[Diana] Church of Aetheria

[BlueberryKitty]

Serale, Aelyrians!

This is the Kitty, announcing her latest plot disaster. After speaking with Talespinner, he and I are going to advance with this in the next few weeks.

The premise is this:

The Churches of Ioannes, Aslan and Carmelya have become disenchanted with the leadership of the (wonderous and fantastic!) Lady Aerienne Sarista. Once voted into her position, Aerienne is the sole leader of the Church of the Faith until she resigns or dies. Being Aelyrian in race, Aeri isn't going to be dying any time soon. (Thank heavens!)

Approximately half the NPC members of the Church of the Faith will be splintering away from the Church of the Faith (CoF) and forming a new Church, the Church of Aetheria.

The Church of Aetheria will be structured along the lines of how the PCs involved in it create it. I'm hoping to see less Tolerance of all races, more burning of heretics, and just some general good fun in roleplay. Peace and acceptance are wonderful and desirable in RL.. but in RP.. lets have some bloodshed!

Now, all you PCs who want to see the Church changing- step up and add your two cents worth!
Please remember, that when all is said and done, the CoA will probably be disbanded. The PCs that participate may be targetted as heretics themselves! After all, the CoF is the sanctioned religion in the Empire by the Crown.. and the Crown may not tolerate this.

Please don't let that stop you from joining in. At the very least, this discussion will let us, the GMs of Diana, know where you the PCs want to see the Church heading.

[Dream]

I'm in the wrong account, but meh. I'm lazy and I'm allowed to be today

Cerius is in. The CoA sounds like what he's been wanting all along (namely, a Church without an over-emotional leader).

[Andrea Marsilia]

Count a Tirisfalian whose interested in Church heirarchy reorganization in, ooc-wise.

Elle, however, could you help me in distinguishing between old and new? I'm not proficient in that...doctrine and all.

[Raliric Ered`Gard]

CoA!!! This is exactly what I wanted to happen and wanted Raliric or Cerius to head! *gah!* I guess I put too much possitive (or negative) energy out for this to happen and so it did!

What Terry! I thought you thought all these guys were heretics in the CoA! At least when I was gonna start it you thought so!

Parreyon and I have actually begun to do this in PA atm, which already had a Church of Aetheria and so we were gonna go and join it and sort of turn them toward expanding and championing all of the Sacred Three and the Gods/Planatars of the CoA instead of the CoF's championing of Diana alone.

I'm most definately in for this.

[Darian]

I like the CoA, consider me away but in.

As if I'll let Aslanites have all the fun

And I think we should leave planetars out of it. Let them form their own churches and stuff and stick to the Aetherians. This is the Church of Aetheria after all not the Church of Aetheria And Various Other Planes.

[Bladvyx]

Sounds cool! My secondary PC might join the fun at some point.

[Duncan Sythe]

Well well, it seems Duncan's going to have to do some head bashing to sort out the heretical burning issues, stupid priests *mutters*

[Hsin]

Definutely sounds great! Religous schisms are fun! Considering that the CoA would probably take a much dimmer view of Hsin's activities than the CoF, I don't think my PC will be involved. But I'll be glad to help OOC. ~_^

Cheers,
Hsin

[Yaevin Ralahir]

hehe where do i sign up, seems cool want some more info.

[Aerienne Sarista]

Well, the Church of the Faith champions all deities, not just Diana.

Still and all, you all know that Aeri's not going to take this lying down, right? I won't say what it is yet but... *goes off to start plotting Aeri's response*

[BlueberryKitty]

That is exactly the point!

The Church of the Faith -should- be looking at the point of view of all deities. However, its current leader insists on following a path that has led the church away from its former glory of political power, wealth, -and- the ideals of the Gods Ioannes and Aslan. The CoF is led by a Dianite who will not compromise. A leader has to look at the results of her decisions to see how they will benefit all. She cannot just force her decisions down everyone's throat and expect them to like it.

This isn't about the Inquisition. For all of them, anyway. It is for some. Roleplaying is much more fun when there is conflict.

Now.

Its up to you as PCs to get this ball rolling for this plot. Already I have a Prelate of the Church taking Aerienne to task for her tolerance of the heretics (Borthanists) so close to Diana in Jaedaxia. This cult didn't spring up overnight, and its presence is a clear sign to my Prelate that Aerienne simply isn't fit for the job anymore. If ever she was. At his questions, he was told that missionaries would be sent to embrace the heretics and bring them back into the fold with love. I think Marsala would rather see a few heads lopped off, and a few stakes lit with fire. He's been 'demoted' to the rank of novitiate, and his head muddled with Aerienne's empathetic ability. When he returns to his friends on the same side, they'll get the ball rolling to start the split. A herald article will probably go up tonight or tomorrow, depending on how awful work really is.

Aerienne is, eventually, going to find herself without about half of her current resources. Priests, Prelates, Bishops, Paladins, even the Vigiles will have split attitudes over this plot. Factions will take advantage of this civil war. I expect Diana to be decimated after this internal struggle, with more than half the population leaving the city.

(I also plan to have the individual Temples to the Gods destroyed at some point, depending on PC interactions. I'd like to replace all those awful-to-moderate individual threads with one big cathedral dedicated only to Ioannes, Diana, and Aslan for the CoF, and another big cathedral dedicated to all the gods and planetars for the CoA if it survives.)

Now its up to you! What do you want to see? Do you have any ideas for threads inside this plot? Lets get to discussing and creating! This is the Realmscraft, not an announcements thread.

[Darian]

Oooh! Dibs on the Inquisition for the CoA!

On a more serious note though I'd, personally, like to see the split not being exactly fifty-fifty. What if say we split the Church more in three... the CoA and those in favour of a more active church on the one side and the CoF on the other with those that support Aerienne, and then those who just want to stay clear of the struggle alltogether and choose to stay neutral and/or await the outcome of the schism.

Also it could be said that Dianites for instance would be more likely to go CoF whereas other more deities might be more CoA. I could imagine Carmelyans being divided since once side is preaching peace and that side is Diana's which Carmelya is not too fond of, which might give an idea of the dividing lines. I thin, if I remember correctly that there is an audit going on, such a thing might bring the more corrupt church officials to the CoA. No one wants to be audited after all. In all I think that the CoA would be mainly made up of those who have been in the CoF for sometime and have seen where it once was in a way. Whereas those who are more new to the CoF might see things more Aeri's way.

Personally I'd like to see a crackdown on planetar worship too. I like planetars and all but I find that it is more amusing to worship stuff if it is only semi-legal. Oooh and I'd like to see more force given to the Majites and stuff. Cause Maj is supposed to be the one that leads the charge through the gates of Aetheria and stuff so he wouldn't be supportive of a soft on heretics policy.

Oh and please don't burn down my temple till I get back. *makes puppy dog eyes* Darian is in there sipping lemonade if it all comes crashing down around him he'll be a little annoyed.

[Raliric Ered`Gard]

*blinks sees all of his plotting going to waste before his eyes.* Hmmm... So I should probably jsut scrap all of my CoA plots that I've been implimenting with my PC?

*sighs* This is exactly what I've been doing down in PA and hoping to spread it to NC, mainly because NC is already apart from the CoF and thus would take the CoA up quicker just in defiance of the CoF. But ahh well... It looks like you've got everything under control in Diana with this whole thing.

*Isn't happy but will not sulk*

[Aerienne Sarista]

If a super-temple was built after the chaos, Aeri would dedicate it to *all* the Gods, since she feels the Church serves all the Gods, not just Diana or Aslan.

Besides, the Basillica Ecclesiae kind of serves as a super-temple. I mean, no PC ever uses it for worship, but it contains shrines to all the Aetherians.

Although, if you want more support for the schism, we can cite Aeri's policy towards Necromancers. Even before she was Archprelatess, Aerienne advocated a softening on the persecution of Necromancy. She still proclaimed that it was evil and wrong, but she always believed that Necromancers were people too, that could be reasoned with, and she's followed that policy as Archprelatess. It hasn't come up much IC, but I'd imagine that ten years (since the Aetherfracture) would have given time for the NPC priesthood to see a few examples of Necromancers getting the peace and love treatment as opposed to the iron hooks of the Inquisition (which Aeri disbanded as her very first order in office). Knowing my character as I do, I figure she might have a few reformed Necros around somewhere, as examples that just because someone has dabbled in the dark arts doesn't make them irredemiably evil. Also, there is the trial of Iseril Al'lende, who was banished and fined instead of being killed.

Don't mind those Vysstichi, Orcs, Giants, Dracons, and assorted other 'dark races' lurking about in positions of authority in the church and civil governments. Nope. Pay them no mind.

Now excuse me while I go back to plotting.

[Dimnersti]

Hmm.. only noticed this as I was following ral's CoA plot a lil..

But you know its common courtesy to kind of defer to the person who began to develop it first... Perhaps speakt o ralric and help him work it into diana as part of his plot so you dont just up and ruin his work.

as a gm its not only your job to create plots, and considering you'v a great opurtunity to make this one pc driven.. it seems the obvious choice to do so.