The Gray Priests
In the Gray District, not many who sleep there wake with the rising sun. Old family crypts and mass lots and all manner of burial between fill this quiet district. As quiet and sullen as the dead they keep watch over, the somber Gray Priests see to it that Sonath’s will is kept on the burial grounds. These priests attend to all parts of burial, from cleaning the body, to maintaining the site of burial. As such, many of the priests are fairly skilled in one or two areas of expertise beyond their religious duties as the nobles of Korvosa will pay great coin for things like beautiful coffins and ornate headstones, all of which must be made somewhere. It is rumored to that the Gray Priests keep the dead in their crypts too and, even more outrageously, some say that they work with intelligent undead to guard some of the crypts of wealthy merchants and Great House members
Structure
Higher ranking priests will often perform ceremonial rites and conduct funeral services, though when body counts are higher than normal, such duties often fall to the younger priests. In addition to these tasks, the ranking Gray Priests see to it that the great crypts and mausoleums are built, maintained, and updated in an orderly fashion, though many suspect that this is a ruse for maintaining a watchful eye over the dead in their charge.
Culture
Becoming a Gray Priest is an ordeal unlike anything else in Korvosa. The initiates are made to sleep with fresh cadavers in the district’s morgues and spend their days performing their tasks under the watchful eyes of senior members and fresh corpses alike. This creates a great lack of emotion in the would-be priests as spending that much time around death drains away much of that within the first few days. Much of what remains is a dry sense of macabre humor and an even more macabre outlook on mortality.
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