Origin of the cleric guild 01/04/2006 10:51 AM CST
I attempted to start a thread about this in the cleric discussions, but only got one response. It's also appropriate to this folder, so I'm going to crosspost it here.

Once upon a time there were no guilds. Warring clans of various races held sway over bits of Kemoria. Mages didn't know much about the difference between the mana types and sorcery was (relatively) common. Over the hundred years following the Human-Elf war, the seven star empire was born (908 before Lanival). About 40 years later the Imperial Board of Wizardry was established. The College of War Magic was formed shortly thereafter (the origin of the organized warrior mage guild). About 160 years later, sorcery was outlawed. Another 120 years later, the lunar accord was signed bringing together moon mages as a guild within the seven star empire.

But what happened to the clerics? I figure somewhere in this general time period the clerics guild might have been formed. The mana types were being closely observed and separated. The seven star empire outlawed sorcery for (among other reason) the devastating effects that a sliver of holy mana could have on an elemental fire spell (blackfire).

I am specifically looking for in game documentation (whether through library books, artifacts, or GMPC interactions) of the origins and history of the cleric guild. I realized the other day that although I play a character who considers himself an important part of the guild (the organization, not just because of his rank within it), he would definitely know it's history in quite a bit of detail. On searching as a player, however, the history appears almost nonexistant.

In response, Ryeka brought to light the document in the warrior mage guild. It talks about the holy mages in the time of myths that casted out the elemental mages. These people were likely the ancestors of the warrior mage and cleric paths. As with anything from that period, the stories need to be taken with a grain of salt. I've read every book in DR that my characters have come across, and read every book I've found in websites at one time or another. When I went to look back to refresh my memory on the library books, I used http://libraries.lucerella.com/ I know this is at least missing the throne city library, so I don't know how complete it is. So as a related question, does anyone have a more complete library webpage?

Thoughts? Ideas? History GM wanna post?
Reply
Re: Origin of the cleric guild 01/04/2006 11:22 AM CST
Yes, yes, you are warrior mage spawn.

The books in the WM Guild may definitely shed some light on the history you are looking for.
Reply
Re: Origin of the cleric guild 01/04/2006 04:29 PM CST
I have a few of the Throne City books HTML-ified on my website and all of them in normal text file format as well. I can email them to you if you like.



Rev. Reene, player of a few

Reene: hey you should play this with me
Zairius: last time I fell for that line
Zairius: I ended up in DR
Reply
Re: Origin of the cleric guild 01/04/2006 04:46 PM CST
If any of them have information about the origin of the cleric guild, I'm interested. SV2G at play dot net should work just fine.
Reply
Re: Origin of the cleric guild 01/04/2006 05:03 PM CST
Well, at least one of them specifically says some things about holy mana and the Clerics of older times and their beliefs. You might find it interesting.

http://reene.euphoricsoup.com/text/tev1.html

Under the 'Aether and Electricity' chapter.

Must stop being lazy and do the rest of these...




Prior to this discovery of the element, the Clerics had
always maintained that lightning itself was a divine
phenomena -- a power utilized by the gods themselves when
they were angry and wished to express their wrath upon
Elanthia. Thus it would not be classified as a natural or
elemental occurrence, but rather a supernatural or divine
one, as a manifestation of the Immortal will and power.
Through practical research and experimentation, we have
disproven this foolish Cleric notion.

The Electricity element was in fact discovered by watching
and studying Trollish shamans, who for some reason, seem to
have had an affinity for Electricity -- they were very much
in tune with it, you could say, and so utilized it with
great regularity and proficiency. This was a magic the
elemental mages were unfamiliar with, but seeing it
utilized by such a lesser creature led many to question the
diktat of the Clerics, that electricity and lightning were
of a divine province. It was, of course, not recognized as
an element at this point in time, but through study and
observation, the elemental mages were able to come to
understand the spell patterns being manipulated by the
Trollish mages; this ability to discern the energy streams
the Trolls were using as well as to understand the spell
patterns convinced them that what they were watching was
the power of an element at work.

It wasn't long before methods were discovered allowing them
to duplicate these works and create their own, more
advanced Electricity magic. The final threads of the
Clerical beliefs regarding lightning were laid to an
undignified rest by the study of the Suur Pillar (see GCMH
report "A Study of the Suur Pillar") -- while the Clerics
maintained, perhaps accurately or perhaps not, as this is
beyond the nature of our focus or care, that the Suur
Pillar was a creation of the god Firulf...






Rev. Reene, player of a few

Reene: hey you should play this with me
Zairius: last time I fell for that line
Zairius: I ended up in DR
Reply
Re: Origin of the cleric guild 01/04/2006 05:04 PM CST
Well, at least one of them specifically says some things about holy mana and the Clerics of older times and their beliefs. You might find it interesting.

http://reene.euphoricsoup.com/text/tev1.html

Under the 'Aether and Electricity' chapter.

Must stop being lazy and do the rest of these...



Rev. Reene, player of a few

Reene: hey you should play this with me
Zairius: last time I fell for that line
Zairius: I ended up in DR
Reply