Hypocrat (HIP-oh-CRAT)

The Lawmaker, The Civilizer, Grandiose One

Lawful Evil Hippokin Wealth God

Depicted as a stern heavyset hippokin richly robed and bejeweled, with a scepter-like platinum walking stick topped with a massive diamond knob (which is his most common holy symbol).

Hypocrat is concerned with money, commerce, taxes, and above all civil order (the better to encourage business and codify the payment of said taxes). His places of worship are also lending houses, his clergy are also judges and tax collectors, market makers and currency exchangers. Many merchants, mayors, and municipal employees number among his faithful, as do attorneys, litigators, and advocates. In some settlements the separation between the local Hypocratical church and the governing body are nearly indistinguishable.

The first chapter of the holy text of the Hypocratic faith is short and intended for layfolk, setting out guidance that the needs of the individual should be subsumed to the needs of the church and state, that order is intrinsically good and desirable, and capitulation to authority is holy. The remainder is given over to describing various standard business contracts, loan schedules, acceptable commercial practices, guidance on civil matters, detailed codification on building codes, acceptable drainage and waste disposal practices, and recommendations on quarantine protocols. The holy work also helpfully includes multiple appendices to lay down lists of laws, technical specifications of allowable weights and units of measure, proscriptions against various financially imprudent behaviors, and the like. The final appendix is a comprehensive set of instructions including precise measurements for building a Hypocritical shrine, church, and temple that was supposedly taken verbatim from Hypocrat himself in the days when gods walked among mortals, and these instructions are still so strictly adhered to that if you've seen one Hypocritical church you've basically seen them all.

Selfishness, venality, graft, and putting the good of the powers that be over the good of the people are common in places where the Hypocratical church is dominant. In practice Hypocratical "justice" favors the wealthy and powerful, tending to ensure that the rich get richer and the status quo is maintained...unless there is solid profit is to be made from allowing a bit of controlled change, of course!

Clerics: Order, Knowledge, Discord
Monks: Way of Dogmatic Enforcement
Paladins: Oath of Conquest (Judicial Champions)

Shrine Reeves

The Hypocratical Church includes a semi-cloistered monastic order, the members of which are called Reeves. In areas under Hypocratical influence, Reeves are responsible for the collection of taxes and the enforcement of church mediated contracts. They also break up labor disputes (usually taking the part of management), put down protection rackets, and discourage banditry. In areas that lack formal law enforcement, Reeves will also quell theft and miscellaneous anti-commercial or counter-doctrinal malfeasance, essentially serving as the de facto law enforcement for the area.

The Monk subclass Way of Dogmatic Enforcement is available to player characters in this setting.

Judicial Champions

The Hypocratical Church includes an order of monastic knights who are accepted at age of maturity for at least ten years of cloistered training under spartan conditions, the first three years of which they must adhere to a vow of silence. They also take life long vows of celibacy and poverty; their only allowed possessions being any equipment and mounts the church sees fit to issue them. Any deviation from the strict discipline of the order is punished severely; flogging is common as is solitary confinement.

If a supplicant is found worthy, they are eventually knighted under the authority of the order, provided with stout armaments and steed, and sent forth into the world. Judicial Champions must then wander the trade roads offering their services to caravans and travelling merchants for a doctrinally defined fee and basic sustenance, defending them against bandits and interdiction. They also must accept payment on behalf of the church from accused parties to serve as their representative in judicial duels; the doctrine of Hypocrat puts forth specific amounts for trials to the blood vs trials to the death. A Judicial Champion is bound by oath and honor to fight as fiercely as they are able in such circumstances, regardless of the apparent guilt or innocence of whom they are representing.

Each time a Judicial Champion comes upon a Hypocratical Church in their travels, they are required to present themselves to the priests of that church and offer to take on any missions assigned to them until released to continue their wanderings. It is common for Hypocratical Churches to keep one or more Judicial Champions in residence as enforcers and to provide physical security to the priests and the premises (particularly the vaults).

Judicial Champions are hard bitten men and women of few words, notoriously cold and unmerciful. Desensitized by their unforgiving training, they live a rigid existence of strict adherence to doctrine. The only way out is death or dishonor, and virtually none of them live to see old age. The greatest glory a senior Judicial Champion can attain is to co-lead a missionary effort along with a senior priest, founding a new Church to Hypocrat to spread the religion. A Judicial Champion who succeeds at this attains the rank of Grandee, and may invoke a privilege to found a new monastary for the order and settle down to manage it; this is the closest they may come to a well-earned retirement.

Oath of Conquest Paladins are referred to as Judicial Champions in this setting; they are mechanically unaltered but must be lawful (with Lawful Neutral and Lawful Evil being most common).

Consurrectionists

The Hypocratical Church contains a secretive sect of priests who go forth into the world, disguising their nature and joining groups of agitators, dissidents, protestors, labor advocates, and other destabilizing sorts. Infiltrating, ingratiating, and insinuating themselves into such groups over time, learning the personalities and weaknesses of their members, they earn trust and collect information. When the time comes to strike, they work from within to destabilize and undermine the group, manipulating and influencing, dissolving alliances and fracturing solidarity.

Clerics of Hypocrat who choose the Discord Domain are referred to among the inner circle of Hypocratical clergy as Consurrectionists. Their calling is to live among the populace as double agents and counter revolutionaries.