Return to Therran Religion Page
INTRODUCTION:
Indolle is regarded throughout Western Jerranq as the patron of merchants, traders, and shopkeepers. In addition, the god is venerated by messengers, couriers, heralds, and any other profession relying on safe and quick travel from place to place. Some rangers also revere the deity, especially those that tend to wander the length and breadth of the land searching for enemies.
ORGANIZATION:
The church of Indolle is not very centrally organized. In fact, there is no rigid hierarchy and no overall commanding temple of the diety. This is almost of necessity, since the wandering and travelling nature of the religion prevents the coalscence of power and means a dispersed power structure is far more efficient.
Most large towns or cities have at least a shrine to Indolle, reflective of the fact that most such population centres are dependent upon trade of some sort for its livelihood. Even many ships, if they are ships of commerce and not of war, carry a shrine to Indolle alongside their shrine to Hotor. Shrines are also often found at major inns and rest stops along important routes of commerce, and even small shrines can be found at crossroads ranging from the Imperial road networks of Antorium to rural pathways out in the wild lands. The largest temples are in the larger cities, and the Empire of Antorium, which has always based its power on commerce and which has done so even more since the War of the Gem, boasts the most opulent of such temples. In fact, the Imperial Heartland boasts some spectacular cathedrals to Indolle, some of the most opulent structures west of Xydlont.
Indolle is an important part of the Imperial power structure due to the presence of the great Merchant Houses of the Imperium. These rely on trade and commerce for their existence, and this puts the Church of Indolle in an indispensible position as support for these houses.
PRIESTS:
Priests of Indolle have few restrictions. The church, in recognition of its cosmopolitan and well-travelled nature, accepts all races and genders into its ranks, though certainly humans make up the majority of the clergy. Priests come generally in two varieties: Wandering Priests (also known as Road Priests or Priests of the Paths) and City Priests (also known as Market Priests).
Wandering priests generally ply the roads, perhaps escorting caravans and providing support and succor for the merchants and guardsmen and giving divine grace when needed. They tend roadside shrines and visit innkeepers and tend to their spiritual needs. They also keep alert for potential dangers on the road, and the more militant of these Wandering Priests actively seek out and hunt highwaymen and brigands. These priests are not attached formally to any specific Indolle temple, but are welcomed as a low ranking member into all such temples, where they can find free room and board (for a time) and can purchase holy supplies and church magic.
Market Priests tend to be attached formally to a temple and can work their way up the temple hierarchy. The temples usually have Low Rank Clergy, High Rank Clergy, and a High Priest. One of the High Ranked Clergy can also hold the title Master of the Market, and he usually presides at market days and festivals and organizes the marketplace at the request of the secular authorities and organizes anti-thieving measures as well.
The church is opposed to anything that hinders trade. In addition, the church is opposed to anything that sullies the purity of the act of trade. To the church, a bargain made without coercion or duress is a pure and holy rite. Fraud, theft, cheating, swindling, conning, extortion, blackmail, and any other perversion of the trade process is frowned upon or outright reviled by the religion. Priests in particular are expected to be honest in their business dealings, though there is no prohibition against using every honest means at one's disposal to negotiate the best bargains possible. Priests of Indolle, in fact, often consider bargaining an art form and often are skilled at wearing down a buyer or seller so that the priest receives or pays a good price for the wares in question.
Likewise, the church is in conflict with highwaymen or robbers or any other entities seeking to hinder the free flow of money, goods, or information from one locale to another.
However, unlike the church of Meredros, the religion of Indolle is not dogmatic. Each priest is generally left to his own opinion of what hinderance to trade needs to be thwarted and what does not. For example, while in general theft is frowned upon, industrial espionage might be considered part of the game of mercantile competition. Nonetheless, a priest of Indolle is himself forbidden to engage in any act of theft or fraud, though he may overlook such acts committed by others.
DEVOTEES:
Devotees of Indolle are generally merchants or shopkeepers. They tend to attend weekly services and to tithe regularly and to offer discounts to the clergy. In return, they can request divine aid from the church. They also gain a means to strike back at thieves and Thieves' Guilds. They also believe that the god blesses their business and increases their profits through devotion. A popular dictum amongst the clergy of Indolle is that "a tithe is not a tithe, but an investment that shall return tenfold upon thee."
Devotees often display a statue of Indolle prominantly in their shops. This signals to clergy that the shop is likely to give a discount to them. The shopkeepers benefit by having clergy in their shop, which offers protection from thieves, and because their adherence to the dictums of the religion supposedly makes them less likely to cheat or swindle a customer. In other words, the statue is a sign of quality. These statues are somewhat holy, in that they radiate mild magic and a merchant or shopkeeper can be cursed by the clergy such that any statue of Indolle brought into their shop will crumble to dust.
PORTALS:
Unlike Faerun, magic portals are not as common in Therra. However, they operate the exact same way as they do in Faerun. That is, portals are magical gateways that trascend time and space. Passing through a portal sends one to another place. Usually this place is somewhere on the same plane, but not always. Some portals are random in nature. Some portals transport lving matter but not objects. Some transport organic objects but not mineral. Some are keyed to certain alignments or classes. Others require a keyed object to operate. Some are death traps. Most are well hidden. The creators of these portals are varied. Flupnirian mages are known to have crafted the portals set into the towers they built for the Mandarins during the Morakki occupation. The religion of Indolle has learned the art of creating portals, and it can teach this art to those fully inculcated into the mystery Sect of the Portals. However, creation of these portals is a very serious and sacred act for the church, and they are rarely created for mere convenience.
SECTS:
There are six sects to the religion. Each corresponds to one of the domains of the god.
The Path of the Coin:
This sect emphasizes trade and commerce of all sorts, and encompasses caravans as well as shopkeepers. The adherents often serve as bankers and their letters of credit are recognized all over Western Jerranq, though they charge well for the service.
The Path of the Road:
This aspect of the religion is concerned with travel and the roadways upon which information and goods are carried. The most militant of the priesthood gravitates towards this sect, which is dedicated to fighting highwaymen and robbers. The sect also is heavily involved in mapmaking and sells many of these to travellers all over the world, often working in conjunction with the Cotrunal clergy to glean accurate data.
The Sect of Markets:
This sect is concerned primarily with the integration of commerce into the community and the orderly conduct of business within it. The sect is involved with policing marketplaces, blessing shopkeepers, ordering marketplaces, assigning space with the markets, and organizing festivals.
The Sect of Portals:
This sect is a mystery cult and few priests are actively members of the sect, though those priests who rise into the higher ranks of clergy are made aware of it and given access to its mysteries. The cult is concerned with the discovery and use of magic portals and, at the same time, seeks to preserve their secrecy for the cult's use alone. The sect takes particular interest in the towers of Flupnir which remain in Jerranq, as these possess magic portals. However, since those portals are well known to the world, the cult's involvement with them is to understand their operation and, if possible, to reactivate the broken portals and the one-way portals.
Within the Sect of Portals is a group known as the Gatekeepers. The Gatekeepers maintain that doors, archways, and other mundane portals are actually mystical dividing lines that are interwoven with fate. To use such a portal or to not use one is a fateful decision that redraws the timeline of the future, and are thus momentous events. As such, this sub-sect is obsessed with the means to both secure such portals and to bypass them.
The Keepers of Wealth:
This sect is primarily concerned with the securing of wealth. While outside the Church adherents are viewed as miserly and greedy, the main aim of the cult is to devise means to preserve wealth from those who would take it from its rightful owners. Many Keepers are assigned to guard the private fortunes of the wealthy, and some Churches run safe deposit boxes and holding services.
The Heralds:
The Heralds specialize in messengers and couriers and the dissemination of news across geographical and political boundaries. This branch of the Church of Indolle runs the prestigious Heralding operations, whereby a reliable courier or messenger can be hired to deliver a package or message, even into dangerous areas if the price is right. The Heralds also often serve as diplomats and intermediaries during times of pricklish negotiations. The Heralds wear a golden feather on their persons, usually stuck into a cap, but sometimes pinned as a brooch to a cloak or tunic.