The Order of Din Note: Everything in this thread is subject to change at my or a mod's discretion. The Order of Din, alternatively known as the Order of Fire or the Order of Power, is a religious group entirely unrelated to the Cult of Nayru or the Order of Light. Its members worship Din, the Goddess of Power, Fire and Earth, although not in the traditional manner. Activities - Spiritual Guidance: First and foremost, the Order of Din is a religious order that is filled with those capable of providing spiritual guidance. Its Priests and Priestesses are allowed to perform religious acts and sacraments. - Military Support: Due to the fact that all members of the Order are trained in sorcery, combat arts or both, they are a legitimate source of support for military operations. - Freelance Combat Missions: On occasion it will occur that without the Hyrulean Military’s request, the Order still sends out Priests and Acolytes on missions that the Master Priestess feels requires their attention. These usually involve combat or religious actions to be performed by its members. Methods of worship - Combat training: Most of Din’s followers are actively trained as mages, warriors, or a hybrid of both. The reason they have mastered their chosen art as well as they have is that daily honing of their skills is the main way in which the Goddess of Power is honoured. This method of worship is adopted in all temples dedicated to Din across Hyrule. - Dance: Perhaps a little unusual is the secondary, but still very common manner of worshipping Din. The temples who adopt this form of worship make time every day to perform at least one session of ritualistic dance, honing control of their bodies. - Prayer: Extremely unusual amongst the Temples of Din is the practice of traditional prayer. Hierarchy Master Priestess: The highest-ranked person in the entire Order of Din is the Master Priestess. This woman serves as the High Priestess of Castle Town and heads the Council. Additionally, she is in total control of all activities of the Order of Din and decides who leaves on what mission at what time. High Priestesses/High Priests: The highest-ranked members of the temples outside of Castle Town. All High Priests and Priestesses make up the Council that advises the Master Priestess. The High Priests and Priestesses control the activity of their own temple, but still answer to the Master Priestess. Priests/Priestesses: The official, most often thought-of members of the Order of Din. Either warriors or mages, they answer to their respective High Priestess and are the most plentiful amongst the Order. Acolytes: The newest, lowest-ranked members of the order. Acolytes are novices who hold no authority in the order but can be sent on missions. Locations Hyrule Castle Town- Residential District: The Order of Din’s main temple and base of operations. It stands easily a full story taller than the residences around it and possesses a large training area on this additional story. It adopts both combat training and dance as a form of worship. Town of Balsare:A much smaller temple, not far from the City of Impa. It has been built on a large plot of land that the Mayor has made available, although most of this land is in use as training grounds. Very few of its members utilize ritualistic dance. In addition to these locations, the Order of Din has several temples across a few small towns in Northern Hyrule Field. There are voices in the Council in the main temple that the order should start setting up a temple in Southern Hyrule Field, as well. Relation to other deities The Order of Din acknowledges the existence and greatness of the remaining two Golden Goddesses. However, they claim that Din is greatest, for had she not created the very earth we walk on, Nayru and Farore would have had nothing to perform their own labors on. As such, they never refer to the other two by name, only naming them as the Goddess of Wisdom and the Goddess of Courage. Deities known under names such as Valoo, Jabu-Jabu, and the Great Deku Tree, do not have the same standing in the eyes of the Order. At best, they are seen as lesser deities who borrow power from the Golden Goddesses; at worst, they are regarded as impostors, with the Order viewing them as nothing more than powerful, mortal creatures who claim divinity so that their designated races will obey them. The Order itself has no set opinion on these deities- how any given member thinks about them is entirely up to preference.
Followers of Din In order for any given PC to join the order of Din, either upon creation or afterwards, there are certain requirements that must be met. Upon joining the order, the character must take either a Specialty or a Sub-Specialty in one of the following fields: [Fire], [Earth], [Weaponbase], [Fist], or [Music]. The character must renounce all possessed Treasures with the [Water], [Cold], and/or [Wind] fields without refund and may not obtain any such Treasures for as long as they are part of the Order. The character’s profile sheet must clearly state that this character is now a member of the Order of Din, as well as what rank they hold and to which temple they are connected. Note: Characters who join the order after having been created will start as Acolytes, barring extreme exceptions that I personally have to permit. I want to be notified of all sign-ups into the order by PM, regardless of whether they be upon creation or afterwards. Additionally, there are some things about Followers of Din that should be kept in mind, although they are less of limitations and more in the way of quirks, so to speak. Whenever a Follower of Din uses a treasure with the [Music] field, they can choose to activate its effect through means of dance, rather than by audial means. NOTE: the Follower of Din has to adopt ritualistic dance as a commonly practiced method of worship in order to do this.
Area reserved as changelog post If any mod feels that anything in this thread is unacceptable or otherwise needs to be changed, please let me know THROUGH PM so I can keep this thread neat and organized. Either that, or edit this post and bump the topic.
