Mantepa

The only way to become a mantepa is to be born with the gift of prophecy. However, this gift does not always manifest at birth. In fact, most mantepa developed their abilities in their early twenties. A potential mantepa can be identified by the event known as their Protoneiro, or the First Dream. The Protoneiro is when someone has a dream that becomes true. This can be as small as dreaming of what will be served for dinner next week or as large as predicting a major blight on a crop. However, Protoneiro are relatively common among the populace of Agrotia, so to ensure that it was not an errant visage but the development of the gift, people wait until someone has had three Protoneiro in the span of six months. At this point, the community alerts the priesthood in Mellopolis, the center of the faith, who bring in the candidate to begin honing their skill with the gift for five years before becoming a full mantepa.

Mantepa act as both priests of the Mantiro faith and as aids to the farmers of Agrotia. In their role as priests, they will sometimes hold readings of the ancients myths to remind the people of Agrotia of the heroes, although there is little interpretation, with the mantepa believing that the stories should speak for themselves. This is also important because Mantirans believe that the veneration of the heroes is what gives the mantepa their gifts.

The other role of mantepa is to use their gift of divination to aid the people. They gift predictions to the farmers to help them get the most out of their harvests and give prophetic warnings so the people can prepare for natural disasters and the like, although they will also take on specific questions from individuals. Despite the name augur-priest, augury is not the only tool they have under their belts. They employ a number of divination methods including augury, the espying bird formations and changes in bird songs; haruspicy, the reading of the entrails of dead animals; cleromancy, the reading of the patterns of thrown stones; oneiromancy, the interpretation of dreams; and sometimes even prophecies, although this is the rarest form.

Mantepa are beloved by the people of Agrotia, both the practical aid of their divination as well as for the spiritual service they provide by directly venerating the hero-spirits and guiding the populace by recounting these myths to the regular populace. Becoming a mantepa immediately increases the status of anyone directly related to the priest.

Mantepa wield sacrificial daggers used for spiritual sacrifice, usually to perform haruspicy. These knives are made of ceramics, rather than metal like normal knives in Agrotia. They also have symbols depicting various mythological heroes painted on them.

Mantepa work within temples dedicated to the Mantiran hero-spirits. These temples are small buildings made of white stone, the only stone building in Agrotian villages, and have painted murals on the outer walls, depicting various myths of hero-spirits. Within, the temples are largely empty, outside of the red stain denoting where animal sacrifices are performed. Deep in the back, some temples have reliquaries, small boxes that contain items supposedly from myths, usually weapons. These holy items are only there for safe keeping, not to be used in any rituals.