Church of Shammash

Sun god, god of justice, god of divination, one of the celestial gods

Symbol of Shammash

Golden Sun on white background                                                                     

Cities

The church is considered the patron of 4 cities: Critwall (Shield Lands), Mithat (Nyrond), Willip (Furyundy), and the church in the Theocracy. There is also a church in Shammash's realm on his home plane in Nirvana (probably).

Church Hierarchy

3 Cardinals,two of their Cardinals sit on the Council of Cardinals*
Cardinal Bernardo Gui,* Highest Priest of Critwall
Cardinal ###, votes the same as Gui
Cardinal Karul’Kanor, Highest Priest of Mithat

8 Archbishops
Archbishop Shivan

12 Bishops

Questioners of Light (clerics of various levels), in addition to holding positions in cities, they travel with units of the Shield Knights to prosecute and interrogate suspects the knights encounter.

Cardinal Bernardo Gui

Guestimated to be over 30th lvl

Born in the Theocracy , mother was a concubine and Father was a priest of Anu and the head of the wealthiest lawyers guild in the Theocracy which had advocated for many rich and influential noble families. While raised in the fashion of Anu he was soon converted after encounters with the shield knights – he was seduced by their glory and how people respected them and the raw power they had. He began to see that true power and strength came from enforcement not legislation. With the wealth afforded to him by his family he managed to spend time with a well respected Shield Knight, spent time training in swordsmanship with him in Leukish, and soon followed him back to Critwall and joined the clergy there. His father was not happy and disowned him for switching from Anu. For several years this dis-ownership kept him from its great wealth and influence but as his father got older and some decisions not so good for buisiness, he was able to convince several of the lawyers and many of the clients to tilt the power of the guild to him. His father became a powerless puppet while Bernardo pulled the strings from afar. He is very shrewd. Soon the guild became dissociated from the Gui name but its control was then iron grip in the hands of bernardo. The firm worked from behind the scenes with its influence to assure that bernardo had the best pick of assignments and a spirited rise throughout the ranks.

Things he has done:
Built Church of Gui on Shammash’s home plane

Powers:
Aura of Sunlight –
Nimbus of Shammash –
Shroud of the Sun –

Beads of Suntravel (12) – twelve times a day the bearer can do suntravel as a move related action. This travel can take him anywhere sunlight touches. As the Nimbus of Shammash creates light three rounds before Bernardo arrives in any location (precognitive) Bernardo can essentially travel anywhere on the prime material planes, the ethereal or the astral. The Nimbus also allows him to use this power to step directly into shammash’s home plane (usually at his church).

Ring of St Nudimund –

Teachings

Battles darkness and spreads light

He gives life and makes the dead to live

Judge of heaven and earth, "Let justice shine on the land," served by Mesharu and Kettu (Justice & Righteousness).

As sun god, his light pierces through all secrets and he sees everything, Shammash has seers baru (never involved in compromising situations)

All teachings are ultra-conservative and, although the Church of Sin long ago proved the difference between demons and elves, the Church of Shammash unofficially promotes the outdated belief that elves are demons.

Judges for Anu, usually (Anu is inefficient).

Clerics are the Questioners (Spanish Inquisition) and often do not bother the god with truth miracles, but rely on torture to find truth.

Teachings Dictated by the Theocracy

All Nyrundian worshippers must give confession of their secrets and sins to clergy at least once per month so they may stay out of the grip of the Dark One (master of secrets). 

Do not speak with elves, who have life spans far beyond that of humans, for they will lead you morally astray. 

Shammash clerics interpret church dogma in the strictest possible way.

Holy Days

Holy days are Sapppatu (first of every month)
Akitu (first 11 days of year),
Vernal Equinox (August 14th)
Bet-Nahrain (birthday, March 3rd)

On Holy days both food and gifts of respect are given. On birthday, gardens are planted and there is the raising of the rocks in the stone forest.

Clerical Requirements

Duties of clergy: 

Alignment: All appear as Lawful Neutral (God is Lawful Neutral, with tinges of good since his paladins are good).  Most clerics are Lawful Neutral, but blessed clerics appear as Lawful Neutral although they may be another alignment. 

Skills and Diplomacy: 

Clerics are trained such that they have +2 torture skill, +1 lawyer
+15% reaction with conservatives (Marduke, Girru, Shammash churches and cities)
-15% react with liberals (Sin, Gula, Ishtar churches and cities)

God Granted Powers and Other Abilities


Clerics lose all abilities during solar eclipses (natural or magical)
Level of casting reduced by 2 during midnight (half hour eitherway), -2 DCs

May request 1 knight of holy shielding per level of cleric as a companion.

Light based miracles may be cast as quickened spells (1 per round max)

1st - Light spell 1/day/lvl, 1 extra at noon
3th - Know Alignment 1/day/lvl, 1 extra at noon
5th - Sunray (q.v) 1/day, 1 extra at noon
7th - Shackle Spell 1/day, 1 extra at noon; At seventh level clerics can change alignment to lawful neutral or be judged.
9th - Speak with Sun (may speak to any other clerics speaking to sun at that moment) 1/day (never at night, 1 extra at noon)
12th - Sight of Shammash - Paralyzing light from eyes, 60' cone 40' at base, -5 save, lawful neutrals immune, 3/day, -2 save per 2 lvls above 12th

Specialty Spells

City Spell: Sunbeam—acts as judgment align status 1 or as long distance communication with any city that has hired a sun reader

The Questioners

The Questioners are the Theocracy’s seekers of truth but they have their own way of doing things. They are VERY reverent of their god and their church preaches that they are not to trifle their god with prayers for things that they themselves can accomplish. Thus, spell such as detect lies etc are not usually prayed for as their abilities to apply torture are very good at fact finding. Commune with higher plane is likewise rarely used as they believe their own judgment should be worthy of their deity.

All Questioners have the rank of District Judge within Nyrundic lands and may convene courts or pass summary judgments. Only the ranking local judge of a city may supercede their authority. As judges, their role throughout the Theocracy is to insure the adherence of laws that have been legally passed. A Judge can invoke local or King's law, laws of the Theocracy as they apply to all cities, of the local religious laws of a city that they are in. They have no jurisdiction when applying religious laws of other cities.

Questioners and are commonly found among the ranks of the Knights of the Holy Shielding – an order which they helped to create and now manage. Within that order they carry ranks equal to that usually found for a cavalier of three levels lower although few Shield Knights would disobey any request from a Questioner.  Since the Dark Times (and even before) the church has dedicated itself to rooting out Dark Friends and prosecuting them.

Questioners are generally concerned only with if the law in question has been broken and often disregard any other circumstances (with the obvious exception of geases and/or compulsions). They are strict judges and stick to the letter of the law (and are known for their lawful neutral nature). They seldom, if ever, “legislate from the bench” and do not establish common law with their rulings as might be common in other cultures. It is a cleric of Shammash’s duty to shine the light of justice upon humanity, judge defendants for their guilt, and keep humanity on the strait and narrow path within the law. Often, they must adventure and travel to find the most heinous of crimes and find and prosecute the offenders. Infractions within the ranks are not tolerated and knowingly misjudging someone or acceptance of bribery is punishable not only by death but by damnation as well.

Laws for which the Questioners and their Shield Knights are known for justiciating:
While some of these crimes may also apply to non-nobility, Questioners often leave such law enforcement to other local officials (unless they ARE the local official)

Punishment is determined by governing local law or the church's law if not within the borders of legally defined lands.

Proof of being a darkfriend can come from direct observation of the cleric, a voluntary signed sworn statement or one elicited through torture, as well as other traditional forms of proof. Use of darkness spells and/or poison is a strong indicator but not proof.

There is also a list of Known Darkfriends & Abominations (for which judgment has already been passed and any acting as officers of the court may kill on sight) [[rewards may apply for non shield knights]] these entities include:
-    any of the forsaken
-    any priest of the nightshade
-    any undead creature
-    any demon, devil, daemon, or drow
-    Priests of Nergal****

*Nergalite priests are not against Theocratic law nor does their existence necessarily violate any local laws, but they are the sworn enemies of Shammash and their preists.

Suncannons

A large device weighing 700lbs, can be mounted or placed on wheels. A 4ft long cylinder, 3ft diamter. At the front is a large glassteel focusing lens. At the rear is a circular quartz portal that may be opened and a large wad of caustic material can be placed in. This material, when ignited, will create a burst, much like a lazer, doing 4-40 points of light damage in a 3ft diameter ray. The material may be ignited by a wick at the top or through a sunray spell cast on the quartz. When material is not within, the cannon will ampligy a sunray spell to x10 damage vs undead.

The suncannon is most often used for long distance communication. When the caustic material is heated, the cannon's  rays may be seen from leagues away and it can deliver messages to any city of Shammash. Only clerics of Shammash understand these coded messages. Shield Knights will use this for long distance messages, confering orders and relating tactical information. Lay people may ask to send a message to a city of shammash (and then have it delivered via courier) for a cost of 2,000gp.

A Questioner of at least 5th lvl will always be found when a suncannon is present.

Possession of a suncannon by any other group save the Knights of the Holy Shielding can result in serious consequences - imprisonment or death.

Church of Gui on Shammash's Home Plane

Planar effects: darkness spells are destroyed, darkness related items are shut down for 1 day. (artifacts for 3 rounds after departure). True sight affects all creatures in all areas of the plane.

Area turns undead as per a cleric of 50th lvl
Antipathy vs evil at 40th lvl
Blindness – all those entering who are not protected from blindness must fort save at 50 or be blinded. Blindness takes the form of constantly seeing a bright white light.

Incense – creatures not protected from gasses breathing in the incense must fort save at 30 or receive a vision of all of the crimes they have ever committed. This vision incapacitates chaotic characters for 3d8 rounds, neutral characters for 2d6 rounds and lawful characters for 1d4 rounds.

Any entering within the church receive a Blessing - +6 after the roll once (can only have one at a time)

Eye of Shammash – the Light of Judgment

History of Shammash's Role among the Gods

Shammash is one of the most powerful gods in the Theocracy with just one fewer city than Marduke (who is the god of cities after all) and more guys on the Council of Cardinals than anyone.

He is the god of the larges knight order on Oerth, the Knights of the Holy Shielding who torched the druids, left the treasury of Keoland unguarded because they did not pay for protection, marched to kill all the elves in the Celadon, and then killed Pedron Nyal once he switched to lawful good.

This church did not lose anything in the Dark Times, except the former leader Pedron Nyal and 100 paladins who are now on our side. Some of the other paladins may have left during the final battle when all good people on Oerth were invited to leave and join the Solarian in Avalon. Others would have been killed or made a major alignment or class change during the Dark Times (as all people on Oerth during the Dark Times did). There are no paladins of Shammash left in the Shield Knights at this time.

In the Enuma Elish (the basis of the pre-play power structure of the gods), there is no precedent for his ever being more powerful than he is now. Being more powerful would mean toppling Anu (in the first age of the gods) or Marduke (in the second).