Organization – The Redemptionists

Let us join hands and look to the heavens, soon the golden gates will open and the gods will return.  Their mighty powers striking the dragons from the sky and returning us all to an age of beauty and light.

Redemptionists

The god have not been slain, the dragons lie, but simply driven away.  The dragons could not slay the gods, does not the sun and the moon still survive?  Does not the earth still give fourth her bounty?  The gods have left us to prove our faith, once we have done so, they will return and strike down the dragons and restore the world to how it should be.  We must keep the flame of faith alive and work to teach others, soon our numbers and strength of belief will open the gate and paradise will be restored!

Goal: Bring back the Gods

The Redemptionists belief that when they gain enough numbers and build enough faith, the gods will return and set everything right.  This is to be accomplished by sincere belief, ritual and, most importantly, preaching to spread the faith and bring more people into the fold.  The majority of the Redemptionists believe that the dragons are a divine punishment for the peoples’ lack of faith and trust in the gods but that the gods can be brought back if they just believe hard enough.

Alignment

Redemptionists try to lead a good and faithful life, though the definition of both will vary from region to region, to show that they are true to the gods.  Since the churches were destroyed and the dragon embarked on a campaign to eliminate most organized religion following their victory, the rituals followed by the Redemptionists may only vaguely resemble the original one having been handed down in secret from generation to generation.  Their choice of specific god or gods they worship is highly eccentric but all pay some veneration to the Sun and the Moon as the only gods that are still obviously here.  The various cells of Redemptionists try to remain in contact with each other and provide aid when they can but petty squabble between them are all too frequent.

Leader

There is no overall recognized leader of the Redemptionists but each cell tends to have a priest, though many choose more impressive titles such as Hierophant, High Priest or Priestess or Pontifex.  This cause problems when two cells need to cooperate as there is only an ad hoc hierarchy and arguments tend to break out over who should lead.

Headquarters

The Redemptionists have cells everywhere but no unified, agreed upon structure.  They are most common in lands that have existing Cults of the Undying Sun whose existence they can use to easily conceal some of their activities.

Joining

The Redemptionists accept all who are willing to accept the truth that the gods will return to drive off the dragons and save the world.  They are very accepting into the outer levels which require little more than lip service to the faith and equally are not given much knowledge.  To gain access to the inner circles and inner mysteries, applicants must prove themselves.  Most Redemptionists are terrified that Imperial agents are seeking to infiltrate their organizations and require serious recruit to submit to binding oaths or even magical binding before they are admitted deeper into the organization.

Gaining Prestige

Joining in at worship and showing that you are a committed and true believer, usually by providing resources and new recruits, is the minimum required for advancement within the Redemptionists.  As the Redemptionist believe that they require a greater number of people to believe to prove to the gods that they should return, a premium is placed on gathering new recruits.  Though those that gather lost knowledge of the gods, find the ruins of ancient temples or ancient religious artefacts will quickly gather status as well.

Resources

The Redemptionists have a vast collection of forbidden knowledge about the gods from before the Sundering, much of it is fragmentary however as individual cells are often very protective about their knowledge and reluctant to share.  Some have access to the ruins of temples or -very rarely- lost or hidden temples that survived the draconic purges.  They work very diligently to recover and reconstruct religious magical items and use them to inspire hope and belief.

Allies and Enemies

The Redmeptionists share common cause with the cult of the Undying Sun, but both group avoid making the ties to obvious.  While the Redemptionists occasionally revere the Moon, they usually avoid dealing with the Moon Cult which has its own agenda.  They share general beliefs with the elven Preparers faction, though not their singular focus on the elven gods, and they often cooperate.

While the Redemptionists fear that everyone is a potential informer for the Draconic Imperium, the Empire usually ignore them unless they do something spectacular or start to pose a real political threat in a region.  Members of the Dragon Cults consider the Redemptionsts dangerously misguided but generally ignore them.

Notes: This took my longer to write up that I had intended, I will try to have some adventure seeds and additional information tomorrow.