Church of the Lords Assembled

"In the south, in -118 DR, the Year of Elven Delights, the thriving settlement of Impil’s Tor is renamed Lyrabar by Dictatus Ornrath Mirandor, hearkening back to its dwarf roots and cementing the first trade ties with dwarves of the surrounding mountains. It is in this year also that a minor cult among the soldiers and commoners of Nova Jhaamdath finds a powerful new voice in the government of the Dictatus, when the younger brother of the Dictatus, Gnaius Mirandor, begins to openly preach the "many that are one" theory of the religion of Auppenser. By the end of his life, Gnaius Mirandor would be acclaimed the first Pontifrex of the new state relgion with the conversion of his brother to the nascent faith, and the great Church of the Lords Assembled would be born."

"Beginning in 2 DR, the first of several great convulsions would shake Impilturan society would come about due to a societal and religious schism centering around the concept of slavery. In the ancient texts of Auppenser, the practice of slavery, whether against one's own people or against conquered vassals was strictly forbidden, but in recent centuries the strictures against slavery had been relaxed by legal and ethical loopholes involving terms of surrender, mercy, and indentured debt. The end result of these loopholes was a condition for almost all northern barbarians and citizens of Nar stock tantamount to slavery itself. House servants tended the estates of the wealthy citizens of Impiltur, while barbarians and beasts fought for the amusement of the public in fatal gladiatorial games. It was from the these games that the first threat would arise in the form of a northern barbarian that called himself the Ard Ri. Evoking the name of the High King of the north, this gladiator would incite a rampage beginning in the city of Dilpur that rallied more and more of the oppressed slave class to his cause."

"If the threat was just incarnated in the form of an unlettered barbarian gladiator and his band of citizen soldiers, the convulsion would probably have passed swiftly with eventual military victories, but his cause was inflamed by the writings of Sentire Locarvo of Lyrabar, himself long an opponent of the "abomination of forced servitude" and a champion of the causes of the under class. The writings of the Sentire spread like wildfire, and the ineffective King Belrath Mirandor was powerless to reverse the course of the chaos. By 5 DR, the kingdom was plunged into revolution and civil war, with the lower classes rallying around the Ard Ri and the king and his councilors fleeing the fortress at Impil's Tor, abandoning it to being burned by the advancement of the wave of discontent. Soon, noble battled noble, and many decided to flee the madness engulfing the kingdom rather than be forced to stand and fight their own servants. One such nobleman, Ondeth Obarskyr, fled with a group of like minded families, setting a return course for Chondath. A storm upon the Sea of Fallen Stars would blow the refugees off course, eventually settling them in the Dragon's Reach where they founded the first human settlements in the Forest Kingdom of Cormyr.

Eventually, the Ard Ri was betrayed from within the Great Slave Revolt, murdered by a comrade in exchange for leniency. Without their figurehead, the revolt quickly lost steam, but the election to the position of Pontifrex of Locarvo of Lyrabar resulted in the Pontal Bull "Super Vox Inherent ut Animus of Vir" (Concering the Rights Inherent to the Soul of Man). The bull impressed upon the newly crowned King Fendarn (who slew his younger brother Belrath to right the ship of state) to manumit the slaves across the country."

"In the aftermath of the conflict, Duke Harandil is crowned king of Impiltur by the hand of the Pontifrex Lucullus III upon the victorious battlefield, beginning the Durlaven Dynasty."

The Lords Assembled

Alias

The Faith; the Seven; the Septarchs Ascendant

Symbols

A prism, a seven-pointed star, the various symbols of the aspects.

Holy Book

The Seven-Pointed Star

The Seven is a septune religion, a single pantheonic faith with the following seven aspects: Father, Warrior, Smith, Mother, Maiden, Crone and Stranger. The religion is often simply called "The Faith." The religious form of the Lords Assembled were brought to the shores of Impiltur in -273 DR with the arrival of the Jhaamdathan conquerors of their Emperor Dharien under the banner of Constantus the First Blade. In the wake of the dissolution of the Nar demon religions, the Faith of Constantus swept the land of Impiltur from sea to mountains.

Adherents of the Faith use seven-pointed stars, crystal prisms, rainbows, and the number seven to represent the deity, and rites of worship heavily involve the use of light and crystals. The Faith of the Seven has a highly organized church structure that is strongly integrated into the government and culture of Impiltur. It is headed by the High Septon, a figure of papal authority, and a council of twelve comprising the "Most Devout" by whom a High Septon is elected. A High Septon abandons his name when elected.

The places of worship of the Seven are called "septs", and every sept houses representational art portraying each of the seven aspects. In rural septs, they may simply be carved masks or simple charcoal drawings on a wall, while in wealthy septs, they are embodied by statues inlaid with precious metals and stones. The High Septon and the Most Devout are situated in the Great Sept of Constantus in Lyrabar, a vast building of white marble with seven crystal towers, which serves as the seat of the Faith. Prior to being headquartered in Lyrabar, before the advent of the Heltharn Dynasty, the seat of the Faith was the ornate Starry Sept in Filur, constructed in black marble with stained glass windows set in pointed arches.

Male clergy of the Faith are called "septons" and female clergy called "septas", and there are various orders of devotion amongst them, each concentrating their devotion on one aspect of the Seven. For example, there are septons sworn to the Smith, and they wear small metal hammers on a thong around their necks. Monastic orders of septons can live in 'septries' (plural of 'septry'), self sustaining enclaves of sworn brothers who are called "Brown Brothers." Septons without a sept wander the countryside ministering to the smallfolk in exchange for food and shelter. They are sometimes disparaged as "begging brothers", and they wear a small metal bowl around their necks. In addtion, there are convents of septas called 'motherhouses,' including a large one in Filur. There are orders of septas, most devoted to the Mother and the Maid, but some devoted to the Faith as a whole. Septas often serve as governesses in the households of the high nobility. A trial of a woman conducted by the Faith will have septas sitting among the seven judges. High ranking septas are counted as members of the "Most Devout", and they have a voice in the selection of a High Septon. It is unheard of for a septa to be raised as High Septon.

Believers in the Faith pray to specific aspects of the Seven for help and guidance depending on their circumstances: to the Warrior for courage and skill in battle, to the Father for justice, to the Mother for mercy, to the Smith for making whole what is broken, to the Crone for wisdom, to the Maid for innocence and pleasure in life, and to the Stranger for death. Candles are lit before the altars symbolizing each of the seven aspects, and hymns are often sung. Weddings are conducted standing between the altars of the Father and the Mother. Grandiose rites of worship contain choirs comprising seventy-seven septas.

The Faith considers other religions to be more or less uncivilized and heretical, looking with disdain on the individual worship of the gods in their more primitive Chondathan forms. The Faith is staunchly opposed to the worship of "evil" gods, considering such a thing the equivalent of demon worship, and the gods themselves nothing more than greatly powerful demon lords. As far as the faiths of non-humans, the position of the Faith has varied over the years. Current dogma claims that these "gods" of the non-human Elder Races are nothing more than superstition or the worship of powerful place spirits and elementals, dangerously close to demonic heresy but a tolerable deviation for now. This patriarchal attitude has lead to a large number of schisms and heresies within the Faith over the centuries. These have ranged from fanatics for one aspect or another declaring primacy over the faith to the full-blown worship of the "Shadowlords", a twisted reflection of the Faith that substitutes gods and goddesses of darkness for the proper aspects.

The Father

• Alias: Tyr
• Sphere of Influence: Justice, Law, Government

The Mother

• Alias: Selune
• Sphere of Influence: Mercy, Family, Fertility

The Warrior

• Alias: Torm
• Sphere of Influence: War, Loyalty, Champions

The Smith

• Alias: Gond
• Sphere of Influence: Craft, Industry, Trade

The Maid

• Alias: Sune
• Sphere of Influence: Youth, Love, Beauty

The Crone

• Alias: Mystra
• Sphere of Influence: Wisdom, Magic, Prophecy

The Stranger

• Alias: Ilmater
• Sphere of Influence: Death, Suffering, Hope

There are two separate tracks of advancement for males and females within the Orthodox Faith.

Males

Females