After the emergence of The Staircase, a mysterious breach into another place, revelers in the horrible omen began to study its existence.
Scientific attempts to test the natural laws of this other place, which seemed to exist adjacent to reality, offered only frustration.
It was only when a cleric of the Twilight Domain had an epiphany, was "contact" made with The Staircase.
by Midjourney
The Staircase, an apparently infinitely descending stairwell, offered a terrible breach where it was discovered. It is rumored that none have returned from a voyage into its terrible manifestation.
But clerical study, more specifically, treating the nature of The Staircase as a deity to worship or serve, began to unlock the secrets of the maddening phenomenon.
Strange Abilities
The Order of the Staircase has clerical abilities. Because of the newness of the order, higher level abilities remain undiscovered.
Eyes of the Stairs
With a limitation of 300 feet, one side of a staircase acts as a visual window to the other side, offering a glimpse of the next floor. This also grants the ability to identify "Eternal Stairs," as annointed by a member of the order.
Gradus Sanctuary
The Gradus Sanctuary offers the same protecitons of the Twilight Sanctuary. It also grants resistance to psychic damage to those blessed, at the same time afflicting vulnerability to psychic damage to the cleric using the ability.
Those protected by this ability may enter an Eternal Staircase with the cleric who enabled the protection.
Stairs of the Blinker
Losing the ability to fly at will, clerics of the Order of the Staircase may now use this ability to teleport between two staircase entrances that share a line of sight, within 300 feet. These entrances do not need to be connected (part of the same staircase).
The Eternal Stairs
A 10th level cleric of The Staircase may permanently connect two staircases, regardless of distance. In fact, the greater the distance between the two stairs, the less danger posed for travelers, and the greater chance of success.
This involves a ritual (taking 10 minutes) and throwing a valuable item into the staircase with the understanding that it will probably never be seen again. It is believed that any item will do, but that to be fairly sure of success, the item needs to be worth at least 500 gp. So clerics of The Staircase often carry gems worth this amount. In dire times and with a need of certain success, very sentimental or “unthinkable” things may be sacrificed.
When two staircases are connected, a cleric of The Staircase may decide to use them to traverse to the other connected staircase. There is some risk in doing this.
Anointing a Staircase
The first time this ability is used (when the affected number of stairs is zero) one “receptor” staircase is selected by the cleric. It will have no special ability other than becoming the other end of the next staircase successfully connected to it. This involves the 10 minute ritual.
A cleric of The Staircase may spend a long time, sometimes years, before deciding to “anoint” their first receptor staircase. Connecting staircases using The Eternal Stairs ability is an act of calculated patience, or great reverence, or severe superstition.
Connecting Two Staircases
The biggest reason a cleric will carefully plan their first anointing is that the distance between linked Eternal Staircases matters. The greater the distance, the more likely total success. So often clerics will plan a lengthy pilgrimage to a far off location after they anoint a “receptor” staircase.
It is, in general, believed that a distance of 500 miles is sufficient for “almost certain success” of connection. 100 miles is “generally” safe. It is believed that trying to connect two stairs less than 100 miles increases the chance of failure by 1 percent per mile. (So trying to connect two stairs that are three miles apart might have a 97% chance of failure.)
Because of the understood cost of failure, there has not been much experimentation to verify this. Even the cost of failure is somewhat cloaked in superstitious speculation. For certain, failure means the anointed staircase “loses its blessing,” and must be anointed again to retry.
It is believed failure also risks destroying a cleric’s entire Eternal Stairs network.
Risk of Use
With each use of the Eternal Staircase, there is some risk of gaining more knowledge about The Staircase.
While this sounds desirable, it is not. Clerics of the Order of the Staircase have learned they must only surmise the nature of The Staircase. Gaining knowledge of The Staircase directly slowly causes unknown risk to the user.
As such, using the Eternal Stairs is not a causal event. It is, practically speaking, taking “years off of someone’s life.” A cleric deciding to enter the Eternal Stairs often has their own luck rituals, sacrifice, offering, prayer or other method they believe will help ward away “a bad trip” through the Eternal Stairs. This can be scientific or transactional or superstitious. These rituals not matter at all.
An Ensnared Avatar
The only known holy figure to the order, who serves as a humanoid avatar of the Staircase, is
Simon Blinker.
He was a twilight cleric who, like dozens before him, descended into The Staircase to probe its mysteries.
Like all those before and after him, he died. But, for unknown reasons, his spirit remained in The Staircase. It is rumored he will sometimes speak to those seeking "aid" from their bizarre, abstract deity.
A Nexus
Unlike other clerical orders and religions, the followers of the Order of the Staircase in
Realm 79: The Junction know where there god resides.
It sits on the Isle of Amadeus, off the southern tip of
Rotterdam.
Members of the order instinctually know to avoid this place, and the horrible ramification of even gazing into the breach of the infinite staircase.
Instead they find advancement by exploring the more subtle ways The Staircase interacts with their realm. Paradoxically, they believe learning too much direct knowledge of the nature of The Staircase is detrimental to their clerical journey.
Transactional Relationships
Members of the Order of the Staircase seem to have more of a transactional relationship with their "deity" than other clerical orders. They seek to gain abilities, which they view as a rewards for merely participating in the order.
Unlike deities who may want worship, souls, or sacrifices, if The Staircase craves anything, what it craves is totally unknown. Members of the order are sometimes known to have an obsessive relationship with tracking their steps taken on staircases, and a fastidiousness to recruiting new members that can seem religious-like from a ritualistic standpoint.
Any member of the order that learns more about the nature of The Staircase is never happy they have done so, and actively warns others not to do so. Members of the order are known to use the phrase "work the program" to encourage gaining mastery of new abilities while remaining as ignorant as possible to the nature of those powers.
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