Church of The Message

See BA'AN and The Messenger to for back story of this church.

The Church of the Message was built upon the ruins of the various churches that fell once their clerical powers were lost. The religion has a Judeo Christian feel (centralist and focused on Good Living and Good works). The Avatars/ Angels are given special worship, much like Catholic Saints. The Messenger's Church is the only source of healing (magical or otherwise), spiritual protection (spells vs demons, magic, and evil), and wisdom in the world. It was built by the messenger's original followers, incorporating the various priests that decided to acknowledge The Message.

By acknowledging BA'AN and The Word (i.e. The Messenger and his message), one can be brought into The Faith. The lay folk were easily taught the new doctrins. It took a while, but the old priests soon were incorporated into the new faith. Those who took to the word, were given appropriate sashes.

At the top, there is the Post Council. It was made up of the eleven main followers of the Messenger. Each Post Councilor (or Blue Sash) covers a different aspect of the Church: Building, Protectors (Paladins and Magic), Healing, Teaching, Scripture, Art, Faithspeaker (most priests, comes from the old term of non-messenger priest), Couriers (loyal, highly trained priests - those directly taught by the Followers of the Messenger), Crown (Noble Liason), Preacher (dealing with those outside the faith), and Coordinators. As each one left, they appointed an appropriate successor. The Post Council is the central organizational power of The Church.

Note: most of their staff are white sashes (true priests) and some acolytes, but they may pull in Red Sashes (Senior/ Lead Priests) to do the work (These white sashes have one red star on them, to denote a senior white sash).

Each district has its own Red Sash, the priest which oversees the district. He has priests which deal with the various areas of the Faith, (consider it similar to the post council). Each church has at least one White Sash and some supporting acolytes.

Those with Gold Trimmed Sashes can perform Healing and Clerical Magic. They are distributed around the churches. Since the Church's power is built upon their monopoly over Holy Magics, they are constantly training people to channel the divine forces.

In the last few decades, The Church has rebuilt all the various temples to fit the folio of The Word. They all look like early Gothic period Catholic Churches, with plenty of statuary showing of the Angels and Avatars. (In fact, in many places there are special chapels dedicated to certain avatars... usually the deity the church had been previously dedicated to.)

In newer cities and towns, The Church has built buildings to their own unique specifications. Eventually all old temples and churches will be replaced by places of worship designed to promote and support the One Deity BA'AN.

The Paladins of the church tend to be witch hunters- those that hunt witches those that use magic beyond mortal control (i.e. infernal magics from the Outsider dieties -i.e. Demons). They also protect priests who go out to spread the word of The Messenger. They are stationed in most of the larger churches. They are prohibited to have their own places.

The Book or The Folio is the often used name for the collected Holy works of the Church. The Messenger wrote several short thesis/ sermons/ speeches on the Message. These were combined as the core of The Book. Included in the Book were the work of the four primary Disciples, expressing the hows and whys of proper living under BA'AN. In more modern versions of The Book, there are small sections from the other seven primary disiples which are guidelines for the various divisions in the Faith.

Please remember that his church is built upon compromises and adapting diverse elements into one. That legacy has been built upon since the earliest preachings. They are 'The One Word', but they realize that there are many letters that make up that word.