Deliar: Hierarchy

The Church of Deliar is extremely mobile. So while those who follow the path of the Lucky Wanderer aren't necessarily disorganized (indeed some have been known for complicated filing systems that boggle the mind), establishing a hierarchy that can be maintained in a healthy manner has proven extremely difficult. Therefore, in their desire to maintain a sense of harmony within their own clergy, the church has opted for a light version of something that can be called an organization. Most of the Deliarite church is composed of halflings with gnomes being a far second and then humans.

Mints

The path of all faithful begins as the humble minting of a coin. When a follower of Deliar decides to take up the divine path, they are often taken as apprentice to a wandering Lucky Coin. Their teachings often revolve around the learning of economics, the markets of the regions they travel within, and eventually into world dynamics and appraisals. During this time, Mints, as these apprentices are called, help the Lucky Coin in all their dealings: transcribing contracts, organizing paperwork, setting up merchant stalls, and dealing with clients as they wander the world are common tasks they perform as they become one with the path of Deliar. Most halfling Mints become additional family members to the Lucky Coins they travel with and are often thought of as cousins. In other races, the relationship between a Mint and his or her Lucky Coin is often more of a professional one that remains simply respectful and businesslike.

Mints are eventually acknowledged as full-fledged Lucky Coins when they understand the true lessons of Deliar are not really just examining market flows and trading routes but in the more delicate weaving of destinies and the exploration of fate. Toward the end of the time that Mints stay with their master, they enter complicated dialogues involving the recounting of events and the many routes things could have gone if other actions were taken. They discuss the complex and often contradictory-seeming concepts of destiny and luck, and how most Deliarites do not see them as mutually exclusive, but instead attempt to link them together in complicated patterns that are often lost in endless nights of discussions. When a Lucky Coin deems his or her Mint ready to forge his or her own destiny, often when the one presents a question the master cannot answer, he lets the apprentice go to see where the wind will take him or her.

Lucky Coins

The majority of the clergy is within the ranks of Lucky Coins. By definition, a Lucky Coin wanders the roads of the world wherever fate and trading takes them. The first and most lasting investment a cleric of Deliar ever makes is the purchasing of their traveling wagon. They go to great lengths and preparation in either finding one to buy or acquiring all the materials needed to have someone construct one for them. Once they do this (and properly celebrate in the Day of Parting), they set their feet on the first road they find and flip a coin to set their direction. They follow the road until they meet another fork and generally let destiny glide them through life. However, a Lucky Coin does not live a whimsical life with no roots at all'far from it, for in these first wanderings they are familiarizing themselves with the world beyond their home towns, expanding their roots, and growing rather than cutting them altogether. In doing so, they expand their knowledge of the surrounding regions, discover new or potential trading routes, and become pioneers in lands untouched by civilization.

Lucky Coins need to be resourceful individuals, after all, they live on the road and can rarely rely on the security of cities and villages. As such, they often keep hidden stashes of necessary life-goods, which if not used after a while become the matter of their next sale in the closest settlement they arrive at. However, they will never sell anything that is about to spoil and plan accordingly. Eventually, every Lucky Coin establishes a path in which they travel along; wherever need or opportunity takes them while keeping the needs of those who have been met along the way in mind. Many communities depend on these wandering merchants to bring them the caravans full of feed or material to work their trades since an established Lucky Coin is one of the most reliable sources of economic influx in Layonara. One of these faithful of the Merchant of Fate often reach their life objective when a community comes to depend on a route they have established for their very existence'a dependence that is not frowned upon but embraced in care.

Destiny Merchants

It often happens that some Lucky Coins become so essential to a particular area that they can no longer afford to leave it. These individuals go through a process of transition in which most of their previous distant routes and responsibilities are passed on to another Lucky Coin or well-rounded merchant. They then slowly become features of the new place they call home. Destiny Merchants become providers of essential trade within the communities they surround and administer great deals of wealth; a matter which requires tremendous trust from those handing over the pay from a hard day's work. Furthermore, they often bear the self-imposed responsibility of providing the means of survival to those not blessed by fortune. Many times, conflicting with local nobles who desire cheap work or authority that brands people in strata. Destiny Merchants act upon their calling in shifting fate for those under the pin of oppression whenever it is within their reach. Many who have ascended into this rank have large houses that can keep many with a roof above their heads. Almost always, with the help of the inseparable Clovers of Prunilla, they build shelter homes where people can get a new fresh start in life. Destiny Merchants, despite the fact they keep organized lives, are known to be rebellious and stubborn, never truly trusting the word of written law without a sense of those to whom it is being applied. In addition, they go out of their way to show that life is led not by a book but by the experiences destiny weaves.

Fortune Finders

A few faithful of the Lucky Wanderer reach a level of renown and influence that places them in a position of great responsibility with the world as a whole. Known as Fortune Finders, these wise Deliarites are at the forefront of global economics. Their responsibility has passed beyond the often very localized point of view and has shifted to watching the world spin in the right direction. Not only are these individuals very able mathematicians and students of the most complex branches of economics, but they have an unquenchable fire within their spirits to fight oppression and tyranny. Of the current four Fortune Finders, three of them have been proven as secret providers and leaders in underground rogue agencies that fight the grasping hands of despotism. While never truly ones to be in the battlefields, their wars have been fought with conniving individuals who seek to make a living at the expense of the many. Fortune Finders have a sight for change. Many speculate that these individuals can see the weaves of destiny unraveling before things even occur, and their ability to be at the right time with the right tools and the right people have marked them as figures of great cunning and insight. In reality, most of them are humble people who simply want the best for the world more than others and will do whatever is necessary to accomplish it; not letting law (whether good or ill intended) get in their way. However, they never succumb to murder or any immoral acts. In times of peace, Fortune Finders are often seen dealing with economical issues from one noble court to another and often act as speakers for the people to those who are perched in crowns too high to see the bottom of their shoes.

The current Fortune Finders are Owan Dango, Felicity Evesight, Ernest Charles Broggon, and Tuntin Glittergleam.

Owan Dango is a portly male halfling from the Circle Mountains in the Spirit Dunes of Mistone, who looks to be no other than a simply well-fed merchant with a taste for comfortable yet elegant clothes. However, Owan's more interesting side is webbed with hundreds of contracts whose sole purpose are to feed communities all over Mistone and Alindor that have been affected by the war. Owan has a tendency to mislead those nobles he negotiates with to appear as a simple-minded individual, but his instincts regarding economics is like that of the sharp snakes that live in his place of birth, and he uses this keen insight to benefit those whom life has dealt a bad hand.

Felicity Evesight is a somewhat young female halfling born in the city of Westgate during the time it was under the tyrannical claw of Xandrial's minions. Throughout her early years, she had to learn how to survive in a place where all the odds were against her and no one would have blinked at her death. However, adversity brings the best or the worst out of people and after spending many years fighting for her life, eventually her high spirits and quick mind led her to a group of underground rebels who slowly spread their work on the continent of Xantril. Felicity found herself in the path of the Lucky Wanderer after proving her keen insight into the workings of a broken continent. It is because of her that many are able to have a semblance of a decent living in the far eastern world. Selling trinkets in her free time between one conflict or another, she is said to make a home now in the Fort of Last Hope.

Ernest Charles Broggon is a male human in his early 30's born in a small community near the Forest of Fog. He lives the simple life of a woods people. Ernest had little concern over the workings of the greater world until a group of Branderback thieves raided his home town and established it as their center of operations. Ernest found himself homeless, hungry, and without the ability to make a decent living, which prompted him to seek the outside world for aid. It was then that he met a wandering Deliarite struggling through the tough times of the war and badly needing a helping hand. Together, they exchanged lessons and aid with Ernest eventually finding the divine path of the Merchant of Fate. After organizing a fund to restore all the displaced from his hometown many years later and removing the taint of the thieves within, many looked up to him for all the work he had performed. So he started wandering the continent to help where he could. He believes his gifts came for a reason, and he blesses others with the Lucky Wanderer's teachings.

Tuntin Glittergleam is a caring gnome born in Alindor under the care of the Sun Castle. From a young age, Tuntin did not show the normal attention most gnomes show for the workings of the earth or the devices built with it. Instead, he was focused on more insubstantial matters with concepts that were not immediately tangible. A magnificent mathematician, Tuntin slowly gained the ear of the castle's administrators, and in a chance encounter with a distant committee led by a Lucky Coin, he became enthralled by the idea of following a faith that explored the concepts he had spent all day long studying. As was his nature, Tuntin completely absorbed everything about Deliar. When the nearby township of Stone was destroyed, it was clear to Tuntin that the real strength of a community comes not from the amount of weapons they wield but how successful and efficient their living is. His theories then applied to action and have been put to good use in many places after the destruction of Bloodstone. After receiving a particular contract from an underground movement in the continent, Tuntin shifted his sight to the mountains where Milara dwells. Now, he fights with the tools he knows to liberate the world of the evil taint Sinthar's previous generals spread.