Katia: Hierarchy

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"Take only what you can use, use only what you can replace. Leave everything you can for the next." -A teaching from the High Forest Clan


Katia's dogma is subject to many interpretations. Her order has no single church or central hierarchy. Followers are loosely organized and tend to live in small groups with each group being headed by its most senior member. Many times that senior member is the eldest of the clan. Sometimes a clan is led by a family. It is not uncommon for followers to be solitary people. This, not surprisingly, includes the druids and rangers who follow Katia. The Church of Katia, while not grandly organized, shares respect of place from clan or group to another. If a visiting cleric or elder passes through, they are given the same respect as the clan's own leaders.

"I' t'kes all kinds, lad. Ev'ry'ne 'as a place in 'er eyes, a place te 'old th' balance of the gr't cycle. In th' future ye'll see yer place, don' trouble yerself. She sees int' yer 'eart, an wull help ye fin' yer own path te her. Lessin te yer 'eart, lad, jes lessin te yer 'eart." -The maiden elder's advice to a youth of his clan


Clerics of Katia tend to take on the roles of defender and nurturer. Her clerics foster the knowledge of her ways within the people as well as protecting those who follow her ideals. They work more with the people of Layonara than the counterpart of her ideals, the druids who follow under her banner. Clerics of Katia are often trained at the temple near where they grew up. Also, each temple tends to have their own variations on prayers, celebrations, rites, and legend lore. Sometimes these differences may be slight, and in other cases, the differences are grand. There is little cross training of clerics. They believe that the cleric trained fully in one area serves that community far better then causing them to transplant themselves into several different locations. However, some clerics choose the traveling life over a stationary one, committing themselves to the whole of Layonara as opposed to the community they grew up in.

"Every bird my eyes, every paw my fingers, every tree my citadel, and all the earth my skin. All about you a million small miracles mark my passing. Live within it, cherish it, protect it, and respect nature's order. For everything has its place in the great cycle, and yours is to guard and commune with this body from where all life flows and ebbs." -Part of a sermon from a halfling elder


The last portion of Katian hierarchy is dependent upon which legend you hear. The rumored creature lords and ladies were thought mostly a myth or a bedtime tale to be shared with the very young. However, shortly after the year 1385, the Bird Lord arose to a visible place within the world as the needs of nature and of Katia grew to a scope that could no longer afford his presence to be hidden. The battle with Sinthar Bloodstone took war to whole new levels of destruction and taint, leaving swathes of destroyed nature in its path. Katia's most faithful are these few. In some tellings, they are a small clan of part animal part humanoid people who do her bidding. In other tellings, they are people selected and reborn by Katia to represent her in the world and carry out her wishes. Despite nature's need for champions, only the Bird Lord is currently known to be more than a myth, and he is legendary in his own right. With the appearance and presence of the Bird Lord in the last few decades, many of her faithful and indeed some outside of the faith wonder about the other rumored creature lords and ladies. In the years now of rebuilding and replanting, new tales of hope are surfacing including the tendrils of the past legends to build hope for the future in these dark times.