Factions of Vorrenmere
The Acolytes of the Pristine Saint
Symbols by Danielle Starr-Walker and Donovan Walker
The Acolytes of the Pristine Saint are the dominant power in Vorrenmere, or The Sainted Reach, as they have taken to calling it. They are a vast religious and political empire that governs most of the civilized world through faith, administrative authority, and a formidable military presence. For most people living under their rule, the Acolytes are simply the way things are: the priests who tend to the sick, the administrators who keep the roads maintained, the paladins who ride out when bandits threaten a village. Many of them are exactly that.
Their faith centers on the Pristine Saint, a divine figure said to have defeated the Old Gods in a great cataclysmic war and sacrificed its own soul in the process, shattering it into four pieces that will only reunite when all people come to believe and follow the Saint's Doctrines. The first doctrine calls for obedience to the Order as the voice of the Saint's will. The second holds that magic touching death, necromancy, or anything that meddles with the boundary between life and what lies beyond it is dangerous and must not be practiced. The third asks that the dead be mourned briefly and then released: their belongings burned, their names allowed to rest. For they are with the Saint now, and grief that lingers is grief that holds them back. Never will Final Peace descend so long as we fear Death.
The Acolytes' military is divided into two arms. The Grenz Guard are the border troops and, effectively its police force, of the Pristine Saint. Colloquially, and somewhat contemptuously, known as “The Grims” these troops enforce the Saint’s Doctrines upon the people in Acolyte territory (and sometimes beyond it). They are known as the Grims because they are often cold, unemotive, and almost machine-like. There are rumors that they are subjected to extreme brainwashing and rigorous training to turn them into killing machines.
The Grenz Guard
Ranks (Lowest to Highest):
• Gren: A soldier, expendable and loyal. Their training is rigorous, and a history of endless warfare makes them exceptionally dangerous.
• Lanzer: An elite member of the Grenz, often tasked with more complex operations than their Gren counterparts, though still always under the command of higher ranking officers.
• Kamern: An overall commanding officer for a company of Grenz, often in charge of a sector or frontier. These are often not Grenz at all, but specifically picked members of the lower aristocracy of the Acolytes. These Kamern are essential to actually deploying the Grenz Guard where they are needed, and are trained in battlefield tactics.
Knights Pristine
This order of Paladins are largely considered the most dangerous military in the world. Highly organized, exceptionally equipped, and well trained, their presence on a battlefield can be the deciding factor in any battle. However, with no major powers to really challenge them, the Pristine Order is often deployed in small groups to police the inner territories, operating as judge, jury, and if necessary, executioners of Saint’s Doctrines.
Ranks (Lowest to Highest):
• Graum: A lesser brother/sister in the Knights Pristine, these are often either new novitiates or paladins that lack the political acumen to ascend the ranks. They are often sent off on their own to small towns to resolve disputes, investigate crimes, or simply to bolster morale.
• Higraum: The next rank up are often headquartered in large cities with a group of 5 to 10 Graum, where they deploy them around the area as necessary. Any disputes that a Graum cannot resolve, or if their decision is appealed, it is brought to the Higraum. Higraum that are deployed to the edge of Acolyte territory also usually have 3-4 Kamern, with their Gren squads, attached.
• Exegraum: Only 4 Exegraum exist, a council of paladins that lead the Knights Pristine, each one in charge of a different task. The Exegraum of Light, who is in charge of investigations into Breach of Doctrine (basically the inquisition). The Exegraum of Penance, responsible for the exacting of Acolyte common laws and criminal investigations. The Exegraum of Power, responsible for military matters when large numbers of Paladins are needed to fight an enemy. And finally the Exegruam of the Acolyte, a shadowy bodyguard unit who protects the Most High Acolyte, other high ranking politicians, and the most important sites in the realm. In theory these four work together seamlessly, sharing the limited resources of their small order. In practice, they war among each other politically, attempting to attract as many paladins to their cause as possible.
The Acolytes
The highest members of the Acolytes of the Pristine Saint are, of course, the Acolytes. They are the speakers of the Saint’s Will, the purveyors of the Saint’s Faith, and the final authority in all things. They are the religious caste, operating as political leaders, from governors to mayors, and administrators, from trade ministers to tax collectors.
• Devotaries: The priests, monks, and other religious figures. From priests in small towns to Cardinals in major cities, they preach The Doctrine and shepherd the faithful.
• Castellans: City administrators, like tax collectors, mayors, governors. They are the main political caste.
• The Most High Acolyte: A mysterious figure, more myth than anything. The head of the Acolytes of the Pristine Saint, they lead the entire order. From their seat at the top of the highest spire in Sanctenholm, their capital city, they alone are the voice, the fist, the shield, and the spear of the Acolyte faith.
Like any institution with that much history and that much power, the Acolytes contain multitudes. There are priests who have devoted their lives to genuine service, administrators who are more interested in keeping the peace than enforcing doctrine, and paladins who wrestle sincerely with questions of faith and justice. There are also those who use the Order's authority for their own ends, and a hierarchy that does not always distinguish clearly between the two. Whether the Acolytes are a force for good in Vorrenmere is a question most people living under them have learned not to ask too loudly.
The Unsainted
The Acolytes call them Brigands. They call themselves the Unsainted, a name given to them by the communities they have helped over the years, people who have been downtrodden in the name of the Pristine Saint and who are searching for salvation from the holy doctrine.
The Unsainted are not an army in any traditional sense. They are a movement, scattered across Vorrenmere in small cells of ordinary people who go about their lives during the day and meet in basements and back rooms in the evenings to share what they've seen, pass information along, and occasionally do something about it. A sabotaged wagon here. A stolen supply shipment there. A well-coordinated strike against a vulnerable Acolyte outpost when the moment is right. They can't match the Order's resources or its numbers, so they don't try to. They fight smart, or they don't fight at all.
What holds them together isn't a program or a manifesto. It's a feeling that what the Acolytes are doing is wrong, that it has always been wrong, and that someone has to say so out loud even when saying so is dangerous. Despite their noble convictions, they are fallible in the way that people are always fallible. Some of them have been fighting long enough that the anger has started to harden into something less idealistic. But the core of it is real, and it has survived through decades of being hunted.
Three leaders coordinate the movement across the continent, known only by the names the movement has given them: the Vigil, who watches; the Vanguard, who strikes; and the Hearth, who keeps people safe. Their real names are known to almost nobody. Above all of them, in the songs and stories told in those basement meetings, is a figure called the Lightbreaker, a legendary leader who the stories say has always survived and come back, no matter what the Acolytes did to stop her. Most members treat this as the kind of useful legend that every movement needs. A few of the oldest ones aren't entirely sure it's just a legend.
The Unsainted have formed close relationships with many of the travelling merchants and bards who regularly move from town to town. Some of these roaming souls carry coded messages between cells, and are frequently tipped quite well to keep their loyalty and silence.