Temple of the Seven Organization in The Myriad Realms | World Anvil

Temple of the Seven

Temple of the Seven is one of the few religions that found a way to exist on a level that transcends the border of a single world. Seventists can be found in almost every single corner of the universe, with the sole exceptions of Elysium and Ferra (as the first is the domain of the Temple's major enemy - Church of the Highmost, and the latter is general irreligious). Unlike the Cults of the Ascended, it is also an organized religion, with a clear cut structure and attempts at proselytizing (well, its form of it).   Temple is waging a long-game for control (or at least far-going influence) over the universe. Unlike the Church of the Highmost, which does that a bit more straightforwardly, the Temple hides its ambitions under a veneer of disinteresement. Temple grows not by extinguishing previous religious worship (save for the Church, in most cases), but by incorporating the Ascendant as a part of its belief system, relegating them to being lesser deities vassalized by the High Archons. The result is indistinguishable from straightforward conversion.   The biggest problem with the Temple - aside from having so many outside enemies - is the fact that the High Archons care little for good and bad. They offer power at a price (typically going through proper rituals, making right offerings regularly, and so on), but you can expect them to not try to dictate your city what should the local legal order. While this gives the Temple an advantage when it comes to avoiding the governments lashing against it for criticism, each mean things done by the countries where the Temple is large in number does slightly decline the popular look on the Temple as a whole.   The list of the High Archons includes:   Everlasting Sun, god of light, fire and both rulers and nobility (or at least politicians).
Night Eternal, goddess of thieves, vagrants, outlaws and generally people at the bottom of society (plus night and shadows).
Great Mother, goddess of fertility, sex, women and motherhood.
Patient Hunter, god of war, hunting and a patron of soldiers in general.
Crown of Enlightenment, two faced and two-gendered deity of magic and knowledge, with one face being creation and one destruction.
Worm-That-Walks, god of burial, decay and all that is dead or rots.
Moonlit Anvil, goddess of change and crafting.   There are also three not worshipped Black Archons, who are believed to be High Archons that decided to be very evil (although how exactly that happened is barely described in theology). Their list includes:   Broken King, god of destruction and malice, whose worshippers believe that he will one day end all existence.
Rapturous Storm, hermaphroditic deity of self-destructive hedonism, who actually endorses self-destruction.
Hungry Void, genderless deity of nothingness, who espouses ascetism and denial of existence as a whole, to the point when its worshippers refute themselves into never existing in the first place.   Beneath those gods, are the Archons - each of the ten High or Black Archonts is accompanied by two Archons, who are more like a variations on their patron's general theme. The lowest level of the list of the gods recognized by the Temple of the Seven includes Demi-Archons, 'assimilated' Ascended - who, once again, tend to be 'categorized' as servants of one the seven High Archons (or the three Black Archons)

Structure

To begin with, there are priests and priestesses of the Temple, ordained at the local temples (and with those who are yet become ordained being called acolytes). Temples are generally independent - they offer certain services in order to sustain themselves, which ranges from crafting through combat training to sacral prostitution. They are, however, expected to pay a predetermined slice of their income to sustain larger structures in their world, and have to stick to the Temple's orthodoxy when it comes to their teachings and approach to the local politics, namely strict neutrality at least as a religious organization.   Each recognized sovereign political entity will typically have a single high priest in charge of it. The duties of the high priests are both representative (it isn't unheard of them to crown the local monarch, bless the newly born heirs, precide over various other ceremonies, etc.) and administratorial, with a large degree of law enforcement - it's the job of the high priests to ensure orthodoxy of the numerous regional temples and shrines.   All the high priests of the world are a part of the world's Sacred Assembly, who is pretty much a collective equivalent of the Church of the Highmost's supreme pontiffs. It's job is, essentially, the same as that one of the high priests - namely, semi-inquisitorial oversight. Plus election of new high priests, and deciding when it's time to create a new high priest seat. It only gathers once a few years, however (at least unless there's an emergency).   Above all that is only one step - the Divine Council, composed of seven High Divines (representatives of the High Archons themselves), and fourteen Divines (representatives of the Archons), while also being attended by the numerous Exalted (representatives of the Ascended incorporated into the Temple as Demi-Archons. It resides in a Vassal World that was entirely converted by the Temple of the Seven.

Cosmological Views

The Temple of the Seven doesn't exactly have any predetermined creation story - the Seven do not claim to have been the words creators, at least not openly. However it's considered heterodoxical to claim the Ten (Seven High Archons - and the Three Black Archons seen as their equals) did create the world, or at least participated in the activity. There is no official dogma, and, in all honesty, the Seven doesn't seem to be awfully interested in the 'who made the world' question.

Ethics

As a whole, the Temple of the Seven is a mostly ethicless religion. The Seven expects to be worshipped - and will offer their divine protection over the communities of its worshippers, regardless of their size. Of course, the existence of said blessings in dependent on observance of proper rituals and - especially if that fails - some sacrifices. Sacrificing sapient entities happens, but it's considered something extreme. Something that isn't called for by the local priests unless something really, really bad is happening.   As a whole, you can expect the High Archons to reward devotion to them, without really caring what one does with their power. You are just as likely to see their priests running charities as you are seeing them participate in state-sanctioned human trafficking (in other words, slavery). Both with very limited attempts to justify them religiously.

Granted Divine Powers

Each of the Seven has its own theurgic magic, which tends to be seen as both significantly harder to attain and stronger when compared to that of the Cults of the Ascended. It is still easier to learn and less powerful than the theurgies of the Church of the Highmost - although there are cases of especially 'blessed' members of this faith receiving boons comparable to those of the Church, however this will be always accompanied by some negative side-effects (in a way very similar to the ones of the Church).   Everlasting Sun offers a form of light magic (similar, in a way, to that of the Church of the Highmost, but with a different colour and lesser firepower) plus some 'fire' element. In a way, it's light magic without the actual holiness to it - it will set enemy on fire at best (or blind him, etc.), but will not scale its damage according to enemies' sins. You can also expect many buffing skills, as expected from the High Archon of Authority and Rulership.   Night Eternal offers a variety of dark magic. Staying undetected, using shadows as scouts or combat units, having the darkness around you swallow the sounds of your footsteps, Some degree of blood sacrifices, and blood magic, but to a much lesser degree - shadows are the dominant theme.   Great Mother's magic is mostly about charm, and has a lot of sexual undertones. You can forget about causing any amount of straight damage, but there are many ways of utilizing your looks (and sometimes body) for buffs, debuffs and healing.   Patient Hunter's theurgy is pretty much a magic-reinforced martial arts. From overly powerful slashes that can cut the enemy soldier in half to enhancing your own sense of smell to track your prey more efficiently during a hunt. It's mostly focused on enhancing and strengthening yourself.   Crown of Enlightment's theurgy is about magic. It allows you to strengthen magic of yourself (or others), summon some strange things, accelerate your cognition and alter your own state of mind (or sometimes do that to others, typically as a form of buffing.   Worm-That-Walks is an origin of the Temple-sanctioned form of necromancy (that used one of the Worm's many offsprings to reanimate a not very damaged corpse), while also having a lot of generally death-themed magic (think bone projectiles, body explosions, etc.). There are also some rather creepy, disgusting elements relating to worms, insects, molds and rot.   Moonlit Anvil is a deity of crafting and change, so you can expect both improvements to your crafting abilities (at the risk of some negative side-effects), with various physical blessings to yourself, sometimes bordering on some really freaky mutations (being able to spit poison at your enemies is relatively tame by the Moonlit Anvil's standards).

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