The White Way

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Meta•Fact: I didn't sleep last night and I'm pretty out of sorts and probably going to fall asleep in my chair for a while and Dustin will not take seriously anything I say after I have fallen asleep in my chair (because he is racist) so I am basically going to type a number of things in here and then fix them LATER.

The White Way

A philosophical system around which the Ironesse Church is formed. Only women are allowed to serve as priestesses under the Ironesse form of the Way. Girls enter the Cloisters at a young age and are then selected, based upon psionic potential, to move upwards through the priesthood.

The Paths

There are three paths of the White Way. The Corund Path, the Beryl Path and the Jet Path. Each girl will show an affinity towards one of these paths, through her early study, and will proceed to study further along that particular path. Those that show an affinity for the Jet Path are instead shepherded towards one of the other paths.

Each path has a variety of branches, and often a girl will show a further affinity towards one of these paths. For example, a girl with an affinity towards geomancy would tend to walk the stone branch of the beryl path.

Purpose

The purpose of the philosophy is to allow man (and woman) to attain harmony with one’s self and one’s surroundings, and ultimately attain enlightenment. Traditionally, within the Ironesse form of the Way, the Prophetesses are the only ones to attain enlightenment within the constraints of a mortal form. Only through perfect understanding of each of the three paths may one finally come to know the true path, and enlightenment.

It is said that enlightenment leads to prophecy, thus the Prophetesses being understood to have achieved enlightenment.

Monks, Temples and Shrines

Under the Ironesse form of the Way, temples are maintained and day-to-day functions of the church in many places performed by men, called Monks, who study the White Way in the same way as Priestesses, but who are not allowed perfect understanding, and thus not gifted with the Sacred Instruments (psionic powers.) Because of this Monks are seen as a perpetual underclass in the church, and it is commonly believed that men are spiritually beneath women, perhaps to the point of not being able to attain enlightenment without reincarnating as the feminine.

Duties of a Priestess and Relationship with Knights of the Deep

Priestesses are equally qualified to perform all duties commonly performed by Monks, though it is rare for a Priestess to actually maintain a local shrine for any length of time, and their duties are often far more esoteric. Some act in the capacity of a sort of military arm of the church, while others carry word of the White Way into heathen lands or to those who have lost faith. Traditionally, a Priestess traveling abroad will be accompanied by a Knight of the Deep, to guard her honor.

The White Way and Religion in Triangle

The religion in Triangle stems from the Church of Ironesse in Dantic, where the Dantrath peoples of Triangle originated. The churches are nearly identical, differing only in who they believe is the true temporal head of the church. The Triangle Splinter Sect, also called the Triangle Heresy, believes there are actually three true lines equally fit to lead the church and that these lines will one day be unified.

Day to Day

Day to day the people of Triangle most commonly practice a form of ancestor worship, maintaining shrines to deceased family members in and near the home, as well as at grave sites. These practices date to before the Church of Ironesse and the first Prophetess, and persist as they are otherwise in harmony with the concepts of that religion.

Clergy of the Triangle Church

The clergy consist of three parts: the Prophetess, the Monks and the Priestesses. The Zone Knights answer to the Cognate or Consort General and work in concert with the Priestesses, though they aren’t considered part of the church.

The Prophetess is the temporal head of the church and traditionally descends from the first prophetess who created the Compact with the Zone Eaters. In the case of the church in Triangle, the Prophetess is descended from an heir-designate who was put aside for a late-born true heir.

She is the hereditary head of the church and leadership passes through a matrilineal line. The daughters of a Prophetess are sent to train as Priestesses and may even perform the duties of a Priestess before becoming Prophetess.

The Monks maintain shrines and perform various duties for local communities. It’s common for the maintenance of shrines to pass through families, as monks are allowed to marry and have children. Monks as a rule maintain one or more shines in a given area and are not itinerant.

The Priestesses are itinerant where the Monks are not. They travel, performing their duties across wide swaths of territory, and are always accompanied by at least one Zone Knight. In addition to their duties tending to the spiritual well-being of the people, they are also trained in a form of magic and psionics.

The Prophetess is also the head of state of a small area known as the Holy See, which comprises of a city called Sienne Lumari, a wilderness area, and the Cloisters, where Priestesses are trained and may choose to remain and serve. Additionally Sienne Antave, though quite distant from the See, is considered the domain of the Prophetess.

Teachings of the Church

The church teaches harmony with nature and that evil arises in the world from sources of disharmony. Both the Monks and the Priestesses seek to remove such dissonance both through teaching the White Way and in actively fighting evils that arise from disharmony.

There is no true holy book, though there are several volumes of “mysteries” which are prophecies recorded from the first Prophetess all the way through time to present day. The mysteries are often consulted for spiritual guidance as well as studied for hints of future events, and Priestesses will often carry small prayerbooks that contain both sutras and prophecy.

The Priestesses control their magics and psionics through meditation and sutras — they believe that only through an intense regimen of training at the Cloisters might they be granted the blessing of one or more of the Sacred Instruments.

Entering the Priest(ess?)hood

Girls are often “given” to the church by families that are too poor to support more children, and these girls may be raised in the church from literally any age. Some girls choose to join the order, while others are sought out — neither of these groups are allowed to join before the age of majority (fifteen, in Triangle)

Wealthy families will also sometimes send their daughters to study at the Cloisters, either in an attempt to ingratiate themselves with the church, or to further their daughters educations or ensure their purity. The most notable of these is the Prophetess herself, who will always send her daughters to the Cloisters, once they have reached the age of fifteen. (Necessarily, she will also send her eldest son to study with the Zone Knights)

Priestess Psionics

Identical to those in the Church of Ironesse, Priestesses practice a variety of psionics which are represented by the three paths and many branches of the White Way. Each Priestess will generally have an affinity towards one of the paths, and thus one variety of psionics. Rarely a Priestess will master all three paths and will begin the journey of the true path, which is the path to enlightenment. This is the path which relates to the psionic power of Prophecy.

Zone Knights and Knights of the Deep

In both Dantic and Esper there exists a body of highly trained men which use Zone Eaters, or Deep Wyrms, as mounts and weapons. They are not traditionally an arm of the church in either Ironesse or Triangle, and the magics they command bear no relationship to the White Way or its three paths.

It is by tradition only that the Zone Knights and Knights of the Deep are bound to the Priestesses, accompanying them when they are at large in the world, protecting them and watching over them. They are almost to a man devoutly religious, and it is not uncommon for a retired Knight to take the cloth and become a Monk, though he must then break all contact with his Wyrm and so lose access to its Deep Magics.