Clergy

Getting Started

Start here, then use the detailed reference below when you need exact rules or edge cases.

Restrictions

Overview

The Clergy Origin is Vastala's settled religious institution Origin. Clergy can found player-created Faiths, define doctrine and leadership, establish physical religious institutions, receive followers, organise local congregations, conduct services and rites, manage religious offices, create schisms, maintain inter-Faith relations, and patronise Sacred Knightly Orders.

Religion itself is NOT restricted to Clergy. Any Origin may become a follower of a Faith. Clergy are the players who create and administer settled religious institutions.

Nomads have a related but distinct path: they can administer Itinerant Faiths through Waykeepers and a movable Sacred Camp. That system uses the same Faith framework while remaining appropriate to a mobile Origin.

Faith membership does not grant combat or economy buffs. The system is social, institutional and ceremonial.

Faiths and Institutions are Different

A Faith is the religion itself: its identity, doctrine, followers, leadership, relations and history.

An Institution is a physical local religious site belonging to a settled Faith. It has a Rector, congregation and consecrated altar and is where services and rites take place.

For Nomad religions, the physical equivalent is a Sacred Camp rather than a permanent Town institution.

Keeping these separate allows one Faith to have multiple local institutions while still remaining one religion.

Founding a Faith

Faith creation uses a guided text setup rather than requiring players to memorise a huge creation command.

Current founding cost: £1,000

The creation flow asks the founder to define:

1. Faith name
2. Divinity
3. Ethos
4. Clerical structure
5. Death rite
6. Marriage doctrine
7. Sacred Practice I
8. Sacred Practice II
9. Leadership model
10. Public Statement of Faith
11. Final confirmation

The public Faith name must be between 2 and 40 characters. The Statement of Faith must be between 3 and 240 characters.

The player is shown a review and must explicitly type CONFIRM before the Faith is founded and the cost is taken.

A Clergy founder creates a settled Faith. An eligible Nomad founder creates an itinerant Faith and serves through the Waykeeper/Sacred Camp path described later.

Doctrine

A Faith stores several categories of doctrine. These define religious identity and determine the availability or presentation of some rites, but they do not provide stat bonuses.

Divinity

Current choices:

• One God
• Many Gods
• Spirits
• Ancestors
• Non-Theistic
• Custom

Ethos

Current choices:

• Traditionalist
• Missionary
• Communal
• Contemplative
• Ascetic
• Syncretic
• Custom

Clerical Structure

Current choices:

• Hierarchical
• Collegiate
• Monastic
• Local

Death Rite

Current choices:

• Burial
• Cremation
• Natural Return
• Cleric's Choice
• None

A Faith with no formal death rite cannot conduct the formal Funeral rite, although Memorial rites remain available.

Marriage Doctrine

Current choices:

• Religious
• Permitted
• Discouraged
• None

If Marriage is set to None, the Faith cannot conduct its religious Marriage rite. A Discouraged Faith may still conduct the ceremony but receives an explicit doctrinal warning.

Sacred Practices

A Faith chooses two Sacred Practice slots from:

• Confession
• Monasticism
• Ancestor Rites
• Charity
• Missionary Work
• Sacred Oaths
• None

The two active practices cannot be the same non-None option.

Pilgrimage and Relic Veneration are not currently selectable. They are intentionally hidden until those mechanics actually exist.

Leadership Models

Faiths choose one of five governance models.

Founder

The founder is the central authority.

Supreme

The Faith has a single transferable supreme leader.

Council

Several senior Clergy can share central leadership.

Independent

Active Clergy of the Faith govern themselves rather than relying on one central leader. Authority is distributed among the Faith's Clergy.

Sacred Tradition

The Faith is governed through its established tradition rather than a simple personal office. The system records this as the Tradition leadership mode.

Leadership affects who can perform administrative actions such as accepting Clergy, managing certain Faith-wide settings and formal religious politics.

Followers vs Clergy

Following a Faith and holding religious office are separate states.

Any player can become a follower through the conversion system. Becoming a follower does NOT automatically make them Clergy.

A player who wants to serve an existing settled Faith as Clergy applies separately through the Faith office system. Faith authority can review and approve or reject the request.

Likewise, an itinerant Faith uses Waykeepers rather than pretending a mobile religious group has the same permanent Clergy structure as a settled church.

This separation prevents ordinary believers from automatically receiving administrative powers.

Conversion

Conversion is designed as a physical religious interaction rather than a remote menu toggle.

Conversions are tied to an active religious site and the Faith's religious officers. Clergy can invite a nearby player into a conversion rite at an Institution; the player must consent.

A converted player becomes a follower of the Faith. Where appropriate, the local conversion flow can also attach the player to the Institution's congregation.

A player follows one Faith at a time. Active Clergy cannot casually convert out of their own Faith while still holding religious responsibilities; they must resolve their office or use the formal schism/leave processes first.

Congregations

A congregation represents a follower's local religious community.

A follower may join the congregation of a local Institution with:

/faith congregation join

and leave it with:

/faith congregation leave

Congregation membership is not the same as following the Faith itself. A player may follow the wider religion while changing or leaving their local congregation.

This lets a large Faith have distinct local communities without creating separate religions for every church.

Establishing a Religious Institution

Settled Faiths create permanent Institutions in Towns.

An Institution must be created on valid Towny land. The Rector establishing the site must actually control the Towny plot rather than merely standing somewhere inside somebody else's Town.

This means the Faith system does not silently reserve arbitrary Town land as religious property.

The Institution records information such as:

• its name;
• its Faith;
• its local Town/chunk;
• its Rector;
• its congregation;
• its altar; and
• its service/rite history.

One registered Institution occupies its indexed chunk at a time.

The Rector remains important after founding. If the Rector no longer legitimately controls the underlying Towny plot, the Institution cannot simply continue conducting normal sacred activity as though its land authority still existed.

Rectors

The Rector is the local officer responsible for a specific religious Institution.

Faith leadership and Rectorship are not the same thing. A player may be powerful in the overall Faith without being Rector of every church, and a Rector is responsible for their particular physical site.

Rectorship can be transferred through the Institution controls, subject to eligibility and land-control checks.

Rectors can also play an important role during schisms because a local Institution may have to decide whether it remains with the parent Faith or realigns to the daughter Faith.

Consecration Lectern / Altar

Each Institution uses a special Consecration Lectern as its altar.

The lectern is placed inside the Institution and bound to that religious site. Once valid, it becomes the physical anchor for:

• conversions;
• staged services;
• blessings;
• sacred oaths;
• marriages;
• funerals;
• memorials; and
• other Institution interactions.

Normal sacred activity requires the officiating religious officer to stand near the valid consecrated altar. The current altar interaction radius is 8 blocks.

If the altar is missing or invalid, the Institution cannot simply conduct its ceremonies remotely.

Right-clicking a valid altar opens the Institution interface.

Faith Status: Nascent and Established

A newly created Faith begins as Nascent.

A Faith becomes Established once BOTH of the current requirements are met:

• at least 5 followers; and
• at least 1 active Institution/site.

This makes establishment depend on both a real community and a physical religious presence rather than only on paying the founding cost.

If the required sacred/institutional presence disappears, the status can be recalculated rather than remaining permanently Established without infrastructure.

Religious Services

Clergy can conduct staged services at a consecrated altar.

Current service types are:

• Worship
• Sermon
• Prayer
• Vigil

Services occur in timed stages. The current stage length is 7 seconds, and the normal service audience radius is 16 blocks around the site.

Services are recorded as Institution/Faith activity. They are ceremonial community events, not a source of temporary combat buffs.

The service interface allows the conductor to start, inspect or stop a service when necessary.

Rites and Ceremonies

Current formal rites include:

• Blessing
• Sacred Oath
• Marriage
• Funeral
• Memorial

Rites are conducted by an appropriate religious officer at a valid altar and create persistent ceremony records.

Blessing

A Cleric can conduct a blessing for a nearby player at the altar. The rite is recorded rather than being treated as a generic potion/stat buff.

Sacred Oath

A Cleric can call a nearby player before the altar to swear a sacred oath. The target must consent. After accepting, the participant supplies the actual oath text and the completed rite becomes part of the permanent religious record.

A Faith sacred oath is distinct from the Knight system's Fealty and personal Knightly vows. The systems may overlap in roleplay, but they do not silently replace each other's mechanics.

Marriage

A Cleric begins a marriage with:

/faith rite marriage [Player1] [Player2]

Both participants must be physically present near the altar. Both receive the proposal and must individually use:

/faith rite accept

within the consent window.

If either participant declines or fails to consent, the marriage does not complete.

The Faith's Marriage doctrine is respected:

A completed marriage is permanently recorded in the religious Institution/Faith history.

A completed religious marriage does not automatically create a universal spouse relationship across every other system. Noble Houses separately listen for successful religious marriages where dynastic Consort/history integration is relevant.

Funeral and Memorial

Funeral rites follow the Faith's death doctrine. If the Faith has Death Rite: None, a formal Funeral is blocked, although a Memorial can still be recorded.

These rites accept a named subject and become part of the Institution's ceremony record.

Inter-Faith Politics

Faiths can record formal relationships with other religions.

Current stances include:

• Neutral
• Recognized
• Communion
• Rival
• Heretical

These are declared religious/political relationships. They make the Faith system capable of recording cooperation, recognition and conflict without turning every difference in doctrine into a hard-coded combat hostility.

Use the Faith politics interface to inspect lineage and relations. Faiths are referenced by their command-ready names when setting relationships.

Schisms

The system supports formal religious schisms.

Current schism cost: £500

A schism creates a daughter Faith related to the parent religion rather than an unrelated duplicate. The split is recorded historically and can involve a doctrinal difference chosen through the schism flow.

Active Clergy responsibilities matter. A player cannot use schism as an effortless escape from central leadership or Rectorship obligations without resolving the relevant offices.

Local Rectors can become politically important after the split. A Rector may realign an Institution across the direct parent/daughter divide where the system permits it. Congregational/local state is reconciled as part of that change rather than allowing one physical church to belong ambiguously to both religions.

The parent/daughter relationship also matters to Sacred Knightly Order realignment.

Sacred Knightly Orders

Faiths can become patrons of player-created Knightly Orders.

The process involves both systems:

1. A Knightly Order requests Faith patronage.
2. The relevant Faith authority approves or rejects the request.
3. After approval, the Order's Grandmaster requests consecration at a valid Faith altar.
4. Religious authority completes the consecration at the sacred site.

This produces a real institutional relationship between Clergy and Knights. Neither side can unilaterally fabricate the completed Sacred Order state.

Faith authorities can inspect patronage requests and existing Sacred Orders through the Faith Order controls.

Itinerant Faiths and Sacred Camps

Nomads do not need to pretend to own a permanent urban church in order to create a religion.

An eligible Nomad can found an Itinerant Faith. Its religious officers are Waykeepers and its physical sacred centre is a movable Sacred Camp.

An Itinerant Faith has one active Sacred Camp rather than a network of permanent Town Institutions.

The Sacred Camp:

• is established in appropriate wilderness;
• uses the same consecrated-altar concept;
• supports services, rites, conversion and history through the shared Faith system; and
• can be packed/moved rather than permanently tied to one Town plot.

The Nomad Origin page explains ordinary Nomad camps and Bands. The Sacred Camp is the religious layer of that mobile society.

Faith History

Faiths maintain permanent history records covering meaningful religious events and institutional changes.

Institution rites also have local ceremony records, allowing a church or Sacred Camp to retain the history of what occurred there.

Use /faith history to inspect Faith history and the Institution interfaces to inspect local records.

Leaving or Disbanding a Faith

Ordinary followers can leave a Faith when they are not constrained by an active religious office.

Clergy and Waykeepers must first resolve responsibilities that would otherwise be orphaned, such as central leadership or Rectorship.

Faith disbanding uses confirmation and checks active infrastructure. For an Itinerant Faith, for example, the Sacred Camp altar and active ceremonies must be dealt with before the religion can be ended cleanly.

The system prefers refusing a destructive action over silently leaving an Institution, leader or ceremony in a broken state.

Changing or Resetting the Clergy Origin

A player cannot change away from the Clergy Origin while they hold persistent offices that must first be resolved.

In particular, central Faith leadership and active Rectorship must be transferred, removed or otherwise resolved first.

An ordinary follower relationship can exist independently of the Clergy Origin. The safeguard is focused on administrative office, not on erasing a player's beliefs merely because their societal Origin changes.

Important Player Commands

The intended entry point is /faith. The contextual guide and GUIs are designed to point players toward the actions relevant to their current role so the full command tree does not need to be memorised.