ER:Veracian Church

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The Veracian Church plays as important a role in the world of Errant Road as it does in the Poe-verse. Much of the early Errant Road action centered around a mission in Kiyoka that was the scene of various strange goings-on, and the Church's influence, malign or otherwise, is felt in other story settings as well.

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Organizations

The headquarters of the Veracian Church, Errant-Road-style, is in Emerylon, just as it is in the Poe-verse. A significant "regional" center of church governance is in Saus. Beyond that, most little towns in the boonies of Veracia have their own local temples, sometimes very small. Because the governance of Veracia is largely done by (or, at least, in close partnership with) the Veracian Church, there are obvious reasons to have at least small church outposts everywhere that needs governing -- which is to say, everywhere.

Needless to say, the Veracian Church operates mainly in Veracia. However, it also has a mission in Kiyoka (the "Veracian Church of Our Lord Luminosita, Mission to the Faithless, Kiyoka District Temple," to give it its full name) that's important to the story. There may be other missions elsewhere that evangelize among the "faithless;" the Kiyoka mission's full name hints at them, and priest Brother Miguel got recruited from (and saved from grisly death in) the Southern Continent by some manner of missionary party, the memory of which still fills him with horror.

Denominations

Several "denominations" within the church have been mentioned in the story. They're presumed to co-exist reasonably well, having discovered, by way of the Mage/Priest Wars, that there are more important adversaries to prepare for battle with than each other. Named denominations are:

  • Orthodox -- the main branch of the church, headed (as in the Poe-verse) by Patriarch Jeramel, who hasn't been (and won't be) seen. Doctrinally conservative (exactly what this means hasn't been developed fully) and socially rather retrograde, it contains the large majority of church faithful in Saus and Emerylon, and is usually the only denomination represented in some of the more remote locales like Heamish. Something like 95% of all followers of Luminosita are members of this branch, at least in theory.
  • Reformed -- second most important of the denominations, apparently. Brother Miguel, who's a member of this denomination (as are most of the priests and monks at the Kiyoka mission), has attempted to explain some of the differences between Orthodox and Reformed denominations, but it's all pretty murky. The Reformed church is significantly more likely than the Orthodox church to get out into the streets and do Good Works, is generally rather liberal from a social perspective (for example, it doesn't require celibacy of its priests and nuns), treats smitings more symbolically than the Orthodox branch does, and contributes more than its share of members to the more far-flung reaches of the Church as a whole. However, it occupies a minority position in Veracia. Sister Rose, another of the Kiyokans who's a member of this denomination, is descended from one of its founders, a Bishop Nuria of whom nothing else is known yet.
  • Calfornicans -- recognizable to the passerby by the distinctive odor of burning vegetable substances within (and it ain't incense) during their religious observations. Their religious rituals are ... mellow (and probably involve hunger for munchies and sleeping it off), and they're more tolerant of clergy in marriage-like relationships than most, yet in many ways their basic doctrine appears surprisingly close to that of the Orthodox branch. Their main base of operations is in the coastal town of Getsemiel, which becomes an important Errant Road venue, and there are Calfornican temples in a few towns that have been visited (notably Lorenzel).
  • Luminositan Scientists -- only mentioned, not seen, thus far, apart from a temple fire in Homontel. Also known as the "Mechanists." Brother Miguel and Sister Rose say that they have a highly heterodox interpretation of the Festival of Departure, important to the Orthodox church. Nothing else is known of them.
  • Millenarians -- the branch that maintains (or at least used to maintain, before its destruction by fire) the temple in Saus that contains the Church's genealogical records. The mysteriously missing Father Egbert is a Millenarian. Nothing else is known of them, except that they're not well thought of in some of the towns in southern Veracia, e.g. Homontel.
  • Mystics -- briefly mentioned by Brother Miguel in the discourse where he develops the differences between Reformed and Orthodox; apparently possessed of some weird beliefs about other planes of existence, otherwise unknown.
  • Eastern Ancient Croatoans -- even more briefly mentioned (by Father Egbert) as apparently technophobic, but otherwise completely unknown.

Lucas Ravanel has also alluded to the existence of a rather nasty denomination he calls the "Mallatarians." In fact, the Malletarians have been thrown out of the Church entirely and treated as pariahs, for very good reasons.

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