Aevo
Greater God of Skies & Kingship
- Domains: Creation, Protection, Strength
- Channel Divinity Feats: Armor of Bahamut, Harmony of Erathis, Ancestral Guidance, Sovereign Justice
Avengers of Aevo
The avengers in the service of Aevo are holy slayers, dedicated to the often-secret fight against those forces who stand arrayed against the Church. They are particularly prevalent in the Almanni state religion, where they are the secret enforcers of the Lord Theocrat of Almanni.
Clerics of Aevo
Clerics of Aevo are the well-revered living saints of the Church of Aevo, and they inevitably rise to positions of prominence and respected leadership in the faith of the One King. Sword-wielding holy men who bring the word of civilization and order to the world, backing up the authority of nations in their dealings with men.
Invokers of Aevo
Called "Aevo's Gryphons" by the Church, invokers have dreams of flying and visions involving gryphons quite often. Driven by their dreams, those who are imbued with the power of Aevo often begin with pilgrimages to high mountain peaks, often encountering gryphons who regard them warily but peacefully. Those who return from such journeys are marked by the power of Aevo, and use it to carry for the will of the First of the First.
Paladins of Aevo
Practically the archetypal knights, Aevonian wear helmets that feature stylized crowns worked into the brow of the helm, to denote their status as the lords of battle. Paladins of Aevo are the most common knights errant, traveling the lands to see good wrought and uphold the strength of good common folk and nobles alike by slaying dangers at the edges of civilization.
Runepriests of Aevo
The splitting of the Elemental Chaos from the Astral Sea caused great powers to be made manifest in the world. Though greater than mere writing, these Mysteries are made manifest by sigils of tremendous power. The so-called Empyrean Sigils are the bulwark of the Empyrean runepriests, who pursue understanding of these ancient powers with Aevo's blessing.
Also called the Lord of the Skies, the One King, First of the First and the First of All Lords.
- Portfolio: Skies and Kingship
- Depiction: Aevo is envisioned as a great kingly figure, a tall man seated on a throne, with close-cut but full beard and hair and a powerful body adorned by robes of the highest quality. His head is surmounted by a halo of spinning stars that is the crown of his kingship, and he bears a great sword across his lap. The four winds are his servants and heralds, and serve him depicted as kingly gryphons.
- Symbols: Aevo's holy symbol is an Empyrean Star crafted of gold, with a crown in its center. The other symbols of his faith are depictions of winds and gryphons (as well as hawks and lions), diamonds and lapis lazuli, as well regal swords. Because Aevo formed the first order in the universe, notions of civilization have their origins in him (although his daughter Khoro is rightly the goddess of civilization), so the heraldry of nations are also considered symbols of Aevo. Aevo's holy power in his champions shows forth as a hot wind and a brilliant white radiance.
- Origins: Of the Greater Empyrean Gods, Aevo was the first made by the whim of the Primordials, and so powerful was the effects of Aevo's creation that the multiverse first split into Elemental Chaos and Astral Sea. Aevo led his breathren in the Dawn War. Since that time, Aevo has led the Empyrean Court, and it was by his command that the Talion Gods were wrought.
The Vault of Heaven (Empyrean Heaven)
A vast realm of bluest sky, the terrain of the Vault of Heaven is made up of wispy clouds. In some areas, these clouds have been condensed to be like cloud-white marble, upon which structures of sublime grace and airiness are built. In these skies fly the angelic servants of Aevo, and a variety of his other winged servants, including the gryphons which are his symbol. The faithful dead of Aevo are also capable of flight, given silvery wings by their faith in the Sky Father.
The Aevonian Church of Angelic Revelation
The Church of Angelic Revelation is a rapidly-growing sect of the Aevonian faith founded two centuries ago by the temples to Aevo in and around the city-state of Liminal. The tenets and practices of this faith are highly influenced by the words of the angelic figures in service to Aevo directly. These archons form the upper echelons of this sect's faith, and they are well-known to favor the devas who make up a high population of the district of Empyros and the Empyrean Court.
The Angelic Revelants (as the adherents to the sect are called) are often considered heretics by many of the other sects of Aevonian worship, who believe that the authority of the angelic host of Aevo extends only to direct service to the god, and not to leading the mortal faith of the Lord of the Skies.
Theology
The concept of "direct transmission" is an important concept to the Church of Angelic Revelation. Its adherents teach that it is no longer needful to have mortal servants of Aevo translate and debate the meaning of church liturgy and function when they possess the ability to confer directly with the servants of the First of All Lords.
The Revelant church also teaches that archons are the direct servants of Aevo, and thus best-suited for service in its upper echelons. Although it does not directly state a preference for them, the church's preference for deva is also based on a church teaching: that since the deva do not pass to an afterlife, their service is more pure. After all, it is service loyally given without hope of a reward after death.
Rituals & Observances
X
- Day of Division (Holiday): X
- Feast of Revelation (Holiday): X
- Admission Unto the Faith (Sacrament): X
- Marriage Rites (Sacrament): X
- Vigil of Three Lights (Sacrament): X
Hierarchy
At the top of the church's hierarchy are the Archons of Aevo. The exact organization among the archons is not only not know, but is forbidden to be inquired about: how Aevo organizes his first servants is of no business to mortal minds. It is sufficient that they come among the upper echelons of the church with holy word and command.
The furthest up the hierarchy anyone can truly claim to understand starts with the Council of Revelation, those holy servitors of Aevo to whom the archons appear regularly. Four representatives of the church sit on this council, usually made up of a priest or priestess of the Church (usually the Holy Mother or Father of the Temple of the Blessed Skies), the Knight-General of the Seraldanai, a monk to represent the monastic orders of the church and a lay brother or sister to represent the laity of the Church. The Council of Revelation not only act as go-betweens from the Archons, they also run the Palace of the Blesses Skies, in Liminals' Empyros district, where all priests of the Revelant Church are trained.
Beneath the Council are the Curia of Kings, a name taken from the Ancient and Orthodox sect. The Curia are high priests and priestesses charged with overseeing geographical areas. Unlike in the Orthodox Aevonian Church, the Curia are not the actual deans of seminaries, but bureaucratic heads. Each is usually in charge of a temple themselves, which is referred to as a Curidence, not only providing local services, but also acting as a bureaucratic center for the Church's functions in the area.
Each subordinate temple and monastery are under the control of a since Curidence. Each temple has its Holy Mother or Holy Father, the high priestess or priest of that temple, and each cloister has its Abbess or Abbot, who governs that cloister. The Holy Mother or Holy Father of a temple also are responsible for the laity who volunteer at their churches, although in practice an underpriest is usually assigned to organize and assist their efforts.
Orders
- The Seraldanai: Knightly Order. The foremost order of knights and paladins among the Angelic Revelants, the Seraldanai are mostly humans and deva. They take vows of poverty and chastity, dedicating the whole of their lives to the service of the Church as a whole, acting as bodyguards to its important non-angelic members and defenders of its temples and holy places.
The Ancient and Orthodox Church of Aevo
Once the dominant faith of Aevo in Rinhony, the Ancient Church is on the decline with the coming of the Revelants. A church many hundreds of years old that grew from a concerted effort to fold the myriad competing Aevonian theologies of days past, the Holy Regent and his Gryphon Council speaks out against the schisms they have seen of the Aevonian faith, seeking to reconcile their theologies and traditions into a great single church once more.
Hierarchy
- Led by the Holy Regent, who sits the Throne of Aevo in the temple-city of Fuldonmyr, found in the Empire of the Nine.
- He is advised by the Gryphon Council, an order of powerful priests.
The Offices of the Lord Theocrat (Almanni Theocracy)
The Offices of the Lord Theocrat are part of the Almanni Theocracy, a single religious structure that incorporates worship of all the gods both Empyrean and Talion, fitting their respective priesthoods into administrative and functional roles within the Theocracy.
Obviously led by the Lord Theocrat of Almanni, the Offices serve to support the Lord Theocrat in every way. Its junior priests all serve the Theocracy as a whole in a traditional priestly role (unlike the priests of many other gods in the Theocracy). Those priests all work to improve their service and education, hoping to achieve its heights of power, although few ultimately do.
Unlike many offices of the Theocracy, the Lord Theocrat's Offices do have truck with their counterparts outside of Almanni. Indeed, the Offices of the Lord Theocrat are on very good terms with the Ancient and Orthodox Church, supporting their notions of collaborative theology; they simply maintain that they cannot in good faith join their efforts until the Ancient and Orthodox Church has taken the next step and found a place for all the gods in their theology, as the Almanni have done. The Lord Theocrat and the Holy Regent often visit one another on diplomatic pilgrimages and visits of state. Both agree on the heresy that is the Church of Angelic Revelation, however, despite (or perhaps because of) that sect's growing power.
Hierarchy
- Led by the Lord Theocrat, a powerful Almanni political figure.
