The Updates

The Intercessor and His Church: a Catechism

He is the mysterious God who held back the divine wrath at the rebellion of man, who took the Gods away, who gave us our freedom and the One Message to preserve it.

What is the Church?

The servants of the Message in the world, adhering to a creed of healing and good works, renouncing power, wealth, and worldly things, encouraging vigilance against the avatars of the malign and hateful Gods who would enslave mankind.

How should one supplicate the Intercessor for aid?

Prayer is of no avail; the Intercessor has divorced himself from the world. Besides, to seek the aid of Gods or Powers is anathema. If you wish to give thanks to the Intercessor for what he did for you, it is better to aid the Church in following the One Message.

Why is the Church accepted in all lands, when the cults of other Gods are renegade and outlaw, even though the Intercessor has removed himself from the world whilst other gods hear the appeals of men?

There are many reasons, these amongst them:

• The Church cares about everyone. It operates hostels, charities, and heals the sick. Cults of other gods, on the flipside, are very much devoted to the specific agenda of their god. They are secretive and fanatical, their goals mean little to the average man in the street, and very occasionally they unleash bloody chaos into the world. There's no reason why they should be popular because their concerns and values are of little relevance, if any, to the general populace.

• The Intercessor is the only God who behaves nicely. The other Gods all think that suffering is an immutable cosmic truth that can't be helped (or just really funny), or view human beings as useful but disposable tools to achieve their esoteric goals, or simply don't care what happens to you. Most people turn to religion for spiritual solace, or for a sense of community, or to feel that they're making the world a better place, or to understand their place in the world, and only the Church of the Intercessor really offers these things to everyone in a simple, accessible manner. Cults are where the mad, the power-hungry, and the just plain sociopathic gravitate, and demand awful sacrifices and oaths and deeds before their God looks twice at you.

• The Intercessor gave healing magics to the Church to use as they wish, the other Gods ration out more powerful but more sinister spells to their legions of followers. Cult magic is dangerous and frightening; Church magic is helpful and soothing.

It goes a little something like this:

I AM THE INTERCESSOR YOUR SAVIOUR. I HAVE HELD BACK THE HAND OF WRATH; THIS ONE DEED I WILL DO FOR YOU BEFORE I WITHDRAW TO SOLITUDE. DO NOT PRAY FOR I WILL NOT HEAR. IF YOU WISH TO GIVE THANKS, YOU WILL FORGE A BETTER WORLD.

I HAVE LAID ASIDE MY POWER AND FORESAKEN MY AEGIS. THOSE IN MY CHURCH WILL DO THE SAME; ANY PRIEST OF MINE WHO LAYS CLAIM TO AUTHORITY, TITLE OR INHERITANCE IS NO TRUE PRIEST.

I HAVE WITHDRAWN FROM THE BATTLES AND ABDICATED FROM THE FEUDS. THOSE IN MY CHURCH WILL DO THE SAME; ANY PRIEST WHO FIGHTS SAVE TO DEFEND OTHERS IS NO PRIEST OF MINE.

I SAY TO YOU THAT THERE IS NO JUSTICE AMONGST THE GODS; DO NOT, THEN, THINK YOU MAY ACT IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE IF YOU ARE A PRIEST OF MINE. YOU WILL NOT BE A JUDGE, NOR AN ADVOCATE, NOR A GUARDSMAN IF YOU ARE A PRIEST OF MINE. BUT IF YOU ACT INJUSTLY MAY YOU BE CURSED AND DESPISED.

I GIVE YOU ARTS OF HEALING. YOU WILL USE THEM AS YOU SEE FIT. IF YOU SELL THEM FOR PROFIT OR WITHHOLD THEM FROM THE NEEDY, YOU ARE NO LONGER MY PRIEST.

I SEND THREE AVATARS. THEY ARE MY LAST GIFT TO YOU AND IT IS THEIR PLACE TO SERVE YOU. IF THEY DEMAND WORSHIP OR OBEDIENCE YOU MUST KILL THEM.

I SAY TO YOU THAT THERE IS NO LOVE FOR YOU AMONGST THE GODS AND POWERS AND YOU MUST SET YOUR FACE AGAINST THEM. WHEREVER THEIR AVATARS AND DEMONS ARISE, CAST THEM OUT; THEY MEAN ONLY HARM TO MEN.

IF YOU WISH TO THANK ME AND SERVE ME YOU WILL LEAVE THE WORLD, RENOUNCE ALL POWER, HEAL THE SICK, ACT JUSTLY BUT DO NOT ACT AS JUSTICE, LIVE IN POVERTY AND PERFORM GOOD WORKS.

TRUST NO PROPHECIES, HEARKEN TO NO GOSPELS. IF ANY CLAIM TO SPEAK IN MY NAME, SAVE THAT THEY SPEAK THE WORDS OF THIS ONE MESSAGE, THEY ARE BLASPHEMERS AND LIARS AND YOU MUST SHUN THEM.

The leaders of the Church are the Order of the Withdrawn Cardinals. When a priest becomes too old to continue their works of charity, they are given the title of Cardinal and go to live in the House of the Withdrawn Cardinals in Horizon. They withdraw from the world there, renouncing even their faces - they appear in public wearing cheerful, smiling facemasks - and contemplate holy matters and oversee the affairs of the Church. Their head, the Cardinal of Cardinals, makes all proclaimations on the part of the Church; the Cardinal of Cardinals is always a man, the current one being Francis XXIII, who formerly managed an orphanage in the slums of Horizon.

Is the Church rich?

To use a real world analogy, the Church is a lot more like the Salvation Army than the Catholic Church. We are talking about a group of genuinely charitable folk who go around doing good works and sacrifice a lot to do so. In short, they are a benign and good organisation, not afraid to cast out priests in disgrace if they engage in corrupt behaviours, and they definitely don't go about making big golden cathedrals. How does the healing magic work?

Firstly, it only works on temporary troubles such as disease or injury - permanent problems, such as deformation, mutilation, madness and long-term side effects of some drugs, cannot be helped. Furthermore, help must arrive swiftly: injuries can only be helped a few minutes after they are inflicted. With disease, there is a little more leeway, but the priests must be consulted within a week of the first symptoms manifesting - all too often they must turn someone away because they didn't realise what the innocuous grey spots meant until they began bleeding from their tear ducts.

The healing works on the principle that a problem shared is a problem halved; whilst the injury or illness cannot be taken away from the patient entirely, it can be shared between the patient and a priest - or multiple priests, if they are available. The priest(s) simply lay their hands upon the injured or diseased individual; the patient's sores, cuts, breakages and so forth begin to visibly heal, whilst at the same time appearing on the priests.

In terms of system: when a character becomes injured, the GMs will decide (based on the situation) how badly, and assign an injury rating.

Should a priest or priests of the Intercessor intervene, the injuries can be divided up as follows:

1 mortal wound yields 2 grevious ills yields 4 troubling hurts yields 8 scrapes.

A mortal wound is one which will cause death without the immediate intervention of the healing magics of the Church of the Intercessor.

A grevious ill is an injury which will force the character to spend the next turn resting in bed to recover from. The character will not be able to turnsheet any actions which involve any physical activity beyond sitting in bed and talking to people.

A troubling hurt is an injury which will hamper a character, but not force bed rest upon them. A character with a troubling hurt will be able to leave the house for the coming turn, but will not be able to turnsheet physically strenuous activity, and should they be attacked their ability to defend themselves will be severely diminished.

A scrape looks nasty and will leave a cool scar, but is otherwise unthreatening.

Curing people of disease works similarly.

Since the healing of injuries requires a very rapid response, Priests of the Intercessor are encouraged to go out into the world and observe, instead of waiting in the churches for people to come to them with their problems. "If they can talk to a priest when they need it," say the Withdrawn Cardinals, "they won't pray to a God instead."

Rumours about the Intercessor and the Church:

The Intercessor was mortally wounded when he saved us from the wrath of the Gods, and died after giving the One Message; the Church, their magics, and his avatars are the only remnants of his power left.

The Church gave sanctuary to the Emperor when he fled, and he's now one of the Withdrawn Cardinals. He spends his time finding ways to make penance for his many crimes.

The Intercessor doesn't exist; the healing arts of the Church are a secret science, not magic, and the whole thing was cooked by the Empire to stop people worshipping the dangerous and malign Gods.

The Cardinal of Cardinals is always the same guy, and the Withdrawn Cardinals play a complicated shell-game with their identities to prevent people noticing.

The Intercessor isn't a God, it's a hive mind made up of the Withdrawn Cardinals. The Cardinal-gestalt kills off priests who don't see things its way to prevent its personality from drifting too much as Cardinals die and are replaced.

The Church is hiding proof that the Intercessor was actually a different god altogether, who renounced his former self to save mankind; this is why the Withdrawn Cardinals make a big thing of abandoning their identities, and why he isn't mentioned in any of the song-stories of the Mythic Dreamtime. Chances are he used to be the God of Oaths, the One Message being the last oath he would ever swear.