The church of the new faiths

The church of the new faiths is the collective name for the organization behind the religions of the new faiths. The fast majority of the population of the Xaverion islands is a supporter of one of these four gods and they are the only recognized religions on the islands. If a person supports any other religion they are considered to be heretics and paladins of the church of the new faiths are still hunting down heretics to this day. Because the four gods of the new faiths Thoron, Myalanna, Envylon and Ysandra live in peace with each other there is no rivalry between these faiths. Instead they work together to build a better world. Every town and settlement will have a temple of the new faiths. Smaller towns and villages will most likely have one temple where all four gods are represented. But larger cities often have a temple for each god.

Because these four gods work together the structure of priesthood and paladins is the same for every god. Roughly speaking the paladins are the fighters of the new faiths, where the priests specialize more in using magic and often spreading the faith.

Ranks

The ranks within the church of the faith are pretty simple. Priests and Paladins are considered two different branches of the church.

Acolyte

An Acolyte is a priest in training. Whenever someone wants to join the priesthood they will become an acolyte after initiation into the faith of their choice. The moment someone becomes an Acolyte is when their training in priesthood officially begins.

Priest

When an acolyte had completed his or her training and is found worthy by the high priest he or she trained under there will be another ceremony in which the acolyte will become a priest. Priests can be found in the temples of the new faiths, they can stay at the temple where they were trained or request to be transferred to another temple. In rare cases a priest might also be asked to transfer to another temple but this mostly is done through voluntary transfer is there is a reason a certain temple needs new priests. Other than staying at a specific temple there are also a lot of traveling priests who either choose to wander the world or are on a specific mission to spread their faith further.

High Priest

Every temple has a high priest. If it’s a small temple that pays tribute to all four gods then there will still only be one high priest. But a bigger temple might have a high priest for every faith. And a temple for a specific god or goddess had one high priest for that god or goddess.

Grand Priest

There are in total four grand priests, one for each of the new faiths. They are the leaders of that certain faith and also form the leading circle of the priesthood of the new faiths. The grand priest answers to their god themselves, he or she will interpret the will of their god and then spread this word to the high priests who will then spread it to the priests and acolytes who will spread it to the believers.

Paladin in training

Any paladin can take on an apprentice and personally train him or her to someday become a paladin themselves. When the paladin thinks they are ready their apprentice can take the trials. If they succeed with the trials their training is complete and they will become a Paladin.

Paladin

Once they have completed the trials an apprentice will be a Paladin. He or she will then have the opportunity to specialize and become either a defender or a templar.

Defender

Defenders are the paladins who will dedicate their lives to defending the temples, the priests and the faithful. They are often assigned to a specific town or temple and in some cases to a specific priest. Mostly defenders will try and protect any priest or faithful regardless which of the new faiths he or she supports because all of the faiths are working together. Still often paladins are assigned specific priests to protect from their own faith.

Templars

Templars are paladins who choose to travel the world. They mostly seek out heretics or help out in the fight against Ghor minions. They do not have to spread their faith like the wandering priests often tend to do, but protecting the innocent in the name of their god or goddess often has a similar effect.

Inquisitor

There are a handful of inquisitors of every faith. They are in charge of the paladins, defenders and templars.

High Inquisitor

The strongest of the inquisitors is the high Inquisitor. Like the grand priests there is only one high inquisitor for each of the new faiths. They are the leaders of all the paladins.