The original Church, seated in The Holy City — heretical from where the party sits.
Structure
- Headed by the Most Holy (formally the Grand Prelate), addressed “His/Her Holiness,” serving for life.
- Elected by the seventeen-member Divine Council: twelve Prelates Elector (ten Arch Prelates of major dioceses + two Grand Abbotts) and the heads of the (five surviving) Orders Militant.
- Arch Prelates and Grand Abbotts traditionally choose their own successors with the Most Holy’s agreement.
- Highest positions generally go to those with a direct divine connection, though famous exceptions exist. There aren’t enough Blessed to fill every position; many parishes know God through His word rather than His miracles.
- Both men and women serve, with a patriarchal bias; women in the Orders Militant are mostly Blessed.
Current State
Reeling from The Troubles — including an internal inquisition that found widespread Corruption and dissolved the Order of the Owl. From the Hazadi view, proof the West has fallen to the Deceiver.
Recent Leadership (GM)
- Boniface III — Most Holy through the opening of the Troubles. Confirmed Jehanne d’Allais over the Order of the Owl in Fall 1731. Died of old age, Winter 1733.
- Baldessare Malipiero, Archprelate of La Serenissima — elected Summer 1734, reigning as Pious III. In Spring 1736 his Order of the Phoenix dissolved the Order of the Owl and executed its members.
- Other Council figures the party now has names for: Louis d’Allissy, Archprelate of Vyones (who crowned Michel d’Envers); Guillaume de Fausseflammes of the Order of the Swan (dead 1732); Marc Abayante of the Owl (assassinated 1731).
See The Fall of the Order of the Owl and On the Summoning of Guardian Spirits.
In Halwa (S4–S5)
Both churches operate in the Free City — side by side under an informal truce of polite mutual ignoring and unacknowledged cooperation (GM) — and the western one is where the party’s threads knot together:
- The Halwa post is formally appointed by the diocese of La Serenissima, which treats the city as a low priority; for about a decade after her husband’s death, Sister Alasia ran the church and immigrant community with no appointment at all. (GM)
- Father Ignazio — the new formal head: more hardline than the recent local norm (GM), has angered the Uru clan, stonewalled Haroun, preaches Maker Smite! to an expat community that liked Maker Protect!, and is someone Sister Alasia quietly warns people about. His line is putting the truce under new pressure. (GM)
- Sister Alasia — Haroun’s old contact, well liked, and secretly sheltering a transformed Phoenix knight-confessor (Madeline Foussard) in church property while restoring her mind.
In Hazad
- The Order of the Phoenix smuggling its people into Hazad (Session 1) is a violation of everything settled by the Fourth Crusade — see Why Did the Phoenix Knights Come to Hazad.
- Secret western-rite nobles: see Loyalists.