Faithful¶
Faithful are religious institutions and their attendants. Temples, hermitages, great temples: houses of worship and the people who tend them.
Theme: Shrine¶
The village's small house of worship, tended by a single Acolyte or visited by a wandering Priest on rest days. Weddings, funerals, seasonal blessings. When problems arise in the village, the shrine keeper is often the first to know.
| Scale | Creatures | Features | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Village | 1 Acolyte | Trait: Personality, Faith, Trouble, Magic Items | Sacred: Shrine |
Theme: Temple¶
A house of worship at the heart of a town, seat of a High Priest. Runs a household of clergy, choristers, staff, and administrators. The High Priest's word carries weight in Council beyond his single seat.
| Scale | Creatures | Features | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Town | 1 High Priest, 2-3 Hierophants, 3-5 Priests, 6-10 Acolytes, 2 Guards (Military) | Trait: Personality, Faith, Relic, Trouble, Quests, Magic Items | Sacred: Temple |
Theme: Religious Hermitage¶
Small religious community of monks or nuns living permanently at their place of worship. Prayer, contemplation, garden work, service to travelers.
| Scale | Creatures | Features | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Village | 1 Head Monk, 2-6 Monks | Trait: Personality, Faith, Trouble, Quests, Magic Items | Sacred: Religious Hermitage |
Theme: Great Temple¶
A great house of worship at the heart of a city, seat of a High Priest of significant renown and reach. Draws pilgrims from beyond the city's walls. Runs a household of clergy, choristers, staff, and administrators.
| Scale | Creatures | Features | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|
| City | 1 High Priest, 12-20 Hierophants, 25-40 Priests, 50-80 Acolytes, 6-10 Guards (Military) | Trait: Personality, Faith, Relic, Trouble, Quests, Magic Items | Sacred: Great Temple |
Details¶
Creatures¶
Acolyte. Junior clergy who tends the space day to day. In a village shrine, the Acolyte is often the whole staff; a Priest visits on holy days from a nearby town. Uses the Acolyte stat block. Loot: holy symbol (5 gp), simple robes, offerings jar with 1d10 gp.
Chaplain. A Priest attached to a specific institution rather than a public temple or shrine — a fort's garrison, a manor's household, a ship's crew. Uses the Priest stat block. Runs the institution's Chapel, blesses its people, tends the dying, often serves as its scribe. At a noble family's residence he may be called the Household Priest and hears the family's private confessions. Loot: holy symbol (25 gp), prayer book, robes, 2d10 gp coin purse.
Head Monk. The leader of a religious hermitage. Uses the Priest stat block. Leads the day's rites, admits novices, disciplines the brethren, sends correspondence to allied orders. Loot: holy symbol (25 gp), ritual robes, personal book of rites; the hermitage's shared donations coffer.
Hierophant. Senior clergy at a Temple or Great Temple, above the working Priests. Serves at the great rites, sits on the temple council, may hold a benefice from the temple's lands. Uses the Hierophant stat block. Loot: holy symbol (25 gp), ritual robes, a share of the temple treasury.
High Priest. Head of a Temple or Great Temple. Confirms new priests, hears appeals from the temple courts, sits on the settlement's Council in an advisory or dominant role, corresponds with allied temples across the region. Uses the High Priest stat block. Loot: ritual robes, book of rites; the High Priest's suite holds his treasury.
Monk. Member of a religious hermitage. Lives simply, works in the garden and the temple, welcomes pilgrims. Uses the Acolyte stat block. Loot: habit, cord belt, prayer beads (5 gp), a few silver.
Priest. An ordained clergyman below the Hierophants and High Priest at a Temple or Great Temple. Runs the rites, hears confessions, negotiates with the settlement's Rulers over annual offerings and holy days. Uses the Priest stat block. Loot: holy symbol (25 gp), ritual robes, sacred text, offerings coffer with 3d10 gp.
Features¶
Faith. The deity or focus the community serves. Roll d6.
| 1. Sun god. | 2. Moon god. | 3. Hearth god. |
| 4. Forge god. | 5. Ancestor spirits. | 6. Singular divinity of one virtue. |
Personality. The community's collective character. Roll d6 by theme.
Shrine:
| 1. Humble (open door, few coins). | 2. Proud (formal rites, expects due). | 3. Zealous (converts vigorously). |
| 4. Gentle (welcomes all, avoids conflict). | 5. Inspiring (fills the seats). | 6. Troubled (recent scandal or doctrinal doubt). |
Temple:
| 1. Grand (the town's pride, holy days pack the main hall). | 2. Stern (rigorous observance, hard on the neighborhood priests). | 3. Political (the High Priest angles for higher office, the temple moves in the crown's affairs). |
| 4. Corrupt (favors openly sold, appointments follow coin). | 5. Troubled (a scandal, a schism, a rival cult in the temple's followers). | 6. Rising (a hero's tomb draws new pilgrims, offerings swell). |
Religious Hermitage:
| 1. Devout (strict observance). | 2. Welcoming (open to pilgrims). | 3. Austere (spare and quiet). |
| 4. Zealous (converts vigorously). | 5. Troubled (schism or crisis). | 6. Corrupt (worldliness has crept in). |
Great Temple:
| 1. Grand (the city's pride, holy days pack the main hall and overflow into the forecourt). | 2. Stern (rigorous observance, hard on the quarter priests). | 3. Political (the High Priest holds real power beyond his seat, moves in the crown's affairs). |
| 4. Corrupt (favors openly sold, appointments follow coin). | 5. Troubled (a scandal, a schism, a rival cult in the city's faithful). | 6. Rising (a hero's tomb draws pilgrims from distant lands, offerings swell). |
Trouble. Roll d6 or choose by theme.
Shrine:
| 1. The village's Acolyte has fallen ill and no one is tending the offerings. | 2. A traveler collapsed at the shrine door with a story no one wants to hear. | 3. The visiting Priest was expected days ago and never arrived. |
| 4. A local family has begun leaving offerings to a different god. | 5. The offerings jar was broken open in the night; the small coins are gone. | 6. A sign was left at the altar: an ill omen, a written challenge, a rival god's symbol. |
Temple:
| 1. The Relic has been stolen from the Reliquary; the theft is still unknown outside the sanctuary. | 2. A rival cult is drawing worshippers from the temple's usual congregation. | 3. A senior Hierophant is quietly agitating against the High Priest. |
| 4. A scandal involving a temple official has broken and the neighborhood is talking. | 5. A pilgrim has died on the temple grounds under strange circumstances. | 6. The town Council is demanding an accounting of temple funds. |
Religious Hermitage:
| 1. A brother has broken his vows and left the Order without notice. | 2. A besieging warlord's scouts have been seen near the cloister walls. | 3. The Head Monk is aging and no successor has been named. |
| 4. A hermit is claiming visions that contradict the Rule; the chapter is uneasy. | 5. Grain and stores are short and winter is coming. | 6. A cursed presence has been reported at the far end of the garden or in the crypt below. |
Great Temple:
| 1. The High Priest has fallen ill and rival factions are jockeying for the succession. | 2. A great Relic has been stolen or defaced and the theft is still hidden. | 3. A schism over doctrine has hardened; two Hierophants refuse to concelebrate. |
| 4. A rival cult with a rising following has begun open recruitment in the city. | 5. A great pilgrimage is due and the sanctuary is not ready. | 6. The crown is demanding a levy of temple gold for a war the priesthood opposes. |
Relic. The relic that anchors the temple's spiritual pull. Housed in the Reliquary. Roll d6.
| 1. Hero's bones (pilgrims come from a day's ride). | 2. Prophet's veil (heals if devotedly kissed on holy days). | 3. Fragment of a founder's relic (the temple's origin story turns on it). |
| 4. Miraculous image (weeps or bleeds on holy days). | 5. An original manuscript of sacred writings (scholars come to consult). | 6. An empty reliquary (the relic is lost, stolen, or its authenticity disputed). |
Quests. typically offered. Roll or pick, per theme.
Temple / Great Temple. Roll a d6.
| d6 | Quest |
|---|---|
| 1 | Retrieve a stolen relic, sacred vessel, or holy text now held in a rival cult's stronghold, a bandit's cache, or a distant vault. |
| 2 | Escort a pilgrim on a vow, a novice at ordination, or a delegation to another temple. |
| 3 | Investigate a false miracle, a heresy spreading in the quarter, or a rite performed in the wrong place. |
| 4 | Search a lost temple, a forgotten crypt, or a hidden chamber on temple grounds for a text or relic the temple has lost. |
| 5 | Rescue a captive priest, a pilgrim taken by bandits to their lair, or a novice held for ransom. |
| 6 | Cleanse a defiled shrine, a haunted crypt, or a rival cult's stronghold. |
Religious Hermitage. Roll a d6.
| d6 | Quest |
|---|---|
| 1 | Retrieve a lost or stolen text: an original manuscript, a founder's letter, a piece of the Rule, held in a specific place the Order knows but cannot reach. |
| 2 | Escort a novice to a distant chapter, or the Head Monk on a pilgrimage he cannot walk alone. |
| 3 | Deliver a sealed message, a relic, or a first copy of the Rule to a sister chapter across dangerous terrain. |
| 4 | Search a founder's cell, a sealed archive, or a forgotten scriptorium for something the Order has lost. |
| 5 | Rescue a hermit or novice taken by bandits to their camp, lost in the wilderness, or held in a hostile hamlet. |
| 6 | Defend the hermitage grounds against a besieging warlord, an occupying army, or a cursed presence that has crossed the wall. |
Magic Items. A Faithful community reliably holds a sacred item or two. Roll d3 for the count (1-3 items). For each item, roll d6 for the source: on a 1-3, roll on Magic Item Table A; on 4-5, Table B; on 6, Table C.
Locations¶
Great Temple. A great stone building at the heart of a city. A great temple has:
- Main hall: the public worship space. Rows of benches or open standing space, banners of the god, side altars along the walls, a raised sanctuary at the far end. Packed on holy days; overflow into the forecourt on the greatest.
- Sanctuary: the inner space behind a screen or altar rail, reserved for senior clergy. The main altar, sacred vessels, the sacred fire (if the faith keeps one). The High Priest's throne sits here.
- Side wings: lesser altars to associated saints or aspects of the god. Small side chapels used for private devotion, funerary rites, and side ceremonies.
- Side shrines: alcoves along the walls for individual devotion, votive candles, small offerings.
- Bell tower: houses the city's largest bells. Rung at services, at deaths of prominent citizens, at alarm.
- Reliquary: the shrine where the temple's central relic is displayed. Warded or barred behind a grate. See the Relic feature for what the relic is.
- Catacombs: the crypt beneath the temple. Rows of niches for the honored dead: priests, patrons, notable pilgrims. Older layers hold the founders and the temple's original relics.
- High Priest's suite: the High Priest's residence, a full residential wing. Formal reception rooms, private quarters, private shrine, treasury, gardens. Holds the temple's records and correspondence.
- Refectory and dormitories: where the clergy live and eat. Hierophants have private rooms; junior Priests share.
- Gatehouse and forecourt: the temple's entry. Public forecourt where pilgrims gather before services; guarded gates.
- Hazards: the Reliquary is guarded by the Guards and often by wards of the faith itself; catacomb collapses on a DC 15 Dexterity save if disturbed.
- Loot: ceremonial vessels (2000 gp); the Reliquary's central relic (500-5000 gp for material value; higher for a genuine relic to the right buyer); offerings coffer (5d1000 gp) behind a strong lock; illuminated texts and rare manuscripts; the High Priest's treasury (5d1000 gp) behind a strong lock; temple regalia (500-1000 gp).
Religious Hermitage. The hermitage's central worship building. A single chamber with an altar, benches, a hearth. Simple and clean. Loot: offerings (2d10 gp); ceremonial vessels; the hermitage's few relics or texts.
Shrine. Small building with an altar, an image of the deity, perhaps a few benches. Door with a standard lock. Loot: offerings plate with 1d10 gp; ceremonial vessels of modest value.
Temple. A stone building at the heart of a town. A temple has:
- Main hall: the public worship space. Rows of benches or open standing space, banners of the god, side altars along the walls, a raised sanctuary at the far end. Packed on holy days.
- Sanctuary: the inner space behind a screen or altar rail, reserved for senior clergy. The main altar, sacred vessels, the sacred fire (if the faith keeps one). The High Priest's throne sits here.
- Side wings: lesser altars to associated saints or aspects of the god. Small side chapels used for private devotion, funerary rites, and side ceremonies.
- Side shrines: alcoves along the walls for individual devotion, votive candles, small offerings.
- Bell tower: houses the town's largest bells. Rung at services, at deaths of prominent citizens, at alarm.
- Reliquary: the shrine where the temple's central relic is displayed. Warded or barred behind a grate. See the Relic feature for what the relic is.
- Catacombs: the crypt beneath the temple. Rows of niches for the honored dead: priests, patrons, notable pilgrims.
- High Priest's suite: the High Priest's residence, adjacent to the sanctuary or in a separate wing. Formal reception rooms, private quarters, private shrine, treasury, small garden. Holds the temple's records and correspondence.
- Refectory and dormitories: where the clergy live and eat. Hierophants have private rooms; junior Priests share.
- Gatehouse or forecourt: the temple's entry. Public forecourt where pilgrims gather before services; guarded gates at wealthier temples.
- Hazards: the Reliquary is guarded by the Guards and often by wards of the faith itself; catacomb collapses on a DC 15 Dexterity save if disturbed.
- Loot: ceremonial vessels (500 gp); the Reliquary's central relic (100-1000 gp for material value; higher for a genuine relic to the right buyer); offerings coffer (5d100 gp) behind a strong lock; illuminated texts and rare manuscripts; the High Priest's treasury (5d100 gp) behind a strong lock; temple regalia (250 gp).