Hrestoli.

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From: alex (alex@dcs.gla.ac.uk)
Date: Sun 19 Jun 1994 - 19:56:17 EEST

Dave Cake:
> Ok, the Hrestoli have one hierarchy for both temporal and spiritual
> matters (in fact, like many earthly religion, they have difficulty telling
> them apart). I posit that Bishops basically generally control a city (and its
> cathedral), and the ranks above bishop (who control a larger area) and the
> ranks below (generally control a small fief) are referred to most commonly by
> their temporal rank, as they seldom officiate at services regularly.

Just because the Hrestoli see Church and State as a single entity does nor mean that specialised offices cannot exist at all levels of society, combining temporal and spiritual powers to different degrees. There's probably an Archbishop (or whatever) for each part of the Kingdom, but in some areas he may have essentially only spiritual authority, with a number of "temporal" barons actually holding the land, while elsewhere, the Archbishop may be the ruling lord himself, and the local lords and bishops his direct vassals. On a smaller scale, one could imagine the same applying to lesser lords and clerics (of "Talar" rank, still, though).

> Furthermore I posit that the Ecclesiarch (who nominally controls the
> entire world) is higher than the king - but the Ecclesiarch has little
> responsibility for temporal matters, while the king has much.

I disagree with this, if only because we haven't heard of the Hrestoli "Ecclesiarch". Rulership is, after all, the special duty of of "Talar" class, though they continue to exercise religious powers and duties. The King may be seen as the embodiment of Hrestol himself, if the hints about his Sacred Kingship are anything to go by. I suspect the Loskalmi high council has two or three Archbishops on it, though.

> What about Acolythists? They
> could progress to Knight fairly quickly (using appropriate skills - Read/Write
> or similar?) but would they still need to combat skills?

Acolythists would progress to Knight with some Craft and some Lore skill (not necessarily Plant Lore). As for progessing to Wizard, it would depend on their Knightly post. Most of these will probably been actually or notionally martial, but may include:-

Copyist (junior scribe) [90% in three of Write Western, Calligraphy, Speak Loskalmi/Seshnegi/Brithini];

Chorister [Sing, Play <Instrument>, Musical Lore, Compose, Orate];

Deacon [Human Lore, Speak Loskalmi, Orate, Religious Lore, Administration];

Bursar [Evaluate, World Lore, Legal Lore, Administration, Human Lore];

etc.

> Th Hrestoli are very difficult to have as PCs as
> written (ie the only people with a chance of getting to Knight are the
> farmers)

I think if you have a Hrestoli PC, the last thing you want is for him to _advance_, since your already modest freedom of action, particularly to adventure will become positively vanishing.

Alex.

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