Aragen: Hierarchy
The church is led by the Loremaster who resides at the Keep of the Tome. Below him are the five heads of the five sections of the church. When the church began, there were only three: Collectors, Recorders, and Surveyors. Since that time, two other sections have sprung up out of necessity: Teachers and Tenders.
The church is not one of pomp and glamour and the bestowing of titles, so the heads of the sections are called just that: "head." The initial three sections developed quickly in the memory of Aragen's roots, where he came from when he was mortal.
Collectors go out into the world and retrieve originals of works of everything from journals of the common man to great works of artists the world over. The Collectors, as a group, believe the only place for the great works of the time is with the church. Only then are they accessible to the world as a whole, without scrutiny for who was good or evil, rich or poor, man or elf. Collectors are a traveling faction with their main point of contact at the temple in Bydell Castle.
Recorders originally maintained the temples and libraries across the world. As the religion itself grew, they could not maintain these places on their own. A sister faction was developed called Tenders.
Tenders see to the day-to-day duties of cleaning, organizing, and working with the public. Tenders often are the face of Aragen to the people of Layonara because they can be seen going about in the temples.
Recorders continue to work on the arduous task of filing all of the knowledge that the church protected as well as the placement of the new works and pieces that come in. They are a small faction and mostly unseen, usually in the back, happily neck deep in papers. Tenders and Recorders work in close harmony, their goal the same: Making the collection of the church available to any who seek it.
Surveyors are the last of the original section. The goal of the Surveyors is to take in the opinions, living situations, occurences, and other such details of the various peoples of Layonara. These hardworking travelers of the church have been dispatched en masse to retrieve the scenes of the world after major events.
As an example, the church sent out Surveyors after Bloodstone returned to Layonara. Again, Surveyors were sent out to places struck by his devastating forces. To have a basis of comparison, however, the church needs references. So there are members of this section that do nothing but tour the lands and record these same bits of knowledge. To achieve this, districts were set up to divide and cover the whole world. There are some areas with poorer coverage then others, but generally speaking, Aragen has people all over the world doing their best to keep record of the ever changing lands of Layonara.
The last faction of the Aragen church are Teachers. This is a late development of the church, designed in response to the occupation of Prantz. The church took no stance on whether the occupation following the war was evil or good, only that there was a huge outcry for knowledge. With the church's goal of even accessibility, members from the existing sections gathered and created this new section so that the knowledge would be accessible to all, even those who could not read. Teachers are slowly being asked for in various kingdoms across the world as tutors for the children of the rich. They also attend some of the orphanages across the land to teach. However, they also teach adults, excluding no one who comes in search of knowledge.
Elections and Organizations
The Loremaster is elected from the heads of the five sections, by the heads when the previous Loremaster passes away. Usually the head of the Recorders is chosen because of his wealth of knowledge.
The heads of the sections are chosen by election, which is held every 10 years. All members of a particular section can vote on who is to be their new head.
