Spirit Rules

The Treasure Trap world is presided over by a large pantheon of active and interventionist Gods and Goddesses. There are currently 13 recognised spiritual religions, although in the immediate past there were many more: Treasure Trap Gods are not immortal (although they are extremely hard to kill) and recent apocalyptic events have destroyed several fairly established deities as well as many fringe religions. Faith is a tangible force in the world, with Gods not only answering prayer but often enabling the faithful to perform miracles in their name. Priests live by a set of strictures appropriate to their faith: following the strictures closely and pleasing their God often brings favour but breaking strictures can invoke severe penalties from wrathful deities.

Priests are expected to tithe 20% of their IC earnings regularly to their church; this does not include the ten Shilling allowance granted them by the church (or wherever they get their 16 silver shillings a week from), but avarice and hoarding of money are in general frowned upon.

Gods - How they are Created and How they Work

A god originates from a soul which has died, gone on from the Prime Material but somehow become sustained instead of continuing on to Oblivion.  The resulting spiritual being grows into a self-contained plane, which reflects the mindset of the God (The God is the plane. So if, for example, you go to the plane of Vivamort on an adventure, your character is walking around inside Vivamort himself.). Semi-autonomous beings, called Spirits by scholars and Angels by the faithful, grow out of this plane, and are sent back into the Prime Material by the God to further its interests. While they may have some measure of independent action, a Spirit is really only a mobile facet of the larger God. In addition, Gods can "catch" Souls of the dead coming out of the Prime Material that match their area of influence sufficiently. These Souls are then subsumed into the God, and are usually turned into new Spirits. A Priest is someone who has, through Awakening to his or her own spirit, had their Soul turned into a part of the God despite the Priest not being dead yet. As such, their Souls have a ranking in the spiritual hierarchy of their God, and the Priest can give lower-ranking Spirits orders.

Spiritual Awakening is extremely rare - perhaps 10% of those who dedicate their lives and their work to a deity will achieve it - and this truly life-changing experience is bestowed only in recognition both of individual merit and of great potential. The actual act of Awakening is quite short and dramatic; it usually involves the obvious presence of the will of the relevant deity, either through a Spirit, a spiritual presence, or very rarely a personal appearance. An Awakened priest typically feels a duty to fulfil this potential by serving their god's interests and spreading their god's worship, be this within the church hierarchy or without. If you wish to become an Awakened priest in play, please notify the ref team in advance.

It will generally be considered that the Gods cannot read your mind except in very limited, extreme circumstances (for example, at the moment of Ultimate Faith you are close to your God with much of their attention focused upon you for a short duration. At this moment your wishes may be more likely to be heard.)  This is because the refs cannot read your thoughts or your characters', so we cannot take these into consideration. What your character does is far more important than what they mean to do or what they think.

Prayer which is silent will not be noticed, however your character may choose to pray silently anyway and this is a roleplay decision. Spoken words may be more likely to be heard, but the Gods will mostly notice your actions, especially when you are on holy ground and/or actively carrying out your God's work.

Miracles

When a Spiritually Awakened priest performs their daily devotions to their God - at noon or at midnight (they choose) - they are granted a certain measure of authority to command that miracles be performed by the Spirits of their deity. This is represented by Spirit points, granted by the Spiritual Power and Spiritual Blessing skills. A miracle costs one Spirit point to cast per level. Note that this is not personal power but authority to command others; it is possible for a sufficiently powerful angel to outrank a priest and have the authority to ask (but not compel) the priest to do things for them.  A priest may choose when they perform their devotions, but such change requires 36 hours.

By longstanding treaty, the Gods grant only certain abilities to their faithful; any prayers for a miracle of less than 8th level which is not on the list of those already granted by the God will by met with silence. Each God (with the exception of Balance) grants the ability to learn miracles from four specific Miracle Trees, and commands all their priests to learn all the miracles of one of those Trees. Balance grants only three miracle trees, but allows its followers to choose for themselves what those trees are. In order to gain the next level of Devotion, a priest must have learned the mandatory miracle of their current Devotion level and one other of that level.

Miracles are cast by 'vocals' - prayers out loud consisting of at least eight words, plus one word for each level of the miracle. A vocal must call upon your god, the power vested in you, the spirits, something central to your faith or similar, but need not refer to the god by name. The vocal must be said at least as loud as a clear speaking voice; it is impossible to affect a target ten metres away with a whispered miracle in a noisy room. Ask the Refs for examples of good and bad vocals. If you cast a vocal in the name of someone other than your Deity please inform a ref immediately.

Miracles also have somatic components - that is, they require gestures in order to work. The only mechanical effect of this is that one must have a hand free in order to cast. This prevents casting whilst affected by a FREEZE or HALT effect.

If a weapon or effect, or any call strikes you while you are casting, then your casting is interrupted and you must start the vocal over, but do not lose any magic or spirit. The only exception to this is if the call is, precisely, "NOTHING". This is very strict, so a RED NOTHING will interrupt anyone, even a pyrokin, as it is not a "NOTHING" - the reason being that even that effect is distracting enough to break your concentration. This means you are interrupted in all other situations, for example if you DAC a blow, or you have magical armour. You are not mechanically interrupted when someone distracts you, say, by throwing a bucket of water over you, however you should feel free to roleplay losing the spell or miracle and starting over.  You can't parry when casting, it's as good as an interruption. You can hold your weapon out in front of you in a vaguely threatening manner, but you can't move it around to parry, or push against an incoming blow, without losing your miracle.

Holy Symbols

Every religion has a well-known holy symbol. This acts as a way for the priest to focus their will upon their God's spirits, and they may not cast miracles without either having one upon their person or being able to see one. Each God's holy symbol is detailed upon the relevant page of the website; ask the refs for examples if you are unsure. Holy symbols do not respond to Detect or Recognise Spirit.  Body parts do not count as holy symbols unless they are not attached to a body.

Rites

It is known by all priests, most lay worshippers and any unbeliever who cares that there exist spiritual effects that aren't the standard miracles, and that the way to achieve these is to pray with the correct form of words and actions. These forms are known as 'rites'. Some priesthoods make heavier use of them than others, and it known that it is possible - though skirting the borders of heresy - to invent new rites. A rite is always at least partly a public act (though it is not always recognisably an act of worship), and it may require that some of it be performed on ground that is sacred to the God. Most rites will have at least some component that must be performed in uptime; doing public rites in downtime is possible, but it's usually difficult to book time at one of the regular temple services at short notice.

Rites come in two kinds. The first kind of rite is generally for things that are so fundamental to the task of a priest of the God concerned that they will be done regardless of a priest's station or how much of their authority they have used on any given day. These rites are generally short and to the point, very like the casting of a miracle to the untrained eye, but involve no expenditure of Spirit. They tend not to use any consumable material components - though they all require the use of the priest's holy symbol - and they tend to have only small game mechanical effect. These rites require at least one witness in order to work.

The second kind of rite is a method of ceremonially casting a miracle in order to extend its usefulness in some fashion. These rites will require one or more witnesses, may require consumable material components, will require a holy symbol, may require a sacrifice (of time, money, rare materials, blood etc), and may require more than one priest in order to be effective. Their effectiveness is generally variable.

Spirit Wracking

Every Religion has a set of strictures, or commandments, which outline the will of the God involved. If you fail to follow these commandments closely enough, then the God may decide that you are no longer fit to be its representative on Earth and take back the power that it has given you. There are many degrees of punishment a God may choose to visit upon you, from a merely splitting headache to the agonising removal of all of your spiritual abilities. It is possible to return to the God's good graces, but the higher one's Devotion level and the greater the magnitude of the sin the more difficult this becomes.