Extra: The Church of the Silver Crown

In the days and weeks following the Shattering, the Church of the Silver Crown was exemplary among the followers of the various gods. Where other groups panicked and scattered or worse, the Church quickly organised missions to aid those areas most affected by the destruction. The servants of the Silver Crown saved countless lives by direct intervention, and countless more by working ceaselessly to hold back the darkness that was already washing over the land.

In the months following the cataclysm, some turmoil did arise in the Church. Without the direct guidance of the Silver Crown, many disagreed about the course the Church should take. Some argued for its dissolution, saying that a church without gods could only end in disaster; many of these left the service of the Church and returned to secular life.

Other than these, a number of groups split off from the church in a series of largely non-violent schisms; many of these themselves dissolved within a few years without any central authority to rally around, but some developed into stable groups still active today, including the Healers, the Holy Guard, and the highly controversial Sons of Twilight.

Despite these schisms, the Church retained the vast majority of its clergy. After months of relative anarchy due to the lack of any central authority, the most senior clergy of each of the Church's three orders came together to form the Conclave. Over the course of the following years, the Conclave rose to become the highest authority of the Church, almost taking the place of the Silver Crown themselves. Following this, they made a number of dramatic changes to the Church's organizational structure, finally settling on a stable structure by the fifth year after the Shattering.

Today, the Church of the Silver Crown is organised as follows:

The Conclave is the highest authority of the Church, and makes the final decision in all matters of doctrine and most matters of direct action within and without the Church. There is no single leader of the Conclave; all Orders are equally represented, and all decisions are made by majority vote.

The Purgatai, originally an order answering directly to Aranaus, was reformed and now reports directly to the Conclave. Purgatori maintain the duty to which they were bound before the Shattering; to hunt down and destroy the creatures and powers of darkness in the world. In these dark times, this duty is especially important, and the numbers of the Purgatori have swelled with initiates and novices to almost double what they were before the Shattering, even accounting for those lost in the chaos that follows.

The Purgatai has a hierarchical structure, with individual Purgatori reporting to a regional council of their seniors, which itself reports to the Purgatai Council. The Conclave, however, has the authority to directly assign duties to any Purgator, regardless of the Purgatai or individual councils, and a special group of Purgatori report directly to the Conclave.

The Justicai, originally the order of the servants of Malana, now also reports directly to the Conclave. Unlike the Purgatai, every Justicar reports directly to the Conclave, although ad hoc administrative groupings are formed and dissolved as necessary. The Justicari continue with their original duty of administering justice and punishing crime, but much of their work since the Shattering has become the hunting of those men and women who use the powers of darkness for their own gain.

The Beneficai continues to provide for the needs of the laity in those areas where the Church still has a foothold. The Beneficari remain the preachers and healers of the Church, and although they are required to follow the Conclave's decisions on doctrine and general practice, they are functionally independent and are not required to follow direct orders given by the Conclave.

The White Guard are the lay military of the Church, and are organised similarly to a regular (though small) military. Nominally, the Guards report directly to the Conclave, but in practice different regiments report to the Purgatai, Justicai, or local secular rulers, depending on where they are assigned. While not as individually effective as either Purgatori or Justicari, the White Guard form the bulk of the Church's presence in the world and perform a vital role in holding back the tides of darkness.

Rumours of a "Midnight Guard", a secret group of highly trained agents drawn from the survivors if particularly vicious attacks on darkness, remain widespread but entirely unsubstantiated, and can most likely be dismissed.

-   Alekka Menai

    The Church of the Silver Crown: After the Shattering

    (11 years after the Shattering)