Organization of the Faith of Nesirie
General:
The faith of Nesirie is pretty consistent
all over Cerillia, it is divided into 9 regional sections which all are
headed by a Wavemistress ( on rare occaisions a Wavemaster) and the Holy
order of Nesiries Paladins in Anuire, the Order of the Trident. Contrary
to the orders of Haelyn there are almost no dogmatic differences between
the different branches of the faith. As a consequence sailors can always
walk into a temple of Nesirie and feel at home. The only temple which
differs a bit from the rest is the recently (75 years ago) seceded Church
of Waters Blessing. The point of conflict in this case turned on the explanation
of a phrase in the Prophecies of Oreadis.
"The Water shall rise and cleanse away the sins and corruption that
the unnameable brought to our land." The Waters Blessing group concluded
that there shall come a time when the seawater shall rise and rid Cerillia
of the Awnsheglien who now roam the country. Common doctrine however sees
this as a reference to the sinking of the land bridge after the Deismaar
cataclysm. There the waters of the oceans wiped away the sins of the world.
This meant that the Necklace of Nesirie's Nine Pearls will have to be
adapted to the new situation. This necklace consists of eight black pearls
and one white pearl. Each pearl is 5 cm (2 inch) in diameter. The eight
black pearls symbolize the eight different branches of the faith and the
white pearl symbolizes the paladin order. This necklace circulates among
the Wavemistrresses and the Foammistress. Every 25 years it is handed
on.
Nesirie
Eastern Temple of Nesirie (26)
Aerenwe: 17
Mieres: 6
Ilien: 3
Peaceful Seas of Nesirie (21)
Teaghas: 16
Brosengae: 4
Halskapa: 1
Temple of the Ancients (16)
Mesire: 6
Aftane: 5
Ariya: 3
Zikala: 2
Sailing Song of Neira (15)
Muden: 15
HolyTemple of Nasri (14)
Ghamoura: 14
Sailors Home (11)
Grabentod: 11
Church of Eternal Seas (8)
the Magian: 4
Merasaf: 2
Suiriene: 2
Coastal Temple of Nesirie (3)
Sirens Realm: 3
Waters Blessing (2)
Chimaeron: 2
Five years from now at the next conclave
the necklace is to return to the Eastern Temple of Nesirie. Since the
Water Blessings group seceded from the Eastern Temple the mater will have
to be resolved by then.
Eastern Temple of Nesirie
The temple is divided in two streams, the
Sailing Stream, and the Shore Stream. The Sailing Stream consists of Nesiries
Holy Navy and Nesiries Floating Word. The Shore Stream is subdivided into
the Flame of the Way, and the Solace of the Word.
The Sailing Stream
This branch of the church comprises the floating
part of its people.
Nesirie's Holy Navy consists of a Galleon and two Caravels (ETN fleet).
Its crews consists of members of the faith who donate their services for
six months, and priests. The priests form the officer cadre, the faithful
(always experienced seaman) form the crew. Every man who thus donates
his services to Nesirie may call himself Veteran of the Seas and recieves
a Trident symbol which ensures him of help from Nesirie's followers everywhere
should he need it. The trident is considered a badge of honor among sailors
as it stands for service and competence. Some of the great shipping guilds
sponsor crew if they wish to serve the faith in this capacity and important
shipments often are carried on ships crewed with only Veterans.
Officers of Nesirie's Holy Navy are always priests of the faith. Captains
are at least 4th level,
Commodores 7th level, the Admiral is always the Wavemistress(master) of
the faith. The Grand Admiral is the Wavemistress who holds the Necklace
of Nesirie at this moment.
Nesiries Floating Word is a group of priests who sail the sea region assigned
to a branche of the faith and bring the word of Nesirie to everybody who
wants to hear it. They often hold services in small coastal towns, or
on a ship they meet on the open seas. This group of priests starts at
2nd level since they must have done at least one stint as officer on a
ship of the navy. It consists of some of the most individualistic priests
of Nesirie, the older priests who keep at this posting often feel that
solitary communing with the sea is the best way to become one with Nesirie.
Normally priests get another posting at 4/5th level (At the moment the
highest level priest of Nesirie(ETN) Amrita L15 is one of these priests.
He comes into shore maybe 2 times a year)
The Shore Stream
This branche of the church comprises all
the people who work on land.
Flame of the Way is the section of the faith who are responsible for manning
the various lighthouses in the region. While lighthouse normally are built
and maintained by the local landed lord the maintence and lighting of
the fires is a holy duty falling to the faithful of Nesirie. This kind
of posting is often used either as retirement posting or for punishment
duty. As a consequence the level of the priests in a lighthouse can vary
from a level 1 priest with two level 0 acolytes or a level 8+ priest.
Solace of the Word is the group which maintains the temples in the different
provinces and cities. The training of novices is done at the seminary
of Calrie. When a priest graduates he either chooses to serve his stint
in the Navy first or to first take a landed post. If he chooses a landed
assignment first then he will take a position of pastor in one of the
temples and serve there for a year after which he will be transfered to
the Navy. People who choose the Navy first are encouraged to transfer
to land duty but are not obligated to do so. After a rotation in the Navy
priest can either continue in the Navy, transfer to the Floating Word,
or transfer to the Solace of the Word. Captains of the Navy always have
to have had one year of shore duty. Commodores of the Fleet always have
to have served one year as M(P)atriarch of a temple. Normally a M(P)atriarch
of a province has performed at least 3 tours in the Navy.
The intention of this changing of posts is
to let every priest perform at least one rotation at sea and to enable
the shorebound priests to get to sea as well. The priests who rise to
senior positions in the hierarchy of the temple have to swap duties regularly.
The exception are the priests who choose the path of the Word of the Waves.
When they end their duties at level 4/5 they first get a short posting
with the navy to accustom them to being around other people again. Then
they usually transfer to the seminary were they train the new novices.
After a year of such a duty they often get a choice of position.
The Order of the Trident
The Order of the Trident must not be confused
with the Trident which Veterans of the Seas get after they serve in the
navy. No, the Order of the Trident is the paladin order of Nesirie.
It is headed by the Foammistress (as opposed to the Wavemistress) and
all members must be female. It is an Anuirean order, but exceptionally
gifted students from other races are sometimes sponsored by the other
temples of the faith (at the moment there are circa 25 Brecht/Khinasi
paladins, there are no Rjurik paladins at this time). Novices in the order
are trained in the arts of war and the ways of the sea at a secret island
located somewhere in the Sea of Storms. After a the basic skills are learned
the aspirants are placed with one of the faiths where they receive advanced
training in religious matters and people skills. When this part of the
training is over they return to the island where they are instructed in
the more advanced paladin skills. When they successfully complete this
training (level 3) they promoted to Seals.
The Seals function as marine-officers in the Holy Navy. When they
have become experienced enough (level 5) they gain the title Singer of
the Sea and are released for detached duty. This means that they will
operate independently to further the cause of Nesirie. These are the basic
type of wandering type paladinst fighting injustice. At 7th level they
are promoted to Pod Leaders and reassigned to the Holy Navy, this time
in the capacity of Captain of the Marine detachment.
At 9th level the paladin becomes senior member of the order, a Whale.
This means a return to the training island. There they will teach the
novices while they themselves receive training in the magic arts from
the most senior members of the order. After this training is over they
are again free to do as they wish. At 13th level paladins gain the title
of Elder of the Seas and are eligible for positions in the top of the
order: Mistress of Novices, Marine Admiral, and Podmaster. The Mistress
of Novices is in charge of all training activities, the Marine Admiral
is in charge of all Marine officers in the Holy Navy and the Podmaster
is in charge of all free roaming paladins. The Foammistress is elected
from one of these three posts.
|