Kallaway Refuge
The temple complex at Kallaway is dedicated to The Life-Giver and is a significant influence in the otherwise rural area.
In addition to being a center of worship, the temple also regulates local hunting and fishing (despite push-back from the Hunters Guild) and trades in valuable mushrooms, rare herbs, and the products of its prized herd.
Purpose / Function
The Refuge is dedicated to celebrating and preserving life, both in worship of the Life-Giver and in healing the damage done to the surrounding forests by the Raithar Empire--and now preserving the vitality and prosperity they have helped return to the area.
The monks who live and train here protect and serve the local peace, much as the Valorian Knights do for Valor generally, and the Valorian Temple recognizes the Kallaway Refuge as an ally to the cause despite answering to a different god.
Keeping the Dead Peaceful
In the complex’s cemetery, graves are marked by the beautiful artistry of the monks. These markers are made from delicately carved wood and other natural materials, made after conversation with the next of kin to ensure that it is highly personal and appropriate for the late individual.
Left exposed to the elements, these markers decay and break apart with time. In about ten years, when the marker has returned to being an unremarkable piece of wood, if anything, the second rites are performed.
At this time, the gravesite is disinterred, the bones respectfully ground and used to supplement the soil of the meditation garden. The grave is then available for reuse.
This practice both ensures that the graveyard does not need to expand, increasing the chances that it could contaminate groundwater, and protects the dead from the abhorrent practice of Necromancy.
Design
The complex includes living quarters for the priests and monks, a large kitchen, a public temple, gardens, a stable, and a small, private temple for use by the priesthood and those too deep in mourning to bear being seen in public. The city's cemetery is also part of the temple grounds, and opens to fields where the temple's prized herd grazes.
Just outside of the main gates into the complex, a low bridge crosses the river that separates the temple from the town of Kallaway.
Denizens
A small order of priests lives within the complex itself, alongside a somewhat larger number of monks. Both orders work together in the gardens and cooperate in the overall administration of the complex, but the priests specifically see to the temples, lead worship services and celebrations, perform rites, and are responsible for overseeing catch numbers and setting quotas for hunting and fishing. Keeping the take sustainable is part of the service they provide to the local community, though it does inevitably generate friction as well.
Meanwhile, the monks tend to the Refuge's herd, do the fishing and gathering which requires leaving the complex, and observe the temple's tradition of honoring the gift of life by keeping ones self in the best possible health and condition for their particular body.
The herd itself is of deer, raised by the monks over generations. Through their good management, the deer are essentially now a different breed. Their coats are exceptionally soft, and can be processed into fine leather; their meat is said to be the best venison ever eaten. In life, the deer are venerated--well cared for in every aspect--and in their time slaughtered to exacting standards.
Valuables
Kallaway Refuge's industry began out of absolute practicality. The area was clear-cut by the Raithar Empire to expand the farming basin, but the land was never particularly suitable for heartland crops. It was, however, fine for grazing animals, herbs, sustenance gardens, and exceptional for a variety of mushrooms.
Now, the Refuge's deer are prized, plus they are the Herbalist Guild's best source for a number of useful and rare plants and mushrooms.
Perhaps the temple's only piece of more traditional treasure is the ancient statue of the Life-Giver, re-discovered under the Raitharan fort. Though much of the statue is destroyed and the rest is damaged, her serene face still bears a warm smile, and pilgrims come from as far as Albion to see her.
Architecture
Each of the complex's buildings were constructed at different times, but they vary little despite the various architectural trends of the times--all are built simply and practically, with only the public temple paying any apparent heed to a call to beauty.
A stone wall surrounds most of the complex but not all of it, and ranges from nearly a full story tall with wooden doors and shuttered windows to a stone line hardly a foot tall cutting through the grass. Assembled from the stone from a dismantled Raitharan fort, even the most complete sections of the wall have a somewhat mottled appearance, with some stones still bearing architectural features rendered nonsensical in their new location.
It is likely that, at one time, this wall was intended to be "finished," but as the pre-cut stone ran out and surrounding threats diminished, the effort was not continued. Now, the well-trained monks are considered more than enough protection.
Respecting the Gift
As part of their vows to respect the gift of life in all who bear it, the Life-Giver’s monks follow strict guidelines in how their meat is raised and slaughtered. Even fish must be killed swiftly and cleaned accordingly.
Meat that has been treated in keeping with these rules is referred to as “Deer-cut,” supposedly due to the practice having begun with venison, but perhaps also due to the association of deer with the Life-Giver.
Accepting the Return to Death
The priests of the Life-Giver oversee funeral practices, as the gift of life is returned to the divine and body left behind is returned to the earth.
Part of the temple gardens is set aside as a meditation garden, and is constructed to allow quiet contemplation with plenty of secluded spaces where mourners can seek peace and acceptance.
(People who take advantage of this seclusion for... "other pursuits"... are mostly tolerated. Such activities are a blessed celebration of life--unless they disturb the mourners. In which case, they may find themselves having a deeply uncomfortable conversation with the abbot.)
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