The People of the Gold Spark
Structure
The People of The Gold Spark are headed by the High Zenith, with a Council of Elitians who know and direct the full scope of the group's activities from the Isle of Glaur. Archlights are installed by the Council of Elitians in each of the temples, and are the highest rank those of the temple tend to be aware of, but they all answer to the Council.
Culture
The mainland culture of the People of The Gold Spark and that of their island headquarters are quite different. On the mainland, the culture is one of intense positivity and living joyously, with an active shunning of those who don't commit themselves to those values. On the isle, things are much more serious, and all business.
Public Agenda
The People of the Gold Spark worship, as the name implies, the life giving force of the gold spark, or the sun in our world. Their Temple in Tharbad is legendary among the nobility and socially mobile for their parties, lasting from the break of one day until the dawn of the next. This is all most non-members know of the goals of the group.
Assets
The People of the Gold Spark have temples in many kingdoms of the Realm, particularly the sunnier ones, as well as a heavily fortified compound on the Isle of Glaur with ships that patrol the surrounding waters.
History
Technically founded by one half of a pair of teenage runaways with a love of the natural world, the People of the Gold Spark didn't begin in earnest until some generations later when her descendants took up the name and fashioned it into a religion.
Mythology & Lore
When the Realm was young, the creator itself entrusted House Noruiwen, born of the Gods in the sun lands of Asgard, with the safekeeping of the Gold Spark when the Silver shone in the sky. To keep the Gold Spark strong, it requires joy and life and worship, which the People of the Gold Spark provide at their temples all over the Realm.
Divine Origins
Little known outside the Isle of Glaur, the People of the Gold Spark have far more humble origins than legend tells.
In the year 38, the teenage daughter of the First Human ran away with her friend to found a small commune across the river from the first human settlement. The lines of these two would go on to found the People of the Gold Spark and the People of the Flora, but the seeds of both started here. Some years later she traveled south to sunny Asgard, and after a few more years found herself with child, one she assumed to be a god (but who was, in fact, just another human).
As her assumed Demigod child grew up, he decided to become a big fish in a less powerful pond, and traveled to Midgard. There he heard tell of the place where the Gold Spark rests in the east at night, and made his way there, staying long in this town and that, settling into cons and grifts. In one he stayed long enough for his carousing to catch up with him, with enough months for one of the ladies in one of the town's brothels to deliver him a child and leave it with him before he could object. He did raise his child and loved her, teaching her his less than legal ways, and raising her on tales of her godhood and the sunlands.
This daughter grew to be a mirror of her father, and in her 25th year made her way to an exciting new beach settlement on the eastern shore without her father, who by this point, had aged enough that his being a demigod was unlikely. In the new city of Tharbad, she goes on to have two children who would found the People of the Gold Spark in earnest.
In their 21st and 16th years, the son and daughter of the fourth generation of the Sunnlyns set out from the shore to find where the Gold Spark rested at night. They found an island with a mysterious history and not a small amount of natural protection. This was their private retreat for many years, while they began to build myth and legend on the mainland that would one day grow to the fully formed People of the Gold Spark.
Cosmological Views
While the creation legend of the People of the Gold Spark is no different than the rest of the Realm, especially as it pertains to the spark that lights the day, the inner circles of the People know more of the truth than the general population, particularly the fact that the Gold Spark does not rest at the end of Glaur Bay, or that they know where it rests at all.
Tenets of Faith
Above all to offer thanks and praise to the Gold Spark, with joy, song, dance, and love, so long as it shines, and until it returns again.
Ethics
The ethics of the group on the mainland and to the public are vastly different than on the isle and amongst the inner circle.
Publicly the faithful are to spread joy, cheer and positivity, to offer tithes and offerings to the temples, to pursue their own pleasures only to the end of their own nose, or with the enthusiastic consent of others. By example, orgies are a-okay, adultery is looked down upon gravely. Imbibing to excess of ones own volition is accepted, not imbibing because one doesn't feel the want is also all right, abstaining out of a sense of honor or appearing upright is not.
Behind the scenes, however, power and influence is pursued at all costs.
Worship
One rises with the Gold Spark (if one had even gone to sleep the night before), and either sleeps when the Spark sleeps, or carries on until its next setting. They are to spread good energy to all and everything they touch throughout their day. They are to plant things to grow by the Spark's rays, and find their warmth to warm their souls. When near a temple, one leaves gold or other offerings to the temple itself, and takes spiritual renewal at their never-ending parties.
Priesthood
The head of the organization is the High Zenith, which rules over the Council of Elitians on the Isle of Glaur. Each temple is overseen by an Archlight.
Granted Divine Powers
They don't have any. At all. Any powers demonstrated are the result of magic obtained by the same means as any other, but with enough show to fool the lower masses, especially mortals.
Political Influence & Intrigue
The temples and parties are but a shiny shield against any keen to peek behind the scenes at the real reason for the group's existence, the power in the keeping of The Gold Spark, or the illusion of it.
Because the temples keep the people in the cities and towns they are located in keep the masses happy, distracted and placated, and are a tourism draw, the ruling powers and law enforcement tend to look the other way on any activity around the edges.
Due to their money and influence, they are allied with many powerful houses, especially the Fishers of House Hálben with whom they control the seas of Glaur Bay, Midgard and beyond.
Sects
The The Guild of Eternity is a notable offshoot of the People of Gold Spark. Intrigued by the darker parts of the world, they found a ritual to harness the powers of the Void. Dismissed by the Council, they went underground to pursue their own goals.
Glory Is Gold
Founding Date
190
Type
Religious, Cult
Capital
Alternative Names
The Sun Cult
Demonym
Glaurs
Ruling Organization
Leader Title
Power Structure
Autonomous area
Parent Organization
Subsidiary Organizations
Location
Related Ranks & Titles
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Related Species
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