The Church of Rutar
The Church of Rutar is a formal organization devoted to Rutar, the God of Water in Ustolia. It is one of the oldest and most populous religious organizations in the history of the world, with large groups of worshippers located in each of the four major continents, as well as a heavy prevalence in The Ends.
History & Structure
The Church of Rutar is a centralized religion, with the seat of power located in Sparrow's End. Places of worship are located throughout Ustolia in physical spaces with proximity to water, be it beaches, coastal cliffs, riverbanks, shorelines, or floodplains.
The clergy are comprised of priests, vicars, and mufti - spiritual guides that are responsible for helping followers atone for their sins and seek redemption in the eyes of Rutar. The ultimate leader of the The Church of Rutar is the Sahndok - a Triton leader descended from a holy bloodline the church believes reaches back to the first peoples of the Water Plane.
The earliest recorded traces of The Church of Rutar date back thousands of years, and are directly connected to The Five Incursions - a series of mortal invasions into the Water Plane that occurred in the ancient past. These events resulted in a significant loss of life on both the Material and Water planes, the severing of most connections between the planes, and an Ice Age in the Material Plane that lasted for over 200 years.
Beliefs
The Church of Rutar is based on the fundamental belief that the material plane creates an inherent greed, malice, and lust for power among all intelligent life who inhabit it. This is known as The First Truth among worshippers of Rutar.
Practicioners of Rutar Worship believe that The First Truth is responsible for driving mortals from the Material Plane to commit the Five Incursions, earning Rutar's Ire and the punishments that followed. The governing dogma of the organization calls for constant atonement for this inherent sin through devotion to the Church of Rutar's core tenets for membership to the Church:
- Abandon Greed - worshippers are instructed to live within their means, with significant contributions to the church or to charitable organizations upon acquisition of fortune.
- Divest from Malice - worshippers are expected to live with honor, express kindness towards their neighbors, assist those in need, and operate without malice for their fellow inhabitants of Ustolia.
- Relinquish Power - worshippers are prohibited from holding positions of great power, particularly roles that allow them to lord over large populations, or earn great wealth.
The Church of Rutar holds that through strict adherance to these principles, they can atone for the First Truth, and work towards an event known as the Great Convening - the reunification of the Water Plane and Material plane, allowing mortals to enter the Kingdom of their god.
