Kingdom of Arborea) is the oldest, superb place of worship in Sela: it is an underground complex underneath much of the eastern part of the city of Eliereth and is ruled by the highest known mortal servant of Sela: the Elder Irtemara, the Twilight Dancer, a dissolute and weary Arborean female famous for her feasts and deadly quirks (which, over the years, have led to at least six changes of government in various realms across Valenor). Irtemara is loyally served by three male priests who secretly work against each other: they will undoubtedly break out in open struggle for supremacy when Irtemara dies. The Temple of the Ancient Night competes for supremacy over the Dark Followers with the Dark Embrace, a temple founded almost 45 years ago by the clergy of the Dark Goddess dissatisfied with the command of the Ancient Night. The Embrace rests on the top of a peak of the Amn, dominating the central part of the commercial road that connects Imnescar and Esmeltaran; its policies are more ruthless than those demonstrated at Calimport: the faithful of the Embrace are more openly active in local politics when they operate, employing killings where intimidation and the fulfillment of dark wishes fail. At the helm is a small circle of clergy whose leader seems to be the Eye in the Flame Aubert Heldynstar and most of the Dark Embrace clergy is made up of Night Mantis.Holy days
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Sister / Brother Night: used among peers in rankAdept of the Night: Novice priests of the church
Mother / Father Nocturnal: used towards superiors
Night Mantle: priest external to the structure of the nuclei but who serves as a contact or informer
Hand of Sela: Priest experienced in combat, leading other adventurous priests or coordinating nuclei
Dark Lady (s): Priests at the head of a city
Prophet of the Night: priests in charge of large regional areas
Flame of Darkness: the leaders of the church
Structure of the Church [ h2]
Introduction
To be able to claim to be at the service of the Church of Sela, one must belong to one of its nuclei, whoever does not belong to any nucleus is an independent follower. The church is founded on secrecy, often even among its own members, so much so that secrets are seen as a bargaining chip. Priests play a very important and delicate role, being for the most part they weave the plots. The Church of Sela is very united, the members are few and almost all, even the most ambitious, collaborate to achieve its goals.
Hierarchy
The Church of Sela to maintain its secrecy works divided into nuclei scattered around the various cities. Each nucleus has its own internal hierarchy, usually not too sophisticated, with a priest at the top. For the rest, the hierarchy in the nuclei differs from place to place. Each region also has a high priest of reference, to whom the heads of the various nuclei communicate their progress and receive their orders. Sometimes it can happen that a nucleus is not managed by a priest, if his boss has shown that he deserves sufficient trust.
The nuclei collaborate with each other more or less aware of doing so. It will never happen that two nuclei compete with each other, by virtue of the dogmas of the Goddess herself.
The Level of Awareness
Depending on the position within the nuclei, the members can be divided into five macro categories based on how much they are involved in the plots of the high clergy. This subdivision is called the Level of Awareness (hereinafter CNS). The members of a CNS have on average the same "quantity" of information.
CNS1 -> It is the high clergy of the Church. They actually make the decisions themselves, although they may decide to confront others and make them aware of more or less details. They know every detail of all the movements of the Church and plan future actions. They are the ones who contact the heads of the various nuclei by giving them missions, or by making them aware of some secrets of the Church. With the CNS3 they pretend to be CNS2, that is referents of a city. All members of this category are followers, and usually priests, of Sela.
CNS2 -> They are the leaders of the various nuclei scattered throughout the Realms and their most trusted helpers, they know at least one of the members of the high clergy (CSN1) and take orders directly from it. They may or may not be made aware of the plans. Ideally there should be one CNS2 per city in order to keep an eye on them all, but the CSN2 group of a city can be made up of several people. All members of this category are followers of Sela.
CNS3 -> They are new recruits, newly converted people or people with poor organizational and leadership skills. Therefore they remain under the direct control of the CNS2 of the city in which they live and take orders from him. They do not necessarily know members of the high clergy, and even if they do know them, they most likely consider them to be CSN2 from other cities. All members of this category are followers of Sela.
CNS4 -> They know that their core has purely "evil" objectives, but they believe that the purposes are anything but religious: wealth, power, etc. They take orders from their superiors CNS2, and sometimes from CNS3 specially delegated. They have no idea that there is another hierarchical level above them. There are rarely Selaites within this category, but it cannot be excluded.
CNS5 -> They know nothing about the nuclei or the church. They believe they are simple groups of mercenaries / adventurers like so many others and are hired from time to time to help them in certain missions. They do not know who is actually in charge, nor the actual purposes for which they are moving. Depending on the missions, they may or may not see the faces of the party members. In this category there will never be Selaites declared as such.
Rules within the core
Each nucleus will have its own brief internal regulations that will differ from the others, but what is important for all is that the members of a nucleus must defend their identity and that of their companions before anything else, unless they have different orders.
How to enter a nucleus
For a faithful devotee of Sela, entering a nucleus is usually not very difficult, if he manages to get in touch with the Selaites operating in his city, he will most likely join automatically as CNS3 or CNS4.
A Convert, on the other hand, is certain that he will play in the nucleus of those who brought him into the arms of Sela, again as CSN3 or CNS4. During the conversion it is very likely that he works as CNS4. A faithful not devoted to Sela, will work for the core without knowing it most of the time.
Relations between Selaitians
Normally among themselves the faithful avoid opposing and deceiving each other. As one of the dogmas quotes:Unless under the watchful eye of the Dark Goddess' servants, it is forbidden to fight to improve one's position or make plans for the future.This allows to limit the struggles within the church for power. However, if it is not strictly necessary to increase the power of the Goddess, the priests of the individual nuclei jealously guard their secrets.
| Clerics of Sela | |
|---|---|
| Symbol | A Crescent Moon |
| Favored weapon | Axes, Swords, Maces |
| Deity Domain | Moon Domain
Darkness Domain Evil Domain |
| Rituals | |
| Granted Powers | |
| Holy Items |
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