Church of the Queen Ascendant

Worship of the Queen Ascendant is formally organized and present in the nations of the Jungle of Fangs.

Theology

Theologically, the Queen does not demand deep careful understanding. Instead, she promotes action. Your faith is shown in your works and in sacrifice and ritual. Her demands are fairly simple--

1. Respect and honor the established hierarchy. If you are lowly, honor your betters. It is fine to seek to better yourself and to rise to higher station, but do so out of a desire to improve society, not out of spite or jealousy. If you are born to high station, treat those below you with honor and tolerance. Enforce the law, but temper it with mercy.
2. Respect and honor the priesthood as they honor the hierarchy. They are Her voices.
3. Help your neighbor. Stand with society and civilization against the untamed, against the evil. Shun the demonic and the undead.
4. Enjoy the pleasures of life, but don't let them consume you. Ascetic life is a lie--all emotions and pleasures have their place but their place is not to control the self.
5. Respectfully husband the land. Agriculture and land-owning is more honorable than manufacturing or trading. Needless destruction of the natural environment is not good.

General Organization

Since the breakup of the Stone Throne with its monolithic religious hierarchy, there have been two main branches of the church, both seemingly tolerated by the Queen herself, differing almost entirely in who they place in positions of authority. Think Pope and Anti-Pope, where both claim to be the "true" leadership of the unified church, rather than protestant vs catholic. The schism has very little influence at the level of every-day worship--most of the commoners and Lai are only vaguely aware that there is a schism at all and there is really only a difference at the political level.

After the Red Death and the collapse of Asai'ka, and increasingly as the Time of Troubles has gone on, this schism has widened and deepened. At the current time, there are 2.5 branches--the "orthodoxy" centered in Ar Salem Dolem, the "reformers" centered in Kel'al'ar, and the "renunciates" most active in Sha'slar.

The Priest-Bureaucracy

The Queen Ascendant's faith is a very structured, ordered thing. Priests, chosen from all the castes (and walks of life in those nations who have rejected the caste system), minister to the spiritual needs of the people and are a vital part of the secular government. Joining the priesthood means leaving your former caste and rank and taking on a new one.

Priests can be known by their clothing, especially while engaged in ritual work. As much of the worship practice involves bloodshed (of animals mostly these days), they wear naught but an apron made of a single sheet of cloth with leather reinforcements and a hole cut for the head. This is placed over the officiant and tied with thongs on each side, leaving the sides bare. See also Fang-kin Culture.

The priests also act as musicians during the sacred dances, mainly playing atonal music on flutes and keeping rhythm on drums.

The Temple Dancers and the Sacred Dances

Much of the most sacred service is done by the Temple Dancers. These are men and women, chosen for their flexibility, grace, and beauty very young and trained rigorously. During the high festivals and sacred rites (such as at the installation of a new landed noble), they dance the sacred dances to the accompaniment of priestly drummers and musicians. These dances are fluid, and range from frantic acrobatics to languid contortions, often switching back and forth multiple times in a single dance. Generally only a single dancer will dance at a time, although a few of the most holy ones call for two women. Generally, female dancers are of higher rank and are more sought after, as the most holy dances can only be performed by women.

Temple dancers wear shifts of diaphanous silk that leaves very little, if anything, to the imagination. Those that would treat them as prostitutes, however, find that they are also trained to defend themselves without weapons. As well as incurring the wrath of the entire bureaucracy.

Technically, dancers are outside the hierarchy and answer only to the high priestess and the handmaidens. It is whispered that some of the most decadent, debased nobles have started training their own corps of dancers who do more than just dance.

In outlying settlements or among the ophidian tribes, the people themselves enact the sacred dances. This is frowned on by the bureaucracy, but tolerated. Authentic temple dancers rarely make it out there anyway, and there's no need to squelch their fervor.

Willing Sacrifice

After the homily and readings from the sacred works (produced by the bureaucracy and expounded as commandments from the Queen) but before any dances that take may place come the sacrifices. Since the Ascension, these are of two forms (full blood sacrifice of an intelligent being being absolutely forbidden and carefully monitored)--

• Animal sacrifice is the most common. A chicken, a pig, or on rare occasions something larger. The animals are drugged and exsanguinated while alive, the blood being caught and given to the flames on the altar. Once dead, the organs (especially the heart) are removed and ritually burned. The meat is then prepared and shared among the participants.
• Token blood sacrifice. This is done only on occasions of ceremonies such as marriages, religiously-binding vows, funerals, or pledges of loyalty to a new sovereign. Those that are giving sacrifice come forth and are pricked with a sacred knife. The most common sites are the earlobes and the ball of the thumb, although some have been known to give sacrifice from their private parts in extreme cases of fanaticism. A single drop of blood is shed onto a piece of cloth; once each participant has comingled their blood with the others, the cloth is ritually blessed and consigned to the holy flames, carrying their devotion to the Queen.

Orthodox Organization

The orthodoxy (as of the Time of Troubles) has settled into a hierarchy with the High Priestess, conventionally called "Saama" (a corruption of an iath neidr word meaning "Voice") at the top. She has a small coterie of advisors and secretaries separate from the main bureaucracy. As of 260 AC, the current Saama is an elderly woman with little direct influence, but is still widely revered even by the renunciates.

The next level down are the parallel organizations of the Offices, led by the Hierarchs, and the Eternal Dance, led by the First Handmaiden.

The Offices, aka the Priest-Bureaucracy

The Four Offices are what most people think of when they say "the priest-bureaucracy". They are the administrators, quasi-government, and police force of the church. By and large, in the common mind, they are the church.

There are four Hierarchs, one for each of the Offices of Doctrine, Administration, Finance, and Service.

Office of Doctrine

The Office of Doctrine handles matters of theology and sacred history, as well as sacred magic (deciding what is sacred and what is profane). This Office has the most dwarves, especially in the Inquisition--the active arm that seeks out heresy. It and the Schola (dedicated to the more scholastic side) are headquartered on Ar Dolema, rather than in Ar Salem Dolem. At current times, the Doctrinaires are rumored to be somewhat sidelined and at odds with Administration and Service especially. Known to be extremely dogmatic and inflexible, Doctrine adapts poorly to changing circumstances.

Office of Administration

Administration puts the Bureaucracy in priest-bureaucracy. While these are mostly ordained priests, they handle very little of the spiritual matters. Instead, they make up the city administration and public works offices for Ar Salem Dolem as well as administering and protecting the church's assets throughout the jungle. The Temple Guard reports to the Hierarch of Administration, making him the most directly powerful of the Hierarchs. Administration is the second-largest Office and is constantly struggling with Finance for funding.

Office of Finance

Finance, as its name suggests, handles the money. Second-smallest after Doctrine, it is split into the accountants (including traveling accountants who are embedded in the regional and local temples) and the tithe collectors, who are seen often as the most corrupt branch. No one likes a tax man. These folks are only theoretically priests.

Office of Service

Service contains all the actual priests and their hierarchy. By far the largest, it also acts as the intelligence network. The Hierarch of Service is generally considered the "power behind the throne"--rarely if ever chosen as Saama (especially since Service is dominated by men, and a man cannot be High Priestess), but wielding the entire power of the bureaucracy (in the rare times they're not fighting among themselves).

Below the Hierarch of Service and his local staff (located in Ar Salem Dolem) are the regional hierarchs, each responsible for a major city and its surrounding areas, as well as the priest-school at Ar Salem Dolem. The latter traditionally belonged to Doctrine, but Service wrested it away in 251 AC in an internal fight. Below the regional hierarchs are the settled (stationary, with permanent assignments) priests as well as the itinerant common priests who travel from village to village.

1. The High Temple and attendants. These live and work in the Sacred City of Ar Salem Dolem and especially in the High Temple there, where the Queen lived for centuries. They make the decisions for the nations, although most directly for Asai'ka. Competition here is fierce but hidden. Generally only those of noble birth attain these posts, despite the technical lack of birth-based rank among the priesthood.
2. The Settled. These have places of fixed abodes in the cities and larger towns. Drawn from lesser noble and lai ranks, they are the local authorities and often rule with as much force as a noble.
3. The Wanderers. These travel circuits among the villages and smaller towns. Generally of the common folk, they command little veneration.

A separate (from the Inquisition) force of internal enforcers, the Auditors, has been established to keep the Service priests in line.

Eternal Dance

The Eternal Dance is the other side of the orthodox church--the Temple Dancers and the Handmaidens. They are much fewer in numbers than the priest-bureaucracy, and answer only to the First Handmaiden (and thus to Saama herself). They are generally at odds politically with the Offices and maintain independent (and shadowy) sources of income.

The Temple Dancers

Led by the woman occupying the post of Azure Veil, the dancers are only loosely organized. They have ranks, but generally don't follow any strict hierarchy or chain of command. They self-organize into troupes, groups of 20-30 who coordinate actions in an area, generally led by a Khiev.

The ranks (veils) are

• Azure Veil -- The chief dancer. Only ever one at a time.
• Khiev -- senior dancer/troupe leader.
• Yellow Veil -- regular dancer.
• Black Veil -- specialist. Often rumored to be more spy or assassin than dancer, it is rare that any will self-identify as a black veil.
• Red Veil -- junior dancer, usually working under a yellow. May be trusted with some of the lesser dances.
• White veil -- apprentice/assistant. Not trusted to dance alone yet.

The Handmaidens

The smallest organization, the Handmaidens are spies, enforcers, and mystics. They answer to the Mother Militant. Not much is known of their organizational structure, and handmaidens only openly identify as such when commandeering resources or making arrests.

The Monastics

The Eternal Dance also maintains the monastery at Tyom, which trains dancers and handmaidens. Under the Matron Mother, the monastics are the most withdrawn. They have a tight relationship with Doctrine, but little else is ever said.

Reform Organization

The reform branch is much more simply organized, with three basic levels:

1. The High Priestess rules from Kel'al'ar in close cooperation with the Serpent Throne.
2. Each city and major town has a Hierophant as well as a group of lesser priests. They are responsible for keeping the church in that region on-track.
3. Each village and smaller town has an established priest.

They tend to live close to the people and stay out of politics.

Renunciate Organization

There isn't an "organization" of renunciates, as such. Merely a group of dissident priests who claim that the Orthodoxy has lost its way and its connection to the Queen, and the Reform is merely a puppet of the state.